I’m personally very set on the theory that the school is not what it seems due to how so many pieces don’t add up- The politics of it very much included. I think it’s good to note how awkward it is in a political mindset because if you ask me you’re supposed to feel like something’s not quite right. It’s like allusion in the setting and tone. >:3
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It would be nice if they followed that idea. They’re already hinting that someone is working behind the scenes, so for now I’ll trust the series will develop every plot point on its own time.
I agree, angel beats spent too much time on fun and games. In a visual novel this is fine because the creators have all the time in the world to let the true story unfold, but in a 13 episode anime there isn’t enough time for that. Charlotte seems to be including enough fun bits to get the characters to grow on you but is not letting that get in the way of the actual plot.
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To be fair, the “fun and games” bits tie in the “having the adolescence days you didn’t have in your life” idea, but it didn’t have time to explore the characters and in 13 episodes it felt pretty disjointed at times. The VN definitely can correct that.
I think Charlotte is going to give less focus to comedy and usual Key slice-of-life, but I don’t mind that. I like how it feels focused, confident and the character work is pretty interesting already.
I agree that the enjoyment of adolescence is important in angel beats, but after the first 2 or 3 episodes there should not be entire episodes dedicated solely to that which don’t actual contribute to the overall plot, in my opinion at least.
I think it was a problem of Maeda wanting to do too much with too many characters in a short amount of time. I don’t think he was much experienced at writing for TV at the time.
(I remember hearing about Aniplex cutting down the amount of episodes as well but I don’t have sources on that sooo)
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Agreed! The massive amount of characters was great but it really backfired on the overall plot, I think the visual novel will be perfect due to the practically infinite time Maeda will have, but we’ll see
@Kanon, I don’t think it was meant to provoke feels, specially given the way Nao behaved. But I agree that it was introduced TOO early. I mean: The main heroine’s backstory in the 2nd ep?! Seriously?!
The episode was fun to watch. Like a lot of other people here, I’m liking Nao even more now. The interactions between the characters are great. I seriously have no idea how Maeda thinks the first 6 episodes may be boring to some, even because of the whole flashback and stuff.
The ED was also really beautiful…
And I guess you were right about the side characters @Pepe, they probably won’t be given an arc or something.
You’re thinking about it wrong. This isn’t like a VN with ‘main heroine’ type stories and things, it’s a whole group and their journey together, which is why the whole plot gets kicking at around the middle.
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The Opening for this episode was good, but compared to all the other Key anime and VN openings, it’s probably the least memorable… unless it grows on me.
And I think people are overreacting about the main heroine’s back story being revealed. It’s not like her development arc or entire route is through yet, it’s more like how in Little Busters they talk about how they got together early on.
Also, the premise seems good for a Rewrite sequel. what if Guardian ran the supernatural school? (not going to happen, but I can dream)
Nah, she’ll probably die or be captured or something before her power gets much if any screentime.
Off the top of my head, shows that do this a lot are TWGOK, Higurashi, Toradora, Kokoro Connect, Valvrave, Kyokai no Kanata, AnoHana, and probably a bunch more. There are shows that do it for key episodes too, like Steins;Gate did.
They just look like generic male uniforms to me.
It might affect powers, but I doubt it’s the cause of powers.
Afterlife time can’t really be compared with real world time.
Backstory does not have to be about feels, which should be incredibly obvious considering how it was portrayed. This was development, and it explains the motivations of Nao, something that protag-kun would no doubt question without this information. Is it wrong for Litbus to start by explaining why the Little Busters are together? No, it’s a good introduction.
Is it wrong for Charlotte to start by explaining why the main cast is together? Of course not.
It’s not meant to be full of feelsy stuff; that much is clear from how Nao explained and reacted to it. Of course there’s not a positive outlook on what she tells, but as far as the story is concerned, that stuff happened in the past. It’s something to be used, not to focus on. You don’t see FF7 fixating on Zack who is a part of Cloud’s backstory, because he is just that - backstory.
Of course, if you just don’t like storytelling, I can understand your complaints.
He’s actually taking the story slowly until episode 6. It’s all charadev and world building until then.
Yeah, I’d rather they go straight into developing the cast and explaining the obvious questions that anyone (including protag-kun) would have. Why is the school here? Why is Nao hunting for people with powers? How do they find those people?
What else could they have done? School comedy stuff? Annoying little sister stuff? Sudden random drama?
I’d rather have content.
Nao made it clear that her backstory wasn’t a big deal. The idea that backstory needs to have a big emphasis about it is stupid, especially in a show that looks more plot focused than heroine focused.
Upcoming developments are better than past developments for this type of story. They are where the feels will come.
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I seriously doubt it won’t be like a VN. Key has only done VN-like stories up to now (which I like the structure and I think it’s very well suited for a nakige or whatever may be the anime equivalent to that) and this time will probably be no different.
Unless, Maeda decides to have a Key Revolution with Charlotte…
It’s very possibly for Charlotte to take a different path, like I mentioned earlier angel beats didn’t fair well as a visual novel type story in 13 episodes, saying as Charlotte has the same run time he may try to shake things up to make it fit the time he has to tell the story
I’m not so impressed with OP song, but the cutscenes certainly are very interesting. Who’s long hair, who’s blowing bubbles, who’s in the water (?the sweaty/wet guy?).
Ah, and you don’t observe meteor shower with telescope!
Love the long exposure polar shot in ED. 
It’s said by Nao that her brother is the first people to have the power, and the power is only apparent on/around puberty. The chance that he’s a power user influential and rich enough to build a school and conceal what’s going on inside is pretty slim.
On side notes: If it’s true that Nao’s brother is the first, then the phenomenon somehow must be started by something.
This type of trope is quite common in anime, but for anime that’s supposed to be as real and as plausible as possible, it certainly bugs me off.
Well, Halley’s Comet is 8 km. It’s also long-period comet (~76a).
Almost any celestial object large enough that you can actually see (even with telescope) will cause some sort of apocalypse if it actually hit earth.
Huh? Since when was Charlotte supposed to be as ‘real and as plausible as possible’? Whatever that is supposed to mean…
Compared to certain magical, aliens, ghost, or the setting in Angel Beats; Charlotte (until now, at least) is still normal (in this matter, Kanon, Clannad and LB are reasonably normal too). So if there’s some crazy scientist running around hunting teenages and no one in the government or NGO or some reasonably concerned relatives objects to that, then it’s another “adult is useless”.
But as far as I can see that kind of thing wouldn’t be out of place in this show? Like everything so far has seemed to very much support this big “Yo, the world can suck if you don’t fit in” kind of thing?
I’m pretty sure Nao just said that her brother was the one who got powers ‘first’, as in, before her. Otherwise a lot of things wouldn’t make sense.
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Because the government is so trustworthy and caring…? Come on. They made a very clear point that Nao’s brother was a subject used to find a way to fuck with communications. Let’s think about who could benefit from that- Oh the military, intelligence organizations… Feel me? If you think there should be a concerned government you should probably consider it’s the governments doing with studies funded by them. I think that’s pretty obvious.
/Queue X-Men theme
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yeah that seems the most obvious which is why I said “I hope” instead of “I predict”. It would be cool to see them pull a surprise twist relating to her or something.
The only ones I’ve seen out of those are Valvrave and Anohana. I saw Valvrave quite a while ago so I guess I just forgot about it, does Anohana do it that often though? I know it did it in the last episode which would be the key episodes like you said but I think that butchered version of Secret Base played most episodes.
