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「シャーロット」 (Sha rotto)
“Charlotte”
And so, there you have it. The revelation regarding the series’ name sake is here, and Charlotte turns out to be the cosmic reference we suspected it could be following the first few episodes. As the name of a long-distance comet that orbits the Earth every 75 years, it’s the source of particles that grant people special abilities by awakening a dormant part of the human brain. Being an actual disease causing agent, Shunsuke and the good doctor Tsutsumiuchi have been trying to create a vaccine to ensure such powers won’t develop in the future, and it’s a revelation that makes you wonder a little bit.
After all, if taken at face value, this means is that every human is capable of wielding an ability of some sort as long as that dormant section is activated. As such, it reasons that one’s abilities can awaken even without its presence given the right conditions, and it’s intriguing in the sense that depending how things work out in the future, Shunsuke’s goal of preventing Charlotte‘s future after effects could actually do more harm than good—both from an evolutionary perspective for the human race and in the sense that if he’s only able to vaccinate Japan, then the other nations will continue to have ability users every 75 years. Depending on the growth and power of those users, it’s certainly a possibility that other nations will catch on and use them for nefarious purposes, and Japan alone would powerless to counter it without ability users of its own. The fact that he’s even researching these powers means that there’s always a chance someone will leak the information somewhere or betrays the organization, and it’s not a stretch to say that things could easily go down from there.
And while the part about evolution and the future end up more amusing thoughts than anything, the betrayal does actually end up happening, and the big bad guys (one of them actually speaks proper English!) finally make their triumphant appearance in the present timeline, having bided their time since as far back as the academy’s founding. What results is the capture and physical abuse of both Kumagami and Tomori, and the hatching of a reckless plan to send Yuu on yet another rescue mission, which succeeds—albeit not in the ideal fashion.
Episode 11 leaves us with what should be its first permanent death in Kumagami (your hair will be missed), and while it’s a powerful development in and of itself—highlighting the importance of his role in everything Shunsuke’s done so far—it also highlights what seems to be a weak attempt to introduce an antagonistic element to round out the rest of the series.
When one considers the preparation our shadowy group has been doing for an innumerable amount of years, the fact that they pinned their hopes on Yuu not being able to use his abilities with one eye was rather sloppy, and there’s a laundry list of things that would’ve wasted their years of preparations—ranging from the failure of their knife-wielder to take out his eye to Yuu actually being capable of time-leaping with just one eye. Any of these, along with Yuu being more powerful and/or more skilled than anticipated would’ve spelled failure, and the fact that this failure does happen is yet another quick resolution in a series filled with them.
It could very well be that the members here aren’t the whole story and there are more enemies waiting along the horizon, but that doesn’t change the fact that things end up as expected here for the most part, and it’s something that was also true with the previous episode. It also doesn’t help that they basically glance over the explanation behind why Yuu’s the only one to retain his memory—”I don’t know why” is probably my most hated line ever since Sword Art Online used it twice in 5 minutes for its two biggest plot points—even if it’s nice that they at least mentioned the incongruity.
That said, for all the things I disliked, this week’s episode does still end up a solid one overall. The revelations and the final pieces of the puzzle do come together rather well, and Kumagami’s death ends up perhaps the only major twist I didn’t see coming before this episode started—though there was the suspicion that something was going to happen to someone eventually. The link of Charlotte to the witch hunts of years past was also a nice touch—I have a soft spot for hilarious reinterpretations of historical events—and I did like seeing Yuu’s moment of indecision as he realized how the false facade he’s been putting up could bite him in the ass when push comes to shove.
Looking forward, I can only hope that we have more of the latter than the many negatives we’ve talked about. With only two episodes left though, time’s certainly running out for the series to turn out anything but underwhelming…
https://randomc.net/image/Charlotte/Charlotte%20-%2011%20-%2039.jpg
Kumagami, you were a true bro whose magnificent hair will be deeply missed. RIP.
Mere mortals could only hope to have such fabulous hair.
Tell me about it. Seriously, I don’t even want to understand how people can actually find this garbage to be any good. Horrible pacing and stupidly convenient plot devices.
Even if Shunsuke and Kumagami go way back; how is he more important than your little brother, who also happens to be most powerful psychic in the series? Sure, go ahead and save a friend and ruin all your “perfect plans” in one go. What if Yuu got abducted and brainwashed into a mindless killing device? Humanity and the world would end either way.
If that Pooh guy is going to sacrifice himself anyway, why not just go ahead and die in the first place? Seriously, the stupidity is high in this one.
But nope- you should reveal all highly classified information to the enemy, make your comrades come and rescue yourself (and risk dying, falling into enemies’ hands, etc.), and THEN sacrifice yourself to act like some hero. Lol, I can’t bring myself to laugh at this kind of stupidity and naivety.
Same goes to Furuki guy. Apparently he was “determined” to help. We got to see such cheap determination. Him kept saying sorry is like rubbing salt in the wound. Yeah, sure. Just by saying sorry and shedding a tear or two you get to excuse yourself and atone for all your sins.
Why bother to save the family of your driver when your brother and friends risk dying themselves?
#brainless hero of justice logic
The child-level drama is too suffocating for me. And yet the show tries so hard to be all serious and gory/violent. What’s the point again?
TL; DR:
I have got enough of this garbage. Sat through eleven episodes of painfully horrible rubbish just because I gave face to Maeda Jun and Key.
In return, I got disappointed greatly. Nice.
Dropped.
The feels were for the hair dying, not him.
If that Pooh guy is going to sacrifice himself anyway, why not just go ahead and die in the first place? Seriously, the stupidity is high in this one.
But nope- you should reveal all highly classified information to the enemy, make your comrades come and rescue yourself (and risk dying, falling into enemies’ hands, etc.), and THEN sacrifice yourself to act like some hero. Lol, I can’t bring myself to laugh at this kind of stupidity and naivety.
Having the bit of a sadistic streak that I do, I can’t help but take a certain pleasure in calling out stupidity and foolishness when I see it. I’m sure, given your comment, that you can appreciate that to some extent.
That being the case, when you talk about Kumagami being a fool who revealed all sorts of key information to the enemy, do try to keep in mind that he was drugged, had his face beaten in and his teeth busted out, in addition to having all of his fingernails and toenails ripped out (which, if I might add, if you’ve ever seen Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni‘s first season, should give you some pause as to the indescribable suffering that entails).
Even bearing all that in mind however, it’s reasonable to assert that he could’ve done more rather than simply fall into the enemy’s hands. We can have that argument if you so wish.
Regardless, at worst I’d only call Kumagami a big-hearted fool who got in over his head without thinking about his situation as much as he should have. Good intentions; poor execution.
NOT KUMAGAMI NOOOOOOOO!! HE WAS SO HOT ONCE I FINALLY FOUND OUT WHO HE WAS!!
*ahem* on another note this episode was a quick turn around!! I’m glad we finally find out what Charlotte is, but it wasn’t the impact i was looking for. I knew the scientists or some foreign agency was going to come and interfere. SIIGHHHHH… i hated that cliché part but who was the two power users?? Especially the girl!! And the buff guy, they were so RANDOM okay not too random but they were really shoved in there. And now that Yuu’s eyes are hurt will he be able to do anything?? His powers are as good as gone without both eyes!! I wonder what is going to happen with only 2 episodes left?!?! Can’t wait!!
Yeah, the two power users (we assume they are anyway) were certainly just shoved in there.
As for Yuu, it’s safe to say he can at least still use collapse and telekinesis. Still up in the air as to whether he can plunder anymore though.
Such a shame.. Kumagami was the best bro. Anyways, I’m glad we got a lot of unexpected excitement this episode. So much happened from Nao and Kumagami being kidnapped, Yuu losing his power to travel back in time, finding out what Charlotte is, and meeting a new threat. All that makes me wish that Charlotte was longer than just 12 (?) Episodes. But now I’m wondering, if people all gained powers due to that comet, why haven’t there been more mayhem across the world? Because if anime has ever taught me anything is that people with power eventually use it for evil. Also, love how you mentioned how the english was so spot on. And I agree.. most english in anime is cringeworthy. Glad to see that they actually got someone decent to do it. Can’t wait till next week! How will it end??!
Who said there isn’t any mayhem around the world, we never saw what’s happening in other countries, clearly the power wielders and the governments of various countries are at war or at least some kind of conflict, they do mention this in this episode.
As much as I enjoy this show (which is a lot!), The pacing in it is absolutely horrible. We have the first half which is filled with filler-like episodes of ability of the week which barely add anything to the plot and the suddenly we have all these huge conflicts thrown one after the other that all get solved in 1 or 2 episodes at most. Its not like the show need another cour or anything, It just needs better pacing.
The sudden shift into huge conflicts could also work better if said conflicts uncovered more depth in what we’d seen before. The ending of Angel Beats! had that effect, but Charlotte’s call-backs to the series’ earlier moments are pretty basic and uninteresting.
Man, it is amazing how these ESPERS have remained docile. I mean, this is pretty much apocalyptic x-men scenario. ESPERS could grow frustrated and rampant and decide to wipe humanity instead.
I wonder that too.
The X-Men comparison is very good. Many times the writers of X-Men have claimed that the basic idea of the comic (teenagers suddenly having superpowers, and not because of an accident, but because of biology) is a metaphor of adolescence and minorities. The usual message in X-Men is that difference is not bad, that discrimination is wrong and that people should enjoy their special talents and use them for the good of others.
The metaphor seems stronger in Charlotte (the powers actually disappear when they become adults), but the message is exactly the opposite: difference is bad, you should suppress your special talents and blend in, even if it isn’t your fault. Also, we’ll make a vaccine so no one is special again, at least not in Japan.
The pro social conformity message in Charlotte is incredibly strong. And disturbing.
Remember that social conformity is a very big thing in Japan. As a largely homogenous society, they can be quite close-knit with emphasis on group harmony and/or groupthink to showcase unity, with status quo challenges seen as harmful.
For a better critique on this issue, check out this season’s Gatchaman Crowds Insight. It’s been exploring these issues deeply with quite a few metaphorical criticisms on Japanese conformity.
How do you feel about Nao spewing rhetoric on why they shouldn’t use their powers then violating their free will by not giving them a choice and taking their powers without their knowledge?
Oh god it’s like losing Neji all over again. KUMAGAMIIIII!
they really should have had the previous episode as the finale, just pad out the previous episodes with yuu’s breakdown/timetravel and do some scenes where they now face forward with everyone being happy.
at this point, it looks like they’re just doing this for the sake of having a dramatic ending with someone dead.
there’s quite a lot of problems, especially with how the situation was dealt:
why didnt yuu use telekinesis to blow the girl away?
why didnt yuu fly after being slashed?
why didnt yuu deal with the girl attacking him instead of those guys who dont even have any weapons?follow up the previous with why couldnt yuu retaliate well when he’s already been in street fights?
why didnt they get the speed guy’s help, or have yuu plunder it? hell, why not have yuu plunder some other abilities in preparation?
why didnt they just time travel to the time before kumagami got caught so that they couldnt know about their time travel?
why didnt yuu get the address from the glasses dude and then time travel back to give them time to protect/evacuate them so they dont have hostages?
why put nao up in her underwear at all?
how come yuu could muster up enough anger to not give a shit about hurting others after ayumi was killed, and as we can see when protecting ayumi from the yandere he has some guts, but then he pussies out when nao is in danger?
why the heck do these americans only have the girl protecting them and not have dozen of other guys hiding with sleeping darts or something?
where the hell is muscle guy? for that matter, why muscle guy has to be shirtless every time even when they were infiltrating?
and some additional issues not only for this ep:
what is the purpose of the other 2 “main” characters at this point? why make them irrelevant when they could have helped?
whats the point of having the flying dude if his powers dont get used ever?
whats with pushing the whole siscon and nao romance down our throats? why not just let it develop naturally instead of having everyone keep saying yuu likes his sis/nao?
1. His reaction was just too slow. After the first slash he was in too much pain.
2. They made a point of saying how hard it was to control the flying ability. After being slashed he couldn’t focus enough to fly.
3. He wasn’t thinking straight after being stabbed and being subjected to more pain than he’s been ever in his entire life.
4. His “street fights” were him one lopsidedly beating down tough guy kids who had no idea wtf was going on. He was never actually touched in any of them.
5. The enemies specified that they only wanted Yuu alone. Also speed guy can’t control his power well. If he came crashing in there who knows what would happen? The enemies could have killed the hostages if he crashed into the area.
You have a somewhat good point on plundering, but keep in mind that plundering is permanent. The other guys would lose their abilities if he plundered them, also he could only use one ability at a time anyway, so depending on the situation it wouldn’t have helped.
6. You aren’t paying attention at all huh? This issue was addressed in the episode. The enemies were following a scenario planned with the possibility of time travel in mind. If they rescued Kumigami the enemy syndicate would assume time travel was used and kill Furuki’s family.
7. This, like many of the points above, were addressed in the anime. They had Furuki from the very start. Which means in order to rescue his family Yuu would need to travel all the way back in the beginning. Which means they’d have to start over from scratch with their syndicate, only Yuu would have to do all of it. This was way too risky since unlike Shun, Yuu doesn’t have years of experience.
8. Pure fanservice.
9. I mentioned this before, but beating up in kiddies DOES NOT equal going up against professional assassins and the likes. A silly little yandere girl with a box cutter is NOTHING. Any teen could just go up and give her a good smack. Also When he was fighting a couple of thugs they had nothing on him. He wasn’t in any real danger and he knew it. Not only that, he was in his I hate the world state and gave no fucks. Nothing he cared about was at stake in those fights. I actually found his break down this episode both in character and believable. Too many anime throw green horn kids into unreasonable situations and somehow they adapt and take things in stride. This is usually more entertaining, but not very realistic.
10.Speaking english does not equal American. They probably should have had more people but I guess they were overconfident.
11. My guess is the muscle guy was underground waiting to kill Nao and Kumigami just in case. He probably ran when Yuu started Collapsing.
As for Yuu’s feelings for Nao, I thought that was developed nicely. She earned a ton of stock when she saved him.
AKAME Ga KILL all over ! I was so happy to this point but literally what a rush bunch of garbarge dump this EP is ! You needed another 3/ 4 episodes to develop this ! The train came off the tracks in this episode
1. I meant AFTER that slash.
2. it was only hard because yuu didnt know how to fly back then, no evidence there needed to be a clear mind, not to mention telekinesis also uses a mind you know.
3. except that people in general react to thngs in their immediate vicinity, and the girl was closer to his vicinity than some 2 americans.
4. yuu has shown to be able to still dodge a bit during his rampage, instead he stood there instead of moving for a bit to get away from the girl.
5. he could serve as backup in case things get worse, he could at least run over there to save yuu when he was about to get jumped by the girl.
6. and how are they even gonna tell something is off? this is so stupid, what if the kids were scheduled to go outing but then shu(or anyone else since they dont know who has) decides to not go because he’s just not feeling it? how can they tell if that guy time traveled just cause he didnt follow ruitine?
7. more like are you paying attention to what I mean? I didnt mean going that far, just going back to when they were planning what to do with the whole situation. yuu just needs to know about their CURRENT location, go back tell shuu where and then they figure out a way to get them safe, like I dunno, gather them inside their place or even the school?
8. funny, when the show avoided showing any panty shots and the like. so pointless right.
9. except that yuu has clearly shown that he can go advance in dangerous situations like the scene where they were in the facility where there are armed guards and he had the confidence to go rampant when he was told by the others.
10. so the guys who were “careful and clever” enough to be prepared for time travel and have a counter for eye powers, dont have even just random mooks to guard the premise, even if just to be sure that yuu didnt come with other people? what about if they had brought in other kids to just assault the area regardless of their threats? like the dudes didnt even have any walkie talkies to tell their “supposed” people to kill in case they go against the agreements?
11. alright but this is the only one question you got though.
clearly they just came up with this situation to add drama considering how there’s quite a lot of questionable actions as well as holes. also fun fact, they didnt need to be foreigners, they are just somehow that instead of just using scientist who were already said to be the antagonist yet they havent done shit except during a flashback.
it was only natural after yuu’s breakdown, but before that the cast kept on commenting how they were like a couple when they werent even doing anything that unique, just a normal argument.
yeah, the whole they’ll be able tell if time travel was used against them is just so ridiculous, and that Shun doesn’t even call them out on it! Like yeah, good luck on figuring that out.
I really want to add a few myself:
“kumagami: lol the driver told me i’m being kidnapped, better not call shunsuke now even though I HAVE MY PHONE HERE RIGHT ON MY HAND.”
“lol we can’t time loop into the past because they’ll know somehow” FUCKING BULLSHIT!
“lol we can’t time loop back into the past to save everything we worked so hard for because of one guy’s family” And I might that NOBODY was angry with the guy, like, he single-handedly ruined everything and everyone was just chill with him.
“lol yuu this is our plan: you just time loop if anything happens and we’ll stay back 2km away from the meeting point in case you need any help” What the hell? Why not just send his other x-men in to help Yuu?
“lol this random ninja loli has been staring at me for like 4 seconds while she’s doing her acrobatics better not posses her.”
Oh and Sala? Irrelevant
Yusarin? Irrelevant
Sonic? Irrelevant
Why the fuck did we even waste time with those people?
I’ll add a few others:
how the hell would the bad guys know if they went back in time to change events, cause that would mean the future’s been erased, and they’d just think everything was happening normally, or think things are constantly changing due to constant time traveling. That doesn’t make sense to say they’d know! They might as well think whenever one of their shitty plans fail its because of course, time travel!
why does time travel only work with two eyes? seems arbitrary.
why didn’t he make those two guys jump over railing?
why should I care about this new arc so late in the season?
I agree with all the plot holes that highlighted by amado. This series now fast turning in train wreck and becoming the disappointment of the season if we remember how hyped the show was. In Angel Beats!, the real meat of the series is in the final 3-4 episodes which have sensible twist. In Charlotte, we have asspull power like time travel which not even utilized properly. For the bad guys/scientists/terrorists that we have been waiting for 10 episodes, they are really useless and their scheme easily thwarted by collapse. Even though assuming they are not the main villain, introducing new character now with only two episodes left will be the new low of the series. Now I am just watching the show for the sake of finishing it and hoping it can salvage itself.
I can’t stop myself to comparing this with Guilty Crown. Same hypes(or maybe little less than GC), awesome animation and OP, star-studded staffs and epic failure in execution. At least in Charlotte we end up with interesting MC.
I wonder what kind of ability user Kumagai found before getting caught up in the mess. If she/he has the ability to heal and was able to tell Nao about it when they were in the basement, it would be the easiest solution.
Wonder if they aren’t showing yusa and takajou lately to take our minds off them. Which makes me want to see Yuu kill himself in the next episode and possess yusa to time travel. Please make it happen.
Unfortunately, it won’t gonna happen simply because Yuu-Kumagami relationship is pretty distant and not worth sacrificing himself. That will be different if the one who get killed is Nao which I think will become decent plot twist. If Nao was raped or sustained heavy injuries then maybe it can happen either way.
Initial and most immediate reaction: Jesus Christ
Reaction after thought:
Jesus f*cking Christ.
Then my shock turned to anger. Why are we getting this at episode 11/12? There’s only one more damned episode left and all of this just now happens? Goodness. What a waste of episodes to get to the most…appropriate climax of the series.
Then I got confused, the incident was totally not a causation of Ayumi’s life being saved as far as I see it. Such an elaborate plan that had been in the works prior to the point before Ayumi was even supposed to die never happened in the other timeline.
In the other timeline Yuu went on a psycho tyrannical march throughout a city abusing his powers. This timeline we get this result in what appears to be mere days (day?) after Ayumi survives her collapsing situation.
So why didn’t this happen in the other timeline at the same amount of time?
Either way…what the hell.
I guess that the syndicate is interested in the one which time travel only and waited for being informed by Furuki that one which time travel showed up. In the other timeline Furuki never met Yu, so the syndicate was still waiting patiently.
Not plausible. This plan has been in fruition for so much longer than that.
Additionally, they’ve (at the base) always been aware of Yuu’s power so it’s no stretch to say they simply needed Kumagami to determine where Yuu was located. Nothing makes sense.
It makes sense, because in the other timeline Yuu had not the ability to time travel until it’s end.
They were only aware of Shun traveling through time and told him that if he did anything they’d kill his family. Not yuu
I’m not sure if we watch the same show. They told Shun nothing, Furuki was the guy they blackmailed. It is not clear so far what they have known about time travel and the abilities of Shun and Yuu before they captured Kumagami.
I’m guessing it was not Time Travel they were interested in, but Plunder. They were after the “strongest power user”. In the original time line Yuu didn’t realize he had plunder and thought he only had possession. Furuki probably was ordered to report when they bring in Plunder user in, which didn’t happen until much later in the original time line.
So we got ” AKame Ga Kill ‘ at the last moment !
If they werre going to go this it should have been more episodes ! I hate rush episodes where the infro dumps are just useless at this point !
And they got so far away from original group / story I am just so mad !
Then the outsiders plan bacfired anyway with Collaspe
Worst wriiten episode of the series / worst execution / worst rush job !
Hmmm…
What just happened? Feels like the plot is all over the place
I think the series should end last episode to retain some its dignity. The plot now is totally look very poor planned.
At least, the story becomes unpredictable.
adding time travel + removing it “as planned” + killing a major character seems like a good plot twist
Yes, the story is now unpredictable but I braced myself for this very rushed scientist arc. You should not start such major confrontation so late in the series. Killing off Ayumi or/and Nao is the only way to provide decent ending in this show.
Did anyone feel like there was a extremely uncomfortable similarity between the way the government treated the siblings and the way Shu treats them now? I dont know but when Ayumi just wanted to listen to haro-haro and was not allowed freedom to go outside it just seemed like the beginning of another research facility.
It also seemed like the group was way too ready to have Yu do all the work, even ready to use his time leap progressively blinding him. It just seems silly.
Also is no one going to mention that Tomoe’s brother is still insane in this timeline cause Yu never saved him?
Time-travel: 99.9% likely to destroy plot.
It actually IS a research facility – IIRC, Shunsuke even said it was, and last episode, I think he did say that he bought off a number of researchers that would have ended up working at the facility they were imprisoned at and, as we see here, even the older lead researcher that helped Yu is there.
But yeah, the only difference is that this research facility appears to treat them all humanely whereas the other one treated them as inhuman test subjects to be thrown away if no longer useful. Otherwise, they’re both still prisons. One is just a lot more comfortable than the other.
My guess is he’ll plunder someone with regen and time travel again.
Magic space dust was not on my short list of where the powers came from…
So when Yuu possessed the two bad guys and started looking for a gun… what was his end game here? Was he going to have them shoot each other? Did he plan to have them toss it down so then he could shoot them or at least hold them hostage? Hell he should have taken the opportunity to make them both jump, at that height they should break a few bones and they would have at least been incapacitated.
And isn’t finding out that your organization has been compromised and a core member kidnapped be a situation that calls for an immediate time leap instead of waiting to see how things turn out and using it at the last second? The blindness things shouldn’t be an issue, from the sound of it the big brother must have used the power at least a dozen times if not more.
Not only that; for a country-wide organization that has been keeping that big secret for years, the evil guys had a too easy time to derail it.
Let’s take, for example, Kumagami’s kidnapping. He did nothing. He didn’t try to escape, to phone the others (we say he had a freaking smartphone with him all the time) and they didn’t even notice he never reached his destination until the bad guys called.
Now I know why the big brother lost his sight; if they are so incompetent, he had to go back in time for every tiny mistake.
Not sure if I was misunderstanding, but it seemed like Shunsuke, in terms of vaccination, was also only talking about “his part of” Japan, as in that area with the school and such, which wouldn’t be too big a problem given I’m sure all the people there would trust him. As for the rest of Japan, much less the rest of the world, in connection to what was said already, there’s also the problem of consent.
I mean, Shunsuke can’t be so naive as to think that any and all potential ability users everywhere would allow themselves to be vaccinated, right? I mean seriously, if you were told that you would most likely end up awakening a(n incomplete) super power, even if temporarily, and they said they had a vaccine that would prevent that from happening, would you, even as a kid, honestly accept it without question, even if they try to scare you into it with all the talk of being captured, dissected, etc.? And what would Shunsuke do if people refused to take the vaccination? Kidnap them and force it into them anyway? Give it to them in some other way without their knowledge?
Not to mention if the last time the comet came was like 400 years ago, they’d have to convince every single person 400 years from now to take vaccinate their kids for something they’d probably not believe in. Right. They’re better off just telling everyone to just stay inside that day. Much less hassle. I can’t even take them seriously as scientists; this is not how vaccinations and prioritizing valuable research resources work.
Charlotte comes by every 75 years, but it was 400 years ago that it came by close enough for its particles to reach the Earth and people could breathe them in, so there’s also having to remember to keep a watch over how close it comes.
And if/when the knowledge of ability users reaches the governments, who’s to say that they won’t purposely try to attempt to make Charlotte pass by even closer just so they could create more, possibly even more powerful ability users, maybe even ones with complete powers and/or ones that don’t dissipate?
Please don’t let Charlotte be like Akame Ga Kill. It isn’t sad anymore when a lot of character die.
The worst episode so far. Really. The older brother, whom you expect to be a cool-headed pro, suddenly is a panicking girl, who didn’t even tell his brother how does his power work (the fact the you can’t loose and eye). Everything else is kind of out of place too, imo. “Just because” is a bad way to do things.
https://randomc.net/image/Charlotte/Charlotte%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
Hairstyle of death confirmed.
This episode is just plain retard.
Still entertain, but very very poor written.
This was…not so good. I don’t get how the bad guys would automatically know if someone used time traveling. Can’t chalk everything up to time traveling. Plus, the time traveler is the one who could fix that mistake even if it occurred, so even if they did assume right, they could keep going back until they would never suspect it. I don’t think the bad guys thought this through.
That’s the problem with any show that employs a time traveler, Heroes I’m looking at you. That power can literally get out of almost any bind…by going back in time!
I don’t know why, but I feel like that little vivid-eyed feral girl that was with the bad guys might be something to do with the whole the-bad-guys-know thing. Most likely I’m utterly wrong, but it’s an idea.
If Yuu can remember events from another timeline. The syndicate maybe have one with the ability to sense timeline alternations. Charlottes writing was very heavy-handed but in my opinion they did a good job avoiding plot holes until this episode.
I don’t understand why Yuu is wondering why he retained memories of a timeline he supposedly hadn’t experienced…
Never estimate the strength of a main lead’s plot armor.
I liked the plot of the syndicate, but the reaction of our heroes is very poor. At least they should have jumped back to a moment the syndicate is not prepared and have no hostages e.g. the moment they expected Furuki to bring them Kumagami and show up with a strike team including Misa. But I guess they like to fight with a handicap.
Uhm…. This episode killed all of my hopes for this show. Charlotte feels very schizophrenic in terms of plot and I felt that it should have ended last episode. Yes, this series is now underwhelming (the same can be said with summer anime shows in general).
One more thing, the reason for the kids to have special abilities was too convenient and didn’t leave me any sense of belief whatsoever. You hid the reason for ten episode and it’s just magic dust that’s not even substantially explored. That’s it? Really? Even Ranpo Kitan has a better presentation of its main conflict despite being inferior overall.
Yuu also received a regression in his character development. Pooh’s death also felt forced. It didn’t induce anything in me but irritation and me screaming “This is the most stupid climactic Key episode”. Ugh.
I definitely heard a lot of bells ringing when they mentioned “research facility”. It felt like the current timeline would eventually end up like the one Shunsuke time leapt from originally.
No one bat an eyelid at the possibility of Yuu loosing his sight? (Though that seemed to be the least of Yuu’s concerns). After all the pain Shunsuke went through to save his family AND friends, he’s now so ready to throw it all away again, and this easily?
Honestly, I’ve never met a big brother as reckless and irresponsible as Shunsuke in this episode. I was beyond shocked when no one else paused to REALLY consider a proper *PLAN*? No, that discussion at the table doesn’t count. I can understand that Yuu’s young and inexperienced, but the others? They just went with whatever they could think of and recklessly executed it? Though, I have to say, seeing Shunsuke blindly crawl to Kumagami was very heart-wrenching. Seeing Yuu get his eye slashed made me wince. Kumagami – I love(d) your hair.
I’ve really enjoyed Charlotte from the start because Tomori drew me in, and Yuu wasn’t your typical hero. However, I feel that the anime has made a very poor attempt at mixing seemingly innocent high schoolers and gunmen/unethical scientists. I won’t deny the FEELS this anime gives me though.
Probably because it’ll more than 2 or 3 leaps to make him lose his sight, or even have it impaired to a point where it’ll be a problem.
It might be possible…
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Now it’s time to kill Yuu off, have Yusa use her powers to channel his dead spirit into her body, and then he can time leap again to fix everything.
And then the macho man is missing…
This episode finally answered this weird feeling i’ve had since few episodes ago; that Shunsuke and Kumagami should’ve been the ones with Nao and Yuu on the opening sequence, not the retarded idol and her dumb fanboy megane.
Surely that would count as spoilers though, given how late into the series their connection to things was revealed?
Unless you meant they should edit the opening to reflect the changes in the episodes?
and putting yusa, who didnt appear for several episodes, is not a spoiler too?
he’s talking about overall importance and focus. the other two “mains” might as well be side characters now. they havent been relevant since the time ayumi died.
Ah, those are good points. I wasn’t thinking of it like that.
Wonder if Sara Shane will come into play for the final episodes.
I was suspicious of Tomori after last week. I totally did not see this plot change coming.
That would be because there was zero foreshadowing. Not a good thing.
tomori was raped… who care about wet guy and shun yaoi shit ¬¬
i hope some revenge time on these faggots,torture them to death
“Hey, we want this guy who can steal powers and time travel through the use of his eyes, so let’s capture him by damaging his eyes!”
Does anyone else see a problem with this plan?
Not only that
Wet Hair dude, did not know about our Singer one that Triggered the erased Memories of Yuu of his Big Brother
So Wet Hair dude “detection” Range is limited, or this Singer is from outside Japan. She is in similar case as Big Brother. Blind of overusing her Powers, but she still have her ESP ability running or it was really luck that her Song triggered his memries back. Perhaps his Memries was not erased, just locked away in a corner, where the Song was the Key to unlock them back. Perhaps is little Sister hear the song, she regain her memories back
And of all this, Big Brother did not know this Singer? Did Wet hair dude mess things up? Why did he not call back that he is being Hijacking? No, he gone there full of confirmed he can resolve this “little” Problem, and the Hijackers are noble are give his Family back…
It convenient, that Big Brothers restarts all again, had not this Scenario of Dark Side abusing the ESP Kids.. Wait there was only the Bad Army in Japan…
This World building is crumbling away in fast pacing, since Yuu traveled back in Time. But telling from the OP, he will do an Time Travel again, and he succeed in rescue her, and somehow end in the Air. Because he remembers of his Plunder Fly Skill perhaps combines with our Teleport friend, and Gravity? All Abilities he plunder activate at once…
or the Singer do not exist in this Time Jump world anymore
I’m more concerned as to why Yuu didn’t immediately no-clip through the floor once he was told that Nao was in the basement. He was told to take as many powers as possible before going – why wouldn’t he use that one?
Also, why not erase the memories of the blade-wielding assailant to stop her from fighting him? He could make her forget what she was doing there, or how to use a sword. He only needed to touch her, before or after he’d lost his eye.
That or he could have shown her what she looks like in her underwear.
Yu doesn’t possess the power of Permeation in this timeline. He got it in another timeline that was erased by Shun. The proof is that the blonde dude used Permeation to show off in front of Ayumi. As for the memory-erasing ability, he never even plundered that one!
But why wouldn’t he have taken their powers? He was sent as a one man army; it’s like being told to arm yourself to the teeth and not taking the rocket launcher and flamethrower because other people are holding them. If you’re the one doing all the fighting, you better rip those big guns out of their hands and put them to good use.
He’s not even friends with Mr No-Clip or Furuki. I don’t why he wouldn’t turn on Badass Yuu mode and just snatch their powers before he went.
On top of that, why doesn’t he take everyone’s powers so that they don’t have to be in hiding any more?
Self control Stress… As you saw here, he nearly lost it at the talk with Big Brother. More Abilities = more Danger to lose Control aka Time Bomb
Hello Yuu, my name is Charles Xavier, welcome to my school for gifted youngsters.
I dunno. I feel that since Little Busters anime, no, Angel Beats! anime that KEY anime seems to rush too much. I think KEY needs to huge flop to make them realize that they need to spread out their story into more episodes as cramming too much may fail to get your audience emotionally attached to the story.
Eve no Jikan is a pretty emotional series (and movie) that succeeded within six episodes that weren’t even the standard length. ‘Cramming’ done well is just good storytelling – you make the surface emotionally impactful, and then fill the series with depth that just increases how much the audience engages with everything. You make it so the audience has to spend more time than the series’ running time in order to get everything out of the story, and you make it so they want to do that.
It’s not more time we need, or less cramming. Key’s writers just need to use their limits on time and their amount of story compression more effectively. In Angel Beats! it worked well enough to make the show a success and develop some wider themes (it is a show about the brevity and cruelty of life after all!). But Charlotte’s short length is doing its narrative direction no favours. It feels like it’s tried to be everything it wants to be – everything Key has done well in the past – without truly becoming any of those things.
It’s a shame that I was right in thinking that whole new conflicts would have to be made in order for the series to end. Our new baddies just acted like a force to give us a damsel-in-underwear. It’s not a plot twist – it’s an entirely new plot. And, as usual, the series has given me no indication of or interest in where it will go next. Things will happen. More people will probably die. Why didn’t we all just stop watching last week?
More of my thoughts here: https://unnecessaryexclamationmark.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/charlotte-11/
Whether you like Maeda or not, it’s hard to feel like his style is being accomplished much in this series. Our dramatic call-backs to the series’ past don’t add anything more to what we already saw. The show is far too simple in how it’s drawn upon past experiences purely for emotional impact. The false sense of security we were in may have added to this episode’s drama, but was there any development of depth of character or theme?
Everything I loved about Angel Beats! is lacking in this show. Everything I love about Maeda, even.
The explanation behind why Yuu’s the only one to retain his memory has something to do with the circumstances in which he regained said memories, the vocalist from Zhiend and her singing has something to do with it 100%.
Yes, that’s likely and most people won’t deny it. But the very unusual thing is that the Yuu that rescued Shunsuke and the Yuu that “retained” memories are technically from two different timelines. The Yuu we’ve been watching this whole time is supposed to not have experienced what Shunsuke has.
Maybe it’ll be explained, but for now, things are pretty messy.
Maybe it is only me but I am not feeling anything with Kumagai’s death. He just explored in detail last episode but even though his contribution to Shun’s plan is great, the emotional ties with Yuu is almost non-existent. I will be pretty surprised if Yuu will cry due to his death next episode.
Instead of Kumagai, they should kill off Nao. That will impact both Shun, Yuu and almost entire casts. But the angst will be enormous though if we compared it with Ayumi’s death. Anyway, if the show still intent to bring the feel train coming, they should kill one of the main casts (I am not talking about Yusarin/Takajou, they are as good as secondary characters now). Maybe they can end the show with entire Shun’s plan unravel and Japan becoming esper’s utopia and start Shin Sekai Yori all over again.
Very good point. Even though I did connect with Shun as Kumagami died, the issue lies with how the entire episode had taken us through Yuu’s perspective. The sense of him not belonging to the research facility, and hence only ‘fighting the good fight’ for Nao, was arguably done well, setting things up for a meaningful fight with the baddies. But the most climactic moment of the episode – the ‘payoff’, shall we say – was for a character whose shoes we’ve barely been in. In fact, judging by his bland and expedient delivery of the history of the syndicate, I don’t think his character allows for viewers to engage much with him and his shoes at all.
At least it’ll allow for Shun to come out of his dull-as-dishwater shell before the very end. The reality has finally dawned on him that your best friends are not forever in a Maeda show.
there might be reason why they explicitly showed the downside of time-leaping:
time leap (and plunder) is removed permanently
It is possible that in this timeline Shun snorts advanced coke
Honestly I believe that Yuu still have the plunder ability. If not then I can’t believe how retarded those so called terrorists. They make plan to counter time leap ability but shoot themselves in the foot by making Yuu lost the ability that they after for so long.
Theory:
1.) zeind’s vocalist made a song a few years ago before she lost her powers and that’s how the MC got his memories back, probably has something to do with canceling someone else’s power or able to remember past memories including ones from alternate timelines (as seen the MC even recalls memories from time-leap)
2.) will probably see that lelouche like face-expression again. I get the feeling he’s gonna be able to time leap again and use his talent of manipulating and tricking people to get around the situation. well after they torture the hell out of those terrorists to spill out information, gets the motivation the time leap to the past probably before his comrade was taken to the warehouse.
3.) the one who’ll heal the eye is probably an ability user in their facility, the professor, or the ability user that was detected but wasn’t able to pursued ‘cuz that guy got captured, if not then will wait for a certain time until his eyes gets healed on its own.
well that’s all i can think about. what do you think?
I enjoy this series but as it had it’s major plot twist beside Classroom Crisis, I can’t help but feel that Classroom Crisis won the plot twist war. It just felt more solid and grounded yet at the same time surprising.
Charlotte’s just felt more “where did that come from?” having barely any build up in the past. I would have accepted it more had the “shadowy organization” been from the “scientists”
Respectfully speaking to a great blogger:
How can you say that? Most high school shows are generic filled with countless troupes. I found this one very entertaining. I think you have as well. If we named a bunch of high school shows on a list surely this show would be at the top. Remember that high school show last season from Trigger? It was called “Where Supernatural battles are commonplace”. This is WAY better too me.
Sorry for late reply my schedule is crazy now. Not expecting an answer or even for it to be read this late lol
Okay, Parasyte and Kill La Kill are better than this show actually. And Beyond The Boundary was better
I still adore this show tho 🙂 And I will not be disappointed by the finale I dont think
This isn’t a ‘high school show’, though. The series actually makes a point of the action almost always happening outside of the normal high school world (which, we could say, the MC is thrust out of during the first episode). It’s a supernatural teenage drama, and I and many other viewers would argue that it hasn’t excelled in any of those three things.
The other problem is that it’s a Maeda show. Jun Maeda has a history that this series simply doesn’t reflect or live up to. Even though it was billed as the successor to Angel Beats!, Charlotte suffers even more from the issues some people found with that project. Fair play is some are still enjoying it, but Maeda’s artistry isn’t being achieved here. It’s more like a rough copy of what he’s capable of.
*Fair play if
I’m getting worse at proof-reading my comments…
I agree Angel Beats was very good.
Oh my god, I don’t know what to make of this. In my opinion, I thought this episode was a complete mess. A few good points that were overshadowed by the negative aspects. Pooh dying had very little emotional resonance. Sure he was important to the story, but he didn’t have much connection with the main cast (Yuu, Tomori, little sis, or the other two members of student council. We get that he’s a best friend to Shu, but even Shu was just introduced like two episodes ago, and their flashback was extremely brief. Him being impaled by spikes to protect Tomori was a honorable way to go, but the death itself fell flat.
I just feel like the series is trying way too hard to rip out some emotional response from us by killing off the cast, but the lack of emotional investment in said characters OR bad pacing and narrative just ruins the attempt. Aside from the death, I also didn’t like how the little sister just accepted everything that happened to her and quickly transitioned into her new life at the facility.
I honestly think if they just stuck to the slice of life stuff from the earlier episodes, they would be so much better off. When it got serious, plot just took a dip. But I disgress. I pray that the last two episodes are stronger and can at least have a decent conclusion.
There’s always a price to pay what you have saved…T.T
Is it me or is this episode like deja vù of episode 6?
I believe this is almost-like-Steins;Gate-all-over-again episode.
Butterfly effect is the main theme displayed throughout the episode.
ep 12:
Sorry, but open only if you want to read my Rant!! (and Spoiler). I could not hold it back
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where it began
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