Recap: Word spreads about Haruka’s power and she finds herself recruited by the president of the ESP Research Club. She joins the club along with Manabe, but the club president may have an agenda of her own.

Jel’s Thoughts: After one episode it was kind of hard to judge whether Kotoura-san was going to lean more towards drama or comedy, but this episode proved it’s perfectly capable of continuing to handle both. While not jumping to the polar extremes of the introduction, the story slid fairly seamlessly between serious and silly.

Seeing as the Manabe Thinking Dirty Thoughts joke can only carry us so far, it was good to get right into our new cast members. Mifune’s introduction was a great mix of emotions. She’s determined to accomplish her own goals but not at the expense of Haruka’s feelings. It makes for a great underlying conflict with her more obvious role as the caring senpai, and it will be interesting to see if that comes into play again. We don’t get to see much of the diminutive Muroto, but he seems to pretty insightful as well. Finally, Moritani plays a great spurned love interest, and given how much backstory they gave her I’m sure we’ll see plenty more of her in the future. I’m betting she’ll reconcile with the group though, and maybe even join the ESP club.

With all the new characters getting introduced we don’t get quite as much time with Haruka and Manabe, but we do get some small snippets of their budding relationship. The best part by far was Manabe’s scene in the end when he finds out about Haruka being bullied. I have to say I really like this guy, more than most male anime characters in a good long while. His goofy, unashamed charm kind of reminds me of a teenage high school version of Kotetsu from Tiger and Bunny. He’s idealistic and kind of dumb but he’s also honest with himself and incredibly loyal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some kind of secret deep down that Haruka hasn’t picked up yet, but for now he makes the perfect mental oasis as she continues to take her emotional bumps and bruises.

It’s still early yet but what I like so far about Kotoura-san is it’s a true Feel Good story. Rather than resorting to blatant self-insert wish fulfillment or unrealistically cute and ideal situations, it brings you along for the ride as our wounded heroine begins to heal. There will surely be more challenges to overcome, but that only makes the funny and sweet moments that much more genuine. I suppose I should reserve such high praise for the time being, but so far I love the path that Kotoura-san is on.