Haruka Kotoura was an ordinary little girl. She was born into a wealthy family to a pair of loving and doting parents but she wasnt at all spoiled. She was well liked by her peers and had an easy time making friends right up until something peculiar happened... She began reading minds. At first she didnt even notice this. She could hear peoples thoughts as naturally as their voices so she assumed this was normal and people were telling her things they wanted her to hear. It started small winning every round of rockpaperscissors but it quickly snowballed into who had a crush on who secrets her parents were keeping small resentments that should have stayed hidden and ultimately the fact that her parents were cheating on each other. This new power the consequences of which she couldnt possibly understand tore her life to shreds. Her friends deserted her doctors refused to treat her her parents abandoned her and everywhere she looked for support or affection a few select words echoed in everyones thoughts... Monster. Creepy. Freak. Liar. These words would follow her for the next decade until a broken hopeless young woman finally decided to change schools... And thats where she met Manabe a dimwitted class clown who didnt find her abilities weird or creepy... He thought they were cool This new encounter would only be the start of Harukas journey to undo the trauma that shed endured throughout her life but will it all be toolittletoolate? Or is she truly worthy of the life shes been given? Kotourasan was produced by AIC a Japanese studio whose pedigree stretches back to the late 1980s and whose output is every bit as eclectic as my personal taste in music. Theyve dipped their fingers in basically everything from softcore porn to heartwarming wholesome sports drama pumping out mostly weird and quirky titles that either pique the interest of the anime fandom and then die out in a couple years or remain in the public consciousness entirely because of how bizarre they are. Their most famous titles seem to come from franchises like Tenchi Muyo that were already famous BEFORE AIC got to take a crack at them if that tells you anything. Whats more interesting about AIC is that from the early 2000s up to the end of its life in 2014 it started branching off into smaller studios. AIC Plus AIC Build AIC Spirits AIC ASTA and in this case AIC Classic a subsection that only produced three titlesand their respective OVAs. One of them was Ebiten a show so weird that I had wildly different experiences both times I watched it and another one was todays subject Kotourasan. Like most of their work The animation feels like it had a somewhat modest budget... Not dripping with cash but not forced to cut corners to make ends meet either... That it had just as much money as it needed and it made every penny count. Its hard to look for trends in AICs catalogue but Kotourasan has the style of its director all over it. You probably know Masahiko Ohta from titles like Yuru Yuri and Himouto Umaruchan and thats basically the aesthetic youll see here. Bright colors from a soft water color palette somewhat cartoony character design combined with moreorless realistic proportions below the neck just exaggerated enough to create a design style thats very easy on the eyes cute and moe for the most part but more than capable of providing fanservice when needed. Kotourasan isnt really a fanservice show... It has its moments mostly for comedic purposes... Rather it takes the versatility of Ohtas character designs in a different direction. The cast of Kotourasan looks soft and cartoony at first glance but they are extremely expressive. They support a wide array of facial expressions a lot of which do serve the comedic side of the story perfectly but their dramatic expressions? THAT is on another level. I cant begin to count the number of moments when a sudden shift in someones expression particular with the title character gave me goosebumps or straight up hurt my heart. I felt what these characters felt way more often than I would normally expect from a 12 episode anime although the music did play a part in that. Yasuhiro Misawa has composed a lot of OSTs for Ohta and while he does your standard plinkyplink anime sitcom music perfectly fine... A show like Kotourasan wouldnt exist without some BGM like that... His music is far more remarkable during the emotional moments when he switches to full orchestra letting violins and other stringbased instruments dominate the tracks that play softly in the background of sad scenes and get cranked up to eleven whenever it needs to overwhelm you in a tense or suspenseful moment. Theres no English dub as of this writing and there will probably never be one but the sub track is still pretty appealing even to my ignorant monolingual ears. I dont have anything specific to say about most of the cast who play their roles perfectly but the one standout in particular to me is Hisako Kanemoto the original voice actor of Squid Girl if you can believe it playing Haruka as the most precious gorram thing ever simultaneously adorable and fragile but still with tight comedic delivery whenever shes dealing with Jun Fukushimas rowdy Manabe. The lack of a dub is disappointing or me but I like the Japanese version just fine and you should too. Is it just me or was 2013 a really big year for anime? I guess its possible that Im biased as that was the one year I really got into seasonal releases but there were a lot of high profile titles debuting that year. There was Attack on Titan Kill La Kill Love Live Watamote Log Horizon Nagi Asu The Devil is a Part Timer... Those titles alone are massive but when you add in continuations of popular shows like Haganai Oreimo Fate Ghost in the Shell and my personal favorite season of Rozen Maiden you create a field where theres just a ton of competition lurking around every corner. Ive reviewed a dozen anime from this year more than any other individual year so far. Not only were there a ton of major game changers but even the dregs were at least interestingly bad. Anime as uniquely terrible as Amnesia Diabolik Lovers Dog X Scissors and SasamisanGanbaranai couldnt have come out any other year. The reason I bring this up is because its the best explanation I can come up with for just how obscure Kotourasan is. If there was a year for a good show to get thoroughly lost in the shuffle especially in the winter season 2013 was it and yet that still doesnt explain how it fell flat compared to crap like Senran Kagura and Cuticle Detective Inaba. I guess its possible that it just didnt have a catchy sounding title... A name like Kotourasan doesnt exactly grab you but then again the name the western market came up with... The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura... Doesnt sound that much better. Im being intentionally coy of course. I am aware of the major backlash this series faced I just dont like talking about it because its complete horse shit. When this show first aired it caught a lot of criticism for being emotionally manipulative which I absolutely do not see. I mean sure the first episode starts off by showing you an extended flashback to the main characters childhood and how her ESP ability ruined her life and yeah youre supposed to feel really bad for her after seeing it but thats not manipulation. When I hear the phrase emotional manipulation used to describe an anime I think of shows from the critically lauded Key trilogy as popular as they are. Melodrama framed as actual drama hyperidealized waifus dying from moe mystery disease all to inspire a couple of manly tears from some bland dude at the center whose entire harem would rather die alone than pork anyone else. Blatantly using wish fulfillment tropes to get you invested before the tragic shit drops out of nowhere is true emotional manipulation. Harems are not realistic. Five year olds who immediately accept their father who theyve never seen before behave perfectly when left alone all day and then just die for the feels are not realistic theyre manufactured which makes them manipulative. When it comes to Harukas backstory however the only part of it that feels unrealistic is the fact that she can read minds. Everything else feels real. The way people react to her feels real. The fact that Haruka didnt know she was doing anything wrong until it was too late to change it feels real. The fact that she finds one final source of solace a stray kitten she bonds with only for her psyche to absolutely shatter when its abruptly taken away from her feels painfully real but most of all is the experience of rejection by society the loneliness and isolation that results from being a variety of different that your peers arent ready to accept in a world thats constantly bombarding you with the advice to just be yourself. Ill admit that with a scenario like this... Or the one from Watamote if you will... In order to appreciate just what Kotouras going through you kind of have to have had a taste of it yourself. Personally I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome as a toddler and I have honestly never known what its like to be a normal person with normal thoughts and behaviors and even now that Im older and happier with my lot in life theres always going to be a massive disconnect between me and normal people. Luckily though the first episode doesnt dwell on any of this. Kotourasan lets you know very early on and very efficiently what the main character went through why she is how she is and just how many layers of trauma shes carrying on her at all times before introducing Manabe in one of the most well timed and deliriously funny ways possible letting you know that okay from here on its time to start healing. Haruka has a ton of issues. Some are on the surface like her fear of hurting those close to her with her abilities others are deeper like her guilt and general lack of selfworth. Her issues are handled with a shocking level of respect and maturity given that this is a comedy anime and at no point does any of it feel disingenuous. One thing I noticed is that Kotourasan does not fuck around with its story or Harukas arc. Nothing is ever milked nothing is ever dwelled on and despite everything thats happened to her Haruka never goes all emo on us. This is pulled off through a genius trick of pacing where Haruka is constantly working on her smaller issues overcoming them and moving on but her larger issues are always lurking in the background making their presence known through brief references and subtle visual cues. Another criticism I see this show get is over the inconsistent tone which yeah okay fair but I actually kind of like that. Sure the drama and comedy might not blend as fluidly as they do in Ouran Highschool Host Club but theyre both made out of really strong material and if anything the fact that they clash just makes them each feel stronger. If I hadnt been laughing my ass off five minutes prior I might not feel as disturbed when I see Haruka have a visceral reaction to someone using a trigger word like Monster on her. Harukas journey throughout the story is a powerful one and there is potential in tonal dissonance to amplify power when used right. This is one of the few series that make me cry every time I see it with both happy tears and sad tears in equal portions. And the comedy likewise is outstanding. In my opinion casting the girl crazy comic relief loserwho would normally be a supporting role at best as the male lead in a romantic comedy was a galaxy brain move. Most characters in his position would either be a cool stoic dreamboat or a firey hotheaded tough guy your simple fire vs. ice dynamic your Edward vs. Jacob if you will Manabe is neither. Hes an idiot. Hes earnest loyal and outgoing a complete airhead and yet the way he supports Haruka... The way he broke through her shell when nobody else would... I never for once doubt her feelings for him. They have this really unique dynamic where hell fantasize about her in these overthetop completely self aware ecchi scenarios just to tease her so shell become flustered and interrupt his fantasy an idea that COULD sound creepy and lecherous on paper but winds up feeling adorable and downright hilarious in practice. The comedy in general is really quirky and unpredictable with very few running gags and the ones we do get are constantly evolving. There are moments when one interaction will be happening but if you pay attention to the background of the shot or even to the body language of characters who arent even talking therell be a whole other layer to the joke just waiting to be noticed. The story goes to some weird places for comedys sake and while I cant say they all pay off they can be amazing when they do. Seeing Harukas rich grandfather build a theme park for Haruka featuring her likeness is just weird and not in a fun way so much as in a what the fuck am I supposed to do with this kind of way. On the other hand seeing him and Manabe try to dig their own hot spring out of disappointment for the real one being closed only to strike oil by accident and the rest of the scene plays out with construction vehicles working in the background as he adds that oil to his already considerable wealth thats fucking great. There are moments that honestly feel like the pacing may have been a bit too efficient like they had extra space they didnt know what to do with but luckily Haruka and Manabe have costars who are more than strong enough to offer their own contributions to the series in order to pick up some of that slack. In episode two Haruka and Manabe get recruited to a club called the ESP Research society through some SOS Brigadelike hijinksyes theres an element of Haruhi Suzumiya in this show were talking about the early 2010s hell there were like half a dozen titles in the 2013 winter season alone that ripped Haruhi off to some degree and its through this encounter that we not only get the school club setting to serve as a foundation for the story but the character of Mifune who has a fair share of ESP related trauma of her own to deal with. The humor can be mean sometimes and it can be offbalance with the more serious aspects of the show which I would argue make up more of its identity especially around the middle but the pay off at the end is definitely worth it. Theres a story arc toward the end thats kind of dumb... It revolves around the police and a serial attacker and its not bad or anything which is a relief considering how unskippable it is but its still kind of dumb especially once the mystery is actually solved. It does however lead me to one of my favorite aspects of this series... The fact that no idea is ever left on the table. Im sure there are some possibilities involving mindreading in a fictional setting that were never addressed but it never feels like they actually missed an opportunity and it never feels like there was some obvious answer to a story line problem that got ignored for plot reasons. By the end it feels like it did exactly what it set out to do and then some and Im not going to pretend that its not a mess but its a powerful mess and its one that I definitely recommend checking out... If you have access to it. As of this writing the only legitimate way to watch this series is by streaming it on Crunchyroll. There was a blu ray set available stateside from Aniplex but it was an extremely limited release thats no longer available for purchase you cant find it on Ebay outside of Malaysian bootlegs and the manga never received an English release either. So what exactly happened here? How did this series which managed to be equal parts adorable hilarious and heartbreaking manage to fall so far out of public consciousness? Is it simply due to its presence in the winter season where in any given year only one nonecchi title will usually be enough of a cultural phenomenon to break through and it just couldnt compete with Love Live? Is it the fact that a series that intentionally uses tonal dissonance to amplify its own emotional beats was just ahead of its time? Or was it just such a weird quirky unpredictable ride that most viewers just werent willing to jump on board? I dont know but for what its worth I love it. If you were to ask me for an underrated hidden gem it would be my first answer. All I can really say is check it out and see what experience you have with it. I give Kotourasan an 8/10.