(L+CR) Charlotte

[AC-Phoenix]

I'm more surprised how she could just enter the school like that, while Nao claimed that the school belongs to her benefactor.

So she can't really be with the scientists(and thus counter force to Nao's team), can she?

[Iron Maw]

Well predictable or not at least things finally happened to break the monotony of this show.

I think Meada is probably suffering from similar issues that plague Yoshiyuki Tomino's writing. It's just too formulaic and hasn't evolved/matured much at all over the years to iron out it's flaws. Still, Charlotte has a chance to provide me wrong.

[Leo_Otaku]

I wasn't so put off with the "we may have killed the sister off" and the "yandere" as some people are taking it. One side we could have had more foreshadowing of this attack and more insight into the sister. I guess it depends on how that would've been handled and worked into the story. I think the setup could have been done differently. To get to this point lots of things could've been tweaked. I see this show has learned more since Angel Beats, except some of the comedy.

I did enjoy the turn of events I'd thought the yandere girl was the one with the ability. I found some of the comedy worked better than in some of the other episodes though. Overall I liked the serious tone in this episode and look forward to the rest.

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

I think Meada is probably suffering from similar issues that plague Yoshiyuki Tomino's writing. It's just too formulaic and hasn't evolved/matured much at all over the years to iron out it's flaws. Still, Charlotte has a chance to provide me wrong.

I think it's partially due to the fact he's used to writing for Visual Novels where there is no cap of length and the buildup takes longer.

[Botan_TM]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Really, Charlotte faults are all to similar to Angel Beats, and I can't help but think that the anime staff and Maeda are still clueless about obnoxious flaws in the narrative flow. If these were fixed, the series could be palatable, but it is kind of appaling as of now.

The funny thing is, that in some interview it was said that Charlotte was about removing faults learnt from Angel Beats.

However, like for me, they have removed advantages instead of faults.

I really like AB because
- it have a big group of people with a lot of interactions
- MC was curious about world he appeared, and was learning about it, as well as whole group
- interesting opposition and intriguing conflict - active and visible from the first episode. No evil guys, rather a conflict between God (who should be good) and rebels against him, whose reasons are fully understandable.
- some good dramas - made with already introduced people, yet with quite unexpected elements.

In Charlotte we got a opposition of that, so basically this is a show not similar to AB but something opposite.

[Yamada II]

Episode 6

And so, the annoying little Imouto is no more. Damn the cliffhanger at the end. The name "collapse" sounds bad as is even without knowing what it can do. I first thought that the jealous loli could have the ability since she was there with Ayumi and the wet guy pointed out that place. Turns out that it was the Imouto who had the power and the jealous loli was there to trigger the ability.

And Yu went to save her and some rubble is going to fall. Yu will survive with injuries most likely by super fast megane. The wet guy shows up in the end looking at some spilled blood. Looks like he will get a relatively bigger role here.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Botan_TM

- it have a big group of people with a lot of interactions

Actually, it is a good thing they have toned down the number of characters. AB was royally screwed because it had WAY too many characters who couldn't be fleshed out properly (I'm looking at you, TK). It is much easier to track down a downsized cast which is composed of 4 (5 if you count Misa) main characters instead of bazillions of "main characters" were the 3/4 are chumps.

- MC was curious about world he appeared, and was learning about it, as well as whole group

That's short lived. Yuzuru was crippled by his amnesia thus emulating the confusion of the audience regarding the afterlife, but that's it. The good half or more was solely the SSS antics against Kanade.

In that regard, Charlotte doesn't really do any worse considering Yuu hardly interacted with espers and the possible troubles when it comes to scientists. Now we can only hope that issue will emerge soon enough, unlike AB where the whole gimmik with angel player and god popped like... 2 ep prior the end.

- interesting opposition and intriguing conflict - active and visible from the first episode. No evil guys, rather a conflict between God (who should be good) and rebels against him, whose reasons are fully understandable.

To each their own. The tone used in AB wasn't really great in that regard, so the SSS didn't feel that serious when it comes to rebellion etc.
In charlotte, Nao's actions always remind the characters and audience of the danger of abusing esper powers.
I wouldn't say it is perfect, but it is at least more tangible than rocket chair during a test.

- some good dramas - made with already introduced people, yet with quite unexpected elements.

In both case, drama are pretty shoehorned due to how we don't have time to learn about the characters respective background, while Ayumi is pretty much a plot device.
At that point it depends how much you care for the characters, but at least in charlotte, even if the drama isn't stellar, you aren't bombarded by lots of questions remained unanswered for ages.


Things would be really much better if they could just do a much better world building and less tone switch.

[Marcus H.]

Or just give this twelve more episodes, just like what Angel Beats deserved.
Fucking Aniplex being stingy basterds.

[mangatron]

Eh? Imouto-chan is sleeping? She's supposed to have never ending nosebleeds

[bastek66]

I like how plot is slowly unlolding. It seems (I mentioned it back when first episode aired) Nao's power is not making herself invisible but telepathy that makes person think she doesn't see her. I predict that she has actually mind reading abilities, this is why she kicked Speedbro out of building in latest episode. For some reason she didn't want him to takeover him. I guess that's foreshadowing that Yuu's power isn't just possessing but also copying powers and Speedbro's power would be easier to activate. This would also explain why she ordered him to possess baseball guy after match (and he posessed other 2 guys with powers).

Images

Guy on mal translated fan created relationship chart

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Originally Posted by Izumo

Episode 6 summary:

FORCED DRAMA.

Please at least no this lowest tier shitposting here. This isn't /a/ or mal.

Did anyone else notice that Charlotte has some terrible discussions on other sites (/a/ and MAL especially)? I mean they are full of shitposters (like one Brazillian English-illiterate who keeps reposting his shitty pictures from both sites back and forth) or fans and haters trying to outretard each other?

[Marcus H.]

Retards or not, I wouldn't blame them. Charlotte isn't the kind of story that brought people to tears like in Clannad, or a story that can at least make people appreciate the importance of friendship and bonds with other people like in Little Busters. Despite the commercial success of Angel Beats, people started becoming cautious of Maeda when handling an anime because of how he doesn't feel 100% in the project (to the point that the prequel manga and the clearly superior VN adaptation had to exist) and the patterns in his writing style become all too apparent.

Maybe Maeda isn't clearly good at writing anime series-level stories and should stay with VNs?

[Botan_TM]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Actually, it is a good thing they have toned down the number of characters. AB was royally screwed because it had WAY too many characters who couldn't be fleshed out properly (I'm looking at you, TK). It is much easier to track down a downsized cast which is composed of 4 (5 if you count Misa) main characters instead of bazillions of "main characters" were the 3/4 are chumps.

I completely disagree here. It had basically main characters and supporting characters where border between was fluent. It's much better that randoms coming out from nowhere. I don't see a reason why all characters should be fleshed out fully, it would only expend time. After all, it's feels quite realistic, in group of people MC really get in touch only with few.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

That's short lived. Yuzuru was crippled by his amnesia thus emulating the confusion of the audience regarding the afterlife, but that's it. The good half or more was solely the SSS antics against Kanade.

In that regard, Charlotte doesn't really do any worse considering Yuu hardly interacted with espers and the possible troubles when it comes to scientists. Now we can only hope that issue will emerge soon enough, unlike AB where the whole gimmik with angel player and god popped like... 2 ep prior the end.

Afterlife was confusing anyway, amnesia have nothing to do with it anyway. He was trying together with SSS to reach a God, but also during it he was observing Tenshi. He was active, not a passive oblivious non-interacting guy like Yuu. Each episode was adding something to the story. So yes, when it comes to world building in first 6 episodes Charlotte is definitely worse than AB.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

To each their own. The tone used in AB wasn't really great in that regard, so the SSS didn't feel that serious when it comes to rebellion etc.
In charlotte, Nao's actions always remind the characters and audience of the danger of abusing esper powers.
I wouldn't say it is perfect, but it is at least more tangible than rocket chair during a test.

It was serious enough, like for world where you can die and you have infinite amount of time. Instead Charlotte is trying really hard to be serious, but with clearly lacking world-building and oblivious MC is not giving such feel. And rocket was a comedy part (great one in my opinion), so I don't what it have to being serious.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

In both case, drama are pretty shoehorned due to how we don't have time to learn about the characters respective background, while Ayumi is pretty much a plot device.

In AB pretty often we had a more time then in Charlotte, Iwasawa appeared in earlier episodes, then we got background, and some time later unexpectedly (at least for me) triggered disappearance, which itself was adding some fact about rules of that world. None of "dramas" in Charlotte so far isn't even close to that.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

At that point it depends how much you care for the characters, but at least in charlotte, even if the drama isn't stellar, you aren't bombarded by lots of questions remained unanswered for ages.
Things would be really much better if they could just do a much better world building and less tone switch.

I do not consider this as a serious problem. Afterlife apparently served for different purpose like gaining knowledge, characters had opposed that, but finally accepted it. I agree there are some serious plot holes though. From the other hand Charlotte is trying to be something like science-fiction, but authors apparently have no experience at that field and results are clearly visible. And in such genre such plot holes are not acceptable. I completely agree with your last sentence.

Anyway, I'm going to watch this to the end and see how it ends.
And to write something positive, I really like OP and ED, also Nao and Yuu relationship is nice. It's not a bad show, for me it just average one.

PS. Who thinks this would be great with Nao as a main character, not Yuu?

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Retards or not, I wouldn't blame them. Charlotte isn't the kind of story that brought people to tears like in Clannad, or a story that can at least make people appreciate the importance of friendship and bonds with other people like in Little Busters.

Despite the commercial success of Angel Beats, people started becoming cautious of Maeda when handling an anime because of how he doesn't feel 100% in the project (to the point that the prequel manga and the clearly superior VN adaptation had to exist) and the patterns in his writing style become all too apparent.

Maybe Maeda isn't clearly good at writing anime series-level stories and should stay with VNs?

Whether or no this is because he does not feel 100% in the project because of the reasons you mention I don't know - it very well could be he is more at home with an already existing and finished project, and I am nowhere near aware of the details surrounding all these sorts of things. I guess it could be?

At the moment though for me (and this is only an impression/working theory at the moment) it feels like Maeda is much more successful on the overall when he is involved in a project that has a lot of time to unfold/unpack the story, meaning 24-26 eps. At the moment I only have Angel Beats and this series as a reference point, but the faults (meaning the things I disliked and/or did not work for me) of both seem similar.

[ronelm2000]

Well, the problem again with having to expand 6 more episodes of "Common Route" is basically the problem where the audience could be bored enough to just leave without even going to see through the end, as if Charlotte was just a simple ability_esp_of_the_week formula without any implications of shit going down the drain...

...which is what probably what they thought but I sorely disagree, an additional 6 episodes would expand on so many things that would have given it a lot more foreshadowings to make it great. They could have talked more about Ayumi's life, made each "esp_arc" 2 episodes each AND left us on a cliffhanger on the 12th episode with an upcoming 2nd season somewhere in Spring like a real splitcour anime.

Honestly, viewing these last 6 episodes, you can call it formulaic and bland, but, honestly, I think that the reason for that is because the entire thing feels rushed.

tl;dr they tried to solve AB's problems but it wasn't enough.

PS: Just so you know, LB! also suffered from this kind of pacing problem.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by bastek66

Did anyone else notice that Charlotte has some terrible discussions on other sites (/a/ and MAL especially)? I mean they are full of shitposters (like one Brazillian English-illiterate who keeps reposting his shitty pictures from both sites back and forth) or fans and haters trying to outretard each other?

Series get the discussions they deserve. This says more about Charlotte itself than the people watching it.

[Marina2]

Since the orange hair girl seems to know something will happen before rushing to the scene, I guess she or one of her group members has "Time leap" power (one of abillity name shown in OP).

As for the yandere-chan......from her little screentime, she seems to be a loney person who has no friend. When that guy approched her, it made her really happy. However, after Ayumi came, that guy turned all of his attention toward Ayumi and that really upset yandere-chan. I wonder if she (and class rep, and that guy) will have screentime after this ep. or not.

[BBOvenGuy]

No way Ayumi the pizza-sauce-girl is dead. Her role in the story is just getting started. The opening title sequence features her too prominently.

I don't care much for the clingy would-be boyfriend or the box-cutter girl who's obsessed about him, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of Nomura.

[VTHokiePride]

Plot twist: the blood is actually pizza sauce and Ayumi and Yu are both alive. The girl at the end is a member of Japan's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ayumi then gets recruited to join S.H.I.E.L.D where she later becomes Quake from the Avengers.

I digress. I don't see the studio killing off Ayumi, but I can be wrong. I guess Aquaman is going to have a bigger role moving forward.

[Izumo]

Originally Posted by bastek66

Please at least no this lowest tier shitposting here. This isn't /a/ or mal.

What's the problem, I just did a little summary of the current episode but seems like telling the truth is a little too hard for some people here

The first half was ok, funny some moments specially with all the imouto thing but then the forced drama begins. A lot of people pointed the convenient Yandere and the convenient powerup of Ayumi, then the episode ends with lots of doubts.

It was forced? yes, was bad? no but still a really cheap way to move the plot.

[Blueknight78]

lol, probably i'm one of the few peoples which actually like this show, i really don't bother with lack of "super drama" for me not all shows need be super forced drama all over the place.

i like the pack and the "sper of the day" and a little foreshadow plot, this remember me a lot series like supernatural which i like, maybe this is why i also like charlotte.

i really liked this clifhanger and i hope the imoto-plot shield pop up and she still alive, because will be weird she just wake up her powers to just die like that and she is so adorable and not a "brocon" something so hard to see nowadays.

one of the points i like in charlotte is which they are trying to avoid a lot of "anime cliches" like harem, like brocon or siscon, many of "otaku" things i really not too much into, i really like how this show is handled, the fact which the mc was dumbed by the girl and no girls are "magically falling in love with mc" and others things.

i really looking foward to this show

[orion]

Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix

I'm more surprised how she could just enter the school like that, while Nao claimed that the school belongs to her benefactor.

So she can't really be with the scientists(and thus counter force to Nao's team), can she?

Maybe there's more than one faction out there.