(L+CR) Charlotte

[Akito Kinomoto]

Ah, well this episode felt a little rushed between the lack of story behind one of their 'clients' and Yu all but dropping his attitude from the first episode altogether. It knows what it wants to do, and could stand to see some improvement.

Spoiler for Episode 2:

Hoshinoumi Academy is the finest establishment available for teenagers with special abilities and teenagers who might have special abilities (might have? higher education standards my ass). Well, it's this place, or you can become a guinea pig for EEEEEEBUUULLL!!! scientists. Because adults are apparently incompetent in the animeverse


The bastards didn't build this place fast enough and now I'm kinda scarred for life as you'll see later in the episode

Yu tries to channel his inner Kyousuke Natsume in an attempt to charm everyone, but Nao one-upps him by bringing Lia into the classroom


Don't worry Yu. I prefer Eufonius myself

But he doesn't prefer what Ayumi-uguu's been feeding him for every meal-desu, thus Teleporty decides to play the savior. No guarantees on success tho


Btw, how do you rate my glasses push? Should I stand closer to the window for more LENS FLARE? Should I wear less reflective lenses for a more harmless look? Should I pronounce my middle finger more here?

And they're off!



Well the cafeteria got destroyed again, but the important thing is Teleporty has mastered his money-dunking ability. Will that be enough to pay for all the damages though?


Teleporty: Well she kinda beat the shit outta everyone a bit too much and they never saw it coming


P.A. Works: Look at us! We can use 3D movement! Aren't we awesome?!

But the student council seems to have another comrade member


Teleporty: Map Quest. For teenagers with abilities!


Beeve ga aoer cash. Esh ge im bfore sha shientists ind im. Sha ga ha Thoughtography
Yu: What


Basically, it's the ability to 'remove' clothes in a photo for an interactive dress up game. So wait, we have a guy who can possess people for five seconds, a teleporter, someone who can disappear from another's sight, and the ability to imagine people in their underwear? P.A. Works, I gotta give ya credit for at least not falling so easily into fanservice.

They force a photo buyer to spill who's been taking and selling these photos. I wouldn't mind a Nao thoughtograph tho...


Student Council! Transform and roll out!


Yeah, they didn't have the money properly animate the backstory that would've made the audience actually empathize with me!
How 'bout a job at P.A. Works?
No. Btw you're cute
Yeah I know

I seriously want a thoughtograph of Nao now



Once upon a time I lived happily with my onii-san and okasan. I got accepted into my school, and nii-san was gonna make it big as a guitarist!

...but everything changed when financial troubles attacked


And because I--er, I mean, we need the money. I know, what if I beg and grovel and make you feel like shit if you don't attend this new school? That's good parenting, right?

Nao decides to show Yu how bad things can get for people with special powers. If he didn't think twice about it before, he's gonna be musing multiple times about this now for sure



You see, this is happens when you don't abuse your powers responsibly. You end up with a bunch of coats that steal it, test it, package it, and before you know it they've used it. Used it. Used it all up before they even realize what they had


P.A. Works: Look at how symbolic we are with the feathers and sunset lighting! Check out Nao's totally indifferent expression to show how normal this depressing situation is for her! Seriously



He lost his high and mighty attitude in a single episode. I'd be suspicious too


Remember kids: abuse your special abilities responsibly. If a scientists wants to do experiments with you, remember 'that's no good'!

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

That's just loud/explosive Key slapstick comedy, in my view. Perhaps it stands out more here since it tends to come in short bursts, and doesn't tend to take over large chunks of full episodes.

But I think we're supposed to take these scenes as visually exaggerated and as pure comedy. It also makes Yuu's little car accident stunt from Episode 2 look maybe less serious in retrospect, for me.

Key sometimes has comedy moments like these - Little Busters! had it. Angel Beats! had it. It's probably best to just roll with the absurdity and assume nobody got seriously hurt.

True...in Angel Beats because of the world setting I found myself able to roll with it super quick (like the fishing scene).

And yeah, LitBus had somewhst similar material too, now that you mention it, and it did not bother me much. Maybe I will get used to it in this series too? Who knows.... ^^

I have been noticing that I am coming to this series thus far with a bit more seriousness, I guess, and that is coloring the data I take in. For example, it allows me to "appreciate" more of Nao and her backstory as well as the setting being drawn up in general. And it colors other things too.

Also, one of the things about people with mini super powers is that defaults for super hero settings I have that it brings into the mix - namely the emphasis on normal folk alongside the super powered ones, and also the emphasis on their need to be protected and their physical fragility in comparison. That was part of the reason I was so disgusted at the save from the truck scene last ep and why tossing everyone into the air this ep may have fallen so flat at first for me?

Again though, we will see. I think the series is still carving out the path in which it will tread, in a way.

[Iron Maw]

Heh, this show sort of like Japanese version of X-men only without the capes and suits. I had already liked Nao in ep 1, but I do even moreso after this week. The comedy in general is a bit hit and miss, but it worked for me for the most part.

[dark998]

Only episode 2 and already going full dive with Nao's backstory and also the parallels with Yu. Comedy-wise very similar to Angel Beats (great, of course) and shows plenty of potential for the main plotline as well.

OP is fantastic, the visuals are so crisp they almost hurt my eyes and the new Lia song is much better than My Soul, Your Beats. ED is simply there, nothing noteworthy but gets the job done.

[FateAnomaly]

So that other ability user is just allowed to continue his life as long as he doesn't use his ability again but the MC has to be forced to join the enforcers? Who decide these things?

Nao's mother sold her kids to scientists for financial aid huh.

While the character have their main ability I think they have secondary abilities as well. The instantaneous movement (I don't consider it teleportation) guy is resistant to physical damage, have super reflexes and can cancel inertia (he can drop the coins in the tray). The MC can also switch out consciousness while running without injuring himself so he resistant to physical damage to a lesser extent.

[IceHism]

Why are we criticizing scientists when it makes sense. If superpowers exist, Scientists would definitely try to obtain a person to experiment on them if they had it. Especially the really ambitious and greedy scientists. Human rights is something they don't mind trampling on if its for science on say... the ability to jam airwaves and other amazing things.

Anyways, the comedy in the first half is meh. but the second half was okay.

[BloodyKitty]

I'm with the people who think the show was a little overdone with the scientists' actions, though this was all told through Nao's POV and in her eyes all of the things the scientists did to her brother are definitely evil. I wonder if somebody else's perspective is shown, the truth might actually be more different.

So far all people who've got supernatural abilities are all having difficulties in life, either they're very poor or their family is sick (the archery captain). Maybe that's one of the conditions their abilities were triggered.

[xatom12]

Spoiler for Omakes:

Sad machine connection

[serenade_beta]

It's not uncommon in anime, but scientists really are so often made into the bad guys of the show. Yeah, as if most scientists are really greedy scumbags that would do anything to further their research...

[ronelm2000]

iirc Clannad had somewhat the same visual slapstick

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

It's not uncommon in anime, but scientists really are so often made into the bad guys of the show. Yeah, as if most scientists are really greedy scumbags that would do anything to further their research...

Although to be fair this is from Nao's POV, which means therr may be other kinds of scientists out there...

[cyth]

The jokes actually did it for me this time, but boy is the evil scientist plot foundation contrived. Others have already elaborated enough on this point. The "one person" probably is some rich guy that runs the school or whatever, probably somehow connected to Yuu's other family member.

This isn't a repeat of Angel Beats! That show had at least sound foundations. This is just lazy world building. I thought the animation was great, especially the cafeteria scene was beautifully detailed. It was a watershed moment for me seeing so many bodies in one shot, something which rarely happens in TV anime. The OP is beautiful too.

Once again I feel like talent wasted on chuunibyou-esque, high school dreck. Hopefully this is a one-time thing for P.A.Works, coming this close to following along the footsteps of KyoAni's culture of creating beautiful yet creatively bankrupt shows.

Maeda is a hack. Dropped.

[ookamigirl]

Getting to know his new environment.
There seem to be all kinds of weird powers.
New mission presented itself.
It was fun watching them in action ^^
Those three make a good team.
Nao's life story was interesting, but also kinda sad too.
Very good episode!

[MeoTwister5]

Wow they kinda piled on the drama pretty thick pretty early. I don't recall a Key story dumping it on this early into the story. Hopefully this doesn't turn into another Angel Beats ! issue of stuffing everything together due to having too few episodes for the story it wants.

[Sixth]

Evil Scientists? Sound familiars...Oh, Index.

[Tranhieu]

So much Index vibe in this episode!

There's quite some potential though, hopefully Yu will change into someone with better character.

[Iron Maw]

At this point I really want to know the title has do with anything. I thought we might have gotten a clue in ep 2 (such as the appearance of the titular character), but nada. It's really weird.

[Botan_TM]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

At this point I really want to know the title has do with anything. I thought we might have gotten a clue in ep 2 (such as the appearance of the titular character), but nada. It's really weird.

Maybe it's like Code Geass "Orange" if you know what I mean

Word dropped for no reason to let people speculate and look for hidden meaning and so on.

[ices]

Maybe the name refer to a Japanese pop punk band.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Charlotte (しゃるろっと?) was an oshare kei rock band with their concept based around "school"; their official homepage titled "Yokohama Charlotte School" and their visual style consisting of school uniforms. This was reflected in their music which was light hearted punk rock.

[Aspirety]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

At this point I really want to know the title has do with anything. I thought we might have gotten a clue in ep 2 (such as the appearance of the titular character), but nada. It's really weird.

My guess is that it's referring to the comet mentioned at the end of the episode.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by IceHism

Why are we criticizing scientists when it makes sense. If superpowers exist, Scientists would definitely try to obtain a person to experiment on them if they had it. Especially the really ambitious and greedy scientists. Human rights is something they don't mind trampling on if its for science on say... the ability to jam airwaves and other amazing things.

Anyways, the comedy in the first half is meh. but the second half was okay.

People have been experimenting on human beings in real life, and they get called out on it too even if they have ambitious goals because they've been part of the most disgusting parts of human history and many lives have been ruined in the vague pursuit of "progress". In a lot of cases people were just curious and were doing it for the fuck of it (World War II) So it may make sense only if you eschew all those details of something as minor as human rights. But there's something more practical. Even if we got useful results, we can still criticize the process.

Besides, it's clear that the results are very certain that they don't know what they're doing that well. What happens if they drive one of their subjects insane [which mind you, actually happened], and the subject starts a massacre that kills many? Who's going to take the responsibility of it? There's always risk in what you do.

Anyhow, the criticism is not because of MADO SCIENTIST but in the hilariously one sided presentation (featuring that silly pretentious battery humans line) of scientists being seemingly unilaterally evil which would have justified their point if they even put a dash of thoughtfulness in wording it. But then again this seems typical from the other shows I've watched from these folks. When you try to draw sympathy and paint the antagonists in such a ridiculous light, it can often backfire because it comes across as a strawman.