Kokoro Connect

A Light Novel adaptation focused on body swapping. The first half of the first episode has aired as a pre-release. There's a manga as well, but only one chapter has been translated.

From what I can tell, the swaps are Played for Drama and not just an excuse for stupid antics, so this series might have some potential.

edited 4th Jul '12 10:22:20 PM by Savoie

I'm really looking forward to this. Given how they occasionally pass out from the body swapping, I'm amazed I didn't expect that they would pull something like that.*

I'm talking about the part that starts at 1:19.

edited 2nd Sep '12 5:50:57 AM by lu127

Huh, sure enough. The first chapter just found its way onto Batato recently, so I assumed it was being released to roughly coincide with the anime.

-edit-

I guess both chapters did, since I've already read this part.

edited 5th Jul '12 12:13:15 PM by Savoie

As for further chapters, I'm not sure how long it would take for those to get translated, given that on that site chapter two was uploaded last December.*

I hope it won't wind up as another case of the translator dropping it after two chapters.

Well, the first half of the first episode seems like it is leading to something really worth watching! The characters are likable, the reactions to body switching are fairly realistic while also hilarious, and it's just somehow intriguing over all.

edited 5th Jul '12 5:12:30 PM by Ruise

It gets more mysterious in the second half, or chapter two if you're going by the manga.

Baka Tsuki does not have an ongoing translation project for the light novels, so your guess as to what happens next is as good as mine.

edited 5th Jul '12 3:57:48 PM by Savoie

Great. Yet another show airing on saturdays that I'll end up watching.

And I'm still stuck with all of nothing from monday to thrusday

/sighs. God, I hate this season's schedule.

But yeah. Enjoyed the first episode half. If I was pressed to nitpick it, I'd say that the MC is kind of bland, with his love of wrestling being his only discernible character trait, but I'm not going to hold that against him.

Yeah, that drought sucks pretty bad. Campione, I believe, will be in that gap if you feel like giving it a shot. Koi To Senkyo To Chocolate is as well.

edited 5th Jul '12 5:23:30 PM by Savoie

Actually Baka Tsuki does have translations for the first 2 chapters in the Teaser Projects section.

Again, that's what I get for only doing a cursory check. Do those roughly correspond to the translated manga chapters?

Subs for the first episode are out.

Wow, that was fascinating!

So, I have to admit, when I first saw Iori, my reaction was to scroll the page to make sure there wasn't a stray speck on my laptop screen. It is a cute mole, though.

Anyways, I liked it; first episode was pretty light, but there are definitely hints of deeper and not-so-pleasant backstories to the characters (especially Iori).

(Also, Himeko is officially Inaba of the Heart, to join the Inaba of the Earth, Inaba of the Moon, and Inaba of the Stars.)

Iori's nickname could be Dot.

Also I have no idea what you are referring to with the Inaba thing.

edited 7th Jul '12 8:39:03 PM by Ruise

This show seems really good so far.

I'd go so far as to say that this might be my favourite show this season.

Body swapping done well. Great character interactions, and good characters for a cast that doesn't feel the need to overdo character traits to distinguish them. It has a nice ED too.

Definitely something I feel like continuing to watch.

I've found the first episode of this, and I'll be watching it later. Looks interesting!

Iori is an Azusa-Yui hybrid, a very obvious one. LOL

If Hyouka is K-On + guys + mysteries + plot, this apparently is K-On + guys + sex + obvious yuri + plot.

Azusa-Yui hybrid...

head explodes

If either Hyouka is "K-On + guys + mysteries + plot", or this is "K-On + guys + sex + obvious yuri + plot" then every single anime in the world can be described as "K-on + bunch of things that have nothing to do with K-on".

Seriously, it has a different genre, cast type, animation style, and theme from K-on. All it shares, is the character designer, and those tend to have a single style. Get over it. With the same logic, Strawberry Panic is Higurashi no naku koro ni, just with less murder and more yuri, or Summer Wars is Evangelion without mecha.

edited 8th Jul '12 2:50:13 PM by Ever9

You know what? I think a crossover to put this premise in Hyouka would be awesome!

That would be amazing.

Given that Hyouka barely had a premise itself, that wouldn't be too hard, I think.

Scanlation of chapters 3 and 4 of the manga are now out.

I have to commend this show for using the body-swap plot device to explore the nuances of the characters instead of simply playing it for gags and laughs. I also like the idea of body swapping as something that happens randomly instead of something like a condition to be fixed. Not to mention that the characters mostly take it in stride as real people probably would have done.

Speaking of the characters, they're quite likeable so far; even the one I would label the blandest (Taichi) gets some decent characterization. I can see Iori being the favorite though, what with the sad story underneath her smiling facade.

I like the ED a lot too.

EDIT: Oh, and another thing: the random glasses-girl who wanted to get intimate with Taichi!Iori. A rather amusing departure from the usual.

edited 9th Jul '12 5:50:45 AM by fillerdude

@Ever9:

Impossible because K-On is plain, bland, generic, the very basic. So if you add something not basic to something that is basic, you get something not basic, which isn't K-On.

In the case of this show, and in Hyouka, being K-On is quite obvious there since the "basicness" still seeps through their not entirely effective attempts of being "not plain." Unless of course your argument actually implies that every anime has "basicness" and everything else are just not entirely effective attempts of being "not plain."

First pair, IDK because I haven't watched either. Second pair, Summer Wars is simply good while Evangelion is "depending on the circumstances, on what you watched first, on how you interpret things, on when you watched them, etc.", i.e. cannot be definitely called one or the other, so it doesn't flow like the comparisons I made.

edited 9th Jul '12 8:34:44 AM by entropy13