Charlotte - Episode 3 "Love and Flame"

Key Discussion
#43

Episode 3 ending may mark the start of the Inflection point in the story (in fact episode IV), now that we have all the basic characters… the story may finally start.

While a lot of characters “set-up” has been established, I leave up to you guys to decide if it satisfied your expectations to some degree, I won’t judge till episode 13. Because we all know how characters and personalities may change.
Our understanding of, or empathy for, them too.

Lets keep the faith on Maeda et all skills remain untouched.

#44

Nah, wait until episode 6. It’ll be slow moving until then.

#46

I’ve been pretty bored. Nothing’s happened. I’m just waiting for Yuu to shine again. There might be people who enjoy looking for deeper information, and scan over the episodes, but I just want an entertaining 20 minutes that I can move on from instantly… so I don’t do that fancy stuff.

#47

Yeah, I know what you mean.
I usually don’t like to zoom-in and find things in almost hidden frames, because it is an anime… I understand that this consumes time and may be boring for many anime watchers. But since this is Key I’ll give it a try.

On the other hand, Jun Maeda usually thinks in two levels at least. Maybe a lot of anime viewers will see a -say simple- story, and die-hard fans will find tons of additional info.

They were able to do this (extra mysterious layer of information) in several anime: Clannad, and not only in the ilusionary world. They were able to do it in AIR and even Little Busters (even when it was a challenge). And it worked OK.

Now, they are trying new things imho in order to add that extra layer of information.

I don’t like to focus on the lack or downsides of any creation… but, if I have to choose one for an anime is the absence of a good, very, very appealing hook.
And ep.2 and ep.3 “Love and Flames” lacks of it (especially episode 3), We need a good hook at the very end imho.

What do you guys think about that?

#48

That’s underplaying it. Most writers will be able to convey around 3 different stories with a single text. Of course, it depends on what type of story you write, and if you are okay with reader interpretation, but it’s been staple since Greek drama was big.

2 Likes
#49

Yeah, true. Nothing new under the sky. Writers has been doing it since the genre was -literally- invented in the old Greece.

On this case, the Charlotte story, the target audience is very important for the company. It’s a hard to find balance. Art vs Money is quite often the question. Sometimes they can do both.

Therefore, usually the kind of story that fits an anime are relatively simple in order to have success. Sacrifying content and deep thought, and maybe focusing on awesome visual moments instead.

Like someone stated on another post, this has been written for an anime, this will not fit a VN.

On the other hand, there always be a % of people who really “get it”, or are able to really “get the message” on some animes that contains more than one lecture. Like Key.

Key is special: I have true faith that they will create another “special” anime. Key animes are different. Aren’t they? :wink:

Ep.3 (to keep this on topic) is a classic (well executed or not is another discussion) anime so far. I’m waiting for a wham! moment, but it will come. Also, I’m waiting to laugh and shed a tear, and to have a few “deep-thought” moments at least. I know they’ll will be able to deliver that, we all know.

Charlote’s episode 3 problem may be execution, pacing, the lack of good cliffhangers, imho. Yeah, there was an emotional moments, I felt it. It was OK. But it was so fast that -for a moment- it felt a little bit cheesy. And I have no problems crying a LOT when the story deserves it.

Talking about tragedy: AIR spoiler Just like the very sad and tragic true meaning of AIR, an anime that relatively very few people were able to grasp its true story and finale. Even Clannad… If you read the comments on YT you’ll see that very few really “get it”.
 Maybe viewers don’t want to think or pay attention. It is anime after all…
There are exceptions of course. But the general rule is that: the anime industry is producing another kind of content these days (my subjective opinion).

By the way, I remember that Jun Maeda said that he “gave up” explaining his stories, like the one I’ve just mentioned above, AIR.

I hope the complexity of this anime will increase in time. So far, ep3 is starting to show little glimpses that a storm of complexity is coming. But, only time will tell. I gave this episode a 4. Could be less, but the characters are awesome, and I like the art and music so far.

3 Likes
#50

I don’t think anyone mentioned it here yet, but one thing that really sparked my curiosity in particular was the screens in the new end credits for this episode.
We saw a few different still images panning over Yusa (One can only assume from the blue eyes and lighter hair) and this mysterious dog?

I had two things in mind about the dog.

  1. It’s just an idol-based thematic advertisement for Yusa’s character and How-Low Hello. tl;dr it’s just for show lel.
  2. The dog may become important to the story but wasn’t introduced this episode for some reason.

Could it be possible if the dog does become a potential ‘sidekick’ for Yusa, that it could possibly use a power of it’s own? Shot in the dark, highly unlikely.
Alternatively the dog the and the ED stills could just be for show and hold no importance. Pretty colors and cute outfits and well… everyone loves dogs right?

Side note. How-Low Hello is sounding is pretty sick. Can’t wait for more.

1 Like
#51

I’m 90% sure that this would be the case :stuck_out_tongue: But hey, I won’t mind being proved wrong later on!

#52

Too many sparkles and bubbles in one episode / 5

3 Likes
#53

Um… Quite okay, but again, they are introducing the characters’ arcs too quickly and without enough build-up. First, it was Nao’s backstory, now it’s Misa’s arc… I thought what Maeda meant by slower first half was like the correspondent ‘common route’ would occupy those episodes entirely…

Because, I mean, that scene in the end could’ve been a huge dramatic and tearful moment with good build-up, and also a good length. But it was, like, wasted.

#54

It was never meant to be anything grand. The truly important and dramatic stuff will happen much later.

3 Likes
#55

They’ve said they aren’t writing it to be like a visual novel. By “slower first half” I took that to mean they’ll be mostly in the school doing student council things then the second half while have a bunch of action and drama. Think of other original anime like Anohana or Kill la Kill, they go into character backstory and what could be “character route” material quite early as well (Kill la Kill not as early but it’s 2 cour). Even manga and light novel adaptations do.

Almost any event in any anime/manga/show/movie/book/game/etc could be a huge dramatic and tearful moment if written with the intent of making it such. How do we know an event later isn’t more dramatic and tearful? Besides this being Key is there any proof they intend to make a dramatic and tearful anime? Maybe Jun Maeda wants to try something different.

1 Like
#56

Personally I liked this episode more than the other two so far. (I liked all the episodes so far as well.)

Detective Nao: Step aside, Conan. (Okay, to be fair, all of her “detectiving” were pretty basic. Enjoyable nonetheless.)

I don’t really like Misa. Yusarin~yay! (Guess my opinion is fairly unpopular, judging by the other posts… xP) I get the feeling that Misa’s friends were there to prove that Misa existed. (Although I’m not entirely sure how to explain that feeling or what I mean by that.)

Honestly, regarding the “goodbye” scene, I wasn’t expecting them to try and attack my feels, so I did feel that scene a little bit, but not all that much. I also suspect that scene is meant to make us lower our guard a little bit by showing us “cheap moments.” If they occur often enough (but not too often) we might be more affected by the bigger scenes. (But this is just a stretched rationale.)

Joujirou’s reaction to the switches were priceless and made for a good laugh, considering how much he likes Yusarin.

If we’re to expect a (potentially dramatic) change in the sixth episode then yay! We’re half way there. I’m also looking forward to the next episode now that the gang’s all here.

3 Likes
#57

No, he isn’t. He said explicitly Charlotte was a typical “Key” story. And when asked if Charlotte would make its viewers cry, Na-ga said: “As always, Mr. Maeda never disappoints.” So, don’t expect this to be another Rewrite or something.

#58

I guess I forgot about those quotes, they do sound familiar though. Nothing so far seems like it would make me cry or is a good way to end the story though (end a route maybe but we already know they aren’t following the route format) and I’d have been far more disappointed if Yusa/Misa had been there for a few episodes after their introduction episode then we had the whole “I loved you but your death was my fault!” thing. These events do cause drama but there’s tons of other events. I think Aniplex listed “drama” as a genre so we should probably get used to seeing it every episode (which aside from E1 has been the case so far).

#59

Late response, cause I’ve had a rough week.

I really enjoyed this episode in general I suppose, but I liked the prior two episodes. Though in all honestly this is probably mostly being due to me being fairly indifferent to our new character (… characters?). I do agree with Kanon’s point on “Show Don’t Tell” but I didn’t feel like it detracted from my personal enjoyment. It is true that there is a lot of telling instead of showing but I’ll be blunt and say… anime does this enough so that I’m not really surprised when a series does this. On top of this, I kind of feel like I’m unnecessarily being rough on this series purely because I NEED to write on it.

Short post but I’ll mention a scene that stuck out to me, where Nao said that it was “more abnormal that you were able to see her all this time”. It is mentioned at the start but I forgot about the fact that their powers disappear after they age past adolescence. It’s important to note that while their powers exist now they WILL disappear eventually. Seeing Sho realize that he had to part with Misa made me thing. What will Nao do when she loses her ability, like with her life in general. Will she continue what she’s doing? I mean the student council will move on without her. What if Yuu continued to abuse his power to get ahead in life, how would he cope once it went away? How would he survive in the real life world? It’s not like not enjoying the powers while they exist is a bad thing but… to quote an overused statement “With great power comes great responsibility.” The powers are a sort of double edged sword that can do a lot of good or bad depending on their choices but, it can’t be something they become unable to live without. But that’s all… just a random thought.

Also… still loving Nao a lot a lot~

1 Like
#60

Side note: I was listening to the snippet from the official Visual Arts Facebook page, and wondering:

May it be the dog could be a temporal host for the consiousness of Misa? I’ve got to check this (to see if this doesn’t contradice anything shown so far).

#61

Hmm well I think Nao kind of has everything already set up for her. Once she loses her powers, I wouldn’t be surprised if she would still be able to live a normal life afterwards. If she has any financial trouble, she still has that “one person she trusts” that would help her out.

Yuu is an interesting point, but I feel that that is what Nao and co. are trying to do to him right now: Make it such that he can continue being productive even without his powers. Well, Yuu is a very resourceful person, so I’m sure he’d manage as well without his powers :stuck_out_tongue:

#62

Most importantly, the OST continues to be stellar (haha, I bet @Inuconandoyle gets it :wink: ).

Yusa was emmmmptyyy. Not only was she acting like she was 5, everyone else was treating her like she was 5 too. Misa was better to say the least, but I don’t really like the “I’m always angry just 'cuz” archetype.

And what the hell was up with that transition from the final scene to the ED? OH WAIT, THERE WASNT ONE. Seriously, it just ended. … … And then a random song started playing. Absolutely zero flow, and it probably made me not like the song itself as much because I was still recovering from lack of transition.

Im guessing that Sala might have more of an importance than we originally thought, especially she shows up several times in the OP. (Or maybe the person who I thought was Sala actually isnt. Could be two people with a cane, who knows.)

[quote=“sillylittlemelody, post:53, topic:1641”]
I thought what Maeda meant by slower first half was like the correspondent ‘common route’ would occupy those episodes entirely…
[/quote]For the last time, this is an anime, NOT a VN

1 Like
#63

Only she wasn’t? She felt very respectable toward the end of the episode.

But yes, something went very wrong with the storyboarding for this episode. It had zero direction and no kind of flow.