I disagree with myself too. Since Little busters was nothing until Refrain, and only some routes were worth having feels about. But, seems like people think it’s sadder than CLANNAD for some unknown reason. But just in general. Not different opinions, but the general statistics of rankings, receptions, and sales.
What bothers me is that this discussion ain’t fun anymore. The previous one wasn’t all that enjoyable, either. Everyone’s getting angsty and acting like it’s an established fact that the series is going to hell. An overwhelming majority of the posts consist of complaining about stuff, justifying the complaints and looking for even more stuff to complain about, no matter how minor. Calmly pointing out the current flaws is one thing, spreading gloominess is another. Barely anyone’s trying to analyze and understand the characters while gladly criticizing them for not being amazing. And that’s depressing.
Yeaaaaah I sorta feel that as well. I at least try to give my analysis on my own but nobody seems to have responded much to that :<
Maybe you should head off to the character topics instead hahaha
It’s probably because the show isn’t fun. If there were good things to discuss, it’d be much better.
No one is being angsty, people just want the show to be good. It’s not a fact that the series is going to hell, but some believe that certain episodes don’t feel worthwhile. You’re taking what people say and pushing them right to the edge of the negative-positive spectrum. Not everyone is as brutal as Kanon.
What is there to analyze or understand?
“Oh, there’s an off-hand comment at the end of the episode about testing the baseball guy with Yuu’s power. Guess they’ll expand on that in future.”
There, the whole episode, done.
I already said this before, but my problem with the show right now is that it has no depth. You can analyze a blank piece of paper for as long as you want, but it’ll still be a boring blank piece of paper.
There might be things going on in the background of previous episodes, but personally I don’t care about the show enough to rewatch those episodes. Until the show introduces an actual plot, the little hints and drops of information will just be cries from the director… “Please keep watching. We’ll have a plot eventually!”
I’m not exclusively hating on the show, I’m not being gloomy, and I’m not focusing on criticizing Charlotte… I defended it last week for the same points that I criticize this week. There are positives and negatives.
I just want an entertaining story. Charlotte right now isn’t bad, it’s just bland, it’s… nothing; Charlotte is a promise of future storytelling. For now though, there are things to watch that actually have some worth.
This show doesn’t appear to start until episode 6… but I’d have at least liked to see some glimmers of Charlotte’s promise within these past 2 episodes.
That’s my issue with the show.
There’s nothing interesting to talk about. Like yeah you can dig around for hidden messages etc. But that’s… Bland. Compared to talking about strong thematic elements, powerful framing; the narrative in the latest episodes has been really lacking. Nothing of interest has happened.
Again, I’ll bring up Angel Beats. Angel Beats by virtue of it’s setting, as well as what actually happened in it’s earlier episodes was a much much much more powerful piece. We could talk about how the setting reflects and criticises (Japanese) school priorities. We could talk about the very nature of the setting in a narrative sense. Even it’s episode four had a much more interesting baseball game with how it reflects off it’s characters. Whilst Charlottes ep 4 baseball was just… Fun?
We haven’t had anything in the past two episodes to analyze. We’ve had empty foreshadowing at the end of this episode. Last episode we had Misa’s arc… Which was what it was. It opened up. It closed. There’s nothing more to it at the moment. And then there’s the only two characters worth talking about at the moment: Nao and Yuu. And they… Haven’t had anything to talk about since episode 2. Which isn’t to say they’re bad characters or anything, but it is to say Yuu hasn’t had anything of note to talk about since episode 2, and Nao has had only a small amount to really talk about. (That being the continued hypocrisy of her trust, which implies she’s been told to trust these peeps. As well as further stressing of her determined and self confident personality, which isn’t adding anything just reinforcing stuff we already had.)
If you want to say “Well [X] was kinda like this so it’s okay here.” I feel you would have missed the point. We’re talking about Charlotte, not another show. If you’re bringing up a comparison ideally you’re bringing it up to illustrate a point. Saying that another show simply did a thing isn’t enough. You’d really have to stress how another show did it, why it was good, and how that is what Charlotte is doing - at least in some respect.
I’ve said it before but Yuu and Nao are the major things Charlotte has going for it. I’ve even joked that everyone else in the show could turn out not to exist and it’d work, since noone else really feels like a fleshed out character. Since they’ve taken a back seat lately without anything of equal interest popping up. It’s understandable why people wouldn’t have much to say.
I finished the fourth episode feeling that “Well, this was kind of a boring episode, some things make me curious though.” I did kind of have fun watching it. But reading my way through the discussion, I had “ohmigawd wasted episode here’s the list of 1000 imperfect things I’ve seen in it” repeatedly shoved into my face which inevitably took a toll on my mood. It has little to do with the series itself and more with how people here concentrate so hard on only the negative aspects of the episode. And now you’re talking down on me like I’m weird for not seeing the episode negatively enough.
Again, you’re closing your eyes and denying the red teddy bear. Again, you’re expecting to be spoon-fed, if not information, then at least the interest to go acquire it by yourself. If you don’t feel like analyzing anything, just admit it. Don’t act like that’s the only good and proper thing to do in a given situation and that dwelling on how the series is lackluster is way more productive than some actual analysis of things that have yet to be properly explored. But no, you just magically know there’s nothing to analyze without even trying and even if something does turn up in the search, it’ll only be the director’s desperation that’s not worth your precious time. Get off your damn high horse. There’s more to think about and to analyze than the one thing you mentioned. If you can’t find those, don’t just claim they don’t exist.
Just as an example from this very topic: Everyone was talking about how Yuu was being a boring character but nobody tried to find out why. And when I did try to find out, you know, to bring something new to the discussion, all I got as a response was “Well, he’s still boring right now.”
“The sun is rising again.”
“I wonder why it’s rising every day.”
“Shut up. it’s rising every day, that’s all that matters.”
best talk ever -_-
There’s more characters in the main cast than just Nao and Yuu. If characters appeared in an episode and did something, then there’s something to talk about. And if there actually is nothing to talk about, how come your “new” topic of choice is talking over and over again about how bad the episode was?
No, he’s talking down on you for telling everyone else that they are wrong for thinking negatively about this episode. I havent seen a single person say: “This show is so bad, Im dropping it” or “This show has done nothing right”. Most people didnt even think that this was a bad episode. The average rating is above 3 after all.
[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:87, topic:1669”]
There’s more to think about and to analyze than the one thing you mentioned. If you can’t find those, don’t just claim they don’t exist.
[/quote]Well, I hate to be rude here, but since you yourself could only come up with 4 relevant, “analyzed” things to discuss, and they were all just minor facts that, while may be true, theres not really anything to say about, I would say that this episode didnt really have much to analyze.
[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:87, topic:1669”]
Everyone was talking about how Yuu was being a boring character but nobody tried to find out why. And when I did try to find out, you know, to bring something new to the discussion, all I got as a response was “Well, he’s still boring right now.”
[/quote]All you did was repeat what was discussed after episode two, about how Yuu now has to adapt and doesnt know what to do. That was fine in episode 2, but its been a while since then. If they can come up with some miraculous excuse for why the biggest narcissus on the planet lost his entire character and just gave up on doing anything, then I will applaud them.
[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:87, topic:1669”]
There’s more characters in the main cast than just Nao and Yuu. If characters appeared in an episode and did something, then there’s something to talk about.
[/quote]Not really. The only reason the rest of them are better than Yuu is because they seem to have some kind of personality. But besides Nao, and maybe Misa last episode, none of them do anything worth while, none of them seem to be developing at all. Again, thats not *necessarily a bad thing, but with the series almost 1/3 of the way over, its starting to worry me a bit.
I do agree but there’s only so much you can say like:
“Joujiro was still an idiot fangirling over Yusa”
“Yusa’s reactions to water guy were funny.”
“I liked Misa trying to be athletic in a body that wasn’t meant to be”
“Ayumi is still cute/annoying”
None of them really did anything this episode and unless you have something to say about them or a theory based on information from this episode specifically then this isn’t the right thread for talking about them.
Not sure why that defaulted. I wrote in the general discussion thread why I thought people might be negative in general so far but the complaints are at least mostly things exclusive to this episode (besides Yuu and pizza sauce). Maybe a week is too long to keep discussing without these threads going dead or complaining? Not sure what a work around would be though, plus negativity was among the first comments so that’s probably not right anyway.
Wow. I… already have. I analyzed pre-release content. Episode 1 and 2 generally only covered the obvious things that we had already speculated.
There just hasn’t been anything to analyze. That’s my problem. I love stories that have hidden insight or multiple interpretations, I invest hours into those types of stories. My favorite route of Litbus is heavy on the speculation front. My favorite Key VN - Tomoyo After - is something that birthed plenty of theories in my mind. Heck, I moderate an ARG wiki. ARGs are 100% analysis.
I’m not denying that there is something deeper… It’s plainly obvious that there isn’t. There’s stuff in the OP, and there’s foreshadowing, but episode 4 introduced nothing new to the show.
I think you need to clear your thoughts.
A reason for being bad doesn’t make him not bad. That’s the problem. He could be handled better, instead of being a voice that randomly pops up to make a comment, or a figure to follow around.
It’s obvious why he’s boring. The dude is introduced to a crazy situation, made to swallow his own words, shown that his powers aren’t all that special, and made to question why he does all the little things he does. He needs time, naturally… but that’s not entertaining. Either make his confusion last only for an episode, or make him act in a surprising way that kick-starts character development.
Yeah, the episode was okay. It has it’s place as a lead-up to the upcoming drama.
The Devil’s Proof is for Witches, not humans. If someone says ‘there’s nothing to analyse in this episode’ they aren’t lying, nor are they false. (Well they could be, but that’d be breaching several linguistic guides) They genuinely believe what they are saying, what they are saying is true to them. If you disagree, that’s fine. Your truth can exist next to another person’s.
I saw the chance to shitpost Umineko style, so I did.
Not to me there isn’t. Charlotte hasn’t done anything to suggest me talking about why a character is wearing certain things, why their actions matter, and what everything entails. It simply doesn’t feel like Utena, Fujiko Mine, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Penguindrum, Kanashimi no Belladonna etc. In that respect neither does it really feel like Little Busters or Rewrite in that regard.
I’m not saying your thoughts and feelings are wrong. I’m saying you damn well don’t get to claim they should be my thoughts and feelings.
In a similar respect I’m not entirely sure where you think this thread is people hating on the show. If people dislike something, it’s something to talk about. Example, pizza sauce. I’m fairly certain the people who dislike that gag are actually in the minority. I’m fairly certain more people like it. The difference is, someone who’s okay with that gag probably don’t have much to say about it. Whilst if someone actively dislikes it, it’s something to say.
I guess in some meta aspect this episode gave me something to talk about I suppose. Philosophy of criticism is interesting after all. Kinda.
It’s like looking at reddit, or online reviews. Sure, most of it is composed of negative comments, but that’s because the people with a positive view have nothing to say.
The pizza sauce joke is okay. It’s a Key thing, and I kinda expect it, so whatever.
You should really come on to the character discussion thread, where we talk about things from a more long-term perspective. For example:
I’m late but hey this show is still really bad c’mon team step it up
I’ll just say that my problem with this discussion is that it’s too much of a circlejerk going over the same shit. “Man that pizza sauce gag sure is bad” “This episode was boring filler” “Yusa is bland”
Yes. We understand. You don’t need to keep going over the same criticisms for 90 posts. Just because you haven’t said it yet doesn’t mean you need to add to the chorus. Discuss something else! Circular discussions aren’t fun for anyone.
Let’s freshen this up with something interesting. Why didn’t we see Yuu possessing the baseball dude? We saw his power working, then he wakes up in Nao’s arms. What was this little scene hoping to achieve? Did the power work and we just didn’t see it, or did something interfere with his power? Maybe there’s more to these powers than we realise, and Tomori knows something we don’t. Would Tomori really tell Yuu (and by extension the audience) that he isn’t the subject if she was lying? Let’s try and suss this out a bit.
I was curious about that too, but naively thought that it was cause it was another power user. However we’ve already seen him possess another power user in episode 2 so… that’s out the window. My question is, is it something specifically to do with possessing the baseball guy (i.e. something specific to the situation), or just something she wanted to see out of the blue?
IMHO the scientists aren’t going to be part of the big twist, at least not directly. I presume there will be a group of antagonists fighting our MCs. I have to check someday, but I believe they even appear on the OP
We don’t know. It’s blatant foreshadowing.
As I said before, I’m pretty sure she was testing the catcher guy with glasses or something.
That’s an interesting point, but I do hope something involving the scientists does occur, perhaps one of them is captured and begins to be experimented on? I feel if it’s just two groups of super powered characters fighting each other it won’t become very powerful as a show. Then again, that’s the plot of fate/zero and that show has quite an impact, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see haha
Ah, I knew it! I had a hunch, but had no way of confirming it until now. The telekinesis baseball guy in this episode, Fukuyama Arifumi was voiced by Kimura Ryouhei - the same guy who voiced Hinata in Angel Beats!
So we can safely look forward to more guest roles for voice actors from other key Works! There’s been 3 of them in 4 episodes so far ^^
Hello folks,
I’ve just noticed something (maybe is nothing) but still… it was on the back of my head all this time, but now (while re-watching ep.3 “is my video-camera ok?” scene) I’ve thought: these guys don’t pay any attention to their bodies. At least it seems bodies aren’t too relevant in their priorities.
Maybe what they really fear is (a word from the subliminal findings) the “collapse”, collapse of their minds, so they don’t really care about the body.
Remember the Futon scene? A collapsed mind, nothing to do… she’s not cold maybe, she just is accepting the fact that his brother is in hell (as a metaphor).
The previous camera broken scene. The cafeteria when he uses his power to grab sandwiches, without giving any major attention to a “head that is bleeding” or other injuries “happens all the time” (ep.2 and 3.).
Maybe their bodies are empty shells? Hmmm nah. My personal bet are (still is) they’re angels (probably as a metaphor, with scientific explanation).
Think about it feathers, Shooting Stars are associated to angels and fallen angels in some cultures, Consciousness or “souls”, supernatural topics (“posession” -angel related-), and… Key as a co.going back to his roots. It is just a theory.
How-Low-Hello… now “Ho-Lo” (if my memory is right) HoLo Hell?
Holographic (non-real-bodies) Hell?
If you are a “consciousness” without a real body: what would you be afraid of?
I think mental/consciousness collapse of some kind.
Finally, we all saw the electric discharges… what’s that I’ve thought. Then I remembered E=mc²… If you have no body, you have no mass in the classical sense… then you are E, energy. Energy as consciousness…
My 2 cents
P.S.: I’ve just remembered that some of us felt that this is somehow linked to Angel Beats anime / VN.