Charlotte - Episode 10 "Looting"

Key Discussion
#59

This episode firmly cemented my loss of hope in this show. I no longer see how it could get good. Even if something more tragic than Ive ever seen before were to happen, it would still be bad because these last 10 episodes have made sure I dont care about any of these characters.

I want to care about Yuu. I want to love Shunsuke. But this show has just handled the moods so terribly that something that should be serious is happening and everyone’s just like “la la la, daijoubu~”

But seriously, they just took a time-travel story and made it about as boring/pointless as possible. I swear every time something that could possibly be meaningful happens in this show, they throw it away: Yuu’s original personality, Nao’s lonliness, Ayumi’s death, Yuu’s regression, Nao’s brother captured by scientists, Shunsuke being a badass, anyone being a badass, WHAT THE POWERS ARE, WHERE THEY COME FROM, HOW/WHY THEY GET THEM.

If they can wrap all that up in a satisfying way in the next three episodes, it could still have a chance of getting a “good” mark in the books. But atm Kumagami’s one of the best things thats happened to this show, and he’s barely in it.

My lols when @Pepe was completely right and there was absolutely no reason (yet) that Yuu should have been able to remember what happened before Shunsuke leaped.

Btw… how the hell does putting power users in a school stop the scientists from taking them away?

[quote=“chesca, post:50, topic:1864”]
Yeah. He has become a bomb at this point so it’s kind of interesting to see what happens now.
[/quote]You know thats actually whats gonna happen. This “monster’s” gotta come into place somehow. Now all we need is for someone to make a promise to come back home and we’re golden.

Deathflag-kun didnt have his power yet at that point…

EDIT: You know what? I think I could also still end up liking this show if we got some cool factor in there. Ya know? Like even if the characters and writing are all still crap, if some really cool shit goes down, I might still like it.

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#60

[quote=“Yerian, post:59, topic:1864, full:true”]

Btw… how the hell does putting power users in a school stop the scientists from taking them away?[/quote]

I think the idea is that they created a school, which is marketed as just a regular school which means anyone attending that facility would be seen as just your average student. So that if anyone did get abducted then they could make a big hoo-hah out of the fact one of their innocent students have been taken away and make a big newsflash as a protective measure.

Either way smells like a plot convenience to me… Or just not a great idea to start with. But I guess from that perspective it makes a bit of sense?

#61

It’s only been an episode, right? I don’t think this is even a problem right now, it just seems like something to be picky about.

Or… They could beat up the attackers? I mean, it’s an institute of super-humans after all.

#62

The entire logistical drama behind being captured by scientists and a protective school has been one of my complaints since episode 2. At this point, I think the answer is bad writing.

2 Likes
#63

I think the point of the school is that it’s much easier to protect a small area than a large one. You can’t be everywhere at once, so if the power users are spread throughout the city then the scientist’s stormtroopers can just kidnap them one by one. When everyone is in the same area, though, you can focus your defenses (whatever defenses Shun may have waiting in the wings with all of his funds).

It also seems like the scientists are working in secret, so assaulting a school may be too high-profile for them.

#64

I mean, there are a bunch of reasonable explanations that could exist. The problem is they haven’t bothered explaining anything (beyond “hey we made a school; we’re safe now!”) even though it’s apparently such a big deal. Any explanation or reasoning we try to come up with is just baseless assumptions.

Also, I said in an earlier episode thread that apparently Nao and friends have no qualms with going out and using their powers all over the place, without fear of scientists, so that makes it seem like just being a student of the school protects you from scientist kidnapping (as opposed to say, the actual school location being a safezone). Again, reasonable explanations could exist but are completely baseless with the given information.

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#65

I thought they made the school so they could find the teens with powers before the scientists, and then keep them at the school so the teens would keep their powers in check and fly under the radar. So the point of the school is to find the kids and keep them at the school so the scientists don’t find them.
I’m pretty sure that’s what it said in the show…

#66

Yeah, the idea was to find them as early as possible, (hopefully before the powers even manifest) bring them to the school, and warn them of abusing powers. At the school, they can stay in a safe environment until they age and lose their powers.

#67

This is an interesting point, and I’d like to give my thoughts on this. One thing we know about the scientists is that what they are doing, as far as their government is concerned, is legal. They don’t necessarily do any kidnapping either; we saw how Nao’s family was somehow bribed or threatened to hand over their children. The point I am making is that I think the scientists do not take these children by force, but go through “legal” means to do so.

As such, maybe the school offers more protection than just being a physical refuge; maybe being a student of the school itself also offers political refuge against the scientists, such that if you are a student, they no longer have the legal means to capture you.

Of course this is all speculation, and it would have been nice if they actually told that in the story

#68

This is one of the more reasonable guesses, and I really wish they bothered saying something along those lines, even in passing. Even so, I’m not sure how this is any different from other schools. If the scientists are threatening or bribing the family to get them, this means either the school can somehow prevent parental requested transfer or has even more power to threaten/bribe the family. If being a student at the school can prevent approaching the parents, that’s some pretty darn amazing political power.

Another question is the fake school that Nao was placed into. Nao is the only person we know of who went there instead of the normal facility. Ayumi, who didn’t have any powers at the time, was placed in the scientist facility with her brothers. Why wasn’t Nao? Once again, we can probably think of a reasonable explanation like their policy changed in response to the Hoshinoumi school, but the anime sure doesn’t seem to care about explaining it.

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#69

Maybe, because of her brother’s power, they thought that Ayumi had a chance of gaining an equally dangerous power (which she did)

Althought Ayumi being in the facility happened in the timeline where Hoshi no Umi didn’t exist

#70

Yeah I mean in the timeline where Hoshinoumi exists, they decided to make a more normal school too, which is where we see Nao at.

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#71

…The anime explains that the school doesn’t prevent the scientists from taking them, it prevents the scientists from finding them.
Nao and crew are conscientious of the scientists so they’re more careful about using their powers when in public. They don’t draw attention to themselves.

#72

“knock knock, we noticed somebody was missing from our school, they had a power so we think it was you fuckers, better give them back before we make a sceeeeeeene~”

2 Likes
#73

Hard to believe the scientists can’t find the students using powers before being sent to the school…

I’ve gotta agree with Kaze on this one.

#74

I think some of the teens with powers do get caught by the scientists before being sent to Hoshinoumi. But they’re irrelevant to the anime, right?
If the last episodes of Charlotte focus on the scientists, I’m pretty sure it would involve the scientists’ facility and there would be teens with powers that the school had failed to save.

#75

Well, Hoshi no Umi does have the advantage of having a power-user that can find other power-users, so that really one-ups the scientists in that regard

#76

Did anyone watch the PV for episode 11?

It looks like an out of the frying pan and into the furnace sort of moment… Needless to say I think this whole Ayumi being saved this episode is trying to throw people off for maximum shock tomorrow. I think more or less everyone has noticed just how blissfully ‘easy’ that whole situation was with stopping the Collapse, so where ever the plot goes from here… I hope it’s good.

But this late into the series with only 3 episodes to close up. I’m having so many doubts. Praying this last segment concludes well.

1 Like
#77

@Pepe and @Kaze had some really great points earlier on, so I won’t be restating those (mostly).

The whole episode going as smoothly as it did is never a good sign, as others have pointed out. Was happy that only the first half (roughly) focused on Shu(n)'s story. Yuu taking Ayu(mi)'s collapse power should’ve been obvious, but I wasn’t really thinking about that while watching the episode.

Well, my concerns about the random gang showing up and breaking everything are basically confirmed to be invalidated at this point. It’ll just be the scientists instead. “Whatever, just murder Yuu. We’ll dissect him later.” “Eh, are you sure? I don’t think that’s sanctioned boss.” “Sh’up an’ do what I say.” “Hai~” “Also, get everyone else here. They’re witnesses.” “We can’t do that boss! We need to make a mistake so there can be a happy ending.”

This issue was touched on earlier, but to state it more explicitly, how’s Yuu gonna get Sala to play for Nao’s brother now? It could still happen, but…

Overall I enjoyed the episode though. The dynamics were fun, and I don’t particularly feel like anything was ruined. There are some inconsistencies, sure, but everything has those. So I don’t view it as that big of a deal.

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#78

With the context of the past episodes, this episode feels completely counterproductive to the flow of the story. Yuu spent a great deal of time getting over Ayumi’s death, only to return to the past to successfully save her. It makes episode 7 sound almost completely pointless as a result.

Despite this, though, I really enjoyed episode 10. It explains how Shunsuke set up his academy for gifted youngsters, with the intention of bringing Yuu and Ayumi into the fold as well. Shunsuke, rather obviously, reminds me of Kyousuke from Little Busters in nearly every conceivable way. It’s as if Maeda missed writing his character and put in an expy to liven up his writing sessions. Because Ayumi died and he can’t time-leap anymore, as well as Medoki failing to reach her in time, it throws a wrench in his plans and he requires Yuu’s convenient plunder ability to bring everything back to normal. Why he asks this of him when they could just move on with the plan is beyond me. (Episode 11 spoilers) I guess Maeda needed Yuu to blow up a building for some extra feels, Why couldn’t they just time-leap back and save Kumagami again? :confused:

Otherwise, it’s a pretty good episode. I like the subtle changes in the second half that happen as a result of Yuu knowing what’s going to happen. Now it’s time for episode 11…Hoo, boy.