Haruka Kotoura is the main character of the series, and she was born with the ability to read minds. Unfortunately, when she was young, she didn't realize that was what she was doing, so she inadvertently hurt other people. The other kids at school saw her as a monster, and her parents abandoned her with her maternal grandfather. Unfortunately, receiving this kind of treatment from those she cared about has made it where she is unwilling to let anyone get close to her.
The first half of the first episode establishes Haruka's backstory. After her background is established, we see Haruka transfer into a new school. As she expects, most of the other students keep their distance from her; however, a boy named Yoshihisa Manabe who sits next to her tries to get close to her. Even after Yoshihisa learns that Haruka has ESP, he stays by her side and declares that they will be friends and remain friends.
When I was reading the description for Kotoura-san at Crunchyroll, I was expecting to not like the series. However, I was surprised to see that roughly the first half of the first episode was actually kind of depressing instead of comedic. The comedy comes in once Haruka transfers to her new school and meets Yoshihisa, and I actually liked the comedy that I saw in the episode. By the time I finished the first episode, I found myself intrigued by the story; I would be willing to watch more of this series if I can find the time.
The one thing that struck me in regards to the animation in the first episode was the fact that when we first meet Yoshihisa in the classroom dressed in his school uniform, I thought he kind of looked like Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. However, the personalities between these two characters are nothing at all alike. Outside of that, there really wasn't anything animation-wise to make this series stand out in this aspect.
After watching the first episode of Kotoura-san, I would recommend this series to anime viewers who are 13 or 14 years of age and older.
| Kotoura-san | 12 | 2013 | Masahiko Ohta | AIC Classic | N/A |
