I feel like Yuu’s development would matter more if he had a personality after the first episode.
Right, and that is why Yuu is a terrible character right now. He just stands there, makes random comments to himself, gets pushed around by Nao, and then get all “Why am I even doing this?”
I absolutely agree that everyone complaining about the fact that there was baseball is being ridiculous. And while the pizza sause may be annoying, its not ruining the show. And I dont even know where the thing about “nice-looking backgrounds” came from.
Basically, Im frustrated right now because it seems like they though “OK so we need to slightly imply those 4 things that @Naoki_Saten mentioned, so instead of doing that in an interesting way that introduces development and gives viewers something relevant, lets just make the episode in general about nothing and throw in that second to last scene to remind everyone that Nao is always thinking, even if Yuu isnt”
I like baseball. I liked the comedy. And if thats all the show had been so far, just kids with powers messing around and the student council stuff, I would be absolutely fine with that. But the second episode, and the OP, and the whole way this show has been advertised already has told us that thats not what this show is.
[quote=“Kotarou, post:49, topic:1669”]
Jun Maeda always tends to make his next visual novel/anime’s plot sadder than the plot before.
[/quote] I think most people on this site would disagree with you on this one 
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I didn’t dislike this episode, but I’m starting to get concerned about the direction the anime is heading. It’s understandable that they don’t want to get serious right off the bat, but now we’re a third of the way through the series and there still isn’t an overall “adversary” other than the vaguely mentioned “scientists.”
I’m kind of feeling like Charlotte is a weaker version of Angels Beats.
Angel Beats was overall a good anime, but it didn’t do enough in the few episodes that it had. Its like it was trying to follow the Key formula of casual common route, then more sentimental middle part of the series before moving into a heartbreakingly depressing third part before a happy ending. This formula works fine for visual novels, but it doesn’t translate very well when you have to cover it in 12 episodes.
Charlotte needs to get down to business in this next episode or the second half of the series will probably feel rushed. I’m afraid if this keeps up Charlotte will end up like Angel Beats; a good show that could have been much better. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Charlotte finds direction soon.
It doesn’t have to be explicitly shown. He doesn’t even have to be aware of it right away. But the effects will stack and eventually bear fruit if similar events repeat with similar outcomes. What matters right now is that he didn’t suffer a drawback that might encourage him to keep relying on his power, thus remaining weak.
You’ve got it backwards. Yuu can’t display his usual personality because his life and environment have drastically changed. His personality doesn’t work well in the situation he’s currently in. He can’t concentrate on doing what he wants to do and he’s forced to do stuff he has no interest in by people he cannot oppose and is thus stuck at being passive. This is why his current development is crucial. If he gains a goal or a personal reason to take action - not just because he’s told to - he can display his badass qualities again. Developing an interest in his current “job” is one way to get there. Not relying solely on his power and becoming a stronger person is another.
Well, that’s exactly what happens to all kids who get a visit from Nao. They were doing great thanks to their powers, but now they either have to relocate and are restricted in what they can use them for (since they’re being surveilled by security cameras or Nao) or stop using them altogether because otherwise it’s game over (scientists knocking on the door).
Of course Yuu isn’t doing anything. He doesn’t know what to do. He can’t do the stuff he used to do - he can’t cheat on tests and swindle his way to popularity cause the stuco knows all about him. He has no motivation in doing the stuff he’s being forced to do - he merely gains money from it and he doesn’t care too much about other people. Lastly, he’s too weak to oppose Nao and change his situation.
A part of Yuu’s and other kids’ usual lifestyle has been taken away from them. That is a situation that is very relevant to the entire series. Why? Because once the kids grow up, they’ll lose their powers and they’ll have to live on without them, so their lifestyle would change anyway. It’s a change they need some time to adapt to and watching them doing so has value. Unfortunately, most viewers are unwilling to give Yuu the time he needs and demand him to do something cool right away instead.
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The problem with this is that, while he has promise for future episodes, he is the dullest Key protag I’ve ever seen right now. It’s a trade-off, and it won’t be worth it until later. Currently he isn’t entertaining, he’s just there. You can give as many reasons and opinions on why he is so boring right now, but it doesn’t stop him from being boring.
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this episode was such a turn off
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I can’t wait for the wacky twist where ‘the scientists’ don’t exist and Nao is just making shit up.
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That’s not an actual problem. What’s wrong with Yuu being boring for now? He’s been great in ep1 and he’ll probably be even greater in the future. What’s wrong with that tradeoff? He’s not the only character in the show. Do others not matter at all because they’re not the protagonist? What’s wrong with Nao and Joujirou taking the spotlight while Yuu spends some time getting his shit together? Why is everyone expecting him to be friggin’ amazing 24/7? Why is everyone making such a big deal out of it? Once again, why is everyone ONLY looking for ways of how the series could become a disaster?
Right, cause her brother has gone insane for no reason whatsoever.
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I’m hoping for an introduction of some form of ‘Brotherhood’ in this series. Some form of parallel/contrasting team to the council.
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It’s… boring? Kinda self-explanatory really.
Maybe it’ll be good in future, but the only assured thing is that it isn’t good right now.
Ask the writers. No one has filled the gap of development that Yuu has left. That’s the problem.
I’m expecting him to be amazing for more than 10 minutes.
It’s not a big deal in the long-run, but these threads aren’t about the long-run. These are episode discussions, and episode 4 wasn’t good.
I’m not looking to the future, so tack your comment onto a different quote. I reserve my judgement of a show until it’s complete - hence why I don’t rate anime before they come to a close.
He’s insane. He might be making up his insanity. That sounds like an insane thing to do!
The group in the OP. Calling it now.
I believe this has been mentioned earlier, but we are talking about episode 4 here, and not the whole series. Maybe this character development will be crucial to the series in the long run (and I have my own theories about that in the Yuu topic), but right now, Yuu is being boring. And we are talking about what we thought of the episode right now.
I believe that these forms of entertainment should be, more than anything, entertaining. Even if it has an amazing story to tell in the future, if it stops being entertaining then it wouldn’t have much effect.
That being said, I personally still found it entertaining 
I might have been the only one to rate it a 4, heh.
Me too :3 I found it entertaining too. My ranking would be: Ep. 1 > Ep. 4 > Ep. 2 > Ep. 3
I still can’t get over the fact that we’re one third of the way through the way through the show’s run and there’s still no central conflict or plot
That you are aware of.
There are plenty of present themes and questionable direction/presentation choices that leave one to still want more on a critical level, at least in my case. It’s certainly Key of its own caliber. Stories like this don’t hit you in the face with plot because it focuses heavily on development, underlying themes and shock factor.
But that’s the problem. I’m not asking for them to smack me over the head with plot, but we should have a basic idea of what the characters are really up against by this point.
Look at Kanon. By the end of episode 1, we know that Yuuichi can’t remember his past and a bunch of mysterious girls on town seem to be connected to him. Now look at Clannad. By the end of episode 1, we know that Tomoya hates his life but decides to help the shy Nagisa reform the drama club.
Getting away from Key, look at The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. By the end of episode 1 we know that Kyon has gotten himself tangled up in Haruhi’s SOS Brigade which he’d rather have no part in, setting us up for the whole series.
Getting away from anime, look at Twin Peaks. By the end of the first episode, we know that town idol Laura Palmer has been killed, and that eccentric FBI Agent Dale Cooper has to find clues from equally eccentric townspeople.
By the end of Charlotte’s first episode, we know that Yuu is going to a special school for his protection because he abuses his special ability. By the end of episode 2, we know that there are some scientists who are bad but so far have not posed any direct threat. Episode three is a sort of cutaway where they recruit a pop idol who can channel her dead sister, and episode four shows that they can pull an underdog baseball win?
I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel like anything is linking together right yet. I’m not trying to say that we need to be spoonfed a plot, and I’m not saying Charlotte needs to be exactly like the shows I described above, but it would be nice if there was some sign of development and movement, which I have yet to see. It all feels disjointed, but not in an artistically effective way.
[i also feel like I should restate from my first post in this thread, I hope I’m not sounding belligerent, I just want to share my personal opinions. If anyone disagrees, that’s cool, I’m just trying to articulate my points as best I can.]
[quote=“Takafumi, post:71, topic:1669”]
The group in the OP. Calling it now.
[/quote]This, pretty much. Or something like it.
@Slowdive I think the main problem is how it seemed like this “theme” or “general plot idea” had seemed to be developing in episodes 1 and 2, and then completely dropped off the map for 3 and 4.
Because I do kinda agree. I was so excited for this interesting plot, and I know its supposedly coming starting ep. 6, but I would at least like some foreshadowing or something. It feels especially annoying to me because based on the stuff from the OP and what they were feeding us before airing, I have tons of speculation, but none of it has really been brought up yet except for the latter half of episode 2.
I’d like to argue that it’s a lot more ambiguous in Clannad in the VN, because I swear that VN has absolutely no direction in the beginning but… This is anime, that is VN, so it’s unfair to compare.
Well I wouldn’t say that there is no theme at all. Like, if we removed all our preconceived notions of Charlotte, one might think that this anime would just be a weekly find-other-students-with-powers sort of thing. And you know what? That wouldn’t be so bad.
Lemme raise a counter-example. Plastic Memories, which just aired last season, was about a team of employees who have to claim robot partners that are due for claiming. And every episode was, more-or-less, just another “robot of the week” sort of thing. And that was good (although I feel the drama was better paced there).
But, by the middle of the series, stuff happens, and it becomes waaay better. So I’m trying to connect that quite a lot with charlotte. Both of them did not have much direction by this point in time besides the whole “collect a new person every week” thing, but it still ended up being a great anime. So I think Charlotte still has potential to be a great anime, despite not having direction at this point in time
Everytime I watch this I get upset because of how short it is. The fact that there are 13 episodes is really starting to get to me. I loved Angel Beats but it was way too short and now I feel like it’s gonna happen all over again.
Speaking of the episode, it’s obviously the weakest one so far. The plot needs to speed up just a bit and I hope we find out more about these ‘scientists’. I still fail to wonder how they haven’t got caught by them yet. If they’re goal is to stop people from using their powers then it’s hella ironic that they use their powers a lot.
Still to early on to judge anything just yet. You guys remember how Angel Beats suddenly sped up mid way through? I expect the same for this.
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The difference between the two is that stuff actually happened in PlaMemo. The main cast were active even in episodic dramas, and there was always a story going on in the background. The protag of PlaMemo was one of the best I’d seen in a while, even before it broke out of the episodic mould. Yuu is the complete opposite in quality.
I’m restricting my comparisons to only the plot progression, since that is what @Slowdive is complaining about 
I won’t compare it on other aspects because they differ in such
