# Manifold Feelings Outright literary snobs will know I'm no friend of theirs. But even the more egalitarian of us tend to reserve certain subjects to more "serious" writers. Johnathan Franzen wrote some pathetic cookie-cutter rape-as-backstory for *Freedom*, but as an established literary novelist, no-one will call him out for it.. Closer to home, every episode of *Utakoi* has been a pretty generic romance, and the third episode featured the dreaded "it's ok, we're not blood related" at full volume. But we don't deride this as exploitative the way we would if it were done in a less respectable series - say a harem show. Or a show from a studio such as Silver Link. Enter *Kokoro Connect*. With character deisgns lifted line for line from K-ON, and a premise that promised gender-bending hijinks, we could be forgiven for expecting fluff. What we've got is serious drama, though driven by an acknowledgedly absurd premise; the closest comparison I could make would be *Toradora*. And it's willing to go into some pretty heavy territory, touching issues that could very easily cause offense if handled clumsily or played for laughs. I can't help feeling it's only a matter of time before the show sticks its foot in something unfortunate. But so far *Kokoro Connect* has walked the tightrope with aplomb. It's kept its own counsel, shown some really interesting characters, and made me actually care about them by the end of episode three. It's also managed the most fantastic episode titles I can remember, particularly for the third and fourth episodes; hinting, enticing, and obvious in retrospect, but never giving their episode plots away. With this latest episode raising the stakes still further, a tragic crash into generic haremland seems inevitable. But for now, this is a fantastic show. [Home](/) <div id="disqus_thread"></div> comments powered by Disqus