Impression
Man, that was sure harsh of Number Two to do what he/she did (let’s call it an it). Taichi shouldn’t have told them everything, and Himeko certainly shouldn’t have pushed him to, but to take action against that so drastically was really bitchy of it. The entire reason why this phenomenon was the most dangerous was because of the physical changes going on – they can’t hide the fact they actually regress in age, and if someone catches them hell will break loose as they freak out, especially if its someone they know personally. Thank goodness Heartseed was around to save the day (how ironic) and it’s led to the revelation that not only is there more than one Heartseed, they’re not all in the same faction, and unlike Heartseed #1 whose aim is to bring them closer together, Heartseed #2 genuinely seemed to be trying to fuck up their lives. Making Iori regress once she tried to go home, as well as Aoki once he tried to catch faster transport seemed to be unfair more than anything – most of all was Iori becoming a newborn baby right as her stepfather opened the door.
They’ve pretty much spelled it out for us that Iori has family issues, and that there was domestic violence going on in the family at the hands of the probably drunk and oppressive father. What I didn’t expect was for both Iori and her mother to be holding back for the sake of the other – Iori because she thinks her mother loves her, and the latter because she thinks Iori wants him around. It’s more surprising that they’ve both avoided the topic for so long, and Himeko’s “um…” summed up my thoughts exactly when I realized there was in fact no issue to solve, apart from kicking him out. And wooooow, what a scary person. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned indeed. Especially one that’s been enduring the violence for so long.
I’m also proud of Iori for refusing Heartseed’s offer to redo her life. All the while she’s regretted having to put on masks and not realizing her true self, constantly wishing to redo her life better the second time round, even more so once the age regressing started and all her old memories flooded back. Actually being given the opportunity to, it was nice to see her reject it and accept herself for who she is, and thinking: hey, I turned out all right after all. And to be honest, since this is an anime, Iori going back in time would probably result in an even worse situation the second time round.
Thus ends Kako Random, the 3rd arc of Kokoro Connect. As per the prank incident, the next arc Michi Random won’t actually be aired on TV, but instead withheld to the BD. Sales will drop because of that horrible bullying incident, and so producers are basically saying: if you want to see the rest of it, buy it. They’ll get uploaded to the net eventually, just not next week or anything like that. Until then, we can only wait and speculate.
The extra episodes not aired on TV was actually decided since the start of the series. It’s really due to Japanese TV station’s regulations that studios are only allowed to book air time slots at multiples of cour (13 episodes plus or minus one depending on negotiations.) And since they can’t fit the novel materials into 13 episodes AND reach a decent cut off point at the same time, Silverlink suck it up and decided to make 17 episodes instead. According to officials there will be a screening event for more information regarding the remaining episodes. News about that will be revealed in a couple days, according to them.
Sometimes I think, I prefer it this way instead of having an original anime ending which usually ended up as train wreck.
Oh, I see…that’s very interesting. I suppose they could have extended it to a two-cour and covered more of the light novels, but then they’d have to weigh in loads of other factors as well. I definitely agree that a faithful adaptation will always be better than an original ending, which almost always ruins the show.