Discussion topic for OVA of Charlotte, which premièred on the 30th of March, 2016, bundled with the 7th BD box. All references to outside works and to future episodes must be tagged with a [spoiler] tag.
What would you rate this episode?
0 voters
That was okay, I guess; the loli is cute. I can’t shake the feeling that that they axe her off simply because she can’t have an impact on the already existing story. The rest was pretty much just Yuu x Tomori manzai.
'sokay. We got to see some awesome Nao scenes, and the subject matter of a girl whos power causes people’s thoughts to become audible and is always causing relationship breakdowns around her is REALLY INTERESTING! But… Since this is just an OVA, the conflict was resolved WAY too quickly and easily, and it all just felt so pointless in the end. I mean, it wasn’t terrible, but once again, I’m left longing for more.
Ahh, what an OVA could’ve been. You could do a side story set in Episode 13 with all new characters and all new exciting conflict. You could make it about the terrorists in Episode 11. You could talk more about Sala’s past! This episode perfectly illustrates once again the inescapable fate of Charlotte: wasted potential. I think Key and Aniplex are very eager to sweep Charlotte under the rug as quickly as possible, especially seeing how they haven’t released any more manga since the anime came out…
I liked everything in this episode…
** cough ** ifitdidn’trushthroughapossible3episodesworthofcontent ** cough **
I mean… There was so much I liked about this OVA. Yet it storms through everything in the space of 1 measly episode… Really?
Same problem as the entire series. Ideas and thematic exploration, all of which was cool as shit!!.. But somebody had the wise idea to shove everything into 1 episode arcs probably knowing that they have an episode cap.
Nao’s lashing out at the girl would have made for an awesome scene… Had there been any build up or show of motivation for why that triggered her in the first place. Otherwise felt like forced anger to me.
The relationship between these 2 girls being affected by this faulty Mind Read could have been a touching friendship story… Had there been more time for us to care for either of them.
Apparently Nao and Yuu went to visit Iori every day following the events of finding out about her illness? Okay cool! Do you mind… y’know… showing us? NOPE Not enough time sorry, * roll credits * Move on to next arc.
Honestly this OVA felt like a deleted episode that should have been part of the first half of the series, but they weren’t able to for some reason, (And chose to include that dreadful baseball episode instead)
Shame to be honest.
Jun Maeda has a baseball fettish. To think he’d be over it after creating Little Busters! but no 
It wasn’t in the main original 13 episodes because if she was introduced, Takajo and Yusa would be seen as more useless then they already are.
Sad thing is that this character is better than all of those useless characters we saw in the episodes before episode 6.
EDIT
Well, I just watched the Raw version. Though I don’t understand a bit, this episode was great for what I could interpret ! I love those moments where Nao gets angered by people like the purple haired girl. If I recall, the only other time she shows this side of herself is in episode 2 of Charlotte. When this episode is better than the first 5 episodes combined :love: Yoshino’s not impressed by having the OVA be better than the series itself.
Other than that, I’ll end on a high note. I loved Tomori’s expressions throughout the episodes for the first part at least. LOL ! Best Key canon-main-heroine ever. A little bit sad that she was one of the greatest Key heroine’s ever, but was put into a story that didn’t do her much justice.
Isn’t it obvious? She’s angry because her brother is in a similar state, yet she makes time to visit him regularly despite being in a much worse condition than Iori.
To be honest, I found that episode quite weak. I was just waiting for it to be over! >_< I guess there are good messages to be made from this episode, but a lot of it was spent with pointless manzai and shipping…
Once again, a case of bad directing
Pretty good episode. Though it once again made me feel like Charlotte could’ve been something special and yet stopped at being something decent.
Edit: BTW I just wanted to note that this episode ultimately confirmed for me that the powers are certainly related to the user’s personality. Now I’m actually curious to try looking back at the series one more time.
I feel it’s a much different scenario between them. I consider seeing your best friend slowly dying over the course of your friendship to be much more tragic than what Nao is going through.
The episode was pretty fine… I mean I guess people could agree that this could have worked in the original series because at least it fleshes out the characters a little more. Which was disappointing at the least in the end when I finished the OVA. Still it was quite a decent watch, and a good time to watch it as well tbh.
Seeing Yuu and Nao’s “joke” somehow I immediately thought about Yuri and Hinata
The ending was the highlight.
I love how Tomori said things to Yuu, talking about finding the 1 true love of his life in the future.
Yuu - Isn’t it too soon to be thinking about it ?
Nao - Maybe
Then in episode 13
Yuu - Who are you ?
Nao - I’m, your lover !
Irony kills easier than Knives :kurumu:
Also, the violin ver. of Kimi No Moji playing in the background was gorgeous
3/5. Enjoyable.
I really liked some of the smaller details they put into it. Like, a loli running with a smile on her face with a bunch of blood scattered in the background.
Nao’s expressions were fantastic as well.
As for the girl she blew up at (Honoka?)… I was pretty bothered by her personality as well. Even without being in the same position as Nao’s at the time of that episode. Of course, Nao’s reaction was definitely not composed at all, but that’s what gives that scene impact. I don’t feel it’s forced when considering everything she’d have been doing and going through.
Additionally, Nao’s mind was never read at an inconvenient moment for her. Perhaps she was trying very hard to control her thoughts? (Series spoiler: She knew all about Yuu’s power after all. It would be very bad if she let him know that, maybe.) I guess you could say that this mind reading power was more of a “This is what you would’ve said had you not just stopped yourself.”
The ending was “we all just got lucky here,” basically. I mean, not for Iori, but for Nao it was a super lucky ending in multiple ways. (Series spoilers, again: What if Yuu took control over Nao’s body to keep her from going berserk at the girl? Granted, that could’ve happened anywhere throughout the series, but even so it seemed especially dangerous here. At least to me, anyway.)
Also, unless I was just skim-reading the subs or I’m forgetting, they didn’t emphasize that just because someone knows something doesn’t mean they understand it. Thoughts that you have but don’t say are filtered for a reason. Or to put it a little differently: “Knowing what someone thinks isn’t understanding why they think that.” While they certainly don’t need to emphasize that sort of thing, the whole episode felt like it was building up to that… and then just skipped it. Was disappointing in a way, but not disappointing enough to warrant how many words I’m putting into describing it. ^^;;
Like the rest of the series, we also had basically no Takajou and Yusarin here. That’s a bit of a pity, but oh well.
Anyway, as a side note, that “mind projection” thing would be soooo nice. In real life I almost never speak unless it’s actually necessary to, or it would be less efficient otherwise. Being able to just think your sentence and not waste any breath would be fantastic! I don’t think I’ve ever been in as much agreement with Nao (see diner scene) before now. (Pun intended.)
TL;DR: It was alright. Not the best, not the worst, a little better than what I’d consider a “general average” at least.
My favorite part. Normal cliche anime’s would have the useless Protagonist try to reason why Honoka, while Honoka still throws a tantrum and while the heroine tries to also resolve the conflict (which for how long, has been overused). With Charlotte, Nao had enough of her and threw Honoka’s phone down and started talking sense into her. A reason as to why I prefer Charlotte’s main heroine as opposed to mostly every other heroine from summer & fall 2015.
Like the rest of the people on this site, we can all agree that Takajo and Yusa are the most useless characters in KEY HISTORY to be labeled as a “Main character.” Cliche personalities with no use whatsoever. I was actually worried about the OVA because I thought Takajo and Yusa were gonna be involved in the OVA as major characters. Thank goodness it was more about Yuu & Nao. If Takajo and Yusa actually was part of this OVA alongside Nao and Yu, this episode would have gone from a 4.0 to a 2.5.
Wtf. Even Secondary characters from other Key works are more important than Takajo and Yusa. Truth be told.
Heck, even Kagari from Rewrite has a better personality than them, and (Kagari spoilers) She’s not even human !
That is exactly what my dad said when we finished watching the episode. And I couldn’t rule it out.
Then again, at least this episode had a heartwarming message:
If you want to -really- show your good friendship, punch and kick that guy as much as you can.
I finish the OVA today…
I think this episode is a fanservice for Yuu x Tomori—I hope this girl alive at the end so she can ship Yuu x Tomori to the max with Ayumi Otosaka…
I’M SORRY BUT I’M GLAD WHEN I FIND THIS—The most handsome+sexy ghost creature (youknowwhoifyouplaythegame)
Just random impressions for now
I have to come clean with you guys, I have just finished the episode (finally) and I am actually sad that I am parting with Charlotte again.
I personally enjoyed the episode, there were all sorts of emotions and that’s what I am looking for when it comes to Key.
As everyone said Nao’s scenes were incredible and we could see a bit different side of her which I hoped to see in the series more often to be completely honest, because I am sure that at least some of us always get suprised when that happens to a character we are not expecting.
@Karifean this is basically what I wanted to say, although the show seems straight forward, it is actually detailed, but then they would have to give it more eps.
As the known crybaby I am, I actually shed tears to the Nao’s angry pressure - it clicked right away for me that her situation is similiar and that’s why she is so furious about it.
The only reason why I didnt give this full 5/5 is that it feels incomplete or rather skipped. Sure there were explanation but I got the feeling of “something is missing here”.
Just like with the rest of the series, we had expected way more of this OVA than it delivered.
I liked the comedy the themes of this episode and I loved Nao’s emotional outburst. Too bad this episode wasn’t a regular part of the series. I would have been excited to see the implication that powers and desires are indeed connected at an earlier point in time.
The themes of this episode are “Hard truth”, “Fear of loss” and “The desire to understand”.
Our social life cannot be maintained without lies and secrets. While nobody really enjoys being lied to, most of us are really bad at handling unfavorable truths and opinions. Being confronted with our own ugly side hurts us, while seing the ugly side of others deters us. If at all, we only allow those closest to us to be completely honest with us, even if we may not like what they say.
If you think about how Nao managed to stay with Iori and help her only by tricking her really hammers in how there seems to be no solution for this.
We all fear loss. The more we love something, the more are we hurt when we lose it. This topic pops up across many works of Key (Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters and now Charlotte). When loss is drawing closer, realizing that their love will be a source of pain to them, the characters attempt to end their love by cutting off the object of their love. They selfishly hurt the other in order to reduce their own suffering. It’s not like they want to hurt them. They simply fail to find the courage needed to face the problem head-on. It’s usually solved with an emotional wake-up call, this time by Nao.
Lastly, even if we’re bad at handling other people’s inner thoughts, we still want to know them, especially if those people are close to us. We want them to like us. We want to comfort them when they’re sad. If those precioius people’s behavior changes drastically, not knowing the reason for that change terrifies us. Until they tell us, we’re powerless.
We should always be careful about leaving people in the dark like that. Sometimes, there’s really nothing we can do, but some other times, communication is already a big step towards improving the situation.
I liked the episode, but because it was just really enjoyable to watch. Looking back on it now in terms of structure and pacing of plot, it was not the best.
Initially, I honestly thought the OVA was a cute slice of life story post Charlotte after the series ended. It would have been great seeing the characters interact again and hearing more “nano desu” from such an adorable imouto, but it took a different route and presented a little story amidst their adventures.
The comedy was great in my opinion. The first half of the episode made me laugh a lot and re kindle my ship with Yuu and Nao. What got me was especially when they use “Manzai” for their comedy bits. I’m a sucker for that style of comedy and with the flexibility of anime to be able to exaggerate emotions, facial expressions, and actions, it just makes it even better.
One gripe I have is that the episode’s pacing made me feel uncomfortable. At first, the way it flowed was fine, I got used to it. However it escalated way too fast in my opinion. I understand it is supposed to surprise the viewer with this un-expected twist of events, but the way it was presented could have been better. I believe that the point of this episode is to showcase an unexpected side of Nao through presenting themes that resonate both to her and loli girl and if this were the case, I personally would focus a bit less on the comedy at the beginning so a bit more development to presenting the climax can be incorporated into the episode.
After all, this is an OVA. Snacks are meant to be a treat, not something you can get full off from.
