Kotoura-san - 2

"The First..."

Following its spectacular premiere, Kotoura-san continues to be one of the most emotionally involved series of the season.

It would be easy to dismiss last week's episode as a fluke or a cheap trick used to hook a new audience, had this episode not also proved itself capable of more than just the usual romcom antics. I think it's a little clearer that the author of the original 4-koma and the director really do know what they're doing, and this episode offers just the right balance of comedy and dark undertones to prove it. It seems that suffering due to ESP is very much a theme in this anime, and Haruka isn't the only victim.

Yuriko Mifune (Kana Hanazawa, who seems to be in everything lately), the President of the school's ESP Research Society, has heard about Haruka's power and tracks her down, asking her to join the club. However, Yuriko has an ulterior motive in getting the infamous Kotoura into the society; her mother was clairvoyant but denounced as a fraud, which drove her to suicide. Due to the trauma left behind by her mother's death, Yuriko wants to use Haruka to help prove that ESP is a real phenomenon in order to clear her name.

Despite that, and because Yuriko is essentially a nice person, both Haruka and Manabe eventually agree to join the club, where the chibi Vice President, Daichi Muroto (Hiro Shimono), warns Yuriko not to get carried away. She does, however, and organizes a fortune telling stall, where Haruka uses her mind-reading to tell accurate fortunes. However, Haruka's classmate, Hiyori Moritani (Yurika Kubo), has a crush on Manabe, and she uses the stall to bully Haruka, bringing up her old trauma again.

Here's where Manabe really shines; he may be used for comedic relief and as a vehicle for the occasional fanservice via daydream, but he's a good person and exactly what Haruka needs in a friend. His honesty is definitely a virtue and when he confronts Moritani about the bullying, he earnestly answers that he's defending Haruka because she's his friend, and he likes her. Not many romantic comedy leads, or love interests, can say that sort of thing and mean it, nor do many get as righteously angry as he does, and actually act on their anger to defend their own without getting flustered.

It's his personality coupled with Haruka's ability that makes this pairing so refreshing to watch, and refreshing they are indeed. There isn't much of that confused and unsure feeling between them because Haruka's mind-reading powers remove the possibility of Manabe lying to her, and he trusts and cares for Haruka genuinely enough that it's unlikely he'd abandon her very easily. It's sweet and a little awkward to see the two of them try to pretend that Haruka isn't constantly getting a steady stream of Manabe's thoughts toward her, and that he's not afraid or too embarrassed about it. I wish every romantic comedy could do chemistry like this; it would save us a lot of time on the cliched misunderstandings and obliviousness.