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「これからの記録」 (Korekara no Kiroku)
“Memories to Come”
The finale is here, and so is Otosaka Yuu’s version of Around the World in 80 Days. For the most part it ends up pretty straight forward, and I’m honestly at a loss as to what to say here. Contrary to expectations, there weren’t any major twists—we all knew something was going to happen to Yuu as a result of this—and aside from the occasional gun-play, no real hitch in his plans either. Everything goes pretty smoothly, and a little too smoothly at that.
Considering the sheer scope of his goal and the things needed to ensure his success, Yuu manages to accomplish his objective in doing so in a mere 15 minutes of screen time, and he’s helped in part by some rather amazing coincidences in regards to the ability users he runs into. Not only does he meet someone with the ability to read minds off the bat, he immediately runs into another user who can locate ability users just by looking at a map, and he follows it up with the acquisition of the ability to translate languages, force awaken latent abilities from carriers to plunder, and even go without sleep. The fact that such powers exist aren’t beyond the realm of possibility given what we’ve seen, but the fact he’s seemingly able to find them just when he needs to highlights how much they tried to fit into this one episode.
What this leads us back to are the pacing issues that have plagued this series since the beginning, and needless to say, there’s no time to really digest what’s happening here. What could’ve been an interesting journey around the world (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders did this right) is instead reduced to a series of uncharacteristically boring anecdotes for someone like Maeda Jun, and it ultimately boiled down to a guy slowly going crazy and crying in the middle of a desert while obsessing over a stack of paper.
Yuu’s slow decent into madness ends up eliciting little to no emotional reaction due to its rapid and awkward resolution, and the happy ending bit comes in as yet another resolution in the same category. The fact that Tomori never really got the phasing out we wanted only hurts the connection we were supposed to have with her, Yuu, and the rest of the cast, and it’s also a bit odd that Tomori’s brother ends up receiving the same resolution as the other timeline despite what happened to Yuu this time around. It’s nice that they addressed him, but it doesn’t change the fact that his plot line was just one of many that could’ve benefited from more episodes.
Final Impressions Below.
ED4 Sequence
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Final Impressions:
And so, 13 episodes later, where does Charlotte leave us? Expectations-wise, it’s officially safe to say that the series was a disappointment. The presence of a large budget, great animation backing, and the writing prowess of Maeda Jun was something to be excited about, and although it may not have been his choice to have only one-cour, it doesn’t change the fact that the story as a whole was uncharacteristically sloppy for one of his works. Poor pacing was by far the worst issue to plague the series, with it’s negative effects felt on the characters (whom we rarely connected with or felt for), and on the plot’s execution in general. Situations were frequently resolved improperly or in a rushed fashion, which only exasperated the issues at hand.
That said, there were some glimpses of potential, however few and far between they were. Episodes 7 to 9 in particular were probably the best moments for this series, and it was between those few episodes where one realized how much they could’ve done with this show and the relationship between Tomori and Yuu. With that in mind, Charlotte comes in as a reminder to keep one’s expectations in check. The latter certainly played a part in the disappointment felt by myself and many others, and it’s important to note that despite all the issues people have had with this show, it’s still a series that I feel averages out as equivalent to the typical seasonal offering. There were many series this season and this year that were ultimately worse than Charlotte by far, and I suppose at this point it’s all about looking forward, and as a relevant link, it should be noted that Key’s Rewrite Visual Novel has been green-lit for an adaptation.
Finally, let me end things here by once again thanking everyone who’s taken their time to read/comment on this blog week in and week out, and I hope you will continue to do so. As for myself, I will be taking a hiatus from weekly coverage starting next season to focus again on work, with the intent of returning in the spring or summer. Until then, I’d like to take this time to thank those who have followed me in particular over the past few years, and I hope you guys look forward to the other posts I will contribute to or create in the meanwhile, with the winter preview and the Best of Anime posts being two of those. Thanks!
Not that memorable, but at leaat Charlotte ended on a happy ending.
Next Key’s project is gonna be either a hit or failure since it will be under 8-bit studio.
Could have went back in time to save Kumagami and repeated the same journey except his brother wouldn’t have had to deal with Kumagami’s death. Regardless of his reason, that’s like saying if someone else had the plundering ability instead and didn’t save Ayumi. Just so disappointed, couldn’t really feel any emotional connection in 20 minutes…
I agree. Not only could he go back to save Kumagami, but he could have gone back when he was a child and saved everyone if he wanted to (and most likely healed his brother’s eyes too). But I guess that would have made everything too easy.
He can’t save him anymore because his powers are gone.
i hope the makers didn’t decide ‘not to save him’ so that they didn’t have to extend another episode, ‘cuz if that was the case then i guess those who didn’t enjoy the show has a reason now
I don’t know about the rest, but I didn’t find Charlotte to be a disappointment. Rather, for me it was easily one of the best shows of this season. Yep, I know it had it’s flaws and all, but I found this ride pretty satisfactory.
About this ending, I think it could have been MUCH better if they gave to it two or three more episodes to work Yuu’s mental condition. Doing all the world trip in mere fifteen minutes wasn’t nearly enough. However, seeing all of his struggle and the happy end with Tomori still brought a tear to my eye, and I found the last minutes something pretty warm and beautiful.
There’ll be an OVA next year and I hope it’ll bring some more closure to the series, since a season 2 is unlikely and unneeded. Also, I’ll be lookin foward the Rewrite adaption (maybe I’ll play the novel while the anime isn’t out).
I’m glad someone else enjoyed it too, haha. I loved the series, despite the action being only in the last few episodes – but I enjoyed all the time it put into character relations.
I was moved by Yuu’s madness, and even more by Nao’s reaction to his memory-loss at the end.
I was actually a fan of this ending. It redeemed the rest of the series for me. I was fully ready to rag on the show after the events of ep 11 and 12. Granted, ep 13 should have been stretched out over at least 2-3 episodes, but it was surprising that they were able to tell a complete story, and resolve it, in the episodes we did get! That doesn’t happen too often anymore (heck, it doesn’t happen when series get 24-26 episodes sometimes, sadly).
I will say, as a positive, that the characters did undergo a noticeable change. That’s something else we don’t see often. The characters from the beginning would not have made the same decisions that those at the end made. But yes, those pacing issues. I can see why they didn’t have the MC heal his eye and go that route, but it seems a bit lackluster and mildly disingenuous. If nothing, the return of depth perception would probably have been nice, lol!
A few missed notes, here and there; but then again, I’m someone who can enjoy a show on potential, so long as the ending resolved in a relatively satisfying manner. This show did that, so I would certainly say this is one of the better shows to come out in the past few seasons, overall.
so thats it?……i will be in my room now….
Yeah, unfortunately, all the extremely convenient happenings just killed a lot of the tenseness and drama there could have been.
When Ayumi actually died, I hoped thought that things would get more interesting, especially given they had a whole episode dedicated to Yu just falling apart and Nao having to slap some sense back into him…….only to conveniently be brought to his older brother who conveniently has a time traveling ability while Yu’s own convenient “true” power was being able to steal other abilities, allowing him to take that convenient time traveling ability to go back in time and conveniently save Ayumi, thus making that whole episode of depression, recovery, and development between him and Nao utterly pointless (putting them back together without recovering that level of development makes it feel more cheap/forced)…
And on top of all that, there’s the fact that he is now seeming to live happily and peacefully, despite having amnesia, when you’d think, even knowing he stole so many abilities, that there would be countless black ops groups, criminal organizations, etc. after him (and those around him, especially given none of them have any abilities to protect themselves with anymore) now that his face is known pretty much all over the world, especially given his apparent and very public actions while he was asleep at times (and people even came to know almost instantly who he was upon encountering him).
I could probably give some forgiveness if Yu had ended up dying from an overload of abilities destroying his brain (thus there would truly be no more ability wielders at the present time) rather than simple amnesia, thus giving it a bittersweet ending, but the way this tries to end on such a “perfect” happy ending note…yeah…it feels lame.
Umm… so it is over? Lets move on to other shows then. I will pretend this show never existed and Maeda Jun latest works (anime) still Little Busters!. *sigh
I am happy it’s actually over. I enjoyed the series but seeing the main character stress and suffer like that this whole episode with no one else by his side made me just want this episode over and done with instead of seeing him go more and more insane. It was actually quite hard to watch.
Charlotte as a whole series was good in my opinion but it sure has a lot of aspects that could have been improved on. Like for example his friends like Yusa didn’t really help contribute much to the story. They were there in the start but seemed to have disappeared when times got really tough. They were supposed to be the main characters. It was their faces that promoted this show on posters and trailers. So it was quite disappointing to see them not contributing much to the darker side of the story.
Overall I’m happy it ended on a happier note. I did get emotional when Otosaka forgot who Tomori was and the card showed ‘I’m home”. Well done Charlotte for stirring so much emotion in me.
Hmm, the map shows a small portion of Manila in there. Hey I was born nearby. nyohoho
There’s a hint of “Pasig River” in there.
Had a few chuckles at the “Matatag na Republika” (Strong Republic) license plate on the car that Yuu gets into, as well as the storefront sign(?) advertising “Motolite” (a local car battery brand–most foreigners might also recognize it as one of Manny Pacquiao’s sponsors whenever he has a boxing match).
Makes me wonder if Jun Maeda (or any of his fellow staff) did visit the Philippines to scout those locations for the show.
Okay. What Zephyr has said basically echoes my thoughts in this series since episode 6.The way Charlotte handled its characters plus its awful pacing lead to its crush amidst the unrealistic hype that we have upon its airing.
As for the last episode:
1. Just how a passport can get that powerful that he was able to cross all countries in the world for let’s say, two years? LOL. All the story devices in this episode were presented to move the plot conveniently. Oh God.
2. Was Shun’s arrival to save Yuu a Deus Ex Machina just to reach a happy ending? It felt like one for me.
3. A cute Nao is cute but the change in her characterization really felt abrupt.
4. At least, it featured Yu’s descent to madness.
5. IS THAT REALLY IT?! IT FELT LIKE AN END IN THE MIDCOUR OF A SHOW?! Darn it.
Just to add: Episodes 9 and 12 are really good.
I didn’t like the ending either, but I took Yuu’s rapid travel to mean he was moving outside the system; i.e., he was flying like Superman to each country directly instead of bothering with customs and immigration.
oh yeah I just noticed an obvious plothole:
in the last scenes, they showed nao’s brother recovering using sala’s song like in the original timeline. this would be all fine and dandy, except that sala has literally no reason to know or care about the dude, she only went there thanks to yuu, and literally only yuu knew about her specialty in recovering. so how did they figure out it would heal him?
but thats not the plothole that im referring to.
what im referring to, is why the hell did they not use her song to recover yuu’s memories AGAIN. like, if they could somehow figure out that sala does that, why dont they bring yuu back to her or try to get her to sing to yuu?
There are a lot of plot holes regarding Sala Shane I think.
1. How Sala’s song can awaken Yuu’s memories?
2. What is the connection between Sala and Yuu (or to some extend Yuu’s brother)
3. How Nao’s brother meet with Sala in current timeline? (he met with Sala by Yuu’s help in previous timeline)?
I am not intending to be cynical, but this show seems doesn’t care about plot at all(or lack of). As long everyone happy in the end, every deus ex machinas imaginable are used in this episode. This show made Guilty Crown’s plot like a masterpiece.
Maybe this memory recovery from the music will be saved for the bonus episode in March?
Resolve:
After his first Time Leap, no one believed in him that this Singer triggered his Lost/Deleted memories back. And Yuu stopped telling anymore. So they all know just that. Nothing more, they do not have their Detector anymore, and also we know that she already “burnout” her skill (She is blind, too). So only Yuu could help her out. And perhaps in the Bed of the Hospital he said to Nao to give her Brother the Musicplayer. That could happen Offscreen or got cut out in the crunch all into episode 13
.. or someone read here and there, and put this small changes into the Episode. Like the Carriers, Yuu possibility to regain Time Leap (And why he do not want to use it) and Nao’s brother
Some good stuff, some bad stuff.
It’s a solid 7/10 I guess.
Could be better with all these potentials though.
It really wasn’t uncharacteristically sloppy for Maeda – Angel Beats was hardly any less sloppy than this. He just isn’t cut out for anime scripts, and it’s quite sad that PA Works get saddled with his lesser material, instead of being given the chance to show their abilities adapting of the VNs he worked on instead. They did the best they could, but he either didn’t bring his (for a second time) or again he’s just not cut out for this and should go back to making VNs where his writing limitations are more forgivable.
Yuu’s very blind brother drops in via helicopter, somehow finding him in the biggest, most populous country in the world, to save him right in the knick of time!
He must have another secret power he hasn’t told us about. That, or he was able to hone into Yuu’s location by the the power of sheer COURAGE.
Charlotte, in my opinion, lived up to its namesake. Having promised something mysterious and thoughtful behind its title, Charlotte ended up being just like its short-period plot device comet – unmemorable, randomly named, and poorly executed.
lol like seriously, COURAGE is an ability now? and why was it the last ability anyway? they could have just given the girl a generic power since yuu is gonna take it, or have another kind of ability that would wrap up nicely as a conclusion(like memory type that would let yuu restore his, or have him get the healing power last).
like, what’s the purpose of courage when its already the last ability? makes more sense to let him get it somewhere in the middle of his journey when he loses hope.
After he plunder he ability, he became Stable.. it was something to regain the control of his Sanity, to calm down the Voices and Dark side.. So it was more there for Yuu’s sanity, nothing more
we can practically list as many plotholes and unanswered questions about this anime as the number of powers Yuu supposedly plundered. It’d probably be easier to name the plot points that actually do make coherent sense
The Girl wanted to call for Help… But okay, how fast he was there for Yuu, is a bit troublesome
When the MC is almighty, anything can happen in the show
maybe Yuu also had the power to show his location on the radar , Ha Ha Ha HA!!!
true that was convenient but i didn’t see shuu really in that much of a trouble i can think of so many ways he could avoid it. But i guess this is one way of the creators saying: “lets just let shuu go into a situation where he’s useless despite having 1000 abilities that could stop it (such as premonition), so that at the same time his brother can find him instead of going to the hassle of making another episode just to look for him etc…” Just an excuse for the makers to end the episode ‘cuz no matter how you look at it the ending was rushed, probably could have continued for a few more episodes but probably ran out of creativity or got disappointed on the ratings/ comments given to the anime. tsk.
I liked the show in parts, but early episodic pacing problems and the wrapping up of potential plot routes just ruined the experience for me.
Nowhere were these issues best defined than the denoument following Yuu’s sister’s death. For example, Charlotte could have taken this line all the way and created a story not unlike Steins;Gate where Yuu is forced into a spiral of failure, slowly losing himself physically and mentally. Instead we have the arc solved near perfectly, forcing the show to try to create some conflict regarding Yuu’s brother and terrorists, only to similarly solve that conflict as well. The result of all this of course is the finale here that does nothing but highlight all the faults present since Charlotte’s midpoint.
If Charlotte had stuck to just one of the three themes discussed above and used its time to properly flesh out and explore it there wouldn’t be much to criticize. All the pieces were here for something good, but the writing simply failed in creating a tight and smooth story; IMO Charlotte is good example of trying to cram too much into a finite space.
Overall not the worst show of the season, but certainly one of the bigger disappointments.
They even introduced new characters that have significant impacts in the very last episode. That is sloppy writing right there. This series is over-convoluted and honestly does not realize its potentials with its large cast of characters. For example, all the power-wielders in episodes 2, 3 and 5, whatever happens to them? They just appear one time and we never see them again. A good ending would be to have them standing by Yuu’s side in the final battle.
The plot is a mess. There are a lot of random contents that don’t tie together. The pacing sucks, very slow at the beginning and awfully quick towards the end.
It is also NOT a tragedy we expect from the people who made Clannad, Air and Angel Beats.
For the very least, the animation looks great and the soundtracks are pretty amazing.
Overall score is 6 out of 10.
actually it’s interesting; when Tomori said she knew about his power all along and thats why she had him steal the powers of the people they encountered, I went back to check the episodes, and indeed he did
even the baseball guy; who still had it after the game, she told him to take him over at the end “to test something”
ouch… the drama happened so fast tears evaporated from my eyes…
I have to say that Charlotte is a disappointment as well. I was looking forward to this series thinking it was going to be the series of the century agter watching angel beats! But i was wrong. This has to be one of Jun Maeda’s worst works in my opinion. It could’ve been so much more.
The final episode was…meh.. i mean. It did not evoke any emotions from me other than me thinking, “with this series done on randomC what am i going to comment on now??” I only have the next series to look forward to!! I also thought that Yuu crossing the country and getting ALL of the power users was too unrealistic. But, what can you do??
I also heard REWRITE was getting an anime!! At least we have that to look forward to right everyone?? Thanks for all the posts Zephyr!!! SEE U NEXT SERIES!! (*^u^*)
This episode made me feel like “Meh. Well, onto the next season.” This series wasn’t bad it just had horrific pacing. I was expecting much more from Jun Maeda but hey, beggers can’t be choosers. Charlotte was a good series up until the end. Also, aI’ll be waiting for you in the spring when you return Zephyr!!
from start to the end i still dont like Nao and i dont even know why.
her character just feel soooo inconsistent
The Singapore airport terminal in the anime is a replica of the real one. They did make an effort to make it as realistic as possible.
I really enjoyed how Charlotte and Classroom Crisis both started with a very seemingly stereotypical plot and setting at first and became something so much more. While it seems a bit risky to start a series off like that the turning point of these series were made that much more exciting because of them IMO.
So for all the disappointments others had I found this a very enjoyable series!
Sylar from heroes detonated himself as a living nuke after collecting all the abilities.
Yuu got a happy end after pludering all the abilities, and just lost memories.
Both shows got shit ending. I was expecting seppuku at least..
Is that what happened at the end? I skipped the rest of the last season, as it was just ridiculous.
The new season looks ok, but has some of the same problems as the first series.
Yuu lost the memory about Nao, yes. But there was no Visual proof that he forgotten his Plunder Abilities. in the Episode there where only 2 Critical Boil scenes, where ne nearly Lost himself to the Voices inside his Head. But after awaken in the Hospital Bed, he was calm, just his memory for Nao is gone. Perhaps this little Girl he “plunder” calmed or helped to Silent the other Voices inside his Head
After he collected Claire’s regeneration he started to change, eventually became “good” like Yuu does after getting “courage” from that girl, then he was asked to help out with dangerous guy who was emitting radiation to around anything and everything he touched. After he dealt with that guy was killed and Sylar got the power, eventually some drama occurred (i can’t recall what) and in fit on anger he lost control of his radiation power, like again Yuu did with collapse he took from his sister, and basically turned his entire body into nuclear bomb and went boom.
It’s very, very similar to Charlotte ending, only more deaths.
Just search on youtube “heroes sylar goes boom”
nah, you told me all I need to know about the Heroes finale, Dwarg!
Honestly I don’t feel like Charlotte was disappointing. Yes there were pacing issues but I don’t think they show’d up until the end of episode 6 at the earliest and even then I’d say the pacing didn’t really become a problem until the end of episode 9.
That said I enjoyed the anime. The first five episodes were a nice way to introduce us to the cast and let us get to know them as was the beginning of the plot. I only really started having problems once Yuu regained his memories and saved Ayumi and even then my issues were more with the pacing than the plot itself.
Solid 8/10. It’s nice the best anime out there but I wouldn’t say it’s bad either.
*not the best anime
Just want to say that by the end of this series, the emotional attachment between Yuu and Nao was pretty weak. I think the relationship he had with Nao pre-timeskip after healing her brother had me empathize with them a lot better. You really felt the connection and consideration they had for helping each other. Post-timeskip all the way til the end, it just felt dry; even Nao’s confession that she’s his lover felt like it came out of nowhere as opposed to being built up, like the pre-timeskip version =0(.
This. Was. Terrible.
i got the felling, that they try to Pack an “planed” 2nd Season stuff, all in this Last Episode. So many Placed he visit, so many Screen time. They had to cut many pre production stuff, to pack it into this. Sadly the pacing was to fast.
Introduce us the “Carriers”, only played a role in this Camp where he found this out.
First, they where just Text Notes for him, then it began to be some sort of “Religion Necklace”. He forgotten who give it to him or when, but he feels it is something important to him. Believing or Faith. Nice Played. And Item to hold his Sanity in check
and…(I quote my reddit posting)
Oh, yes i forgot something Important
Yuu said this Ability Users are Sick. Remember he forced these Carriers to grow their Ability, because he used an Ability that “worse” and Sickness. That was a No Go for me. Perhaps here force the growing of the wielder would be more “neutral”, they are not Sick, they are no Pest and Cholera wielders.. Please next time a bit more tact here
Some of this episode’s locations just seemed really arbitrary, like “some city in Britain” with Big Ben in the background, or “some city in Sicily”, but they could use Manhattan, NY for some reason.
The helicopter at the end was a total wtf moment, well that whole scene was. he just ignored the guy shooting him…ok. And the last power was courage? So he took that away why? Like why is courage even recognized as an “ability”. Sort of like, he took that girl’s healing power because I guess he’s a completist, rather than just let her grow out of it and continue healing people, cause go forbid she do that.
Or at the very least he could’ve healed his damn eye, so people wouldn’t recognize him as the “one-eye reaper”, but once he started going crazy suddenly, he probably would’ve used his time traveling power.
Speaking of which, why not try and blend in instead of wearing the same old clothes and stick out like a “one-eyed reaper”!
God, some of this came off as so stupid and not at all thought out.
Well that was a disaster.
This final episode alone could, and should have been at least 1 cour by itself, following his journey and slow erosion but steady erosion of his mind. But oh well.
I also noticed that they did not clear up the plot hole of Yuu remembering the first timeline, which he should have no reason to. The show even brings it up in its later episodes as if to say “Yo, pay attention this gonna be important later” except it isn’t.
I would have defended this show to the death in it’s early half and still think it was quite enjoyable. The latter half was just the scribbles of a madman, even worse than Angel Beats.
I think it has all the confusing writing of AB!’s ending with none of the potential for satisfaction. AB!’s ending has and will continue to give a great experience for many viewers while also causing many to hate the show – the divisive reaction is one of my favourite things, and it gets even more interesting if you relate that division with the show’s actual themes.
Charlotte’s ending just sucks. Nothing that makes you look back at the show in a different way. Nothing interesting theme or character wise. Another reset and an abrupt character change in Nao, all following a Desu ex Machina helicopter. It doesn’t just suck; it doesn’t feel like Maeda at all. He ends his stories with a consideration of the whole, not a rejection of it.
At least this show has helped me to even further understand why its valid that people hate on my favourite Jun Maeda work. If people saw AB!’s ending like this (and if you aren’t fully invested in the characters in certain ways, you likely will, and that’s Maeda’s big flaw), no wonder it gets such low ratings sometimes.
As part of the celebration of REWRITE anime green-lit let’s all SING YO-SHI-NO!!
I like Charlotte more than Angel Beats! Charlotte doesn’t leave me scratching my head like Angel Beats! did. And I see a certain ambition in Yuu’s character arc that I didn’t see with any character in Angel Beats!
is that you TripleR?
also no. otonashi had tons more ambition than yuu would ever have. while yuu makes objections, ultimately he just gets swept by whoever else(nao, shu) unlike otonashi who takes to join kanade who didnt ask for his help in the first place. yuu just does what people want him to do.
Otonashi – is the generic Key/Visual Novel/self-insert MC
Otonashi ambition, best joke, you like characters self-insert
Otanashi pet of Yurippe,Hinata and all the other characters. not learned a damn thing with them.
He decided to think with your dick to help Kanade, acting of completely selfish and childish way in the last episode.
Just admit that you can not deal with characters that are not self-insert, with pretty face, friendly that make everything right.
Wow, the above post was even more confusingly insulting than Charlotte’s finale.
@amado
We’ve learned a lot about Otonashi’s past but I never quite grasped his personality. Well, possibly because he doesn’t have one. The past Otonashi was grumpy and emo but not all that bad. The current Otonashi is just your typical 10-penny harem lead with the personality of a saint. Otonashi is generic as hell and the definition of a self-insert character!
KyousukeT, if you connect the past Otonashi to the purposefully bland and withdrawn one we see for most of the show, you find the true depth and personality of his character. Trying to work out how he fits into he programmer talked about in the penultimate episode is vital to understanding him, and acknowledging the fact that Show Spoiler ▼
is also important. The main point of the ending is to go back over the blandness of how he appeared and redefine it with a fuller understanding of who and what he was.
One of the things I love about his character is that its divided between many ‘characters’ – Afterlife Otonashi, Past Otonashi, and Afterlife Kanade. That’s not something you get often in anime, and it’s a really cool touch that reminds me of other characters who are characterized by a group – Ramona Flowers, for instance, in Scott Pilgrim.
”amado”. You is retarded?
– amado ”otonashi had tons more ambition than yuu would ever have.”
– Answer:
AB = haremshit.
tons of ambition?
Interact with several girls, in order for create routes for a future Eroge/Visual Novel/?
– Read the KyousukeT comment.
It is a very simple and easy to understand description, even for you, who has serious mental problems.
”The current Otonashi is just your typical 10-penny harem lead with the personality of a saint. Otonashi is generic as hell and the definition of a self-insert character!”
you guys are just blinded by the first episode bait.
during that, sure yuu had some “ambition”. after that though, what was he? he made complaints, but ultimately he was just the same as otonashi as a reluctant worker. both werent really full in with their respective group, but while the best way yuu could do about it was just voice his complaints, only otonashi had taken actions of his own will and not just because he was ordered to do stuff like yuu has been doing the whole show.
and you guys are implying that yuu isnt a nice guy who does things for everyone else… except, that this episode along with previous episodes. the only difference is that yuu sometimes goes mad, but you cant argue the fact that in the end he does things “for the betterment of everyone” and not for himself.
he might have some more “characteristics” than otonashi, but he’s a ton more weak and wimpy. also he’s said to be smart on his own… yet he’s fucked up in a ton of ways before the finale and requires someone to guide him on what to do. he’s a much more doormat character.
also im pretty sure you’re the retard here Cr7. you cant even make a proper sentence.
lots of girls = harem? nope. the only girl that was interested in otonashi was kanade, maybe yuri if you squint hard.
amado
really it’s hard to argue with a person who is a retarded fanboy of Angel Beats! a haremshit, with a generic self insert MC, that interacts with girls, to create routes for: Visual Novel/Eroge.
Angel Beats! was created to be a future reverse adaptation: Anime >>>> Visual Novel/Eroge.
besides you being a yurifag disgusting, it is not for nothing that you firmly believe in their own hallucinations and delusions created through his unsound mind.
Otonashi is a generic self insert MC/harenshit , Otonashi was created to retarded people with you and otakus loser, self insert up in character, and satisfy their pleasures to the imagining up interacting, with your favorite waifushit.
People has difficulties in deal with characters, that act like real humans, ie those characters who feature failures, have fear, feel insecurity, inconstant, have conflicts, lack of confidence, who make mistakes, who feel physical pains, that make wrong decisions, that commit misconceptions.
Because they are accustomed and prefer the traditionals generics self-insert MC (gary-stutard, haremshit, Key/Maeda, shounentard, Kiritotard, mary-sueshit).
MCs – friendly, perfect, good boy, saints, who does not feel physical and emotional pain, with convenience plot, which do not commit error, which interact with waifushit, do not feel fear, feel no doubts, has no conflicts. that is, those characters that do not have negative cacacteristicas present in them, which is very common and any real human being.
Key and Maeda – The two have always made use of generic self insert MCs in his works, because their target audience has always been ”losers otakus”, are that largest consumers of the their products.
They have always used the self generic insert MCs, They are designed to be MCs of Visual Novel / eroge.
Yuu ep. 01 was better than the entirety of Otonashi!
Yuu ep. 07 was better than the entirety of Otonashi!
Yuu ep. 13 was better than the entirety of Otonashi!
The episode 13 had enough material to make a new season, which again would be infinitely better than the haremshit garbage called ABshit.
Yuu is the first MC created by Maeda/Key, fleeing this stereotype of MC.
In addition to Charlotte not be a haremshit how other works created by Key and Maeda, Yuu is not perfect, pleasant and Holy like the other generic self insert MCs, used by Maeda/key in his earlier works.
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About Tomori.
Nao is the female version of Slaine Troyard.
Nao is another fucking of character who acts as pet and is obsessed by his master, ideals and teachings.
Nao of shit, throws away the his life and his own will, to be become a retarded, which is obsessed with fucking teachings and ideals of his master.
Which acts as a pet retarded, when receiving a compliment and a pat on the head of his master.
of the first episode until the moment she decided to leave the MC steal your skill, Nao was just a heroine of Hentai-NTR or a pet, which only followed the teachings and ideals of his master as well as his orders.
Again a fucking benefactor who saved his life when was child, more the fucking torture and bullying shit, all over again.
The lack of creativity is frightening, copying one or other.
but this time we did not have many complaints or hatred because the character in question was a waifushit with retarded facial expressions.
Cr7, I’m so happy Maeda doesn’t write his shows for people like you. As long as you keep hating on them without the basic ability to string a sentence correctly, I’ll feel like I’m doing the right thing in enjoying them.
It’s a cartoon, kid. Calm down.
going straight for ad hominem attacks and insults huh? I also love how you assume that I like harem and self insert, when I prefer 1 to 1 pairings and I try to avoid watching harem.
yeah its pretty clear here that you have no idea what you’re talking about. I bet you’re just mad that more people dislike charlotte over angel beats.
I even admitted that yuu has some character… but whats the fucking point when it all amounted to nothing? yuu had the manipulative coy and selfish character at the start, but after that he IS just your generic reluctant good guy. otonashi was also a reluctant good guy, if you even bothered to check the show. both of them got pulled in by a group that they didnt intend to join at the start, both of them also express their confusion and make questions about what’s the point of the group’s decisions.
yuu had grown another character, but that was an insane and mad yuu, not the conniving yuu that we were introduced from the beginning. the yuu introduced was a douche, but he didnt show the makings of a sociopath like they showed in the middle of a show. to top it all off, it was just one episode before yuu becomes your “generic haremshit/self-insert” who does things for the benefit of others.
just cause yuu is different doesnt make him any better as a character. and yuu was far from realistic.
you mean to tell me that yuu, who was shown as a cunning guy that does things for his benefit, just complies with being part of the student council? like shit dude, this guy doesnt like work. they cant even force him, or what they will kick him and ayumi from their school? for a guy who seems to just want an easy life, he shouldnt relent this easily.
also, going from depressed to being a maniac is realistic? what? oh sure, its not impossible but it is UNLIKELY to happen most of the time. just like its UNLIKELY for someone to be as nice as otonashi, which you hate, but you dont hate that yuu was going overboard?
the only one that was vaguely realistic was the final episode, which is understandable since the stress of powers often corrupt the mind, as well as him slowly losing his memories, so a change in character was justified.
also funny that you complain about haremshit, when yuu actually has more of a harem than otonashi. first episode has him being popular to the girls with some even confessing to him.
and why are you mentioning nao? I havent talked about her character at all. but yeah I agree that nao’s not quite good person, but she’s a lot more consistent and more realistic character than yuu.
I agree with Cristiano Ronaldo
Nao Tomori: Mary Sue OP, jesus’s plot armor, overcome Tatsuya and Kirito.
Nao Tomori plot armor
The head-scratching in Angel Beats! is a good thing, arguably. The cast had short, cruel lives, but through the afterlife they were able to understand their lives better and move on. The show we watch is also – ironically – cruelly short, but the ending gives us an encouragement to look back over it and understand the reality of the story we’ve witnessed. A little like Donnie Darko, but replace Gary Jules and mental distress with LiSa and feels. We only properly understand the story the second time through.
That’s why I’m disappointed with Charlotte. There’s nothing more to understand about all this. It’s done. It’s dead. The characters say that life really begins for them now, but this ending killed any chance of me thinking about this show ever again.
I mean really, why would I slog through the power-a-week stuff again if I knew it was so many episodes being spent for just a few plot points being stretched thin? Why would I care about seeing Ayumi die and Yuu spiral into madness if I knew it would all be reset – twice? Why would I want to watch Kuragame die when Shun’s only role after his death is to fly the Des Ex Machina helicopter? Even Yuu’s ambition, though I agree it was built up fantastically, felt wasted at the end, with his decision to cure the world of the powers lacking any consideration of the fact that he’d just had his ass handed to him by a tiny proportion of it. His ambition at the end just looks stupid, ad the coincidences he has to rely on, as Zephyr pointed out above, made it feel even stupider.
Unless the characters or pacing really turned you off, there are lots of reasons to revisit AB! and understand the cast and the meanings of the show more. But I can’t see any reason why I’d return to this trainwreck of a show. The most I could get out of it I could re-experience by Googling some gifs.
You two are retarded.
The character of ”self-insertion” of Charlotte is clearly ”Nao Tomori”.
Nao Tomori a ”Mary Sue OP”, ”Wish-Fulfillment”, its plot armor is more convenient, ridiculous and absurd that used by Kirito in SAO and Tatsuya in Mahouka. immunity to physical and psychological pains, do not commit faults, does not have conflict, everything is solved easily and without difficulties by its plot armor convenience.
The cases of people with the skill of the week, were resolved of an extremely convenient and easy way. The Mary-Sue apply your convenience conversation, and magically the users with skill, and conveniently these people accept all that the Mary Sue spoke without any questioning and complaints, and magically these people give up on their skill.
Mary-Sue has no internal Conflicts, Mary-Sue not make mistake, Mary-Sue also does not present any difficulties and problems, in the what she does and tries to do. Mary-Sue is immune to physical and psychological pains, Mary-Sue has a three-dimensional super-vision convenient that lets she see people who are behind her.
Mary-Sue also has super convenience ability to read minds, and do not tell me it’s perception, because several times she guessed what people were thinking even though they were in opposite side to yours.
amado and JekoJeko are examples of ”losers otaku”,
the two self be inserted into Nao Tomori a character Mary-Sue OP, with convenience plot armor, that even surpass Tatsuya and Kirito. the famous character “wish-fulfillment” because amado and JekoJeko, want to fulfill their desires to be strong/powerful/successful/immunity to physical and psychological pain/ performing impossibles and absurds/beating and kicking men.
ideal character to ”losers otaku”, ”waifufag”, ”girls” ”yurifag” and adptos the ”feminist movement”.
you guys can cry and kick, but it does not change the fact that Nao Tomori is a heroine shounen generic, ”self-insert” – ”wish-fulfillment”, Mary Sue OP, as Kirito/SAO and Tatsuya/Mahouka. with a ridiculous and absurd, plot armor convenience.
not to mention the episode 9, revealed that Nao has the main features, that made Slaine Troyard one of the most hated characters in animes.
The obsession by benefactor who saved his life in his childhood, and simply giving up his life own, his own will and ideals, to be a puppet obsessed by his master, obsessed by the teachings and ideals of his master. That just as a pet or a child, hopes to gain in exchange compliments and pats on his head.
Episodes 7~13 – plot device for the development of MC, a heroine to be the love interest of the MC, episode 11 damsel in distress, episode 9 pet of the older brother of MC, had not the slightest importance to the main plot, little of screen time, episode 7~13 had 168 minutes, Nao appeared in only 16 minutes in these episodes,straight character without internal monologues without development, just had a flashback in episode 2, the anime was rarely shown of your point of view.
The highlight was:
Nao was kidnapped in the place where she always trusted, he believed and claimed be safe and protected for people like her, who has skill.
This protection system for people with ability and their facilities were created by his benefactor-kun.
and when she was tortured by the girls, Nao bully, hitting and kicking men, accept pacivamente and without any reaction, the intimidation.
Nao mentioned that she was used to being bullied, and this happened often.
she must also have been intimidated several times by the boys, and everyone knows that when boys intimidate a girl is always in the sexual sense, probably she was raped several times during the bullies of the boys, it is no wonder that she’s the most hated Key heroine of the story in Japan, beyond all hatred she had already accumulated in the firsts four episode because of their shitty personality after episode 5, terms like non-virgin, slut, not pure, well used, slut used among others that never before been used for any heroine-key, have become frequent in Japanese forums, increasing after episode 9, bitch of big brother of MC, pet of big brother of MC, female version of Slaine, after Episode 11, raped by the Big Guy, Pregnant of Big Guy.
Actually excuse me for not being a waifufag asshole like you two, that ”self-inserted” in ”Mary Sue OP”, for ”Wish-Fulfillment”, with convenience plot armor that is more ridiculous and absurd than the used by Kirito in SAO and Tatsuya in Mahouka.
Just like I do not like character as Tatsuya, Slaine and Kirito, my opinion will never change if the character in question was a stupid waifushit that had the same characteristics as them.
For me Charlotte was the kind of series that would make me expect more with each upcoming episode. Like, “there’s something awesome going to happen next, right? right?” But NO.
I really enjoyed watching it but the last episode erased all the potentially good impressions I might’ve had of this series.
I didn’t check the number of the episodes so I thought it was going to be 24.
Good budget, so many good themes and interesting characters. And all we get in the end is this?…
Sadly this anime joins the host of ones that seemed to start off strong with an impressive and anticipation enducing first episode but seems to really just go down hill from there. Not that the story is bad or that there is a general lack of it, it seems like there is a genuine story to be told but the strange pacing, plot twists out of left field and short run in relation to the story just doesn’t work out.
As for this episode in particular, I said it last episode but it’s really something straight out of Tenjou Tenge. Disappointing but not really bad. Just given the powerhouses behind it it really dropped the ball
I’m a big fan of P.A. Works (I even loved Glasslip). And this was disappointing.
Are you Misa Kurobane? Because that was an incredible burn.
Am I the only one who found this episode really racist?
Nope. There were some pretty big stereotypes they played on here.
Thank god I never bothered to watch this show… It’s definitely high-time that I got down to finishing other more important stuff…
In any case, trying to pander and conform too hard to a certain idea will only reduce the size of the cojones you have to go over 9000 in epicness, which results in stories like this…
Then again, there’s always that nagging feeling somewhere in your head that the audience will press the eject-button when things just get “too hard”… Yeap, that’s always the problem right there…
I think I’ll give this a big fat grade of “C” as in Charlotte.
What a RUSHED episode that was! This is a total disappointment. No time to soak in the many events happening at all. Worse, there is no kiss scene.
This anime is DOTY
http://imgur.com/w9sLGEI
This show had so much potential, it’s a shame.
I enjoyed the first few episodes of it, but it just became a mess in terms of events and pacing.
so why the nao bullying early?
how hell can nao grow love for somebody that don´t have seen o talked in like 1 year
the 1 eyed reaper still have 1 world bounty on his head even if he don´t remember why
very good desing in girls but the writing was really poor and rushed ¬¬
I recognize the scene from the beginning, and that was Walking Street, in which is a real place that is located in the Philippines.
That’s in Angeles City in Pampanga just north of Manila if you take the North Luzon Expressway
I wonder how the Japanese Background CG artist end up there and why he choose WALKING STREET of all the places.
Even this place is near RECTO HOTEL
https://randomc.net/image/Charlotte/Charlotte%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
Show Spoiler ▼
Christ Almighty, this is a prime example of a show that had NO idea what to do with its plot, its characters and its conclusion.
When it ended it gave me this feeling of “… what was this show about again?” as I remembered the earlier “ability-user-of-the-week” episodes when it was a completely different anime.
So many dropped plot points it feels like it’s raining. Why was Nao bullied again? The evil scientists? The ZHIEND lead singer? Did Nao’s brother recover? That scene was too ambiguous.
Not to mention it felt like they reset Yuu’s relationship with her, AGAIN, as he basically forgot almost everything about her. Not this shit again.
That is why after watching “Angel Beats!!” once I said to myself – not this shit again. So all Jun Maeda’s show without “Kioto animation” going to drop-without-watching-list automatically.
The thing I loved about Maeda’s other original work, Angel Beats!, was that every small disparate element of the show did, in the end, come together thematically and meaningfully for the characters. The show never forgot about anything that felt significant as it was happening, and it rewarded ‘close-watching’ as much as a novel packed with flair and depth rewards close-reading (unless you don’t have an impetus to watch closely – AB!’s characters turned many away, as did the irregular pacing and tonal shifts). Contradictions only exist for a while until you unpick the narrative, which makes for really involving storytelling if you were sold be the surface of the show (again, not everyone was, and that’s the main weakness of Maeda’s writing).
Charlotte, on the other hand, seemed to forget about everything it was and could have been in order to boil down its plot into the most cliché scenario imaginable. AB!’s finale exploded with consequences for what had gone before, for better or worse. Charlotte’s shrunk like the last gasp of breath of a show that had already begun to die the previous week. It makes everything that preceded it feel so much weaker – especially the more immediate things, like Yuu’s mental breakdown. Losing your grip on reality? Don’t worry! We’re suddenly inexplicably here with a helicopter!
Angel Beats was fantastic, and it had a pretty good execution of its theme: letting go of past regrets. Meanwhile Charlotte tried to be some weird, half-baked, incoherent commentary on the adolescent condition, but it ended up saying… what exactly? Nothing, just nothing. It is no surprise that the anime itself can be summed up as: “nothing you will see really matters up until the 9th episode.”
Maybe Charlotte is just AB! inverted:
– Angel Beats! has well-crafted themes which can develop the more you revisit the show. As well as the ‘letting go of the past’ thing, there’s the symbolism of school life, questions of human pride in defiance of a ‘god’ and what it’s really all about, thoughts on how bullying works… oodles and oodles of stuff to chat about with someone who also likes the show. But the characters are like Marmite, and the pacing is very weird, which leads some people to not care about delving into those themes and questions. And that’s fair.
– Charlotte has really poorly crafted themes which don’t change at all if you look over the show again. It’s, like you say, a mish-mash of adolescent commentary, but also some religious stuff towards the end which had nothing to do with what was at the beginning (the last supper allusions, Yuu thinking about becoming God, etc.). Yet, the characters and pacing are actually quite likeable early on as long as you don’t hate on repetitive structures and tropes – and your average anime fan wouldn’t be too irritated by that stuff – and Yuu especially comes into the show spectacularly. But taking what you like about these characters and trying to look deeper into them through that will give you diminishing returns for how much you care about them; they just reveal themselves more and more shallow. That’s just poor writing.
I’m sure I’ve argued with a lot of people that there’s more depth in a lot of the elements of the show on this blog, and early on there really were lots of /opportunities/ for thematic significance. But the end result has undone everything I’ve stood for as I watched it. It’s unrewarding – unbefitting, even – getting philosophical about this mess. It’s PlaMemo all over again.
Don’t forget that, well, perhaps this is the most subjective aspect out there, but Angel Beats was pretty damn funny. Even when it repeated the same joke over and over it still managed to be amusing. Charlotte’s idea of comedy was a pizza sauce and a hyperventilating idol-fanboy. (Though I will say that Speedbro was ultimately my favorite character, even though he was quickly reduced to the height of irrelevancy.)
Even TK’s random gibberish was superior comedy to every single joke in Charlotte combined.
A very good point. Angel Beats! had me laughing until the end, especially with Yuripee’s cute side coming out, and the comedy also had thematic value. Charlotte had no humour in its ending. None at all. Even as Yuu began to embrace happiness more in hospital, it started to actually get as sickly for me as the pizza sauce had been to him at first. And the fanboy stuff had already become disgusting, especially because it had nothing to do with what the story was actually about (which the show had to hold back in revealing for more than half of its runtime to give those stale jokes any chance of effect).
There’s a pretty detailed article on ANN at the moment that tries to sum up how Jun Maeda writes for dramatic effect. I think the writer of the article makes some pretty good points, and that Charlotte flouts them pretty badly.
Especially for characters like Fujimaki, Noda and others. One of them even say that he was insignificant and invisible character till the end. Very meaningfully for the character.
They have only idea but every one have an ideas. It is not enough to make a show. It was even not a new idea. Characters and plot was very poor and far-fetched. Two-faced show.
Yuu (Shuu) takes on everyone’s abilities (Apocalypse Virus) and gives up on living but is saved by courageous loli (Inori).
L I T E R A L L Y G U I L T Y C R O W N
It was as bad as “Angel Beats!!” was. I can say it by only looking at screens. Without watching. Just a random idea without mature plot, just a colorful characters without any realism. Just a bad show for untutored viewers.
> Just a bad show for untutored viewers.
Please don’t level insults at Angel Beats!’s viewers because of this show. Most of my love for AB! is because of its deep themes and complex plot dynamics; its character turn some people away from the depth, and that’s fair, but there certainly is a lot of conscious design within the show. Jun Maeda’s weakness in that show was having divisive characters for themes and payoffs that required you to fall fully in love with them. Some people did. I did even more during a rewatch. Don’t call us ‘untutored’.
Charlotte is a lot worse. The ending(s) of Angel Beats! redefines the plot in a lot of potentially interesting ways (again, you’ll only care about that if you connected with the characters from the start, and both our receptions of the show would be valid), but Charlotte’s ending seems to have forgotten about what was giving the show potential to be great. There’s no classic Maeda call-back to the rest of the series and everything that’s mattered. Really, Charlotte ended not feeling like a Maeda show at all, whereas AB!, even if you hated it, at least followed through with Maeda’s traditions. I couldn’t cry with Nao; could anyone?
Its lack of coherency to its themes, poor pacing and irritating resolutions remind me far more of last season’s PlaMemo. But regardless, let’s compare and criticise shows fairly without calling the people who like them inferior.
Angel Beats! is simply shit. It’s a comedy that’s not funny and a drama that’s not dramatic. It has its moments but that doesn’t warrant wasting 25 minutes of your weekly lifespan on it.
Actually I think the ending was about as terrible as it possibly could have been given the circumstances. Too bad the show sucked massive balls up until that part.
about this piece of turd…
Angel Beats sucks. – he seems to have no sense at all when it comes to mixing drama with comedy. However Angel Beats is a prime example of how to do it wrong.
No smooth or smart transitions between drama, tragedy and comedy. Angel Beats simply executes an instant 180-degree turn and expects the audience to follow.
Most of the time the attempts at drama and epic level tragedy fall flat on their face due to poorly thought up flashbacks and characters with little development or substance. Seriously, the lack of decent characters is a severe problem with Angel Beats. It’s hard to give a shit about people you don’t know about and it’s not like the show is even trying to develop them. Yuri is still as much of a cardboard Haruhi ripoff she was in the beginning and the only thing I’ve learned about her is that she’s pretty much an unlikable cunt with shitty plans mostly the level of stealing candies from babies.
Tenshi is the only really interesting.
We’ve learned a lot about Otonashi’s past but I never quite grasped his personality. Well, possibly because he doesn’t have one. The past Otonashi was grumpy and emo but not all that bad. The current Otonashi is just your typical 10-penny harem lead with the personality of a saint. Otonashi is generic as hell and the definition of a self-insert character!
All in all Angel Beats tries to build up great drama and tragedy mixed with comedy, but comes out as a bipolar mess that tries too hard to be sad and touching.
Angel Beats is a show that represents the current shit entertainment. – it doesn’t matter if the show is badly written, badly executed and has characters with the personality of a planed piece of 2-by-4. Throw in some flashy shit and hot names, and you’re done! The endless fan hordes will defend your piece of turd to the bitter end and the worse it is, the more zealous they get.
Because Angel Beats! is bad in a way that actually makes you get bored.
The show that’s constantly running berserk is comedy in itself. And let us not forget all the die-hard AB-fantards whose raging denial and insecurity causes hilarious raging with minimal effort.
Angel Beats! is okay as long as you ignore what the fanboys say and don’t even try to take it seriously. However it’s doomed to sit around in the gray low-mid-tier zone.
All in all AB is like watching videos online of a retarded kid in a wheelchair drive off a pier. It’s incredibly stupid and sort of makes you feel bad about it, but deep down inside you can’t help call it shit.
Hmm, yeah. I definitely sound like the one with ‘raging denial and insecurity’.
Part of my love of Angel Beats! is uncovering the various reasons why people are justified in hating it. No show, especially not one as convoluted as AB!, is ‘simply’ anything, and its pretty pointless being on the internet if you think that’s ever going to be the case.
It’s funny how serious issues such as race and gender get such a drive for equality, and yet we can’t treat fans of a show we hate with respect.
I intend to watch this, but after reading all the comments, I feel the general view is that the show is poorly done despite the impressive cast and screenwriters involved. Maybe I should think twice.
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone with a clear conscience. This was such a clusterf*ck of a series towards the end, I wish I hadn’t spent my time on it.
Ignore the overdramatic disappointment chorus in the comments here, some of them had ridiculous expectations that no matter how good the show was they would have been disappointed anyway.
Give it a chance and keep an open mind, it’s a good show but nothing groundbreaking or perfect.
If you like stories about people/teenagers with super powers check it out, it’s an enjoyable watch with a good conclusion (despite some side plots not being resolved the main conflict is resolved quite well).
There are better shows than this – try the new zombie highschool anime or the recent tennis sequel 😉
Sometimes there are fresher plots from stereotypes
This proves that “time leap” == bad execution.
there are only so few exceptions…
https://youtu.be/pFrMLRQIT_k?t=13s
Sums up the episode.
Really curious about Nao’s reaction in the hospital. Was it pain from being forgotten by a loved one (doubtful) or was it pain by being forgotten by someone for the second time? First her brother and now a close friend.
Starting to see a disturbing trend with Key anime adaptions. For each one that I have seen, I kinda wished the loli stays dead. Just to clarify, I don’t wish for Show Spoiler ▼
Felt the same way about Ayumi.
Rewrite getting an anime adaption? I was hoping for Tomoyo After since the Clannad OVA made a good setup for it. Would’ve been less painful than the VN version, but probably still nice. Since a newer VN gets the adaption, I guess we can forget about that?
Yeah, it would have added an interesting dimension if the warnings of Yuu becoming a monster had affected someone who wasn’t simply original to the episode we were in. Had he threatened, or even ended, Ayumi’s life, maybe even undoing his prior over-signposted revelation about the pizza sauce, I’d see him as a much more well-realised character. It seems like the very climax of his development took place without a connection to anyone – except Nao, but I couldn’t care less about that after her ‘condition for unconditional love’ BS last week.
And the phrasebook becoming a symbolic object for his internal survival and their love? The only parallel I can draw is that it was something useful that became useless, but he held on to it anyway – just like Nao. I wish I could find a more positive interpretation, but that one just screams to me as true.
If this doesn’t get biggest disappointment of the year come January… I’ll be pretty damned amazed
Thanks for all your coverage Zephyr, hope to have you back soon.
What a mess. I don’t know why I keep giving Jun Maeda another chance.
Ahh… the master of tragedy does it again! Although this time it wasn’t the story but the actual show which was tragic. So disappointed in the way things turned out. If you took the plot, gave it 26 episodes time, this could have been one of the best series of the year. Maeda had so many good ideas that just fell flat. Hoping for a Charlotte visual novel that actually takes its time?
Can we please do without the ‘if only it was 26 episodes’ circlejerk? Doubling the length has no imperative effect on the quality of anything; in fact, the history of storytelling language has pretty much proven that impact comes more often from brevity, not extension. I’d once again argue that this plot would feel more succinct if they cut the crap and made it a movie. That or they just made the everything but the last episode more coherent and well-organized and left the last episode as a movie sequel.
This is one of the few shows I’ve watched this year that has really, really disappointed me, and it would be great if our collective disappointment could be expressed convincingly, without the dead horses of pseudo-criticism that plague places like reddit and 4chan.
Sala visit the big brother of Nao, were also ideals of Shun and Nao?
Bye, Zephyr! I look forward to your return!
This was the best anime of the season and the worst Key show yet.
That is overrated and insulting to entire anime industry.
At the beginning 12 weeks ago I thought that the series would end with an arc dedicated to Nao and her (bullying) problems. I expected more from the main heroine. Disappointing how it turned out.
Sad that good shows are being crammed into too little episodes to let them shine.
Charlotte and Angel Beats suffer from same producer mistakes. It seem they are trying the wait and see route if a show gain enough backing to do a VN that will have the full story fleshed out.
The first five episodes could be crammed into 2 or 3 episode, leaving room for 4 or 5 final episode to focus on Yuu plundering the world, fighting powerful psychic, terrorist organizations, more actions and stuffs, like Mission Impossible with super power.
Angel Beats! is simply shit. It’s a comedy that’s not funny and a drama that’s not dramatic. It has its moments but that doesn’t warrant wasting 25 minutes of your weekly lifespan on it.
Actually I think the ending was about as terrible as it possibly could have been given the circumstances. Too bad the show sucked massive balls up until that part.
about this piece of turd…
Angel Beats sucks. – he seems to have no sense at all when it comes to mixing drama with comedy. However Angel Beats is a prime example of how to do it wrong.
No smooth or smart transitions between drama, tragedy and comedy. Angel Beats simply executes an instant 180-degree turn and expects the audience to follow.
Most of the time the attempts at drama and epic level tragedy fall flat on their face due to poorly thought up flashbacks and characters with little development or substance. Seriously, the lack of decent characters is a severe problem with Angel Beats. It’s hard to give a shit about people you don’t know about and it’s not like the show is even trying to develop them. Yuri is still as much of a cardboard Haruhi ripoff she was in the beginning and the only thing I’ve learned about her is that she’s pretty much an unlikable cunt with shitty plans mostly the level of stealing candies from babies.
Tenshi is the only really interesting.
We’ve learned a lot about Otonashi’s past but I never quite grasped his personality. Well, possibly because he doesn’t have one. The past Otonashi was grumpy and emo but not all that bad. The current Otonashi is just your typical 10-penny harem lead with the personality of a saint. Otonashi is generic as hell and the definition of a self-insert character!
All in all Angel Beats tries to build up great drama and tragedy mixed with comedy, but comes out as a bipolar mess that tries too hard to be sad and touching.
Angel Beats is a show that represents the current shit entertainment. – it doesn’t matter if the show is badly written, badly executed and has characters with the personality of a planed piece of 2-by-4. Throw in some flashy shit and hot names, and you’re done! The endless fan hordes will defend your piece of turd to the bitter end and the worse it is, the more zealous they get.
Because Angel Beats! is bad in a way that actually makes you get bored.
The show that’s constantly running berserk is comedy in itself. And let us not forget all the die-hard AB-fantards whose raging denial and insecurity causes hilarious raging with minimal effort.
Angel Beats! is okay as long as you ignore what the fanboys say and don’t even try to take it seriously. However it’s doomed to sit around in the gray low-mid-tier zone.
All in all AB is like watching videos online of a retarded kid in a wheelchair drive off a pier. It’s incredibly stupid and sort of makes you feel bad about it, but deep down inside you can’t help call it shit.
Dude… you’re in the wrong blog.
Put your shit post here. https://randomc.net/2010/04/02/angel-beats-01/
This final impression is like three weeks delayed. I thought Charlotte ended in episode 10?
Trust RandomC to get it wrong – the last three episodes have actually been OVAs written by a completely different writer. It’s a harrowing example of when not to give into to fans’ demands to continue a show.
I’m a little confused about Yuu’s morals about hurting other people. He clearly has a sister he cares deeply about at the start and although he was poor as was mentioned, it did not appear to be any level of traumatic life threatening poor. Thus brings up the question how he can disregard other peoples’ LIVES so easily when he doesn’t appear to be a sociopath. He was willing to possibly kill a stranger by making them crash their truck so he could act as a white knight to end up dating a rich and pretty girl from his school that he didn’t care about that much emotionally. (Playing with life/death isn’t a laughing matter) But Yuu isn’t a complete scumbag at heart as he can make friends and show empathy and help others.
In episode 7 when he goes on a depressed rampage, he still isn’t able to kill those he beats up despite wreaking havoc and coming close to stabbing someone’s eye. Although there was the security guy whom he forced to jump over the balcony and that wasn’t something like the 2nd or 3rd floor, it most certainly looked like it was high enough to kill someone fpr sure. Although it was also implied the guard had a cushioned falling from the sound of trees and bushes. I chalk this up to his stupidity+depression, but he probably didn’t actually want to kill the guard.
Had to do some searching to find a fansub of this episode that wasn’t horribly messed up in its timing. Ugh. (Say what you will about Charlotte‘s rushed pace and all, but I won’t stand for half-a**ed subs for those who can only watch via streaming.)
This episode in a nutshell: “With great power comes great insanity” (trope!). And by all rights Yuu would have jumped off that slippery slope if not for the booklet Nao gave him. And with the fansub I eventually got taking the time to translate the lyrics, one line stood out and made sense as I watched:
“There’s nothing to be afraid of / even if you turn into a monster / we’ll pull through somehow.”
The way I see that line (and the events of this episode), people have the potential to become monsters. While there are times that some individuals consciously decide to become complete monsters (trope), most people only become monsters due to circumstances (dunno if that’s also a trope). BUT…people also have the power to stop others from jumping off that slippery slope–in this case, through the bonds they form with each other. Yeah, it’s idealistic as f**k, but while I don’t mind watching gritty anime every now and then, idealism is still something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of these days. Especially in the often-divisive anime fandom.
Overall, Charlotte was still pretty OK despite the limited room it got. It could be better, but I wouldn’t call it mediocre.
This episode was a great depiction of Yuu as a character; very believable in the his gradual loss of control slow slide into impulse and power-madness, only to be brought back to some facsimile of functionality and purpose by Nao’s less-than-helpful flipbook, effectively thematically re-enacting his previous slide into impulse and power-madness, where Nao stayed with him the whole time. It showed succinctly how Yuu was, in fact, still a young boy with a power too great for him, and a purpose too much for him, and managed somehow to barely complete it anyway, paying a great price along the way – a direct repudiation of the majority of manga/anime with young people with great powers, who really do far too often act far beyond their age. (Although personally that isn’t actually something I have a problem with..)
So that was what was good about this episode. What wasn’t? Literally everything else, most egregiously the fact that it was the denouement of a series with deus ex machinae in excess, more plot threads hanging than an unworked loom, a sometimes oversimplified view of the world that required suspension of disbelief on the level of a space elevator, and with half the characters (including the only other, albeit very good real character) in the show effectively sidelined throughout the finale – and no, despite what I said above, a flipbook doesn’t count. It’s like Maeda Jun, true to his own words, tried to fix the biggest problem of Angel Beats – mostly one-note characters with unconvincing sob stories – with at least the main characters, and overcompensated all the way in the other direction, with meandering and messy thematic direction, clumsy plot devices by the gallon, and humour that often fell flat in comparison with the more generally serious tone of the show. It’s even more damning when you realize that Yuu’s eventual fate is effectively the Key-itis afflicted female character’s fate, except gender-flipped, with Nao playing the protagonist who has to come to terms with said character’s death/incapacitation/critical memory failure.
Yuu and Nao are still truly well-written characters; I stand by previous statements that Nao especially is probably the best female character Maeda has ever written. But with regards to everything else, about the best compliment I can honestly pay Charlotte is that at least it wasn’t as bad as Chaos Dragon.
@ Zephyr
I’m not sure you used the correct picture link for this one ” locate ability users just by looking at a map”
How I felt about this series: first ep was pretty interesting, then filler filler filler filler filler, whoa! wut? oh, that, huh? huh? wtf? that’s it? seriously?
Too much filler, too much rushing, too much skipping over potentially great plots, not enough love interest development if it’s going to be a Key game.
And seriously, he could plunder 10,000 abilities, and NOT ONE TO FIX HIS EYE???
Dear Anime Industry: stop it with the one-cour shows already. They may be cheaper, they may be safer, but they’re not good for you. Spend a little more money, run two cours, produce one less LN rehash of the same 4 tropes, and just do good two-cour anime like you used to. I promise to scrape up the cash for the blu-rays. Honest.
But seriously, Anime Industry, this kind of crap is the reason why you should stop drinking and stop making one-cour anime.
To be fair, he actually DID get an ability to heal his eye and he even contemplated it about whether he should use it to heal his eye. But in the end, he decided to scrap the idea as he didn’t want to mess with the timeline and wanted to solely focus on his mission. Albeit questionable why he couldn’t just heal his eye and NOT go back in time, but I suppose he may have been tempted to time leap if his eye was recovered, so it’s more of a measure of his conviction.
Huh!? What are you talking about?, were asleep during the final episode!?, there is an entire 2-part scene where he watches a girl with healing powers, plunders her power whike feeling bad about it, then contemplates healing his eye and jumping back in time but eventually decides aganist it as he thinks it’s too messy, unnatural and risky to play with the timeline again and decides to finish his plundering mission instead … How you missed all that is really beyond me!!!
Honestly, that scene was the one I hated the most. Time Travel had never, EVER been established beforehand as a threat to the cast. The only reason he could be in position to ‘save the world’ like this is because of that very power. In fact, it was what Yuu used to save Ayumi /without any consequence in relation to how he saved her/ (great Unity of Action there). Here he should be thinking ‘I saved my sister without any issue, now I can do the same for Kumagami!’. But instead he tries to make a point about how he shouldn’t ‘mess’ with the story any more, which is so lacking in logic that I literally hid my face in my hands while watching. The story IS messing with the story. Every good thing that Yuu has been able to do or get has been the product of Time Travel. Perhaps he’s strong enough now to also do good without it, but it flies in the face of logic to not save Kumagami. It also reeks of how little a connection there is between Yuu and Shun.
Had Ayumi or Yuu experienced consequences of his time leaping, there would have been some substance to his decision. As it stands, it’s the hardest moment in the series to watch and not have a mental breakdown over how stupid it is.
There was a price for saving his sister, he learned the lesson while you clearly didn’t, while he saves his sister Kumagami died instead in the same timeline, the moral of that is if he keeps messing with time there is no guarantee someone else won’t get killed due to him overlooking something or to unexpected complications (i.e butterfly effect), messing with time is always very dangerous and unpredictable (not to mention the tediousness of having to do everything from scratch every time something goes wrong including everyone forgetting about all the events after the point in time he arrives at).
Also the ability isn’t perfect, if he is blind-folded or his eyes get injured again (in an explosion or something) he might end up in a situation much worse than the one he is in now, i suppose he can undo the blindness side-effect with his new healing power but like i said above that’s far from the only problem this power has, he made the right call.
There’s no ‘butterfly effect’ at all. Nothing about him saving Ayumi affected Kumagami’s outcome. And if we’re going to talk about invisible influences, that flies in the face of how Yuu’s brother /repeatedly/ went back until he got everything right the very last time. That worked, so why can’t Yuu keep trying until everyone’s okay? He’s almost a god for God’s sake. He’s way more qualified than his brother was, since his time travel adventure went right on the first try. And we of course know that since there was no link between Ayumi and Kumagami, Kumagami ought to have died in the timeline of dead imouto as well. The terrorists had been planning their moves for ages. They might have had an even easier job getting to Yuu and made an even bigger mess with Ayumi dead.
If the story wants to say ‘messing with time is dangerous’, it shouldn’t have built every success on time travel. Why are Episode One Yuu and Ayumi there in the first place? They were saved from the facility by Shun through time travel. Why does Nao come to help Yuu? She’s under the influence of Shun, who could only be free to do so because of time travel. Why is Ayumi saved? Time travel. What is the plan to beat the terrorists? Time travel (get that? he failed because he lost the ability, which is the /opposite/ of failing because he used it). Why can Yuu be reunited with Shun? Time travel. Why can Yuu go round the world plundering every ability? It all goes back to him being saved by Shun. Time travel.
Don’t try to lecture me on not ‘learning a lesson’ from this show. The message is clear – Yuu is a ‘cheater’ who gets a happy ending through the greatest cheating known to storytelling – time travel. Impermanence of plot. Except Yuu will only cheat to help himself – steal people’s abilities for Nao’s love and rewrite history for Ayumi.
And if someone has to die in every timeline, which the show makes no effort to point out since there’s no connection between one person’s salvation and another’s death, then Yuu should simply have done it until he was the one to die. It would have been quite fitting, to cheat for everyone else’s sake rather than your own.
Many stories have pointed out the fragility of messing with time. Modern Doctor Who does it more and more (and those tend to be the better episodes – take The Waters of Mars, for instance), and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time nailed it. Charlotte does not end on the note that time travel is an issue. Charlotte reinforces an ideal that we need to cheat with time in order to succeed. A necessary evil? Perhaps. But why it’s more important to let a great friend die than risk using that necessary evil is just inexplicable.
And don’t get me started on the fact that Yuu’s time travel, since he retains the healing power, is still latent and a power he possesses. The entire plot could be undone if he so willed it. Maybe he already had by the time RandomC’s review went up.
You clearly don’t fully grasp what the butterfly effect entails, it’s exactly what Shun has been doing, but instead of changing something and then jumping ahead in time he has to relive everything again where he changes one or two details to make things go in their favor (the teenagers with power), but that doesn’t mean that it will always work in their favor, all the bad outcomes and FAILURES Shun undid are proof of that and he really got so freaking lucky specially that he lost his sight after solving most of the major problems in that specific slice of time he was trying to manipulate to their favor (the syndicate thing shows he still didn’t account for everything), had he lost it before that he would have been stuck in a failed scenario he can do nothing about.
So no playing with time travel in Charlotte is very dangerous and NOT risk free and there are countless examples of that, just because their successes are based on it doesn’t mean it’s safe or risk free, that makes no sense at all, using nukes at war can make you win all your battles but that doesn’t mean it’s ok or risk free or won’t bite you in the ass in a hundred different ways.
And Yuu succeeded at saving his sister because it was a singular simple task, nothing like facing the scientists, the syndicate and trying to get everyone together with ZERO mistakes every time something goes wrong, Yuu clearly lacks the capacity to lead everyone and there was no way his body could be sustained for long with all the powers he absorbed .. that adds even more complications which weren’t there before.
Finally if you consider time travel as “cheating” then it’s thematically fitting and very smart to make him NOT use it at this point since he already abandoned his past “cheating” ways bit by bit over the course of the show and became a much better person (from a cheater to someone willing to put himself at risk for the sake of family and friends and eventually to someone willing to sacrifice his very life for the sake of people he doesn’t know), it makes perfect sense he won’t go back to his old ways at this point and waste all this character growth he went through.
You’re basing your views on general philosophy and not on what’s preached internally in the show, ignoring all the disparate parts of it that undermine the positive image you’re selectively giving it. I don’t think I need to argue my interpretation any further.
The retarded thing about it is that, okay, I understand if he didn’t want to time leap back because of whatever nonsensical reason (well, at that point his brain was beginning to fail, no?) BUT he could have just healed his eye to have, you know, a set of two functional eyes instead of one so he could see better.
Whew…what a ride that was. Charlotte suffered from awkward pacing, plot holes, lack of character development aside from the main character, but strangely enough, I still somewhat enjoyed watching the show. Once I decided to look at it as another anime show and NOT a jun maeda work, I was able to cut it some slack and just enjoy the rest of the journey. Granted, the amazing visuals and soundtrack helps a LOT, but still. I’d like to think this did better than Guilty Crown in terms of trainwreck (just a bit, but not really).
Strangely enough, I think I liked the first few episodes the most. It was refreshing to see a douchebag abusing his power as a MC and after getting a reality check at the end of the first ep, I thought the show would be pretty interesting as it explores the powers and also change our MC into a better human being. Also the side characters, while they weren’t really explored as much, were pretty interesting, and the sister was adorable. I also like Tomori as a more headstrong female protagonist than most.
At the very least, while this last episode was rushed, they were able to reach a sort of closure, that not many shows are able to do. It was kind of amusing to see Yuu use his god-like powers to screw with people mid way through the journey. With the mess they made in episode 11, I can somewhat applaud them for somehow managing to wrap this story up within 2 episodes. Definitely a disappointment though, because there was definitely a lot of potential in here that could of been discovered. Let’s hope the next anime that Jun Maeda is in charge of has two cours so this doesn’t happen again.
I’m joining the rage train!
Nice eyes, though…
Contrary to many here i enjoyed both the show and the final episode,not only that but i think it has one of the best endings this season where shows like Gangasta and Arslan never resolved anything and left us hanging in the middle of the story Charlotte had a clear ending that resolved the main conflict, that’s big point for me.
Also i don’t understand what the people claiming the final episode needed to be spread over another cour or several episodes hope to gain from that!?, the montage here and the speed at wish things progressed were perfect and made me feel the confusion and degenration of Yuu’s state of mind as he rapidly travels around the world absorbing powers and kicking ass until it all becomes a haze, that was just perfect, it couldn’t have been done any other way and stretching it anymore than this would have just been pure filler, think of it like the first 15 mins of Pixar’s “UP”, would rather they made that into a trilogy and stretch those 15 mins (in which the character grows from a kid into an old man, a whole life time) into 2 full length movies before giving us the adventures in the rest of the movie, i don’t think so.
And note that I’m not saying the entire show is flawless or perfect or that it is the anime of tge year… Nope, I’m just saying people should cut it some slack and look at the big picture and Yuu’s character journey (which is really good), that also doesn’t change the fact that there are some plot holes and story threads left unresolved (like how Yuu got his memory from the alternate time line, and who is really the lead vocalist of Zhiend band.. etc etc).
Finally i have to say that in a season where many shows left you hanging in midair without any conclusions or main plot resolved it’s a very good thing to see shows actually reach a decent conclusion and actually end their story properly (and they still have a chance to explain/retcon any plot holes,with an OVA or a movie).
A comparison to the opening of UP raises the very issue; while the beginning of a narrative often has its chronology warped or squished, the climax traditionally avoids this in order to get the viewer ‘in the scene’ as much as possible. Props to you if you still connected with Yuu, but it’s fair that many, many people didn’t because of the use of cinematic narrative summary in this particular place in the story. Try to think of other great stories where the ending is so broken up and withdrawn from continuous action.
Also, the ‘main conflict’ was actually solved a few episodes ago – everything to do with Ayumi, her dying and being saved. This conflict was the one created after that. It’s fair that people feel its rushed considering that the show didn’t bother to do anything with it until the last few episodes.
I would have rather been ‘left hanging’, because the strength of Charlotte from week to week was always, for me, the vast number possibilities for the next episode. Now all those possibilities are dead, and there’s no impetus to look back on past possibilities either The cast may have said that their lives are just beginning, but Charlotte’s ending killed everything that was left of the show for me, in comparison to many Maeda endings that have made the history of the story come alive in new and incredible ways.
My biggest problem with Yuu’s descent into monstrosity is that it was largely solved by a Deus ex Machina helicopter and only results in yet another reset for his character, which doesn’t seem to have any thematic value. It made Nao cry a bit, but I could hardly give a shit.
On the contrary, cutting out all the fat and filler from the climax is something more shows should do, introducing any new important characters at this point would have been preposterous and the alternative is making Yuu spend an entire cour prancing around with nobodies whom we know nothing about while traveling from country to country in tedious detail, a complete utter waste of time, compressing his journey like this and its hectic pace was a great choice IMO, and i didn’t wait for final episode to try and connect with Yuu i was already rooting for him ever since he recovered from his first decent into despair when Ayumi died.
Also the main conflict was never about Ayumi, yeah sure it’s an important event but it isn’t the main conflict at all, the main conflict was about the powers and the profound effects of having them (specially being targeted by the scientists and/or the syndicate), saving Ayumi changed nothing about that or the syndicate, everything Yuu’s brother did lead to this point and Yuu continued his mission and by taking all the powers turned everyone into normal teenagers who would never be targeted by the scientists or the syndicate any time in the future, all that’s left after that is to spread the drug that will stop the next meteor from having any effects on the next generations .. that’s the main conflict in the show and it was pretty much resolved.
And he never descended into monstrosity, he just lost his memories and got extremely worn out under the physical and mental pressure of his titanic task, when the girl with the “courage” power tried to protect him he was clearly sane and not a monster or a crazy guy so it has nothing to do with the helicopter, what saved him from turning into a monster was Nao’s notepad, his emotions for her stopped him when he kicked the notepad into the dirt, that gave him a short wake up call that got him in the line for finishing his task to the very end, again NOTHING to do with the helicopter.
And will you people give the helicopter thing already, it’s not a deus ex machina at all, it’s just rushed writing, meaning that there are hundreds of explanations on how they found him .. want some .. fine .. they planted a tracer into his body [or] they followed the news about the one eyes shinigami as he was clearly getting reckless and leaving a trail behind him, that’s how the guy with the crossbow found him, when there is a bounty on your head and everyone is looking for you it’s easy to get to you [or] he has telepathy so maybe he called out to his brother [or] the girl he stole “courage” from called the police about him and his brother intercepted the call [or] they could have made Yuu just teleport to Japan after he is done based on his feeling for Nao or some remaining memories about his days with the school council .. any of those explanations could have worked just fine, they just didn’t do the last one or elaborate which one of the previous explanations is what happened, because it doesn’t matter at all, they don’t have to spoon feed us everything, i’d go with the tracker choice since they surely knew the phone thing won’t be really be 100% reliable, does the “tracker” explanation fit with everything that happened so far even if they don’t explain it or say it explicitly, YES is does, then it’s not a deus ex machina at all.
As for thematic value, come on, it shows his growth as a character, first he was a greedy cheating prick willing to endanger the lives of others for his gain, then eventually he softened up and his relation with everyone in the council made him willing to put himself at risk to save his sister and later Nao (a family member and a friend), then he grew more and more to the point where he was willing to give away his life, memories and entire existence for the common good of humanity and people he doesn’t even know not just a family member or a friend, that makes him a true hero .. so yeah .. i gave a shit when Nao cried and it was really good scene with the “I got home” sentence from the Notepad (the same notepad that saved him when he was getting unhinged and forgetting about his mission), it all came together wonderfully .. i see you people just making up excuses to hate on the show because it didn’t meet your lofty expectations, that’s just sad IMO.
Also a related piece of news, Charlotte is the highest selling show in Japan this week, with more than 7000 BD/DVD sold and a 2000 units between it and the 2nd best selling show at 5000 units, so hate on XD
1) My criticism has nothing to do with new characters or filler. It’s the cross-cutting between dozens of tiny scenes that withdrew me and many others from the intensity of the overall struggle; the /cinematic/ narrative, to repeat. I’d connected with Yuu deeply until the last two episodes, during which he exhibited signs of pure idiocy that I have mentioned frequently enough on this blog to not want to repeat them.
2) A main conflict is established in the first/second episode (if the first is, say, a prologue) and finished in the last. That’s how we tell stories. The Student Council had nothing to do with the struggle to cure the ‘disease’ of powers. That was Tomori’s personal quest, resting above Yuu’s in relation to Ayumi, and neither of those mattered in the end.
3) He was warned about turning into a monster, and he was gradually turning into a monster. Nao’s ultra-significant book of phrases stopped him, and of course that had so much meaning since it was only given to him the previous episode. Nice evasion of Chekhov’s Gun there.
I mention the helicopter so much because its unexplained nature implies that no matter where Yuu got to physically or mentally, he would always be lifted out of his problems by Shun. Without an explanation there’s no limit to the rescue, and no tension resonating from the peak of the finale, and no significance for the build-up to it. It’s like one of those video games where you’re given the illusion of a hundred paths but they only lead to one exit.
4) You can make up all the excuses for the helicopter you like, but if they didn’t point to one in the show, then it’s unexplained, and why wouldn’t they just take /one line/ to explain it? So it feels unexplainable.
It’s not about spoon feeding. You know what? I think Yuu actually killed everyone after the credits. They didn’t spoon-feed me that ending, but it feels the most fitting after what I’d witnessed. The stress on his mind of having too many powers finally activates his collapse ability in its fullest form, and the Earth explodes. It’s not explained that that’s how it happens, but I can just make up stuff in order to view the ending the way I want to.
Get real.
5) Stop being so selective. You’re missing out the fact that Yuu didn’t care at all about the world he saved – he would have become God of it if not for Nao. He ended up only doing it for the memory and love of her and the promise he made. And yet, the show paints him as a Christ figure towards the end with as many Last Supper allusion as you can fit into a hospital. It’s a thematic disaster.
6) So what if it’s selling well? Porn sells shit-tonnes. I’m not going to change my opinion of anything because people bought it. I absolutely hated this ending, and if you want to say that’s sad, go ahead. I’m not sad that you enjoyed it. I’m happy for you. Ignorance clearly is bliss.
And you could do better to write your opinions in a way that sounds like you’re less out of breath.
charlotte is actually considered a failure in sales.
when compared to previous KEY works, charlotte sold much less than them, so basically less than expected.
like imagine your standard MARVEL movie reaches around 10 million revenue. then they make a movie and it only reeks in 100 thousand. sure thats still a lot when compared to other movies, but when you compare it to its relatives, its a failure. in a sense, especially if the costs/budget of making the movie are generally equal, then that movie who got only 100 thousand has basically lost them more money.
I forgot the name, but there was a particular movie that had budget of like millions to create. and it was still popular, but not popular enough to outweigh the costs that came in production.
this is charlotte, it might be more popular than your generic anime, but its already considered the worst KEY anime created, the sales are already proving it as not popular to previous works.
I’ve already talked a lot about my reasons for being disappointed with this finale, so I won’t repeat them in this post. Still, it took me a while to muster the strength to write about this travesty on my blog.
More of the same kind of losing hope I’ve done in RandomC’s comment section here: https://unnecessaryexclamationmark.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/charlotte-13-super-sized-final-loss-of-hope/
This is the worst ending I’ve seen – perhaps, considering its effect on the whole, the most disappointing show ever – and I’ll stand by my hyperbole. No series has ever given me so many threads of meaning throughout and been so insulting to anyone who cares about the craft of storytelling, even though Angel Beats! was the anime in comparison to which no series has rewarded me more.
Angel Beats! was an iceberg with masses of depth and complexity of character and plot resting underneath the surface. Charlotte is like a frozen lake: skate across, but don’t dawdle or poke the ice, lest you drown in its awful management of depth and meaning.
Amado
”shounentard” – ”abfag” are all ”losers otaku” which depend on ”self-insert characters” – ”wish-fulfillment”, because they want to feel strong/powerful/successful/loved/interact with waifus/whatever.
gotta love how you generalize everyone who likes AB, are you including all the female viewers that liked the show? you know, those people who go on to say how much they cried, and I doubt that most of those are guys.
besides the first episode, and those episodes he went crazy, yuu was just as much as a self insert as otonashi. notice that both of them are just beta guys who do what they do because they’re told to do so? notice how both of them question it, but they still end up doing it, because they want to do the right thing?
yuu, who’s supposed to be lelouch 2.0 in character, just relents and leaves all the decision making to the higher ups. he doesnt come up any plans himself like he did in the first ep, he has hardly made any selfish decision after becoming part of the group.
I wasn’t that bothered with Yuu’s change from episode 2 onwards – true, he was acting like a ‘self insert’, but he was also now playing a supporting role in Nao’s personal quest. His blandness, in a way, helped bring her out more in the earlier episodes, and also contributed to his own personal quest – his connection to Ayumi – developing underneath. Yuu even tried to assert control over a power-a-week mission during episode three but failed, shot down by Nao’s greater wisdom and discernment.
Maybe there wasn’t anything flashy in those early episodes, but the position of characters and there roles served the story well. If only the second half could have used the precious elements of that part of the show, then I could look back on those episodes with some kind of respect.
And yeah, most of the people I’ve met who like AB! are girls. Maeda’s stories are usually pretty gender-neutral, resisting fantasies that plague many harem shows and focusing instead on ideological issues between characters, which makes their resulting relationships far more fulfilling.
It’s also worth noting that even though Yuu becomes rather passive throughout the show, he also exercises kind of selfish passivity – not in what he does, but in what he focuses on and uses to drive himself to fulfil the demands of those superior to him.
Now excuse me while I translate this into broken English so our resident AB! hater fanwankers can try to understand what I’m saying.
Well I’m a guy and I loved Angel Beats.
You two are retarded.
The character of ”self-insertion” of Charlotte is clearly ”Nao Tomori”.
Nao Tomori a ”Mary Sue OP”, ”Wish-Fulfillment”, its plot armor is more convenient, ridiculous and absurd that used by Kirito in SAO and Tatsuya in Mahouka. immunity to physical and psychological pains, do not commit faults, does not have conflict, everything is solved easily and without difficulties by its plot armor convenience.
The cases of people with the skill of the week, were resolved of an extremely convenient and easy way. The Mary-Sue apply your convenience conversation, and magically the users with skill, and conveniently these people accept all that the Mary Sue spoke without any questioning and complaints, and magically these people give up on their skill.
Mary-Sue has no internal Conflicts, Mary-Sue not make mistake, Mary-Sue also does not present any difficulties and problems, in the what she does and tries to do. Mary-Sue is immune to physical and psychological pains, Mary-Sue has a three-dimensional super-vision convenient that lets she see people who are behind her.
Mary-Sue also has super convenience ability to read minds, and do not tell me it’s perception, because several times she guessed what people were thinking even though they were in opposite side to yours.
amado and JekoJeko are examples of ”losers otaku”,
the two self be inserted into Nao Tomori a character Mary-Sue OP, with convenience plot armor, that even surpass Tatsuya and Kirito. the famous character “wish-fulfillment” because amado and JekoJeko, want to fulfill their desires to be strong/powerful/successful/immunity to physical and psychological pain/ performing impossibles and absurds/beating and kicking men.
ideal character to ”losers otaku”, ”waifufag”, ”girls” ”yurifag” and adptos the ”feminist movement”.
you guys can cry and kick, but it does not change the fact that Nao Tomori is a heroine shounen generic, ”self-insert” – ”wish-fulfillment”, Mary Sue OP, as Kirito/SAO and Tatsuya/Mahouka. with a ridiculous and absurd, plot armor convenience.
not to mention the episode 9, revealed that Nao has the main features that toranaram Slaine Troyard one of the most hated characters in animes,
The obsession by benefactor who saved his life in his childhood, and simply giving up his life own, his own will and ideals, to be a puppet obsessed by his master, obsessed by the teachings and ideals of his master. That just as a pet or a child, hopes to gain in exchange compliments and pats on his head.
Episodes 7~13 – plot device for the development of MC, a heroine to be the love interest of the MC, episode 11 damsel in distress, episode 9 pet of the older brother of MC, had not the slightest importance to the main plot, little of screen time, episode 7~13 had 168 minutes, Nao appeared in only 16 minutes in these episodes,straight character without internal monologues without development, just had a flashback in episode 2, the anime was rarely shown of your point of view.
The highlight was:
Nao was kidnapped in the place where she always trusted, he believed and claimed be safe and protected for people like her, who has skill.
This protection system for people with ability and their intalações were created by his benefactor-kun.
and when she was tortured by the girls, Nao bully, hitting and kicking men, accept pacivamente and without any reaction, the intimidation.
Nao mentioned that she was used to being bullied, and this happened often.
she must also have been intimidated several times by the boys, and everyone knows that when boys intimidate a girl is always in the sexual sense, probably she was raped several times during the bullies of the boys, it is no wonder that she’s the most hated Key heroine of the story in Japan, beyond all hatred she had already accumulated in the firsts four episode because of their shitty personality after episode 5, terms like non-virgin, slut, not pure, well used, slut used among others that never before been used for any heroine-key, have become frequent in Japanese forums, increasing after episode 9, bitch of big brother of MC, pet of big brother of MC, female version of Slaine, after Episode 11, raped by the Big Guy, Pregnant of Big Guy.
Actually excuse me for not being a waifufag asshole like you two, that ”self-inserted” in ”Mary Sue OP”, for ”Wish-Fulfillment”, with convenience plot armor that is more ridiculous and absurd than the used by Kirito in SAO and Tatsuya in Mahouka.
Just like I do not like character as Tatsuya, Slaine and Kirito, my opinion will never change if the character in question was a stupid waifushit that had the same characteristics as them.
Long time reader, 1st time commenter, thank y’all for your effort
Reading some Charles Shiro Inouye on Itami’s Tanpopo, renga poetry, Saikoku and Chikamatsu…never mind…
Somewhere around 2/3 of the way thru Charlotte I kinda felt that there might be a structure here, a plan by Maeda that I might not have been seeing because of expectations as to what a series like this should look like. In other words, there were less mistakes and failures and more an experimental or challenge to viewers, that Maeda knew what he was doing all along and that was sorta deconstructing the subgenre. I can’t really defend this well without close readings and multiple watchings so just a couple guesses or ideas, what ifs:
Say Maeda decided before the series ever began storyboarding that there would be say 100 cuts/shots in episode 1, 25-50 cuts/shots in episodes 7-9, and 250 cuts/shots in the finale, that the speed/pacing of the visuals would match the evolution/changes in the MC.
That the visual style and mise-en-scene would also match up with the internal states of the MC: so that episode 1 anti-hero would be on the streets and classroom, expand to other schools, episode 7-8 (?)passive dejected loser would be in one room hikikomori-style, and then expand to all Japan and the entire world by the heroic finale.
And I suspect I might find much more. My point again, is that maybe what people are seeing as failures of pacing and narrative are intended as reflexive comments on the subgenre.
This doesn’t mean you have to like it or watch it again. Just that my gut feeling says that Charlotte does make sense in a way I have yet to understand.