Maybe it’s because I haven’t seen haruhi in years but I don’t remember Kyon having any input that really contributed to the story, but I suppose the fact that he thought anything at all still made him an active observer so I suppose my comparison was incorrect. Even so I prefer a protagonist I prefer someone who isn’t an observer at all, someone who actually moves the story forward and has input as to what does and doesn’t happen.
When I described tone, I know my examples were all music and setting, but I guess what I really meant to articulate is that I get a specific feeling when I think of all of Key’s past works. That’s more of what I meant by tone. That feeling is usually a product of setting, soundtrack, plot, characters and atmosphere. With Charlotte, I’m really just not getting a consistent feel for what it’s like, and that weirds me out. Even Ghost Stories had a distinct tone and atmosphere! Even Tommy Wiseau’s The Room has a consistent tone!
I definitely agree with you on this. But as of right now there isn’t even much of a story to move forward. It’s an episodic “power of the week” type deal right now, and that’s what makes me nervous. Guess we’ll just have to wait it out and see what happens.
[As an aside, I know Key has said that we need to stick around through episode 6 for it to get good, but I think it’s kind of a bad sign when a show like this doesn’t establish a plot at all until half way through its run]
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I believe Aspirety mentioned that to me, I find it kind of strange that they would admit that their show would essentially be lackluster until a certain point, I feel that they should at least attempt to strive for perfection the entire time. In the past even the fun bits in key’s works felt meaningful and fun, so far Charlotte just seem uninspired.
The baseball definitely felt shoehorned in. At least it used to have a proper purpose in previous works, but here the reasoning was a bit flimsy. It wasn’t even particularly exciting either. It was just, well, there. 
Also, enough with the pizza sauce gag already, Maeda, you’re just beating a dead horse at this point. Sure would be nice if Ayumi could actually be relevant. It’s almost getting to the point I want something to happen to her now, just so that her existence can actually have some purpose.
There were some good points - Everything Yusa, Misa, and Joujirou being a creepy fanboy.
I really think the pace needs to pick up soon. Yeah, I like slice of life and comedy in Key works, but this is an anime, not a visual novel. Dragging out the “slice of life”-ish parts in an anime where we know more exciting stuff is supposed to be happening eventually doesn’t work too well when we’re getting one episode a week and can’t read it all at once like a visual novel. Even just a tidbit here or there like the dream at the end of Episode 1 would be fine.
Of course, I know we were warned it would be slow, and I am honestly enjoying it in spite of the flaws. It’s just a bit frustrating, that’s all.
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Yes. And I dont particularly mind slow paced shows, in fact I find them very engaging, however I agree that you should probably think twice about making a slow paced show when you only have 13 episodes, but hey, anohana and air did and they are both great.
So this episode was… interesting… I guess. Well it was to be blunt slow but I didn’t hate it.
It appears as though this episode was that one filler episode, you know, kind of like the calm before the storm (which I’m sure will come… right? Cause that’s why I’m here…). So with that in mind I won’t complain about there not being a whole lot going on. I mean the episode was basically the antics we’re use to from Joujirou injuring himself with his ability for comic effect, to Yuu’s imouto drenching everything edible thing in the house with Pizza Sauce. And another thing I’ll take note of is… Baseball… why is there so goddam much baseball in Key!?!
I think the only thing I can really think of to talk about is the way people are using the powers. In Yuu’s case it was for self betterment but in the case of the latest episode the baseball guy (can’t even remember the name) wanted to do it to help his friend. I guess in this particular case my issue about moving on after the power disappeared wouldn’t have been as drastic. I also find it funny thinking about motive in the sense that it’s hard to judge people straight off. Obviously our impression of the character with telekinesis was that he was using it to benefit himself but we were dead wrong. Really gives me a slight perspective shift in mode of thinking, as there are a billion reasons for people doing things, yet at least so far in this series, I’ve always expected the worst from these power holders.
In any case, I’m hoping that the bomb drops soon. I do enjoy the light-heartedness but in light a of a fairly meh season of anime for me, I’d like something that hits me hard and I hope Charlotte can be that something. Also to follow on from last week, Misa is growing on me… but I still ain’t too fond of Yusa (I think I just dislike overly-cutsy characters with little more to them… I feel the same towards imouto).
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On top of the lack of plot or characters, I noticed another issue with this episode. So far, a major point has been that each power is imperfect of incomplete. Yuu can only possess for 5 seconds, Nao can only become invisible to one person at a time, Joujiro can’t stop, and Yusa only has powers when possessed by her dead sister. I don’t remember the Baseball guy having any power stipulation at all. It just seems a little odd that they’re already throwing such an important concept out the window. I’m losing faith in this show more and more as I think about it.
I will be frustrated if baseball doesn’t have to do with Charlotte at all. Then you know that Jun Maeda needs to stop writing visual novels/anime’s that have baseball scenes.
Having baseball scenes was such a down-grade. I mean, sure, it did have a good message at the end, and a mysterious vibe to it at the end, but the fact that he had to put both of those things in there, proves how much he knew that baseball was worthless in Charlotte’s own idea.
He did a whole visual novel that centered around baseball -_- (Little Busters!) so he needs to stop having such a craving for it. Not everyone who likes Key, cares for baseball scenes ya know.
This episode marked lost potential for me. i mean, you can’t even imagine Charlotte being a baseball anime. If you can’t imagine it, don’t do it. I honestly will be disappointed if they don’t foreshadow the ending, since it’s suppose to have a “Refrain/After story” part.
When I think of Charlotte. I think to myself. Was this really worth it ? Jun Maeda always tends to make his next visual novel/anime’s plot sadder than the plot before. With Charlotte, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was lesser. Charlotte’s setting is what bothers me.
There’s not really a place at all in the backgrounds where you can say “Oh, look at that. That is just beautiful.”
For CLANNAD, you got the Cherry Blossom tree’s surrounding your path to school, which was beautiful. And not to mention how beautiful it looked when the petals fell down, and the meaning of the tree’s to Tomoyo.
For Air, you got the beautiful ocean view while you were on a tall cement wall with sand beneath you and behind you. Not to mention how beautiful it looked with the sunset.
With Kanon, I wouldn’t say that there were any stunning backgrounds, but it was Key’s first visual novel as a company, so yeah, but I liked the water fountain background. And the scene at night where there’s snow on a path and lamp lights surrounding the path.
With Little Busters!, you got the scene with Komari. Where you would sit at the night sky at look at shooting stats. And you also got the scene in Kurugaya’s route where you would see a firework explode between the both of you.
For Rewrite, you got a scene where you could see the outside of the school yard. I don’t know about you guys, but I found that background being beautiful, how it had benches, how it had cement fillings that made a circles, and so on. And the scene where you go off into the streets near the school, I just find that scene nice. Not to mention moon too, those were some great CG’s.
For Angel Beats!, you got the school. Let’s be honest, the view was great. When Yuri and Yuzuru talked, and you could see the clubs and stuff while the sun set was showing. The baseball field during episode 10. And the scenery by the school, outside of it, which is also beautiful.
For Charlotte…? You get a school and a student council room, but they don’t feel Key-liked. They feel too slice-of life. I mean, it’s nice and all, but what’s the point of having an upstairs if they never use it. The streets are, I guess an ordinary Key street. The characters ? Nao is the only reason why I’m interested in the series. Ayumi is honestly just annoying in her end scenes. If Jun thinks that her Pizza sauce scene to Charlotte, is like Fuko’s star daze to CLANNAD, then he is so off.
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In one of my previous comments, I talk about how Charlotte is like Key’s “Phantom Menace”.
I think we can all agree that that makes the pizza-sauce gag Key’s Jar Jar Binks hahaha
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I think it’s supposed to be closer to Akiko’s jam or Sanae’s bread than Fuko’s daze. She kind of did Fuko’s daze in episode 1 though.
I feel I’m the only one who doesn’t mind the pizza sauce gag. I don’t like it in any sense but to me it’s just there.
While I don’t think it was a bad episode I didn’t like the baseball scene. Yeah it was required with that character but why write in a baseball player? Unless he somehow affects the story in someway a tennis or basketball player couldn’t it seems the only reason he was a baseball player was because Jun Maeda can’t write a story without baseball for some reason. The baseball also seemed more important in the moment in Clannad and Angel Beats (not going to count LB as the whole thing is baseball) with Clannad Tomoya being able to take Nagisa’s hand in marriage and Angel Beats Hinata about to pass on . Charlotte it was just there to get a power user to stop using his powers in plain sight which they did 3 times previously.
Outside of baseball I enjoyed the rest of the episode so I’m not sure if I’m the type of person you were looking for with your statement.
If they all knew, then they’d be able to guess why Yusa transferred there. Instead they just say “this isn’t an art school!”
BEACH EPISODES!
Already did so.
On the topic of making a memorable setting, Kanon was the best at this imo. It’s atmosphere building was stellar. Air is close, but Clannad did nothing of the sort.
Not to mention the rooftop scene in Lucia’s route. :3
Anyway, as much as I’d like to see some scenery porn in Charlotte, it’s not something necessary. But you could say the stars, maybe. I think we’ll get more star shots…
Oh right something I forgot to complain about last episode.
…the hell is Yusa doing there?
Misa was the one who was told ‘Yusa my school now’, why is Yusa there, when was she told, did she just say ‘sure whatever’ because Yusa sure as hell had no strong argument given to her for coming.
And aside from that, why is YusaMisa in the student council. Yu makes sense, his power is useful for pretty much completely immobilizing people on sight. Yusa just turns into. Um, an angry person.
As it stands Charlotte was still at its best when it was a Battle Anime for one scene. Maybe if we’re lucky that’s what the shift halfway will turn it into.
Maybe Nao saw that she could be used as influence as she’s a famous idol. There’s also that she might have wanted Misa because she has fire which is good for intimidating people I guess.
By memorable setting do you mean the towns or specific places? If former I don’t think that’s what @Kotarou’s point was and if later I don’t agree.
I agree, even if we get a glimpse through Ayumi’s telescope or something stars usually look amazing so I hope we get more.
Maybe that was something that happened off screen? I didn’t even think of that but it is weird to leave it out.
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These depressing-to-read topics need to stop. At this point, I’m seriously considering not reading all the posts before posting anymore, since doing so puts me in a bad mood by the time I start typing. For example, criticism is well and good, and there clearly are some issues worth pointing out and discussing, which is completely fine. But what’s with all this deep digging for minor things to complain about? Not liking that one running gag? Why is there baseball in my anime? Backgrounds aren’t beautiful enough? Are you guys serious?!
…now writing is getting depressing, too -_-
So back to the actual episode. While it didn’t exactly pack a punch as a standalone, some important preparations for the future have already started:
- Nao encouraged Yuu to take action without relying on his power, which Yuu complied to and succeeded
- Yuu is developing some motivation for the activities of the student council
- Nao is already making use of both Yusa and Misa
- Something is being foreshadowed with Nao’s little “experiment” after the game. We can only speculate about the details, but I can tell it’s something important by the way it was presented
The first two points are crucial for Yuu’s development.
The last point makes me especially curious. Was the experiment something concerning special powers? Did Yuu perform some kind of special action during the posession? Did Nao just look for an excuse to hug Yuu? I mean, it’s the first time anyone caught Yuu’s body while his consciousness is in a different one. And when Yuu came to, Nao was facing away from the alleged subject of her “experiment”. Or did she latch something nasty onto Yuu, like a listening device or a tracking device? Then again, it was just his PE uniform…
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And another counter-example. I guess it is safe to assume that a select number of people know about powers, but majority just see Hoshi no Umi as a normal school (with security cameras everywhere)
I think a lot of the people are getting worked up over it being baseball ^^; Baseball is a really big thing in Japan, so it’s natural that any sport they bring in will, 90% of the time, be baseball.
Yusa would most likely have said “sure whatever” because that’s the kind of girl she is, it seems xP I don’t even want to think about that any further…
The only legit reason I can think of is Nao wants to use her for her healing power (which is weak reasoning at best).
Thank you for saying it Nick. It’s good to be critical, but not overcritical. Like the pizza sauce thing and the baseball thing really doesn’t have much to do with the series in a long run.
Actually… I saw that as kind of a good thing but, you kind of realize that Yuu didn’t succeed. The catcher fumbled and misa saved them 
And he didn’t even seem distraught about it like he usually would be…
This is probably, more than anything, the most important point in the episodes. Your other points were indeed worth mentioning as well, but I think this stands out a lot more. So many questions, and we have absolutely zero clues as to what the answer is. I guess we just have to wait!
Obviously, that’s because this is just an excuse Nao is using to have Yusa close to her. Like, you know, everybody in Charlotte likes that girl. Nao just found a way to have Yusa just for her.
My point is, Yuu went out of his way to try hard for a certain thing and it ended well. Therefore, there was a feeling of accomplishment and his efforts were kind of rewarded. It works as an encouragement to try hard again sometime, while a failure despite effort would have stalled down Yuu’s development.
Thing is, I didn’t quite see him obtain that “feeling of accomplishment” unless his questioning of “why am I enjoying this” represents that
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