Charlotte - Yuu Otosaka Character Discussion

Key Discussion
#143

But by that time he had already eaten proper food, and had Nao not called, he wouldn’t have wolfed it down?

He didn’t have any motivation other than himself before episode 6, but that is exactly what changed; they gave him a personality. And he obviously was selfish before then, and the character development in episode 7 changed his entire motivation. He’s still selfish and narcissistic, sure, but he can set that aside for more important things now. I really cannot imagine why you equate this sort of thing to flat and dull.

There’s more to a personality than just actions; there’s his motivations and his emotions behind those actions. Having him do a unique action without having a solid motivation behind it has absolutely no personality, in my eyes.

And if you asked me who Yuu was I would say “A selfish and narcissistic guy who has, over the course of the series, learned to set that aside for more important things”.

That really feels like you’re oversimplifying things. Why did he selfishly resist helping Nao in Episode 2? Because he thought it was stupid and not worth his time.

Why did he selfishly resist helping Nao in Episode 11? Because he wasn’t confident enough in his own abilities.

#144

I agree that his motivations were different.
@Bizkitdoh and I were talking, and we were kinda thinking “Well, whats up with Yuu? He’s obviously not just your average protag.” And I think what we kinda agreed on is that Yuu is scared of having other people rely on him.

But here’s my problem with this. To get to that, I had to extrapolate and fill in all these holes. And Im not the kind of guy who thinks the writer should clearly spell out everything for the audience, but I really feel that Yuu as a character and his development were not well written.

Its there. I can see parts of it as long as I look past his radical and somewhat unrealistic personality 180s from episode 1 to 2, and to a lesser degree the end of episode 7. Im hoping it’ll be a bit more clear when I watch it all the way through, because as I’ve said several times before, I feel like this show has really suffered from the week-long breaks in between episodes.

#145

I honestly never thought about that, and yet I was still able to appreciate certain parts of his personality. I don’t know whether that constitutes something as either well-written or terribly-written, but I still think that he has decent development.

#147

I wasn’t speaking to Yuu specifically, more to the series. I said that I think Yuu has had very very good development, but that includes things that are cut and dry as well as the imaginative aspects.

#148

Honestly, I never had a problem with Yuu’s characterization.

My personal understanding of Yuu’s initial motivations came way back from Episode 1 when people first pointed out that he went through a lot of almost unnecessary hardships just so he could cheat on the admittance test. I thought that maybe that perhaps there’s more to that idea. “Why am I myself, and not someone else?” Because you have that power of yours. He wants to come out on top, and he wants to do it by using what makes him unique, in other words, his power.

Nao ‘invites’ him to join them in their search for power users, and he goes along with it. Why? Because he still has the opportunity to use his power in a unique way to make his own self distinct. He can still give purpose as to why he is himself and not someone else.

And then over the course of the next 6 episodes he comes to value other things. He comes to value his relationships and more people than just his sister. He becomes a lot less apathetic towards the feelings of other humans and starts to look at things in a different way. I felt there was good progression there and it never felt particularly abrupt, and he never did lose his love for succeeding explicitly by means of his power.

This was especially noticeable for me when he had his fall in Episode 7 and went back to just feeling good in using his power to prove himself as being superior. But even in Episode 11 and 12 just now he was faced with situations where it was his power specifically that allowed him to be the hero. There’s more to it than before, and since he’s no longer doing it just for himself he also gets uneasy if he can actually fulfill the expectations of the people he’s come to care about, but I still find my initial impression fairly accurate. He likes the prospect of succeeding by ways of the power than makes him who he is. Because it’s something only he can do. Something that makes him himself, and not someone else.

Some might say I’m reading so deeply and seeing things that aren’t really there, but hey, it sure as hell made me appreciate Yuu’s character more than I would’ve otherwise, and that’s good enough for me.

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#149

I am currently at a point in Charlotte where, with the show almost over, lots of people are able to make overarching statements about characters and plot and development, and while they are directly conflicting with the mindset I have fallen into this entire time, many of them, such as @Karifean’s, make a lot of sense to me. This is hard for me: on one hand, I have been dying to try and see Charlotte in a positive light the entire time; but on the other, I dont want to let myself get all wishywashy and just change my mind with every new view someone proposes.

Yuu and his development as a character most certainly falls into this category.

I think Im going to go back once again and attribute this dilemma to expectation and desire. I expected and wanted Yuu to be the character he was in episode 1: an arrogant and narcissistic jerk. I didnt expect or want him to so quickly become, well, not that. But I dont think thats how Maeda ever wanted him to be portrayed. And, feel free to correct me if youre more knowledgable about such things, to me, I think the disconnect between what development I am able to delve into and see now, and what I was seeing the whole time I was watching it, is due to the style and direction.

I’ve said over and over again, “this transition was terrible/nonexistant”, “such and such scene felt really off to me”, “WHY DOES IT ALL SEEM SO POINTLESS.” My train of thought on this now is that they should have made more sense, but werent portrayed well. And at least to me it makes most sense that that would be the director’s fault.

#150

I think a lot of people are in this camp of expecting Yuu to be the same as what he was during Episode 1. I think it might be because it was just so different from what we’ve seen before, and maybe that difference is what got people hooked on that. The moment he stopped acting like that, the hook lost the bait, and those people lost interest. The thing is, maybe it never was meant to be a hook in the first place.

I, personally, despised the Yuu of Episode 1 and frankly expected him to stop becoming like that as soon as possible, which might be why I can look at his development from a different light.

And btw, absolutely great analysis, @Karifean. That’s definitely something that I never thought about, but makes perfect sense now that you mention it. And I think that problem of identity and purpose is one that many teenagers struggle with all the way until their adulthood. It gives a pretty good contrast to the whole idea of powers and whatnot.

#151

Yuu to me has played a large part in what my idea of the series is at this point in time. A massive part of that is his ability to actually succeed- When we see Yuu as this figure with a massive ego and nasty charisma, he IS that powerful of a force and he finds success in all of his ventures. His selfishness helps him to actually make things happen.

This is contrary to what is shown in episode 11- Yuu is put in a position where he psyches himself up to be a hero and save the girl, and pretty much fails but is appreciated for his efforts anyways, even if the payoff is not what was intended. This experience of reality kicking his ass humbles him greatly and he seems to no longer look at it as a matter of something that will provide benefit, but something that is as fate will have it be and he has to accept that. No more games. His choice to do what only he can do is very selfless and mature and is a great characteristic of adulthood driven by what was learned in this period of time, all be it extraordinary circumstances. Very akin to any person who chooses to devote they’re life to being a martyr. I think Yuu is willing to give up his humanity, could sacrifice his very self, just to accomplish this goal. If it works out and he makes it out in the end, great, he has something he can be happy with for the rest of his life- If not? He still was able to create that happiness for countless others.

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#152

To be frank I can’t help but be shocked when someone says they hoped to see Yu stay the same. It’s just… strange. What’s the point of having a despicable main character that never develops into anything more, except in hugely specific settings? I think that was a somehow deluded view. A character almost always starts off as mediocre in order to learn, that’s quite commonplace (and not in a pejorative way) in coming of age works. I’d like to be enlightened on that though - why wasn’t it obvious to many? I’ve seen so much disappointment I really can’t understand regarding that & it bothers me, I feel it’s one of the unfair complains targeted at the show, because it has more to do with the viewers themselves than the show.

With that said, I’ll add my own point of view on Yu. I’ll try to keep it basic & not overly long…

In my humble opinion, there’s genuinely not much more to Yu than what’s on display at the start of the series.

He’s just that - a narcissistic piece of crap unworthy of anyone’s attention who just wants the easiest way to the top (and maybe his only way, knowing it’s well emphasized that he’s not smart).
What I find so great about his treatment is the way Maeda accompanies his development the way a mentor would. He’s actually quite harsh on him where it’s needed - see episode one for many examples, including those glasses. (That’s not a spoiler is it?) Yet he still looks over him warmly as he goes on, facing him with the hardships and giving him the help needed to reach his logical final state - once again, quite like a mentor would.

He doesn’t cover his flaws, but still makes him develop positively into a real hero (and in fact, I’d go as far as saying his possible sacrifice for the cause makes him the epitome of a romantic hero, especially if he does die, as unfortunately far fetched as that sounds), and to me that’s what created a sense of empathy towards his character. He has flaws and he’s called out for them, but he progressively becomes a person worthy of affection, without that last notion ever being shoved into my face, which makes me feel for him far more than I’d ever feel for a character who’s bestowed with that heroic beauty from the very start, or who explicitly becomes a sort of superhero without a seeming flaw to his character.

In fact I find that Maeda is balanced in his treatment of Yu, he doesn’t force you to take his side, because even after he’s developed you see some of his flaws completely on display - but that makes his growth all the more natural, and I just instinctively developed a sense of attachment toward him & his ever growing sincerity and strength. It just comes about naturally to me, and that made me love his character.

I think that’s maybe why some people don’t feel much sympathy for him though - we’re so used to those shows where the characters are presented as super beautiful & the story’s “good” people, it’s a bit weird when no one is there to tell you how to feel about the main character.

Now I’m simplifying things a whole lot, but I’ll keep it at that for now.

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#153

Its not that people were surprised when Yuu changed; its that many of us didnt like how he had seemed to be established as one thing, and within 1-2 episodes he was something completely different, without any obvious reason for seemingly such a sudden change. Like I said, I feel like this is the fault of us not being shown just a bit more of what was going on inside Yuu’s head. Looking back on it now, I feel like its a bit more clear.

#154

That’s a little extreme to me - within 1-2 episodes he hadn’t changed that much, in fact he was barely starting to.

He goes along with the flow because Nao makes him do so, but it’s still clear he finds doing all this to be a pain & he bitches about it quite a bit (saying things like “I don’t want to do it” or “why do I have to?”, he evidently doesn’t care anywhere near enough to want to get involved, he’s still extremely self-centered). His hugely hypocritical behavior around Ayumi at the time also shows how awful he still is. I see very progressive, step by step change up until episode 4 - episode 5 he starts showing serious empathy, and then it all accelerates after episode 6. I guess I just see things differently from you on this one, in that I just don’t see any “sudden change” at all, in fact it’s quite the opposite to me.

I think this view is also supported by episode 7 among other things, this one can only happen to someone who still hasn’t quite moved on from his old scummy ways, so by then he really hadn’t changed that much to me.

Also, not to be harsh… I just don’t think a lot goes on inside of his head at the time, haha. He’s quite the idiot. I genuinely believe the majority of his thought processes comes down to “I don’t want to do that/This is a pain/etc”. But maybe that’s just me.

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#155

Right, thats kinda my point. Now, we can look back at how he acted through the episodes and see that maybe. But when we were at episode 3, for example, it really just seemed like the arrogant, show-stealing, in-your-face, Im-the-best protagonist had simply shut up just because a girl told him to. He didnt do anything. He just sat there and went along with it like a side character. The only reason we even remembered he was there was because every once and a while we would hear would of the snide comments he would think in his head.

#156

Well to be honest I wasn’t very fond of episode 3 either, although that’s more because I felt it spent too much time on somewhat unimportant matters, especially considering Yusa’s shocking lack of prominence throughout the series (I really can’t stand how they pretend Takajo & Yusa are part of the main cast and even Pooh gets more development, it sounds ludicrous and a really bad move to me).

But regarding Yu being pushed aside during episode 3, I always thought that was to underline the importance of Nao. Charlotte was always going to be the story of Yu going from a mere “main figure” to a “real hero”, but Nao has that “heroine” status from the very start. So early on in the show, it didn’t shock me he would take a step back, because he can’t really do anything, especially when someone as competent as Nao is leading the operation. But even more than that, it’s simply crucial to show Nao in that heroine role, because that’s what she is and in the end, mostly everything that was shown of her back then has become hugely relevant in later parts of the story, and especially to Yu’s own development, so it was really important to show what she is & can do before those elements come into play a few episodes after that.

And regarding Yu’s behavior at the time, let’s be frank - what was he going to do? He’s been warned about the dangers of using his powers the way he did up until now, he can’t leave Hoshinoumi on his own anyway, what is he gonna do? Not play along? Why? How? To do what instead? He doesn’t have good enough a reason to run off on his own, and he can’t go anywhere regardless - if he locks himself up in his dorm room, he’ll most likely be dragged out in no time anyway because unlike in episode 7, there’s really nothing to “respect”.

So he was obviously going to play along because in the end he doesn’t have a choice, but then at this point he can’t really shine in the situations episode 3 puts him through - the way he was back then, he can only go with the flow and watch Nao do her magic, and it’s obvious he would be on the side because he has no reason to take a more predominant role since he doesn’t even see why he’d be doing this, and I genuinely don’t think he had the ability to do so at the time regardless.

I don’t know, it all seems to fit inside the puzzle to me, and I thought so back then too, although I didn’t like episode 3 overall.

#157

I understand what youre saying and can to agree with it to an extent, but I think if it was actually written/presented well, you wouldnt have to push Yuu out of the way to let Nao shine. In fact I feel like this is a problem that the whole show has had in general: completely losing focus on some characters just to show off some others, with no one really being fully developed in the end. Even though they are presented as if they were supposed to be…

#158

Well I may be more forgiving of that aspect since I went into Charlotte fully aware that there would be holes similar to those found in Angel Beats!. I just don’t see Maeda ever writing an anime without such flaws, anime isn’t his background & 13 episodes is too short to achieve much in the first place.
As I mentioned, Yusa & Takajo are annoyingly underdeveloped, but unfortunately that was to be expected with such a short series. Recently there was an interview with the producer of the show & he admitted that the toughest part of making Charlotte was fitting all of Maeda’s scenario into those frames, he’s always going to write far too much to make a story manageable in 13 episodes. Which I understand, but at the same time it’s still a problem when you take on writing the scenario of an anime & you can’t make something that’s a good fit for the medium, especially when you can’t say it’s your first try anymore. (Which is why AB should have never been an anime in the first place, at least in my opinion).

Regarding Yu not having to step while letting Nao shine, I disagree. I don’t see anything strange with him getting “left behind” at that point, because he wasn’t “fit for the role” back then, he was no more than a very average dude somehow thrown into the main character role. Nao is fit for the role though, so I can definitely see her taking precedence over Yu early on. It’s actually very relevant to a certain vision of his development, and that’s why I praise it so - at first he’s no hero, so he’s just struggling with this overwhelming change (note how his development is forced onto him at first without him getting any time to accept this drastic change in lifestyle), and he gets left behind in the middle of all that, but that situation changes progressively. As he develops, he’s not pushed aside again, so that suits this outlook. In the grand scale of things, it makes a whole lot of sense, and in fact I think that’s the superior route to take.

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#159

Well it wasn’t him who actively sought the production, they came to him.

On topic: In regard to this, I don’t think any of Yuu’s development was sacrificed. Others, certainly- But not him. His development has been very very good from the start and I’ve enjoyed it more than anything else in the series. I think he’s a great character.

#160

Yeah, but when you already have experience and still make the same mistakes… I don’t think he has any excuses in that regard, whether it was him seeking the production or not. It’s okay to make mistakes on your first try, I just think that looking at Charlotte, he doesn’t seem to have learned quite enough from Angel Beats, although it’s clear Charlotte is less ambitious if we consider the vastness of the cast.

Good to see someone who agrees on Yu. Out of all the anime I’ve watched in recent years (and that’s a lot!), I can’t seem to recall a protagonist with a development quite as good as his. It’s been memorable so far, although in the end, so much comes down to the last episode, which worries me I have to say. Even for his development, as exceptional as it’s been up until now, if all he’s learnt doesn’t quite come together… my opinion of it will inevitably be affected in a very negative way. He might very well turn into a classic protagonist if the ending is good enough though.

Charlotte - General Discussion
#161

Yuu is essential to my current assumption on Charlotte’s message, so I like him quite a bit. :kgoha:

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#162

I dunno about you but I never really thought that way, even back in Episodes 2-5 :confused:
I thought it was pretty obvious that he hadn’t yet changed as a character but was just begrudgingly following orders for the sake of his sister’s well-being.

#163

Did anyone notice that Yuu turned out to be almost as crazy about food as Nao is? That’s a really interesting trait these two share! It just seems that, due to Ayumi’s pizza sauce overuse, Yuu had forgotten how delicious food can be until Joujirou treated him to some cafeteria food. Yuu loves delicious food, sometimes reacting in a similar fashion as Nao does.

Thinking about it, I was very surprised when I realized how often food appeared throughout Charlotte. Heck, food played an important role several times in the show!
Episode 1: Shirayanagi Yumi invites Yuu to eat pancakes on what turned out to be their first (and only) date. Also, enter Ayumi’s pizza sauce cooking - omurice
Episode 2: Yuu’s bento is another portion of Ayumi’s omurice. Nao mentions that Ayumi gives her best to make food for Yuu every day despite low budget. Nao eats her bento by herself. Joujirou uses his power to buy sandwiches. Nao goes crazy over kiosk-bought beef tongue on her way to the hospital. Dinner: Pizza sauce curry.
Episode 3: Omurice bento, Yuu erases ketchup message. Joujirou procures beef tongue curry for Yuu. Yuu is ecstatic. Henceforth, they associate this dish with happiness, school life and youth. Misa’s hideout: Yusa happily munches on marshmallows and later roasted marshmallows. Dinner: Meat sauce pizza sauce spaghetti.
Episode 4: Breakfast: Pizza sauce french toast. Dinner: pizza sauce broccoli cream stew.
Episode 5: Barbecue in the mountains. “Eat some vegetables, too.” ~ Otosaka Yuu. Ignored. Only eating meat reminds Yusa of Misa. Dinner after returning home: Noodles with vegetables witout pizza sauce because they’re out of pizza sauce.
Episode 6: Buying ingredients with Nao and Yusa on their way home. “Enoki mushrooms rule!” ~ Tomori Nao. Eating dinner with Ayumi, Nao and Yusa. Spaghetti in the cafeteria. Pizza sauce revenge - Ayumi sneaks out of the dorm. Spaghetti in the cafeteria.
Episode 7: Yuu declares war on healthy food. Cup ramen. Yusa brings over some cream stew but can’t enter. Shirayanagi invites Yuu for some pancakes but has to retreat. Pizza all day. Nao sneaks in some salad but he doesn’t touch it. The discovery of mitarashi dango as both food and weapon. Nao brings Yuu back to his senses with pizza sauce omurice.
Episode 8: Once again, cafeteria beef tongue curry for Yuu. Sala asks Yuu to bring her to an okonomiyaki place. Yuu points out there’s nobody waiting at home with dinner. Ramen in a station noodle stall on their way to the hospital.
Episode 9: Drug-filled, tasteless curry in the research facility. Bloodbath.
Episode 10: Second scene after time leap: breakfast at otosaka’s, 3 years ago. Cake for Shun’s 15th birthday. This is where he gets the best ideas several times.
Episode 11: No food scenes. Most disastrous and brutal episode yet.
Episode 12: Spoon-feeding Yuu is the new fad. Return of the trademark dishes: beef tongue curry, cream stew, pizza sauce omurice. Cream stew has a special meaning for Yusa and Misa. Touching scene of Misa tasting her parent’s cooking in their soba bar. Nao appears, munching on poki. Those poki go over to Yuu after he promises to return.

Nao’s ending video: Has several clips of Nao chewing on different things.

…not even sure if this still counts as Yuu discussion xD

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