My reasoning is simple: Chisato’s story is far, far too complicated to properly develop in 12 episodes while trying to also spin a very complex tale able politics and cloak-and-dagger intrigue. Whereas a Satsuki route (or Hazuki, though that was never going to happen) would have been a better choice for one cour. In reflecting on KoiChoco, it seems to me that a Chisato route was certainly possible – but it would have required two cours to do adequately. Let’s start with “Love” as for me that’s the more clear-cut analysis. I think both the romance and politics plotlines ended up being hurt by the rushed nature of the adaptation, and neither ended as satisfyingly as they should have. The title really was truth-in-advertising as you had three separate threads that all needed telling, though in the end “Chocolate” ended up being a subset of “Love”. This was a series with a really, really big story – in fact, it was the plot that had me hooked into the show long before I became attached to the characters. There were some really interesting things happening in the middle of the run, most of which sort of got lost in the stampede to get things done on-time with the pre-ordained results.Īs much as any show in recent memory (well, perhaps not as much as Sakamichi no Apollon), KoiChoco is one that really would have been well-served with a second cour. The concluding episode (there will be a bonus BD ep, which looks like a beach/service episode) was better than the one that preceded it, but it doesn’t really stack up as the conclusion I really felt the show deserved.
I’m going away from KoiChoco with a mostly positive feeling, though the conclusion doesn’t show off the series at its best. KoiChoco ended up being like a sandwich with a delicious filling on slightly stale bread.