[Anime] Kotoura-san (Winter 2012/2013)

...Except it does make sense. Completely. Kotoura can't control her mind-reading; that's literally almost (at least almost) the entire source of conflict in the anime. And not being able to read the psychotic personality's mind when she's in the normal personality makes more sense than if she WAS able to read it; the whole thing with it being a split-personality is that it is, to most intents and purposes, a different person, so when she's not in the psycho-bitch mode her thoughts are not those of the criminal, but of her ordinary self, who has no idea that she's the criminal, which the alternate personality actually even says.

Okay, this series really let itself go. I really stopped feeling for this series about into episode 2 or 3. I was hoping that what I was shone in episode 1, all that emotion I was made to feel, would come up again and again. Nope.

Then this episode. Oh god what the shit. Kotoura should be dead right now. She should be so dead right now. Manabe should be sad, Moritani should be conflicted, and Yuriko should probably be horrified that her selfishness lead to the death of a person. Muroto? Dude either feels remorse he didn't stop Yuriko or he just gets away to some extent without any remorse.

This kids self blaming, never anyone else' fault, paragon of virtue bullshit is irritating as fuck. As expected, years of abandonment are forgiven in a few brief moments. Oh, and of course, Kotoura blames herself for it, cause she couldn't read what was under the surface. Goddamn, this show pisses me off. You drop the kid off on someones fucking doorstep, tell them they should never be born, and all is forgiven cause you felt sorry a few moments after? If you really felt sorry you fucking cunt, you'd have gone back the next fucking DAY, and got on your goddamn knees to BEG for your kids fucking forgiveness. But no, she gets it after a pillowfight, saying sorry in her sleep, and bad eggs.

I disagree with you a bit, the mother knew she wasn't strong enough to raise Kotura properly. Could have feared even turning on Kotura worst than she acted (yes, I believe it was an act, because a second later she regretted it but kept pretending otherwise). She was weak, she did run away from the problem (which is bad), but considering her conviction was that weak (to Kotura), it would have done more harm to both to have her raise Kotura. "Sometimes people need time apart", is what I would go with, so that the mother could get her act together.

Kotura gets subtle hints towards from both the beach and the restaurant events that her mother cared for her.

There was nothing for Kotura to "forgive" because she never harbored (if my memory serves) those kinds of feelings for her mother. She never hated her mother for abandoning her, Kotura felt it was her fault that it happened, that the mother was in complete right to do what she did.

It's rather well established that Kotura has a "guilt complex", as one who has one as well, I can see her line of thinking rather... believable. Even the premise of why it's established makes sense. As such, when problems arise, one would often look for any reason to find that it's there own fault. Which Kotura did consistently well throughout the anime. Not that it's a justifiable choice, but an understandable given her character.

I think the message "it's your fault for not seeing past actions made" is conveyed when "you should always try and look past the actions made, to find the true intent behind, to truly understand" should have been.

Ultimately, as bad as their choices were, they are actively trying to make up for them, and I think that's better than ignoring them and pretending like nothings wrong. The mother is late, but at least she came back, that she is trying one more time, as well, Kotura is wiser and stronger now. "If" they had stayed together would anything had change for the better? Nothing would have changed in either character, they wouldn't have grown at all without that time apart, is what I think.

*Heavy sigh* This last episode (and ep. 11) were disappointing. The show started out with so much potential; it had a nigh-perfect balance between soul-crushing sadness and happy-go-lucky whimsy, and a strong male protagonist. But alas, t'was not to be. From Kotoura's guilt complex and the forgiveness of Moritani to the cheesiness of episode 11 and the forgiveness of her mother, this series went downhill. Seriously, the mom being forgiven that fast was absolute bullshit. Fuck her with a crowbar.
That being said, this show's saving graces were what showed the most potential in the beginning, anyway. The balance between happiness and depression, even at its low points, was still better than what most shows are capable of achieving. Plus, Manabe, while a somewhat less likable character than in the beginning, was still quite good as far as male protagonists go, especially those in romantic comedies. But, he didn't kiss Kotoura. Why the fuck didn't he kiss Kotoura? GODDAMMIT MANABE WHY DIDN'T YOU KISS HER, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF FVMN$£+]GSM DAJG#{?£>VSAD,JB ;,)5#
Sorry, I got a bit wound up there. Anyway, all in all, a 6.5-7/10, but it had the potential to be an 8 or 9.

The number of issues relating to Kotoura and her mom couldn't be properly unpacked, discussed and resolved in one episode so this is how they at least tried to address it. That said Kotoura's angel-like forgiveness in anyone still bothers me. That said, Kotoura and her mother have a lot of talking to do and I'm certain this was only the beginning.

Aside from the odd things happening along the way (mother, Moritani, attacker) I did enjoy this series.

This series should've picked either soul-crushing depression or rom-com. Instead, it tried to pick both and fail pretty miserably. Forgiveness seems to come extremely cheaply.

So yeah. This series basically went out with a whimper, kinda. Apparently the opening act of the first episode was all a big friggen mistake that happened to be amazing cause this show seems to have been planned as a comedy from the get go. That's not all that bad, I did laugh here and there. But when it tries to tackle something serious it seemed to fail in some way or another.

Final verdict, never watching it again and will probably instinctively talk bad about this series sadly. Maybe I'll remember it's potential and talk about that at some point.