Anime: School Days: Magical Heart Kokoro-chan 1a311m

Magical Heart Kokoro-chan: Over half as serious, over ten times as ludicrous, over six times as good.

Before I start with this (far too postphoned) review, let me state this up front: I hate School Days. Utterly. No, wait, hatred doesn't quite fit it. I'm going to borrow a page from Brian Clevinger and state that the word closest to my sentiments on the original School Days is 'omniloathe'. Having cringed my way through most of the thing (including the non-NICE BOAT ending) I would recommend people open-air brain surgery without anesthesia before I'd recommend them School Days. I understand this may offend some of you to read this, but I feel it is necessary for you to understand my rating of the Kokoro-chan OVA.

However much I may loathe their angst-ridden, paper-flat, filled-to-the-brim-with-retards dating sim, however, I will state that Overflow (its creators) do, if nothing else, have the audacity to be humorous about the crap they've made, giving birth to two very tongue-in-cheek OVAs, the second of which being Magical Heart Kokoro-chan, an OVA in an alternate reality to School Days starring one of the ing cast of the original anime and game as a magical girl, and recasting most of the cast in new (and might I say, vastly improved) roles. The ensuing storm of cliches, played utterly to their hilt, results in a very enjoyable, if brain-numbingly stupid, affair.

Animation and Visuals: 6/10 -- School Days standard, plus nudity.

There is very little outright good to say about the animation and visuals to Magical Heart. There is also just as little bad to say. Using the exact same graphical appearance as its mother series, Magical Heart is... Ok. It's workable, edging towards the better because the format of the OVA allows the animators and cast to better show what they're capable of when they create fast-moving action scenes instead of normal high-schoolers talking on a rooftop. The models mainly stay on target, the backgrounds are unimpressive, and the animation doesn't make sudden jumps and skips; it works, simple as that. Nothing more and nothing less.

The fanservice runs rampant throughout the whole affair, but it's not the most outrageous thing in this OVA by far; in fact, for an OVA of a sexualized anime, Magical Heart is surprisingly tame... And overall I'd say that's a good thing. Also, the... Um... Excessive... Ending was pretty cool. So, I'll leave it at 'good', conveniently forgetting to mark it down for a simplistic OP sequence.

Sound: 6/10 -- Get. That. OP. Out. Of. My. Head. HELP.

Like with the animation Magical Heart Kokoro-chan's audio stays on safe ground and uses the main School Days voice cast, although the cast are allowed to act with a great deal less angst and a great deal more overacting, as befitting of cheesy 80ies and 90ies magical girl shows. Makoto's voice actor is allowed to be a lot more deadpan, which helps him along as the only sane cast member. The BGM is near unnoticeable, neither good nor truly bad.

However... The OP is a masterpiece in bad music. I mean it. It's thoroughly disgustingly awful, featuring blaring synths and the most awful vocals outside Konata (Lucky Star) in a karaoke box... And it's damn catchy for it. I even find myself humming the damn thing occasionally. Ugh. I don't know if I should mark the OVA's audio up or down for that, really, but let's just say 'up'.

Story: 7/10 -- Clichè typhoon incoming. Head for your storm shelters, readers... And bring scuba equipment.

Magical Heart Kokoro-chan's story is an epic tale of the tragedy of interhuman relationships, bringing to mind a Hemingway-esque narrating style as we explore a tale of... Hey, wait a minute...

Hm. My mistake, that was, in fact, my Kanon review notes. What I meant to say was, it's an alternate School Days storyline featuring a magical girl, a sentai squad, poison gas, zombies, kaiju, chainsaws, a villain in a laughably bad disguise, Makoto not being a jerk, and more panty shots, magical girl cliches and snide remarks at the ludicrous plot and its various holes than you can shake a stick at. And a NICE BOAT. And yes, I probably don't need to tell you this, but just in case you missed it it's a (rather transparent) parody.

And that's all you're getting out of me. If that doesn't sound like the sort of plot you wouldn't mind wasting half an hour to laugh at, well, it's not everyone's cup of tea. People who were disappointed that I wasn't going to talk more about Kanon probably need not apply.

Character: 4/10 -- Mostly unnoticeable.

The main appeal of this show is mainly due to the ludicrous plot, though; the characters, if you'll excuse me using a bit of clumsy language, are mainly placeholders for the wackiness, by which what I'm trying to say is that they could have been almost anyone and it wouldn't make much difference for the plot, save for losing the School Days tie-in. Well, OK, it is fun to watch the cast of that awfulness in this type of situation, but if you want involving characters, character development or anything interesting personality-wise from anyone in the cast, you may be better served elsewhere.

On the plus side, they're at least nowhere as bad as they are in the main story, even if they're still flat and silly. Makoto, at least, is all but bearable here, even if the blatant Mary Sue-ness of Kokoro might annoy people not inclined to take it humorously.

Value: 5/10 -- Almost worth exposing yourself to the main story for. Almost.

Magical Heart Kokoro-chan's main value problem for me is that it's not a stand-alone story, but a School Days tie-in. Consequently, much of the humor which isn't a magical girl parody will derive from the ludicrousness of seeing the School Days cast in this sort of ridiculous universe, and notice the references to the main story.

And therein lies the main problem of 'value' for me -- in order to fully 'get' Magical Heart Kokoro-chan, you'll have to watch School Days. And frankly I'd rather have a rabid weasel being stuffed in my face than (re)watch that. It also gives me problems with recommendation: How do I recommend a funny spin-off of a crappy main show properly?

Anyway, if you already liked the main story (in which case, I feel I must add that I pity you), this should pose little problems: Go watch, if you haven't already, but if you watched the original out of a genuine love of drama, this is not for you. Furthermore, the magical girl references are easy enough to pick up for anyone who even knows a little Sailor Moon and feel up for watching an utter mockery of it. A warning beforehand, though, this is NOT FOR CHILDREN. It may be worth a rewatch too, being only 20 minutes, but there are better comedy anime for that, like Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Detroit Metal City.

Enjoyment: 8/10 -- Still made me headdesk, but this time from laughter.

Since I was able to 'get' it on both sides, though, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this show. It's probably not the best comedy anime I've ever seen, or even in the top five, but it's all good fun nonetheless.

Overall: 6/10 -- Bad. Laughably bad, like an Ed Wood movie. On purpose, no less. Which means good.

So, in the end, what I'd describe Magical Heart Kokoro-chan as is a prime example of 'stupid enough to be funny', or 'so bad it's good', something it was intentionally made to be. I feel it, and its fellow Valentine's Day OVA, has somewhat redeemed the School Days franchise for me, if only a miniscule bit (and no, it has not made watching the main series worth it, at least for me), but as a standalone work it may be a bit lacking too. In the end, I feel ultimately a little conflicted for having laughed at this... But not that conflicted. It's good enough; go for it if you've got 20 minutes to spare and need something to shut your brain off and make you laugh.

Just don't ask me to like the main series because of it.