Kotoura San || Anime Review

I have procrastinated for way too long. 

I’ll be talking about the life of a young girl who’s been treated unfairly throughout her life because of what she had. ‘Kotoura-san’ is an anime that I’ve watched before where I greatly disliked the protagonist. Back then, I never understood why the protagonist wasn’t trying to conceal her powers at all. After seeing how the people are creeped out by her powers, you might think that she’s already aware that she shouldn’t use her powers anymore. That she should stop listening to the minds of other people. But she somehow still continues to use her powers which led to the shattering of her once happy family life. I was so irritated at her because even after experiencing a traumatic event, she still doesn’t know how to ignore the inner thoughts of other people. However, after sitting down and re-watching the anime, I grew to empathize with her after seeing how her life was treated from the moment she revealed her powers to her family. And I was so proud of her after seeing how she’s changed a lot by the end of the anime thanks to a certain pervert. Miss Kotoura is a psychic that I’ve grown to love after rewatching the anime, and I hope that you all felt the same way about this adorable psychic. Let’s get on with the blog.

Comment down the suggestions for more anime or your opinion on Kotoura San. Critics are welcome! 

Onto the Anime Review of Kotoura San by Wired Ends.

“People who want to leave are going to leave. But not everyone is like that.” 

- Yoshihisa Manabe

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OVERVIEW
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From the moment Kotoura San was born with unnatural hair color, her fate was already determined as the protagonist. All jokes aside, I still wondered to this day as to how she was able to be born with orange hair when both of her parents had dark hair. In my opinion, I’d like to think that being born with psychic powers caused her hair to turn orange. Anyways, for a short while, Kotoura was able to live a happy life, unaware that her powers were slowly growing. By the time her powers were visible throughout the show, Kotoura was still not aware that she had the power to read minds. This allowed her to blurt out the thoughts of the people around her, including her parents, friends, and teachers.

As I was rewatching the anime, I was able to realize that Kotoura wasn’t using her powers intentionally. I can imagine that her powers do not have an off switch, and she is bombarded by the thoughts of the people around her. Plus, with the fact that there was no one to tell her of the gift that she had, a lot of misunderstandings bubbled up in her life. Her classmates called her a freak and refused to befriend her after carelessly revealing all their secrets. Her parents’ relationship slowly started to fall apart because of her powers.

Despite all that, Kotoura remained oblivious that her powers were causing great disarray to her loved ones. That is until her mother, the person who continued to stay by her side left her. Her mother blamed her for the family falling apart and told her that she should’ve never given birth to her. Being a child, Kotoura took her mother’s words to heart and she completely changed. The moment where her mother left her traumatized her which developed her fear of losing anyone close to her. What once was a cheerful and friendly girl became a silent and unfriendly girl.

Though it is understandable that it is Kotoura’s fault for driving the people important to her away, there should’ve at least been someone who would understand Kotoura’s predicament. There was no one to tell her to stop what she was doing. There was no one who tried to help her understand her powers. Instead, they continued to gossip behind her back, calling her names and refusing to befriend her. I regret initially disliking her because of how I thought that she had the will to stop listening to other people’s thoughts.

Seeing as how she closed herself off from others didn’t mean that her powers were also closed off. I can imagine all the bad things she hears from her classmates’ minds about her. I wanted to hug her and tell her that it’s going to be alright. She was never able to explain herself to the people around her about her powers. She didn’t have anyone to go to for comfort or help other than her grandfather. However, after meeting a strange classmate of hers, she slowly started to revert back to her old friendly self.

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CHARACTERS
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-Manabe-

At first glance, Manabe may seem like a normal boy. Someone who’s very plain looking and not someone who Kotoura would even notice at all. However, it wasn’t all that surprising when this young boy was able to break Kotoura’s pessimistic view in life. Now what sets apart Manabe from all the other people Kotoura has encountered throughout her life is how straightforward he is.

Most of the people she’s met have always kept their true feelings or intentions bottled up inside. It’s been clear that Kotoura doesn’t want to make friends because of her fear that she might lose them because of her power. However, it could also be because of how people truly thought of her in their minds. Even though they may appear all friendly towards Kotoura, they might have hidden thoughts about her that might hurt Kotoura even more. That they’re only being fake towards her when they actually see her as nothing more than a freak. However, Manabe was different and was very honest with her from the moment he decided to befriend her.

Now Manabe isn’t perceived as a handsome and intelligent individual in the anime. In fact, he’s the opposite. He’s a weird boy who’s very dimwitted, yet he’s very friendly and can easily get along with his classmates. And upon meeting Kotoura, he really wanted to befriend her despite what his classmates have been saying about her. Though Kotoura kept trying to distance herself from Manabe, his persistence on trying to befriend her and his indecent thoughts on her had her slowly opening up to him.

Plus, what truly sets apart Manabe was how he didn’t care about Kotoura’s powers. Instead of seeing her in a different light, he was very eager to learn more about Kotoura’s powers. He was one of the people who accepted Kotoura for who she was, and was willing to always be with her. Though he’s not a memorable character for me after watching the anime, he was a very special person in Kotoura’s eyes.

Thanks to Manabe, Kotoura slowly started to revert back to who she was before. She was able to open herself up towards others. Her positive outlook in life slowly started to return to her, and she was able to make friends throughout the anime thanks to the perverted and idiotic Manabe. Though there were times where her negative thoughts would come back to her, Manabe was able to encourage her to look towards the bright side. That he would always be there for her even though she harbors psychic powers. As I was watching their relationship develop, I found myself rooting for Manabe and Kotoura. Though there were times in the anime where the romance aspect wasn’t any more visible, I still enjoyed Kotoura’s interactions with Manabe. From the moment he spoke of his true feelings, Kotoura and we were able to sense how sincere he really was. We all need someone like Manabe even though he can be a bit perverted.

-Kotoura-

Seeing as how Kotoura’s character development was developing really nicely, I found myself intrigued as to where her fate will lie once the anime ends. And though I wished that it was more focused on the anime instead of being rushed, I was happy to see Kotoura facing her past. That moment where Kotoura was able to handle confronting her past was what made me adore Kotoura for who she became by the end of the anime. Though I can see that she still has her own doubts and worries of losing her loved ones because of her powers, she’s now able to stand up for herself. She was able to speak her mind towards the person who abandoned her without taking back her words or shrinking herself away.

However, despite having a lot of good qualities that we have seen in Kotoura throughout the anime, she also has her own faults that she herself realized by the end of the anime. She prefers to keep all her feelings bottled up inside instead of facing them and trying to work things out. This was something that has been evident in Kotoura throughout the show where she prefers to keep all her feelings and problems to herself. However, this can lead to negative effects such as continuing to keep all negative feelings inside and not being able to resolve her issues. But once Kotoura was able to confront her mother on why she abandoned her, the negative feelings she had kept inside have been released, making room for positive feelings to be formed. And not only did she release her true feelings to her mother, but was able to resolve her relationship with her.

What I love about how Kotoura was able to resolve her relationship with her mother is that it was not only dramatic and emotional but also had its wholesomeness as well. As much as we want to side with Kotoura on how she was treated by her own mother during her childhood, we should at least listen to her mother’s side. Kotoura’s mother had her own reasons as to why she left Kotoura. Though it’s not understandable for her to leave her child, I was able to sympathize with her. And Kotoura was able to recognize her mother’s true intentions and has forgiven her for all the actions that she’s done to her.

What touched me between Kotoura and her mother’s relationship was how it wasn’t an instant resolve to how they once were. It shows how not all broken relationships are mended back together immediately. Some relationships are fixed over time just like Kotoura and her mother’s relationship. Despite having some tension lying around between the mother-daughter relationship, you can see the love and care they both have for each other. And it’s all thanks to Kotoura’s courage to be able to speak her true feelings out loud.

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CONCLUSION
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Now that I was able to finally understand Kotoura’s character, I found myself loving the anime even more. Though there are still aspects from the that I’ve yet to adore, ‘Kotoura-san’ is an anime that I would recommend to those who love the rom-com genre with an added spice of drama. I was surprised when I heard that this anime was based on a four-panel manga. Despite not considering this anime as one of my favorites, there are moments where I found myself engrossed by such as the characters and their chemistry together. And as for Kotoura, I found myself remembering Kotoura as a psychic whom I’ve once disliked and now loved and adored forever.

That was the anime review of Kotoura San by Wired Ends.

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