Pros:
Kokoro Connect is about a student club with serious problems having to face and reconcile with them. As a result, the group grows closer than before. What makes it special is that the driving force, making them deal with their problems is a supernatural one. Without that push, nothing would've changed and nobody would've dared reveal their secrets to the rest of the group. The development is great across the entire group, even though the girls get more than the guys, they still get something, so it's not as bad as I feared it would be. This development is greatly enhanced through the masterful use of the soundtrack and shocking key moments. The soundtrack kicks in at just the right times to bring the extra emotion necessary to make the scenes stand out above the rest. Kokoro Connect has a lot of great that make you feel invested such as
Spoiler, click to view
Inaba's confession, Heartseed telling Inaba Taichi fell and Yui reconnecting with Aoki.However, my absolute favourite scene is
Spoiler, click to view
when Iori falls off the bridge and the subsequent hospital scene. The bridge fall was so sudden and shocking that I was in complete disbelief afterwards. In other shows, I wouldn't buy that Iori is about to die, but I could genuinely see Kokoro Connect going down that path. That alone made the scene worth it, the chance that the show could kill off one of its main characters in its 5th episode. But even though that didn't end up happening the scene still works, because I view it as a test by Heartseed to see how far they'd come. I headcanon that if the group had chosen to let someone else take Iori's place, then that would've been a fail of the test and that person would've died alongside Iori's body. To explain why I believe this, I need to first analyze Heartseed.Spoiler, click to view
Heartseed is interesting because we know very little about it or its motivations. It's a supernatural entity that messes with STuCS by causing various phenomena to happen to them. The only explanation it gives as to why it's causing the phenomena is that it wants to see exciting things happen and it will end once it gets disinterested. But then Heartseed makes Iori fall off the bridge because the situation becomes boring, which should've been the end of the phenomena. Its interaction isn't even consistent as it doesn't do this when the group has nearly fallen apart during the thought conduction phenomenon. Wouldn't their lack of interaction be boring? On top of that, we don't know why Heartseed chose to target STuCS specifically. This is not to even mention the 2nd Heartseed that causes the age reversal phenomenon.My theory is that
Spoiler, click to view
Heartseed is good and the apathy we see is merely a face to help the group grow closer. Heartseed chose to target the group because it can see the hidden secrets within the group and wants to help them overcome their problems and connect more. However, it can't reveal its true intentions to the group because otherwise, they wouldn't be as inclined to deal with their issues if they knew it was a good force behind the phenomena. You might say that nearly killing one of the club members goes against this philosophy, but that's because the group's development was stagnating. They were dealing with the phenomena without growing or learning anything, merely carrying on with no change. So Heartseed had to take action and gave them an ultimatum on whether they had made progress so far and deserved Heartseed's continued help. The phenomena also specifically target unknown weaknesses within the group, so that they can be resolved. The phenomenon also only ever ends after the current issue has been resolved, instead of when Heartseed gets disinterested as it says.The show is also the perfect length, if it went on any longer it would start to seem a little ridiculous, because how much strife and division can there exist within 5 close friends? At first, I wasn't sure if the OVAs would be able to top the satisfactory ending the main series had (minus the teaser for the OVAs), but they managed to give a great ending where you get an idea of what the situation is for each club member afterwards and how they'll be able to face any additional phenomena they may face.
Neutral:
Some of the middle episodes for the longer arcs felt a bit too slow-paced, but that's because they're building towards the climaxes, which mostly makes up for it.
