Kotoura-san – 05

Kotoura returns to school. Moritani is nice to her and she joins the ESP Society, using her Moritani Fighting Style to snuff out candles as proof of “psychokinesis”. They have a sleepover party at Kotoura’s new apartment, and when Kotoura falls off the bed and onto Manabe, Yuriko snaps a pic. Manabe gives Kotoura an embarrassing picture of a young Mori to keep her cheered up, even after she falls while in a class relay that she practiced hard for.

Now that she’s at peace with her main rival, Kotoura slips back into the ideal of a high school girl’s life: friends, joking around, club activities, parties, sleepovers, and, eventually, being cheered on by her entire class on field day. This sounds utterly mundane, but not when you consider the hell Kotoura has been through. We are also still scratching our heads over how Moritani didn’t really face any serious consequences for putting a hit out on Manabe, aside from her own guilt.

After a few very emotionally heavy episodes, this one is a bit on cruise control, with very little in the way of new conflict, aside from Kotoura coming to grips with her feelings for Manabe. But what it has in spades is peppy comedy. The ESP society all know each other well enough to riff off one anothers’ qualities, and they do so consistently, though never with ill intent. Kotoura continues to show patience with Manabe’s perverse daydreams because she can tell at his core he’s a good person.

Rating: 7 (Very Good)