Reading Minds is Emotional – The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura Review

<p>Originally a manga created by Enokizu&comma; <em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura<&sol;em> is a comedic and dark tale&period; Kotoura was blessed with the gift of reading minds&period; Since she was a tiny child&comma; Kotoura could read other people&&num;8217&semi;s thoughts&period; Unfortunately&comma; she would also repeat what she read out loud in everyday conversations&period; After becoming an outcast by her own schoolmates and accustomed to the life of a loner&comma; Kotoura moves out of her family&&num;8217&semi;s house and into an apartment near her new high school&period; Now she is far away from anyone who knows her and her ability&period; At this new school&comma; Kotoura finds friends and a love who appreciates her individual self and doesn&&num;8217&semi;t mind her reading their thoughts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Warning&colon; There Are Light Spoilers<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Collector&&num;8217&semi;s Edition Boxed Set of <em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura <&sol;em>comes with all 12 episodes and bonus videos on two Blu-ray discs&period; The visibility is crystal clear and sharp&comma; and the white with black outlined subtitles are extremely easy to read&period; The set comes with a hardbound book with character and scene designs in addition to the interviews with the voice actors and directory&period; This boxed set is perfect for fans of the series or for anime collectors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;89204" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-89204" style&equals;"width&colon; 745px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura-review1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-89204" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura-review1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura-review" width&equals;"745" height&equals;"420" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-89204" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura<&sol;em>&comma; AIC Classic and NIS America&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The storyline pushes and pulls between comedy and drama&period; From the first episode the tale&&num;8217&semi;s dark side creeps in and constantly tries to drown Haruka Kotoura in isolation and oppression&period; However&comma; sunshine and fresh air reaches her through her first real friend&comma; Manabe&period; With a story that uses the darkness of Kotoura&&num;8217&semi;s branding title &&num;8220&semi;monster&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Manabe&&num;8217&semi;s pervy thoughts actually make the anime series hilarious&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Manabe is a laughable character&comma; using his funny and embarrassing thoughts to make Kotoura feel more at ease&period; He is completely in love with the adorable mind-reader and can&&num;8217&semi;t seem to stop imagining her wearing a bikini or nurse&&num;8217&semi;s uniform&period; His thoughts are always hilariously weird and probably in line with what many high school boys think about&period; Manabe&&num;8217&semi;s constant chase for a kiss from Kotoura is great lighthearted fun&period; His thoughts of Kotoura wearing revealing outfits and acting seductively are not overly exaggerated and work surprisingly well with the story&period; He eventually finds an ally on his quest for Kotoura&&num;8217&semi;s physical affection through none other than Kotoura&&num;8217&semi;s grandfather&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;89199" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-89199" style&equals;"width&colon; 745px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura-4&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-89199" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura-4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura &sol; NIS America" width&equals;"745" height&equals;"447" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-89199" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura<&sol;em>&comma; AIC Classic and NIS America&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Kotoura&&num;8217&semi;s grandfather&comma; Zenzo Kotoura&comma; is incredibly wealthy and spares no expense on his only grandchild&period; However&comma; Zenzo is a creepy grandfather who talks about things like pinching Kotoura-chan&&num;8217&semi;s butt&comma; and he&&num;8217&semi;s always criticizing Manabe for not getting more physical with her&period; He wants to see Kotoura and Manabe become a couple so badly that he calls Kotoura on her phone&comma; only to scream at Manabe for letting an opportunity pass by&period; It would be a lot funnier if Zenzo wasn&&num;8217&semi;t after Kotoura himself&semi; instead&comma; his own twisted thoughts add a level of awkwardness to the show&period; The upside to this unpleasantness&comma; however&comma; is that Zenzo and Manabe&&num;8217&semi;s thoughts are never explicit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The art style of <em>Miss Kotoura<&sol;em> is clean&comma; smooth&comma; and very cute&period; The characters as a whole are physically represented as more child-like and have rounded chubby cheeks to further inspire that idea&period; Kotoura has the most chibi-looking features of them all and looks much more like a child than a young teenager&period; In addition&comma; her mannerisms are more like that of an insecure elementary student&period; This characteristic shows how far the animation team went to show Kotoura&&num;8217&semi;s emotionally-stunted growth for the audience&period; It makes the viewer realize how Kotoura has been affected by her mind-reading gift&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura<&sol;em> does an excellent job of portraying the dangers of reading minds&period; Kotoura spends all of her childhood as an outcast and a danger in high school&period; One example of her powers and how dark the show can get is when mind reads someone who is severally beating high school girls and leaving them in dark alleyways&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a wild&comma; emotional rollercoaster for the audience&period; In addition&comma; there are some musical transitions which help the viewers consciously prep for an emotional scene&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;89202" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-89202" style&equals;"width&colon; 720px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-89202 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura&period;jpg" alt&equals;"the-troubled-life-of-miss-kotoura" width&equals;"720" height&equals;"420" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-89202" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura<&sol;em>&comma; AIC Classic and NIS America&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The anime&&num;8217&semi;s emotions are well conveyed through the voice actors&semi; their voices match the intensity or the comedy of the moment&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s easy to hear the actors feeling their character&&num;8217&semi;s emotions and channeling them through their own voices&period; The one actress who rises above the rest of the cast is Hisako Kanemoto&comma; who voices Harauka Kotoura&period; Her role must have been difficult to play&comma; and yet she was able to convey Kotoura&&num;8217&semi;s innocence&comma; insecurities&comma; and love beautifully&period; Even though this series is heavy at times&comma; there is plenty of cheerfulness to make <em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura<&sol;em> an uplifting anime to enjoy&period; I highly recommend it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><center><&sol;center><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A Complete Premium Edition of <em>The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura was provided by NIS America for this review&period;<&sol;em><&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;