I never liked the first few episodes, so it’s surprising to see them rated so high on the graph. Episode 6 was where the series was actually starting to get interesting, so I’m fairly okay with how the rest of this graph plays out. I haven’t seen the OVA yet, but I heard it doesn’t add anything significant, so…meh. 
This kind of made me realize that there were a lot of episodes I liked on their own, but the place where Charlotte fell apart for me was that is that it kept changing gears.
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I can’t say it any better. There were many funny episodes, a couple sad ones, interesting backstories… However, as a whole, it never felt like a cohesive story. The objective kept changing and irreversible events, like (Charlotte episode 6 or 7 i think) the death of Yuu’s sister , are left without importance once they reveal that (Charlotte edisode 9 or 10 I think) they can just go back in time and fix everything…
PS: (minor Nayuki Kanon route spoilers) Nice snow bunny you have there, very appropiate now that we are about to do the Nayuki’s Podcast.
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Without a doubt. I’m not usually one to analyse plot holes in my anime, but Charlotte constantly kept shoving them my face! The links between each episode are tenuous at best, and when you’re constantly yelling at the screen asking wth exactly is going on and why, any sense of immersion and journey that could otherwise have been achieved is totally lost!!
This is a reaction video that pretty much sums up most of the criticisms for me~
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Honestly the concept was open-ended enough that they could have not had any over-arcing plot and doing a power-of-the-week style like they did for the first few episodes. Without a connected story it wouldn’t be a fantastic anime by any means but it would be better than what we got. Each individual episode usually had quite a bit of standalone strength but they don’t work well when you put them together.
not sure where to put htis but there will be a P.A works exhibit at AX and it will have charlotte and angel beats.
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So good news for Charlotte fans. This year at Otakon, there will be a dub premiere and cast Q&A by AniplexUSA
Really hope the dub streams on Netflix like Your Lie in April and Aldnoah Zero! Even if this series was a disappointment for me (as I elaborate below), I’m looking forward to seeing how they dub this one. Aniplex’s home video releases are just too expensive for me…
Sigh…
I had a lot of hope for Charlotte when I started watching it last year. It was Maeda’s first work in five years, it had an interesting concept, and unlike Angel Beats, was meant to be an anime from the Get co. In my opinion, this should have been one of his best works, possibly eclipsing Clannad in quality.
But… The cluttered narrative issues I’ve heard Angel Beats has couldn’t be as bad as the ones Charlotte has…
In just 13 episodes, the series goes from a superpower themed slice of life show to a save the world through questionable means story The series awkwardly transitions from plot thread to plot thread without truly elaborating on the characters it introduces. Although conceptually I understand why, it was probably a bad idea to spend 40% show on a portion of the show that wasn’t plot critical or particularly interesting.
Each of the main characters had potential. I was really looking forward to seeing Yu’s character arc, because I feel Maeda has never been so daring with a lead before. I mean, this guy was just out and out horrible. I understand that he was never intended to be a straight forward sociopath, and he had sympathetic reasons for wanting to do really well in school, but everything else he does feels like self-indulgence.
But I feel like they virtually abandoned this character after the first episode. Through much of the series after this (until episode 7 and 7 alone), it feels like he’s resigned to be a bland variant on the Light Novel protagonist. I understand he’d be reined in even if he tried to lash out, but shouldn’t he resist this new situation a LOT more? Couldn’t you have scenes where he tries to use his ability to escape from them, or at LEAST show a lot more bitterness towards the leads? And from that point on, his character awkwardly swerves between this bland LN protagonist/ordinary high school student, the character from the first episode, and the Yu from the last episode. I never felt like there was a strong sense of continuity within his character. How does a guy who is so good at using his powers lose his nerve and botch Nao’s rescue attempt? He should accept this kind of thing is real by now I really liked the nice but eccentric vibe I got from Takajo, but I felt his characterization was distracted by lame, repetitive gags about his love for Yusa and teleportation that weren’t given enough variety. I like Nao for her cool, confident attitude, and the way Maeda was able to tie in a softer side to her character, but even she didn’t feel like a complete character. Honestly, I felt Yusa and Misa were boring, though at least the latter’s ill-temper could be amusing at times. And then all the characters they bring in the second half, just… Don’t have the time they need. Maybe if this could have been 26 episodes, this would have solved A LOT of these problems, but… I don’t know…
I also don’t appreciate the vague, undefined nature of the antagonists. They end up being EXTREMELY important to the plot, but there are no rules or guidelines that seem to constrain them. They can easily recruit super beings once they find out who they are with little resistance, so they can… Research on them? Why do a lot of the super beings end up being held in torture chambers or prisons? Because of the nature of these powers being unique for every person, once they can’t use them anymore, the patient is useless. Why not ask them to help you out in other ways? Why not actually treat them as PEOPLE instead of grown-up guinea pigs? How do they get away with this? Why would you waste a valuable commodity like super humans on dangerous experiments? And where did the terrorists come from? Why weren’t they given any build-up? How do THEY deal with the scientists? And then there was the girl who tried to kill Ayumi. What in the world was that? That’s such a rare thing, you NEED to have some kind of explanation for it, but… It just felt like a convenient way to move on the plot in the end .
And as many people have said, that ending could have been an entire series onto itself. It’s just too much content packed into the last episode of the series. I also had trouble accepting what whether Yu was doing was really right. I mean, these powers go away at the end of adolescence. Why do you need to take away the girl whose helping her village with her powers away? Are there research organizations eager to steel teens with powers away in THAT country too? The lack of answers or explanations is just all so frustrating…
And because of this large shift in the focus of the plot, a lot of earlier events feel like they lose some of their meaning. Like Ayumi’s death. It does make sense he’d go back in time to save her, but they don’t even incorporate her to the rest of the story. Because it has so little bearing on the remaining episodes,I don’t really know why they did it exactly.
I remember reading a quote from a producer on the series expressing the thought that this story was the first of Maeda’s that felt like it belonged in an anime. I actually disagree. I feel this cluttered mess of a story proves that Maeda is better suited to visual novels. I also feel like this story would have been a lot better with alternate routes so we could learn the details of how this world. Instead, we got what we got.
But… That’ s just my two cents…
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It would probably be right to read through this whole topic, but 353 posts are overwhelming… so, I’m sorry. I’ve read nothing.
I’m just going to put in a couple of my own thoughts… Which have probably (and most certainly) have been posted already.
Just about a 5 minute before I’ve started writing this post I’ve completed my re-watching of Charlotte.
I have decided to watch it again even though it wasn’t a great show even on the 1st run through. Well, why did I decide to rewatch it is completely unrelated to be topic and whatever…
Initially I was planning to post some impressions on plot, but it seems to be impossible.
Charlotte looks like… 3 or 4 works mixed in a fast mode.
It has not a bad premise… to be a slice of life comedy. Jokes are tolerable, main hero is nothing special yet seiyuu’s work was good. It could have been a good ride if it continued as a comedy show. Wouldn’t be great, but would be somewhat impressive.
I also have to mention, that I’ve loved quite a couple of songs from this anime. Basically, OP, all of the ENDs (but ZHIEND one), and some of Yusa’s songs as well. Then again… this whole music in the anime was like a self-challenge to AB!'s music. And it never been as catchy, deep, or powerful as it was there.
…Going back to the plot. Around the 6 ep (Ayumi’s “arc”) anime started to get worse with each next episode. It was going down, and down, and down. Bringing in questionable characters, questionable “twists”, questionable and extremely forced poor drama.
Seriously, it felt like Maeda wanted to make his own Rewrite with AB! music and failed miserably.
Otosaka Yuu’s strange character distortions… where he either being a hero, then wimp, then longing for his beloved, then doubting if he should go and save her… Super-puper-“high-school”-director of Esper’s school aka Yuu’s brother (whom name I couldn’t remember watching this anime twice) unable to react to things happening. Butchering of Kumamoto to make us cry… which didn’t work. POOR, POORISH, THE POORIST drama and love confession. “OH MY GOSH” © Angelo
Midway through the story half of the characters just get thrown out of the window and the new ones are coming in.
Was it meant to be like a swap between common and characters routes? Like the one in Rewrite. If so, it was done extremely poor.
Last 3 episodes were completely opposite to the 1st 5 episodes. They were so different that it would be right to call them a part of another anime. Nao who sents Yuu on the quest to save the world with cool words… and “oh, I’ll be yours if you ever come back”. Seriously? Is this a love confession? What the… hell is this? And then, our only a one episode earlier weak-willed protagonist-kun going on that quest with firm resolve? Suddenly becoming good at spying, fighting, surviving, and (generally) doing warfare? Absorbing powers of thousands? I don’t buy that.
I would give it 2/5. It still got a decent animation… something I wish they’ve done for Rewrite.
Ah, darn. It turned out to be partly rant…
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Hold on there mister/misses. Are you just going to forget about Angel Beats! and Little Busters!? They were definitely worse, anime-wise. No development in Angel Beats!, while no development and being FORCED in Little Busters! !
Charlotte was DEFINITELY better, but I don’t see the complaint, as compared to the one in Angel Beats! and Little Busters!, cause (Yuu character, Nao character, and episode 6 spoilers) Yuu is a handsome guy who the girls fall for. Obviously he doesn’t have much guy friends if the girls that they like are in love with him. Plus, we also saw no indication of any friends visiting him, or him interacting with any of them from his past School. As for girls, he only goes for the beautiful and popular ones most likely, meaning he had probably not liked Nao. Also he went for the dense ones. Nao wasn’t like that so that’s also another indication why he probably didn’t like Nao at first, not to mention she exposed him. So he obviously never had anyone who cared for him long enough, other than his sister of course. Also, since he has no parents, he probably felt isolated and didn’t expect warmth and comfort from anyone. So when the person who actually did care for him, died, he felt all left alone with no one out there to help him but himself.
BUT In episode 7, Nao actually followed him around to make sure he didn’t go too far, and was watching him closely. She even made him a rice omelette so he could feel the warmth that Ayumi had given him that he no longer had. She showed him that she actually did care for him, and actually did want him to be happy. This gives him the feeling that someone does care for him. This gives him the warmth that he wasn’t expecting from anyone, so he felt a feeling of love.
This is the reason why I don’t think it was actually a bad thing to say, and actually had build up.
More episodes that centered around it would have been fine, but wouldn’t have changed much, cause it was clear that episode 7 was the starting point and realization point.
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I don’t doubt their growing relations through the story…
I doubt the way they are forced upon us. And they are FORCED. Ep 6 & 7 there to justify Yuu’s interest in Nao. And thats done very badly. They’ve killed off a character over stupid reason… and then just literally time-machined Yuu before that death with his new feeling for Nao.
As for AB!.. I was okay with it. It had a great music, and felt at least as a single composition. Yes, characters weren’t developed enough. Still, it was a much better show in my opinion.
As for LB! Well, its a bit of a different story, as Charlotte is an original work, and LB – ain’t. You can’t cram in all of the routes and just make it work out perfectly fine.
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Yes, I understand, but I never said it wasn’t forced. But as I was comparing it to Little Busters! and Angel Beats!, it was definitely better. I was trying to express that it isn’t the worse one from my opinion, as what I quoted from you on top. The Angel Beats! and LitBus! sentences you did below aren’t what we were talking about.
Irrelevant to what we were discussing. Weren’t we talking about the relationships? Or at least I was.
I’m not talking about the anime as a whole. I was making points about the relationships shown in AB, LB, and Charlotte, from their original/adapted anime’s and expressing why I believe the relationship in Charlotte was better.
Well, of course. A lot of Key’s anime is like that, but that’s why it’s refreshing and interesting. (it’s just a matter of taste?)
No offense and I also like AB!, but guns+baseball+music+superpower+highschool=AB!
his fighting ability is good enough when he obtained Misa’s pyrokinesis and Ayumi’s power. About survival skill, he’s renting a small room and eating cup noodles shouldn’t be called good survival skill. Spying? he’s just tracking power wielders from his “locating” ability
It’s not too much to say that all those skills were obtained as he “plundered” others’ abilities
Totally agree with that.
I think it’s meant to build the plot for the next episodes like how the “time machine” ability was meant to make Yuu consider (but eventually decided against it) healing his time-leap-eye and redo everything. If it happens it’ll just be a repetition on his big brother’s mistake, eventually ending in Yuu losing his eyesight too.
Edit:
this kind of time-leap approach is widely used in time-travel materials like Steins;Gate and Re:Zero
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And that’s where I just don’t agree with you… I’ve said in a post before yours, that, yes. In AB! character development wasn’t a strong point. Too many characters, too little time… Yet they felt much more natural, memorable, and interesting. I could buy a romance between Yui and Hinata. I’ve liked past of Yui, and Iwasawa. Even Otonashi wasn’t bad… And they were consistent in them being themselves. The whole anime felt like a single composition with different aspects to it. And not like 3 or 4 absolutely different works crammed together just because.
As for LB! – its a different story. They’ve tried to cram all of the stuff from VN into anime. Of course that would come with a price. That price was a level of character development (and not only that). Look, I’m not saying that LB! anime is a best adaptation out there. Still, its much more solid than Rewrite, and more catchy than Charlotte.
If you are trying to talk only about character development… and then say, that this decides that Charlotte is better. Well, sorry. I don’t think so. I prefer to consider the whole thing, rather than one part that you felt great.
Depends on how you present it. In Charlotte (for me) it just wasn’t right. I think, that I’m saying it for the 3rd time, already, but it didn’t felt like a single work. Absolutely. Completely. It felt like a mesh-up of ideas, partially taken (stolen?) from other Key’s works. And it didn’t work alltogether. And yes, no offense.
If fighting ability alone was something to help people save their asses… then even Yuu wouldn’t have lost his eye (which was taken away so we can grieve for Kumagami)
Fighting ability isn’t everything that dictates your survival on the battlefield.
And he had to spy for people before he get his ultra-cheaty ability from “oh my gosh” Angelo. Ability which was created specifically for Yuu, don’t you think so?
If anything, I don’t think that his older brother made a mistake with using his ability… He did overuse it. Yet, it was more “realistic” because he had to build a huge organization when he was only a kid. Thats something.
And vague “oh-my-god-I-will-stop-being-human” Yuu’s decisions doesn’t really look that strong. Well, they are just there and ok.
Yeah, I totally agree with you on that. And it was used in Charlotte as well… in Yuu’s brother story.
But in both Steins;Gate, and Re:Zero those time-leaps are not once-in-a-life occurences. And they are part of the story right from the bat. And then they’re dramatized over and over again with new time-leaps…
Nor Re:Zero, neither Steins;Gate did a single time-leap and then threw this ability out of the window because it wasn’t needed anymore and then sealed it away in a forced way… and when Yuu got an ability to bring it back. He just decided not to.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t find anything good about this anime past ep 5.
If you like it… great. But I won’t like it.
Ah, right. OVA wasn’t bad… I guess? But it also happens somewhere in between of the 1st 5 episodes.
Okay, I think I understand. We’re completely talking about different things. I should have specified. I was talking about the main pairing’s relationship in the anime. For Charlotte, it was Otosaka and Tomori . For Angel Beats!, it was Otonashi and Tachibana . For Little Busters!, it was Naoe and Natsume
So that’s what I meant. I think, Charlotte did it better, compared to AB and LB, So it definitely wasn’t the worse.
I mean, come on. In Refrain for the anime, Rin fell down and Riki fell down trying to grab Rin, and then they get up and she tells him that she loves him out of the blue without emotions . There was no development prior to that and it definitely was the one that felt the most forced.
Then in Angel Beats! we didn’t even get a confession until the ending, and even then, it felt forced. Of course the only reason why was because of the limited episodes
Charlotte definitely did it better with that.
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I’m assuming it’s just the Charlotte world’s version of wikipedia. The idol girl is quite famous there, after all.
Also since I’ve just got here now I guess I’ll share some of my personal opinions. I thought this anime was really great, up to the point where imouto-san became pizza sauce. It was just a painfully rushed train wreck from there on.
The anime had a lot of potential… sometimes I like to think that they were making a 24 episode anime, but midway through production they were told to shorten it to just 12 episodes. That way it wasn’t Maeda’s fault! Wishful thinking, I guess.
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I think it’s the kind of show you’ll enjoy upon rewatch. I remember being overly criticizing towards each episode that I forgot to simply enjoy it. Only when I started watching it again with my cousin (who was more enthusiastic about it than me) made me realize what an amusing oddball it was. I guess we got a bit of everything-- superpowers, romance, idols, time-travel, omurice with a lot of WTF moments.
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Haha, that’s a good point. I did enjoy it for what it is, the slice of life episodes were pretty darn good. They also had the trademark key humor that we love so much.
I just thought it was very underwhelming for a key work, considering all the hype I had for it. But maybe I’m wrong, I really should rewatch it someday.
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