Charlotte

If there's anything for me to be thankful of Charlotte, it have motivated me to write a review about the anime. I was one of those "silent lurkers" in the site. I know I'm late to the party - being a Summer 2015 anime, I am almost a year too late to say about it. Now that I have time and it looked interesting, I thought it would be a good anime trip. Boy, I was wrong. Let's start with the story. My interest was piqued when I first saw its first episode aired on Animax last year that laid out a decent opening. The more episodes I watch, the more I wonder about the plot of the story. I don't see where Charlotte is going at all, right to the very end. It seemed to be building something every episode, but I don't receive what it was building. Fortunately for Charlotte that was what keeps me going on. I am not sure if I am that dense to not notice such a thing, frankly. The first 6 episodes are pointless and episodic, then they started to roll out a plot at episode 7. With the foreshadowing on earlier episodes, the plot given is predictable. As it only has 13 episodes, the plot is rushed, crammed in the last 7 episodes, the last being the most guilty of the rush as it could easily expanded, if possible, but they fit it into one. Most of the events in Charlotte are bland. If there is ever a spike or climax, it will be gone in the next or few episodes later as it has been resolved. There were many little things that are briefly mentioned in the anime, as an example, the reason why the anime is called "Charlotte", but it was quickly tossed aside and acted as if nothing has ever happen, leaving confusion of why such things have happened. Supposedly, "for plot purposes". Charlotte felt like it was trying to please many different groups of people at once, but ended up in disappointment to everyone, with seemingly "romance", "comedy" and "tragedy" that had me panned face throughout the episodes. I am disappointed of how it have ended. The expectations that it have been building are not shown to me. Next, the characters. Pure disappointment. We have an interesting male lead (Yuu Ohtosaka) who isn't the generic protagonists of being an idiot, overpowered, straightforward, and wants to be a hero. However, his traits have vanished into thin air after first episode and turned into a generic lead instead. I don't see his narcissistic self anymore after episode 1 as he was continued to be pushed around by female lead (Nao Tomori) and friends, being a character that is just... there. At episode 7, Charlotte emphasizes his presence of being a main character, but he has turned into a useless one at that point. Nao Tomori is your Kuudere, and since she is a Kuudere, there is not much change of herself. The rest of the gang (Jojiro Takajo and Yusa Nishimori) are just for comedic purposes. Most interesting characters have little screen time that one wonders if they were created just to fill in some holes. None of the characters are fleshed out at all. None of them particularly stand out or memorable to me. Apart of being more trusting towards each other between the four main characters, there is not much to say, because there is nothing to say. Supposedly Nao Tomori is the love interest of Yuu Ohtosaka, but there was NOTHING that portrays how one falls for the other. It's magic, snap your fingers and voila - they are in love. The last two episodes are the worst representative of love between the two characters. The supposedly "character development" of the first half of Charlotte didn't make any impact of how I view those characters - it is as if they are just put up on stage for us to know, "Oh look these are these characters with this thing". The art of Charlotte seems to be its only saving point, though there is not much to save as it is not too spectacular either. I have a personal hate against its female characters that have huge irises that takes up 95% of their eyes, but I bear with it. The background of the anime is rather outstanding and realistic, a plus point. As usual of anime, the characters have odd colored hair and eyes to stand out from the rest. I don't have much to say about the art of Charlotte as it is quite the norm for most anime. The opening of Charlotte is rather catchy, especially its rapping-like parts. I always skipped the ending so I can't say anything about it. The soundtracks of the anime seemed to be nonexistent, but I do tend to ignore most of it if it wasn't too memorable, and until now I could not recall any soundtracks in that anime itself despite finishing it just the day before writing this. My enjoyment of the anime? None. I am surprised that people rate this anime a 10, from browsing through the scores of the reviews, and seeing that it has almost 8 out of 10 from the total score. Charlotte seems to be a wasted potential, as it continues to build something but nothing from start to finish has surprised me or gone above my expectation (which is average). It has absolutely no re-watch value in my opinion, because there isn't anything I would enjoy at all. Nothing in the anime stands out and it will be forgotten within weeks. If anyone mentions Charlotte, the first thought will not be "that anime" but "a person's name". Overall it was disappointing. I am unsure what Charlotte wants to show to me, or it have shown to me everything but manages to not live my expectation of being an average show. I cannot say that it is "the worst anime ever" as that would change at every few seasons or so, but it is definitely one of the bad ones I've watched. It is but a bland anime with little to no plot, with a great dose of rush at the end.

What can I say about Charlotte. I will start with the art of this Anime. To which it was very well done. Honestly coupled with the characters, are the best points for this Anime. With the art you don't get the simple rushed effort kinda look from it. What stood out for me with this art was the eyes, they were very well done. As for characters, very good in it's aspect. They were well designed, simple but dynamic. As well the characters of the story had good development, allowed for quick attachment to each of their own. Fortunately the art and characters of Charlotte saved this series from a lower grade, from my opinion. The story started promising, the first couple episodes were alright. Afterwards from around episode four to the start of seven it got stale, had some unnecessary events and so on. All the way up until a very confusing transition in the late parts of the series. Ultimately the few stale parts of the story lowered how I felt about the plot advancements. As a whole it ended well enough to earn a seven. For the sound on the other hand. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really a strong point. For a Key anime, I was fairly disappointed with this. A lot of the sounds seemed to be recycled to save time and effort. As can be said for the voice acting. It was good, but a lot of phrases and such were over used. To where the effect of such was redundant. The good about the voice acting was they really did seem to fit in with the characters quite well, a saving grace. I liked the OP. All in all Charlotte was an enjoyable anime. My personal ranking would put it around 8.5/10. Worth a watch if you are looking for a simple but powerful anime.

Just simply looking at the synopsis of this anime makes me want to doze off. There isn’t not a single thing that I found remotely interesting or original in this anime. High schools, teenagers with superpowers, overused slapstick humor, all the typical shit plague most anime nowadays. And it doesn’t help that it is also written by Jun Maeda, a writer whose work always are far more concerned with manipulation the viewers emotions even when it doesn’t make any logical sense. But since I didn’t have anything good to do with my time, I decided to watch this anime despite being put off at first. Now thirteen episodes later, what do I think of it now? Well to put it simply, this show was one of the worst experience with anime I had all year. To be blunt, the story of Charlotte is messy and stupid. For the first half of the show, the show is just another slice of life nonsense. To make myself clear, I have nothing against slice of life shows, but this one completely devoid of any charm or wit. None of the humor is particularly funny, since most of it comprised of overused gags and slapstick. Nothing occurs plot wise since all the characters do is dicking around playing baseball, go camping, and help other superpower teens. And you know what? If that was all the show was, I would just discarded as another forgettable rom com and would even bother to write this review. But atlas, Charlotte takes a sudden tone shift and becomes almost an entirely different show. Without spoiling much, the writer tries to make the series far more dramatic and serious. But since there was almost zero effort put in to make the viewers care about the characters or story, everything comes off more comically stupid rather that emotionally touching. The thing becomes unfocused mess with one of the most erratic and inconsistent tone I have seen. It alternates between comedy, moe, sad, intense, and boring at a whim as if this was written by Hideo Kojima. And it doesn’t help that the show rushes so much plot at end it becomes ridiculous. Then the show end on a grand whimper, resolving everything with plot conveniences and deus ex machinas, As for the characters, they are flat and shallow as you can get. There are far too many characters for a twelve episode series, and it doesn’t help that the show does very little to make the viewer care for the characters. Instead of trying to flesh the existing characters so the viewer can get to care about them, the show just waste its time on comedy and constantly introducing new characters. Honestly, I can only remember the characters for whatever superpower they have instead of any characteristics or traits. The only character I remember was Yuu because he is just basically a copy of lelouch vi britannia. Even the animation and soundtrack fail to stick out from the norm. While PA works shows generally look polished and crisp, but this is one looks mediocre at best. The character designs are bland and the only thing about the animation that does stick out were the detailed backgrounds. And even those were wasted on a dull and uninteresting setting. Charlotte is a show that tried to be everything. It tried to be a comedy, it tried to be a thriller, it tried to be a tear jerk, and tried to be sci fi. Yet it doesn't focus on any of those aspects and fail to accomplish anything. Charlotte fails to be funny, it fails to have memorable or relatable characters, it fails to have an interesting or coherent world, and it fails make any sense whatsoever. It felt if Jun Maeda wanted to jam a dozen concept in the show instead of being focusing on anything. Half of the show was is the character dicking around, and when the show decided to get an actual plot, the show was almost over. In the end, this show broken beyond repair and should be avoided at all cost. Message me if you have any questions or concerns

Being a long lasting fan of Jun Maeda's stories and him never actually having disappointed me before, I dived into Charlotte with high expectations; everything was his style: the music, the designs, the characters, the same formula used for the first episodes of random. I armed myself with patience knowing that after random-fun times, my heart will start breaking bit by bit for every character of the story...and I had that to a certain degree, though forced, till all the plot crumbled and hit its face flat on the floor instead (after episode 7 if my memory isn't playing tricks on me). Review might contain minor spoilers, nothing big, but just to give an idea of what I'm talking about. Why? Because I tend to believe that Jun Maeda just sat one night at his desk and layered down all possible outcomes and ideas for Charlotte and then a storm came and ravaged his desk, messed up the papers of the original outline of the story and somebody went like "f**k that! Let's make it all fit instead of sticking to one idea, even though we have no idea how to execute it!". GENIUS!-not. First main problem was the execution of the antagonist (evil scientists). They weren't present whatsoever through the show, but we were shown the consequences of their work instead. That would have been marvellous, but then there's no actual consistency to it, though they try. Trying not to spoil, they appear only to once again disappear as if nothing ever happened. Then we have the fact that Charlotte didn't know how to let certain dead people stay dead. I know that Maeda-san did something similar in Little Busters and Clannad but it was never that out of the blue, it was a consequence to a process, a consequence of the end of a journey or a parallel world. In Charlotte it was none of it, it was just convenience. And even after all that, we still do not know what happened to a certain yandere....Not the first time and not later either. As a consequence of the story being quite fast and a whole load of ideas being smashed against eachother, I had no time to actually get attached to any of the characters. I didn't cry or feel sorry for neither of them, even though some moments had the right atmosphere to make me feel sorry (at lest Maeda-san didn't fail me on that), I almost WANTED to feel sorry, but looking at how they got there equaled in a big NOPE. The main characters had potential. I loved Yuu as a main character and his geass-like powers, I loved Nao as well for being quite unique, but that's where my love stops, since as I said before I didn't have any time to get to know Yusa or Takajou or the other side characters, but for some reason they were treated like important during the last few episodes, that they were part of something when the plot just shoved them to a side because TWIST= more important side characters. Lastly, the whole last episode. (or last two) It's a huge sin on its own. It's literally mixing together what could have been the premise of a whole season in only 25 minutes. I'm not joking. It's like when you make a character go visit, all of a sudden, every country in the world in the last episode and you see months go by, years gone by, your character grows, but you see not even a quarter of it all...oh wait. Hello, Charlotte! I didn't even appreciate the OST this time mostly because of the ZHIEND songs (I think it was LIA?) which were in a VERY bad Engrish with lyrics that were mostly nonsense. I do save some of the background tracks however. Art-wise it was really beautiful. The Opening had one of the best animations I've seen this year, shame that it didn't really count anything in the end. Overall, my enjoyment for it died at the first half when I started to try and put 1+1 together. I can forgive. Really. I can forgive maybe one disappointment, two, but Charlotte made me want to play CinemaSins by the end of it.

Okay, I have read a lot of reviews of this series, and I find two kind of people, the one that hates it a lot, and the one that thing is the holy grail of this year. I'm in a point where I think is good, but not to a fanboy level. Also there's going to be a bit of spoiler. Story: 7.5 Here's where I found most hate in a lot people, and I think that they were looking for the most oustanding thing in the world...but also gotta say I understand them. The plot is really strange, that maybe the most demanding people will say is the most stupid thing ever, that make no sence and got a lot of plot-holes. But, if you're like me and don't really thing about the plot itself but how is executed, then you also could found somethings that could piss you off. The main problem for me is that doesn't have enough exposition, there are lots of moment where you could think, why does that happened? how does that happend? specially in the last chapters, it go so fast that a lot of the time you couldn't follow it at all, to the point that there's a part where the main character travels around the world, spending a lot of time, and even get to the point of insanity. That sound so cool, but when you put it in a 20 minutes format, doesn't work at all. Also there are moment where you can notice that makes not sence at all. But I say, it doesn't have to make sense always, I mean, is series of young people with powers, not the fucking Godfather. If we try to find every flaw, every error and every non-sense thing everything, then the super-hero genre would have died a long time ago. So, at the end, when you find the thread of the bad stuff, you're going to be in serious troubles, because you are going to find bad thing after bad thing. Basically, I say watch what is happening, because the why and the how doesn't make sense at all. Art: 10 P.A. Works animations is always outstanding, so, I'm not going to stuck here. Sound: 8 The music in general was good, but I thing it needed a bit more of personality. Character: 9 Another difficult topic, because, I was really in the middle of thinking if they where great or awful, and at the end, I tough they were great. I'm going to center in the main character, Yu Otosaka. In the first chapter, they put him like an arrogant, intelligent and even kinda like the bad guy, and I tough it was awesome, and in times of aweful main characters that are almost the same, it felt really fresh, but then in the next chapter, well, it's like another character, not a bad one, but, yeah totally different. This pissed off a lot of people, and I also would be angry, if there wasn't a little detail, PEOPLE CHANGE, and more when they're in a situation where they could lose everything they love. In fact, I think that it make him a more complex and human character, because he's worried that he could lose the rest of his family (his little sister), to the point that he could change his almost perfect life. Also, he became arrogant because he discovered his power, and use it without responsability, and start to think that he was better than anyone else. If I remember well, that's one of the most basic lessons in super-hero history, "A great power requires a great responsability", and when the big fist of reallity hits him, he does what normal people do, he CHANGE. I don't want to talk about the rest of the cast, because I could do a bible of it, and I don't want that, so, let's finish this. Overall: 8 Charlotte is good, and I say it would get even better, but a lot of decisions were pretty bad, and also I think it was too short. Yeah, it can get awkward at times, and if you watch it as if you were watching a Kubrick's movie, then is not your type of anime.

Honestly I wasn't planning on watching Charlotte just because the synopsis sounded not so special and the trailer wasn't too interesting either, but I watched it anyway just to see how it went as there was a lot of excitement surrounding it and I had absolutely no idea where it was coming from at the time. I actually did not find out the name attached to the series til I was a few episodes in having not watched any of Jun Maeda's stories. But Charlotte only proved that's it's possible to take a simple superpower story and completely botch it by getting too complicated. Story: Kids get magic powers which they some how lose when they grow out of adolescence. An organization is formed to protect these kids. A huge organization that is literally in broad daylight in the form of numerous schools in Japan. MC, Otosaka Yuu, uses his ability to advance himself throughout middle school with no one the wiser before being caught by the superpower police, the student council of the special school. Afterwards, the idea of hiding your abilities is frequently reiterated throughout the start of the series, but the main characters seem to try their very best to make sure that someone can find out. Partially this is for comedic effect, but nonetheless it completely disregards any notion of secrecy the show constantly mentions. At one point the head of the student council tapes someone using his ability and shows it to a normal who can't believe what just happened, but absolutely nothing comes of this. It's video evidence for Christ's sake. Can this really be called caution and secrecy? The crew goes about collecting ability users and getting them to agree to stop being blatant idiots with their abilities so they won't get caught. This was the perfect time to make thoughtful cases of how kids used there abilities had to stop doing so. But they were all straight forward. The only occasion where someone used there ability somewhat discreetly in public and was forced to stop was MC in episode 1, and there was no somewhat controversial case in which you have sympathy towards someone perhaps needing to use their ability based on circumstance and the student council having to stop them anyways. The show later takes a absolute turn towards hell. Some ridiculous plot is revealed in which the cast's fear of being caught by researchers comes into play and is revealed in the most convoluted way possible. It felt like I skipped a good 5 episode when I watched that one, that was how hard to plot twisted. Since I could hardly take the show seriously before, I was definitely couldn't be bothered when things actually got serious. Characters: Another point that fell flat, mainly because the MC was butchered for the sake of a terrible plot. The first episode was interesting as we got a main character using his ability like an asshole. It would remained interesting had he occasionally took the risk to due continue doing so, yet he does not. The characterization becomes inexcusable when MC has his little passage of character development after learning to continue living when his life hits the dumps. This is completely ruined when it was inevitably revealed that he could just use a time travel ability to fix it. What the hell? Why did we have to go through all the horse crap? His characterization is literally taking a step backwards in time. Why wasn't the time travel immediately revealed instead of yanking me around first, or better yet, not revealed at all? I'm sure most people are still busy thinking of the "FEELS BRUH" here. At this point I would drop, but I'm more than half way through and I finish at this point. Otherwise there are no noteworthy characters. MC's sister isn't cute, she's damn annoying. Speed guy is funny, but nothing more than a source of comedic entertainment. Tomori, the student council president, hardly has a set character. She's too much at once, which simultaneously makes her too little with this number of episodes. This again has to do with the flipping from the serious side of the show to not so serious. Overall: I won't deny that I was somewhat entertained here but it wasn't in the most positive way. I said earlier that I would've dropped the show, but that wasn't because I was bored with it, but because I was becoming increasing dissatisfied with it's direction. But I wanted to see just how ridiculous it got. The ending of the show seemed to be going down a solid path, but in the end they should've left the last episode up to viewer imagination. Even so, we got to this path by trudging through troughs of garbage. It would've been best had the show just stuck to whatever antics it wished and tried not to be serious, because it just turned out contrived. This show can be summed up like this. It sure felt like summer.

I am a big fan of Jun Maeda. While his style of characterization is always a bit direct, and he is a bit preachy with his themes, he's always been careful to try to weave fully-developed people into these fictional worlds of his. He's master at crafting characters that audiences are guaranteed to care about, making their eventual death all the more painful. For these reasons, as well as the overall premise, Charlotte caught my interest. Unfortunately, as the series rolled on, I started to wonder to myself whether this show was capable of doing anything right as it slides like a derailed locomotive to its inevitable doom. Minor spoilers for the first 3 to 4 episodes ahead: Story (3/10): One thing I have never recognized Maeda as is a strong storyteller. His characters have always been the thing that keeps his rather simplistic plots together. In his romance dramas (Kanon, Air and Clannad), most of the big emotional plot turns had something to do with fantastical elements that either affected people's memories, or caused big changes in the plot. So, naturally, it would seem this is the first time Maeda has tackled a story that's almost as plot driven as it is character-driven (especially during the second half). Does it work? No, it doesn't work at all. It started off with the declaration that powers were temporary. I was disappointed by this reveal greatly because it meant learning to control your powers would ultimately be pointless, as one would just lose them once adolescence ends. It also nips the potential plot point of having to live with such powers for the rest of one's life in the bud. However, unlike my siblings, I was willing to forgive this. I could not, however, forgive the numerous other issues that cropped up in the series. First of all, our antagonists are a faceless void, a combination of government-funded research organizations and criminal syndicates. When they discover that these young people have powers, they forcibly take them from their homes and experiment on them to see exactly how strong their powers are. In fact, their experimentation is so torturous, it cause those who undergo it to become nearly lifeless husks of their former selves that are discarded once they cannot work anymore. Despite how controversial this would be if it was made public, not a single person blows the whistle on the fact that all of these teenagers are being taken from their homes and brought into facilities where they are treated very poorly. Maeda never tries to rationalize why these groups would do this instead of offering these people health care, extra cash, or an increased rep. to get them to work for them. Why earn these folks' disdain if you can get loyal servants through more diplomatic means? If they can find these super beings so effectively, why do they have to routinely capture and torture those who show up? Furthermore, where are the filmmakers who take advantage of these abilities and put them on the big screen? Where is the outcry of rage against this horrible mistreatment? Where are the dissentors at all? Why experiment with these super-powered humans until they became unable to function when you can use their present applications to great effect? All you have to do is test their abilities in safer ways, and if it doesn't work, you bring them back to their homes. But these scientists and syndicates never even try to act rational throughout the course of the series. Unfortunately, Maeda does little to answer any of these complaints. There are no alternatives to the grand scheme hatched by the heroes near the end of the story; there is no non-linearity and there is no alternatives to the plot he's created. Everything feels so railroaded in this story; there was only ONE twist in this show that legitimately made me go "Huh, that's actually pretty clever" and that was the only time I felt that way about this show. Everything that happens in the plot is a result of stupid evil on the part of the villains, and chronic idiocy on the part of our heroes. And although I cannot speak about the latter half of the show in detail, as it is riddled in spoilers, the story consistently finds new ways to remind you of how unintelligent it is about resolving its conflicts. Art (7/10): After watching Tari Tari, Charlotte was a surprising disappointment for me in this department. The colors feel washed out, and the animation is surprisingly limited at times. There are moments where the latter shines, but for the most part, it's a rather lackluster affair. Redeeming it, however, are those BEAUTIFUL landscapes P.A Works loves to boast it has. Every layout is rendered with detail and care. Whenever the on-screen action wasn't catching my eye, I'd turn to those amazing backgrounds, and go "Wow, this is what art is capable of . . ." Finally, the character designs aren't great, but they get the job done. Na-Ga has basically settled on what design he likes for his characters, and they are quite appealing. There isn't a lot of variety, and our lead in particular has a boring design, but I still found them fitting nevertheless. Sound (6/10): It's rare for me to say that a soundtrack by Key is lacking in quality, but this one really is. None of the scores are memorable at all. I can only recall pieces of a couple of tracks that might have been decent. The opening, however, has a really strong impact. It's well-animated, and the atmosphere of the music and the vocals sets the tone for this series very well. It's a shame the ED is nowhere near as memorable. There are a couple of insert songs that the show uses. One is particularly effective (despite its awkward English), but the others are rather forgettable. Character (5/10): As I mentioned before, Maeda's characters are normally pretty good. Here, unfortunately, most of them range from inconsistent to utterly under-developed. Yuu Otosaka is our main character. He is a sociopathic teenager who uses his ability to posses others to his own advantage. He cheats on tests, sexually harasses his classmates, and beats up people he doesn't like. He even stages a car accident that has to be precisely timed, just so he can earn the affection of the school's madonna. Once his tactics are exposed by Nao and crew, however, he's forced to transfer to a new school and only use his powers when he's instructed to. So far, this is actually a pretty interesting character. The marketing wasn't lying when they tease him as being the worst Key lead yet. Unfortunately . . . He shows very little dissatisfaction with his new state of affairs. He's only passively resentful of the fact he's stuck working with these new friends of his and warms up to them much quicker than one would expect. Need I remind you, these people came out of nowhere, and took him out of his self-indulgent lifestyle BY FORCE. Yet, he show little signs of really despising these people. This could have been played for drama as well as the gradual character development Maeda normally employs, but instead, our writer decides to change his demeanor into something much more reminiscent of our archetypal high school protagonist. Predictably, Yuu eventually becomes a much nicer person overtime. There is some continuity that recognizes his selfish nature from before, but the show is way too fast to turn him into a decent enough guy. However, the biggest problem with his development is one that's more subtle. Yuu develops an EXTREMELY strong empathy for total strangers by the time we reach the last third of the series that's never really explained. While he has had time to grow close friends with the Student Council and to care for his school at large, he hasn't really been shown a solid reason to care for everyone on the same level. At the core of it, he's still a self-absorbed person who fights and does things either for himself, or the people he cares about. The only reason he willingly gave up his former lifestyle was because his friends (particularly …

Warning: if you haven’t seen Charlotte and are planning to for some reason, do not read this review if you don’t want to be spoiled. I will be talking about the plot, which pretty much involves me spoiling the whole thing. Also, if you are a fan of this series and don’t like hearing other people hate on it, stop now, because you won’t like what I have to say about it. Charlotte. How does one even describe this show. Some love it. Some sing its praises. "Such a great show", "So feelsy", "I cried every time". Hahaha. Charlotte is a show that fails on every level. The characters are awful, the story is pathetic, the pacing is terrible, the plot holes are more prevalent than they are in Sword Art Online. The attempt at feels is laughable and nothing in it makes any sense. It basically took every problem I had with Angel Beats and made them worse. And the worst part is that it didn't have to be this way. The plot had so much potential and it was wasted. I actually considered giving this anime a 10/10 just because it was so hilariously bad that I actually enjoyed watching it, but changed my mind after I started writing. Plot: 1/10 The plot starts off pretty okay. We have a lelouche-like protagonist (who I swear to god is an expy of him. He even has the geass). The show begins with an interesting premise, interesting power(s), and potential for development of characters and relationships. Unfortunately none of that actually happens. It seems to be a pretty common theme among Jun Maeda’s works that they start out with a strong premise and interesting concepts and then fail because of garbage writing, leaving us with a mess of a story with plot holes and cardboard characters that falls apart the moment you start thinking about what you’re watching. Let’s talk about what the anime did right first. It had a good premise and interesting ideas. Okay, now let’s talk about what this anime did wrong. Where do I even begin… The plot starts out with the idea that “we need to save these teenagers from becoming subjects of scientific experiments”. Now, there’s a few problems with this. The first one is scientific ethics. It is actually illegal to do what those scientists were doing. And even if it wasn’t, there are not very many scientists who would actually perform human experiments cruel enough to mentally destroy the subjects. True, there will be a few Dr. Mengeles out there, but not a whole organization of them. And second, if there was an organization like that in real life, the government would shut it down because IT’S ILLEGAL. This is why Elfen Lied is one of the only anime that got this right. Nobody sees the Diclonius as humans, therefore it’s deemed acceptable to experiment on them. And even then, there were people in the organization who didn’t completely agree with what they were doing. Society does not feel this way about people with psychic abilities, at least not in this anime. The only reason they’re in any danger at all is because of this mysterious group of scientists. But let’s say for the sake of argument that it wasn’t illegal and scientists could just do whatever they wanted to people who they believed to have psychic powers. Why is a highschool a safe place for them? In episode 10 it’s made clear that they aren’t safe even if they’re gathered in a group, so why is the highschool any different? What’s stopping this group of scientists from just marching into the school and taking people with psychic abilities? So right off the bat we have a plot that makes no sense. I initially also thought the idea that abilities disappeared after you became an adult was kind of cool until I realized that it was only an excuse as to why all of the characters were in high school. And maybe it was just the art style, but the guy who had the power to fly looked very much not like a highschooler. Maybe that was just me. Anyways moving on. There really isn’t much to say about this other than “needs more focus”. At least, not until episode 6. Everything up to episode 6 was just boring Psychic Power of the Week that only served to introduce new steriotype- I mean new characters, which is something I’ll talk about later. Something notable was that there was a baseball episode in this one too and, just like the one in Angel Beats, felt completely pointless. Jun Maeda must really like baseball. However, we get to episode 6 and I was just like “WHAT THE FUCK”. This is one of the worst episodes in the anime, not counting the last 4. At first it seems like a fine episode. They have a conflict that actually seems legitimate now. The MC’s sister is in danger. So he keeps her home. But then she sneaks out. This entire scene is ridiculous. First of all, why is there a security guard sitting at a desk in their apartment building. I have only ever seen that in workplaces. Whatever. And why does she need to sneak out? Her brother isn’t there to stop her. Did he say “he security dude, my sister is kinda sick so I need you to keep her from leaving the house”? His sister should be able to just walk out. There is no reason for her to sneak. And of all the ways to sneak out, she used a window in a bathroom. I have never, ever seen a window in a bathroom that you can open. I have been in many bathrooms in many apartments and public spaces. Not once has there been a window that can both open and that is big enough for a person to slide through. His sister manages to make it to school all right, but then is intercepted by this crazy yandere loli bitch. This was a pretty sweet idea and if it was delivered in a better way, I might actually be praising this show. But given the content of the show, it feels like it was just thrown in there because it was an idea that Maeda had. Now comes the part that really, truly made me give up any hope that the show was going to be good. The little sister’s death. This scene, I swear to god, was one of the dumbest and most avoidable deaths in any anime ever. The group of main characters in the student council realize that there’s going to be an ability user at the middle school and that it’s the main character’s sister. They also have reason to believe that she may have gone to school today despite the fact that her brother told her not to. So they decide to hurry by running on foot. But wait, don’t they have somebody who can teleport? He could have gotten them there in just a few seconds. The commotion he caused by crashing into the wall or tree or whatever may have served as a way to distract the crazy Gasai Yuno Loli Bitch, and even if it wasn’t, they still would have gotten there in time to save the sister and hopefully kill Gasai Yuno Jr. But no, they decide to run on foot instead and what do you know, it resulted in the death of the little sister. So much for their plan to help people. This is not the only time in this show where you will be banging your head against the wall. There’s so many problems that could have been solved with super powers and rather than find creative and interesting ways to work those super powers into the conflict and weave a story that integrates them in ways that don’t feel stupid, the story chose to ignore the fact that they existed in order to kill off the little sister for dramatic effect. And it doesn’t even matter because she comes back in episode 9 ANYWAYS. THE ENTIRE EPISODE WAS POINTLESS. This marks the place where the story gets darker and less episodic. It had the opportunity to focus on the little sister’s death and show how it affected the main character and over the course of the story have him slowly come to terms with the fact that she was dead with the support of his friends. But that doesn’t happen. No instead we get more pointless side stories. Episodes 7 is actually a pretty great episode. That was another thing I noticed about Angel Beats. It had good episodes amidst all the unorganized garbage. Sadly, one good episode is not enough to raise the score above a 1. This episode is devoted to the…

I really felt as if I needed to do a review on this one. This is probably the most moving anime I've seen since Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, and that's really saying something (I still cry about that show). I was actually drawn to this show by the art style. I take a great interest in manga/anime art, which is probably one of the sole reasons I still read manga. I saw how cute this art style was so I was like screw it, why the hell not. I'll go for it. The first episode was that classic sort of "Oh my fucking god I have a superpower!!!!11!1!11!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!112!!!12?," but I still enjoyed it, I wanted to keep watching. As the show progressed, the meaning got deeper, and I started to see the point. The way Yu's viewpoint changed was massive. He went from a selfish prick that used his superpower to make his life perfect to a boy that was truly concerned for others like himself, wanting to protect them and save them from their fate. I really marveled at Yu and Nao's relationship. I mean, I'm a sucker for romance, I love shoujo, but these two had something different. It was romance, it was indeed, but it was different. It was a romance that budded from a friendship, or an alliance. And in the beginning, they didn't seem to like each other at all. Nao's charm and personality got to Yu, you could see he was slowly falling for her, and it was absolutely the cutest thing. Another relationship/dynamic I loved was that of Yu and Ayumi, his little sister. She was one of the only things he loved, and it hurt so much when she died. He fell into a depression, a dark world without the one person he's known, his precious little sister. Also, I think it's the way Ayumi returns these feelings. She loves her big brother more than anything. This is literally the best siblingship I've ever seen in an anime (no, Oreimo doesn't count). One of the best things about this anime was the cast and characters. I loved every single one with a burning passion, and that's super rare for me, I'm as picky as they come with anime characters. Yu, Nao, Yusa, Jojiro, Ayumi, Misa, Kumigami, and Shunsuke were the best ensemble I've ever seen. Bravo to Charlotte, I'd watch a second season in a heartbeat!

Story - 5 Hey hey before you scroll away at least hear me out first, the anime was going good, the hype, the enjoyment, and the satisfaction, I was really attached to this anime but the story was over at episode 10, in my opinion. Art-10 Well its just like any other anime these days nothing special Sound - 10 First time I ever heard engrish that isn't irritating to hear lol Character - 9 I really liked the characters specially Nao, I mean I like her attitude she ain't any ordinary girl, now Ayumi is very adorable every time she uses that pizza sauce on any meal I start to crack, as for the MC, he ain't dense but he is a bit immature and he has a slight mental disorder, was shown when ayumi died and when he traveled around the world to collect the powers. Enjoyment- 7 I'll be honest I really enjoyed the series until episode 10, they wasted the potential of the show, they could have atleast shown some character progression. Overall- 7 Even though I didn't like the ending I loved the characters. well thats end of my review hope this will help you picture out Charlotte

TL:DR. For someone who is a Key fanboy and considers Clannad as one of the best animes in existence, this one is a sad miss from Key and PA Works. The first half might be underwhelming but at least, it knows where it intends to go. In my opinion, the anime ends at episode ten and I am afraid to say that the cohesiveness of the show also ended there. It can be also noted that Charlotte is a fascinating case of how hype can crush a show towards the end. If you are looking for drama bombs that could blur your logic as you are bawling from those poignant scenes, this is not the anime you hoped to look for. Yes, I lowered my grade for this one. Rewatching it left a very sour taste in my mouth. Now for the full review. Minor spoilers ahead. Charlotte is probably the most hyped show this season for a good reason. Key is the reason behind Clannad and Kanon 2006 and it also collaborated with PA Works in the hit Angel Beats! last 2010. The two paired again this time yet it is not exactly as great like the last one. The first episode of Charlotte was probably the one I liked the most from a Key anime. It was as if it peeked some from Kyoto Animation's joke book and implemented it PA Works style. The next two episodes aired and Charlotte was still coherent as we were introduced to other main characters. The jokes were still funny that time and Maeda did a commendable job for introducing us the world the characters have and their circumstances in a span of three episodes. While not at the level of other Key titles when it comes to artwork, this is one of the best looking animes this season. The character designs are pretty good to the extent that I can differentiate them from other PA Works show. The hues were also masterfully used in this show. Light colors are used during comedic scenes but when something ominous is about to happen, the shades change to very dark colors. Artwork is also consistent with only minor hiccups (some in episode 3 and 4) but not noticeable enough to distract the viewers. The animation is also good and is mostly well timed with the jokes and crucial events. The background drawings also have good detail which can be said as one of their best. As regards to background music, it has been shown in the past that Key animes are strong musically and this one is not an exception. The opening song of Charlotte is probably my most favorite this season. Even the story failed as a whole, it's the section where it tries to resuscitate its plot and it nearly worked. Then episode four came then it became the worst Charlotte episode which showed the dullest baseball match from Key and aired twenty minutes of nothingness. It has been erratic since then. Episode five is a bit better but could've been good if it focused on the interaction between the two main leads and showed some of their circumstances, especially Yuu's. In addition, it suffered from horrible fast pacing given that its preceding episode is a filler. My opinion is that these two episodes should've been merged as one because it did not add anything major in the show. One may argue that these are shown to focus with the character development of the four leads but Takajo and Yusa have only been used for comedic purposes so far and they did not contribute anything with Charlotte's legitimately good episodes. Worse, these fillers caused the show to cram its contents on the last parts, much to the viewer's chagrin and dismay. Some episodes were considerably better but Key has shown its glaring weaknesses in the past with its execution. Introducing a new character in the former to move the plot forward is a good idea in paper but Charlotte's execution was not good enough to warrant their importance in the series. The latter showed how good Maeda is in portraying depression but its effect was reduced because it has to be hooked with good past episodes for some sense of belief. Also, the problem presented in these episodes was resolved all too quick. Episode eight is one of the better Charlotte moments but it is still plagued by some questionable execution with its first half. The humor feels off and I sincerely believe that Takajo was reduced to a comic relief that is a hit or miss. However, this episode benefited from some organic drama that somehow forged the main leads' connection further. What made me really frustrated with it is the sheer greatness of episode 9. That episode alone is enough to change my perception with this show from meh to something that has potential. It's perfectly executed, the plot is evenly paced and it gave answers to the fundamental questions the viewers have in this show. While the tenth episode continues to give us answers in a Charlotte universe, its manner of storytelling honestly killed the excitement I had the last episode. The same can be said with the penultimate episode. Although it's now late to save the show from being mediocre to good at that point, it forged touching character interaction that somehow made me invest with the leads. The first ten episodes already told an already complete story that is not stellar but at least coherent. Then it suffered from a schizophrenic plot and told the last parts as if it came from its sequel. While not as bad as episode four, episode eleven is one of the worst Charlotte episodes which really hurt this series more. The show is now suffering from the fillers it had in the past because things are happening in a very awful fast pacing. Shunsuke was reduced to a panicking leader and it dropped a drama bomb that didn't feel anything in my opinion. Its worst flaw is it feels like an episode from a sequel and not as one of the climactic moments of this series. To add more salt in its flaws, I sincerely believe that Charlotte has failed to incorporate the sense of possibility (or impossibility) when it tried to land for a grand ending. As a result, the finale needs to be patched because of glaring plot holes (seriously, how can a passport got powerful like that) and any poignant moment, was totally off the heads of the viewers now since they got more questions to ask as if we are still in the middle of a single cour series. The ending is also a typical Key ending with Deus Ex Machina being thrown for the sake of happy ending. The way on how the characters are handled is the worst aspect of the show. Aside from Yuu, all other characters are sorely underdeveloped. They are mostly cheap plot device or they exist for comedic purposes. Even with its good episodes, I suppose that its problem with giving proper role and development with its characters is its biggest flaw. Take Shunsuke and the Zhiend singer for example, they only appeared at the latter part of their respective episodes but they practically stole the show from everyone else who made an appearance beforehand while Yusa and Takajo are relegated for Charlotte's comedic hijinks. The latter two also do not have prominent roles in the show's crucial moments which makes me question their existence for that long as Charlotte is concerned. In the end, Charlotte is nowhere near the worst but the hype due to the writing staff as well as PA Works' visual prowess crushed it which will be forever remembered as one of the traits of 2015 anime summer season.

There are reasons why I started watching this anime. My main reason is it feels somewhat similar to X-Men (the American movies) and as a big fan of X-Men, I just had to watch this. My obvious second reason is the fact that it's made by KEY and directed by Jun Maeda. Am I disappointed? Do I love this show? You'll find out soon enough.. (There will be some SPOILERS in my review) [Story]: (6/10) (SPOILERS) The story centers around the special abilities that occur among a small percentage of boys and girls in puberty. Yuu Otasaka uses his powers without others knowing, and lives a fairly normal, average high school life. Before him suddenly appears a girl, Nao Tomori. Due to his meeting with her, the fate of special power-users will be exposed. *sigh* This is one of the most overhyped anime I have ever seen and I do understand why.. It's directed by Jun Maeda, the man behind Angel Beats and Clannad, and it's also made by Key. The company behind Angel Beats, Clannad: After Story and Little Busters: Refrain. Since this is being made by a company who made one of my favourite animes of all time, how could I not be hyped for this show? The first few episodes started out strong. We are introduced to the MC who apparently has a special powers. He was then taken in by a girl named Nao Tomori and you now have a school full of teens who has a special power. I thought that at this point, they were going to follow the route of X-men where Charles built a special school for mutants. Not really.. Then the 2nd half came (Ep. 6-10) which was honestly the great part of the series. It had a drastic turns of event where Yuu's little sister died, Yuu dealing with aftermath of her death and Nao saving him from his depression. I was even happy when they found out that they , or rather, he can save Ayu from her death. That was one of the most sweetest moments evar! Somewhere around the 2nd half, you'll notice that the pacing is starting to become an issue. They even had to skip the openings but that still didn't solve the problem. Then the last 3 episodes came which was the most disappointing episodes I have ever seen in my life. After watching the last 3 episodes, I told myself that Charlotte should have ended on Episode 10 because Episode 11-13 felt unnecessary. They decided to add in this terrorist organization which ended up becoming stupid because they weren't even explained that well. Where in the mother of god did they come from? What was their purpose? The answer is....where's the answer? Oh that's right, it wasn't answered because the show is plagued with plot holes. That's right...plot holes and there are a lot of them. I'm going to give you guys a few examples. Who exactly were the terrorists? How did they know about Yuu's ability? Who exactly are these "scientists" that kidnaps teens with special powers? So did Ep. 8 happen or not? Yuu time leaped and saved Ayu which means he never entered a depression which also means he never met the ZHIEND vocalist. Which ALSO means she never sang for Nao's brother. Which also f*cking means that Nao's brother is still in a f*cked up state. Then came the ending... I'm going to make this short. It's VERY RUSHED. Who in their right mind came up with an idea to make Yuu go around the world and make him loot every ability in 1 episode? They could have made a second season and dedicate 12 episodes of him travelling around the world, meeting new people and plundering abilities at the same time and make the 13th episode of him getting saved by his older brother and returning to Nao. If second season isn't possible for them then they could have made a different ending. Instead we got a shitty lackluster and very rushed ending. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Art/Animation]: (10/10) The anime was also created by PA Works who happens to have the 2nd best animation in the anime industry, behind ufotable. Anyways, the animation looks amazing. You can see that the environment is drawn well like the buildings, the ground, the roads, etc, and the glare in the sun is amazing, etc. The character design looks somewhat similar to Angel Beats but better. Lastly, the animation looked smooth and I didn't really spot any choppiness. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Sound]: (9/10) Most of my soundtrack rating comes from the inserted songs, the OP and the ED theme songs. The show amazed me in 2 out of 3 categories. The OP theme song is Bravely You by Lia and there are 3 ED theme songs which are "Yake Ochinai Tsubasa" by Aoi Tada , Rakuen made" by Yusa Nishimori, and "Kimi no Moji" by Anri Kumaki. The OP theme song is awesome. Especially that soothing voice in the middle of the OP song. All the ED theme song sounds great but the 3rd ED theme is the best. Too bad, it didn't fit quite well in the show because of how rushed the ending is. The Voice Actors did a great job with their characters. Especially Nao Tomori. I just love her voice! I'm probably the only guy here who hated the inserted song that was sung by one of the ZHIEND vocalist "Sara Shane". It sounded like someone was puking inside my ear. I just had to skip it when she sung it for the second time. Here's a tip, hire a singer who can actually sing in English.. I mean, Lia...the singer for the OP theme song have also sung some songs in English. Her English sounded fluent. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Characters]: (6/10) (SPOILER) This is one of those shows that could have been a lot better in terms of Character Development if it had more episodes. Yuu is basically the only character who got a major character development. Nao and the rest of the supporting characters got little to none. Yuu from the start is this cheating asshole who uses his ability to......well...cheat his way up and get girls in the easiest way possible. Then after his sister died, we get to see him in his depression state which is, in my opinion, a great part to watch. You can feel what his going thru and it really depressed the hell out of me. When Nao gave him a rice omelette with a pizza sauce, I broke down at that point. Whatever, the point here is Yuu went from an unlikable character to a likable character because it shows that he really cares for his sister and he wants her back in his life. The last 3 episodes switched him back to an unlikable character, especially the f*cking ending. I did say that the supporting characters got little to no development right? That's right. For example, Yusa's flashback ain't even that sad because it wasn't enough time to establish a dramatic feeling with that character. Same goes for Pooh's (Kumagami) death. He just didn't get enough screentime for me to feel sad about his death. I gotta admit, Ayu's death did depress me...a bit. One last thing, it's Yuu's and Nao's confession. In my opinion, it was hilarious and one of the best confessions I have ever seen in my life. If you know Nao then you should know that she's a cold b*tch..*ahem* I mean a cold chick. I wasn't exactly surprised at Nao's reaction because that's her personality from the start. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Enjoyment]: (8/10) To be honest, I did enjoy this show quite a bit even though the plot in the end turns into a cluster f*ck. The typical "baseball game" is there since this is a KEY anime, the funny moments are also present (i.e Yusarin's hilarious moments), and etc. Nao is also one of my favorite characters so seeing her in action is quite enjoyable to watch. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [OVERALL]: (7/10) "Charlotte" seriously had the potential to become one of my favorite KEY animes but sadly, the 13 episode count ruined it. The story wasn't even that bad. The show just s…

Spoiler Free, this is my first review so bear with me. Intro Charlotte is a perfect example of how anime should be, as an Otaku myself I recommend this anime to anyone who wants a good story line, and a punch in the face of feels. General Overview If you are reasonably new to anime you may not have known that the creators of Clannad and Angel Beats developed this work of art so I was expecting a very good story but I got more. Charlotte is an anime where you go in expecting something nice, but come out being more than satisfied as everything is not what it seems. for the first 1 - 5 episodes at first you expect this series to be light hearted and very comedic, Charlotte knows when to be serious with drama and action and when to be comedic, therefore it doesn't create awkwardness. On the 6th episode said event takes place and changes the anime completely, although the problem is resolved within one episode that is why some people are upset with the story progression, as it could be better. After the 6th episode, the story progression becomes amazing, it is not something you expect, and it is written out so good, it is mainly the story which captured me into watching and loving this series. Some people criticize this anime saying that it is unoriginal, it may contain some elements of angel beats or Clannad at some times, but it is still an original work of art, the story is more than original I haven't seen or heard a story such as this before with the plot twists and the progression, its amazing. Pros and Cons: First lets start with the bad, the character development for some said characters could be better, as after some event takes place on a certain character the writers don't take much time to connect you to the person, but instead it shows the main character eating and enjoying food, no death flags at all. And some characters don't get enough screen time, and lastly it is slightly rushed, the series would be even more perfect if they spent more time developing characters and making the series longer. Now the good, the art was beautifully drawn, every scene had me very satisfied, and the music, when the scene is tense or sad, the music would capture you into the scene, the story was original and had me at the edge of my seat the whole entire time. Again I come to the music, the ED and the OST are stunning, I've even after finishing the series gone back and listened to them and downloaded some of the OST's. Story: 9/10 Art: 10/10 Sound: 10/10 Character: 8/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Overall 10/10

History: 7/10 - His development is very interesting, but during the plot he leaves some loose ends, I particularly think he would be better off leaving some things clear and have a bit of logic, he changes drastically in the beginning until the end. Animation: 10/10-The traits of it are very beautiful, the character design too, the studio did a great job with the strokes. Soundtrack: 10/10- It's just fantastic, Jun is a great songwriter, did a great job as he did in Angel Beats. Characters: 9/10 - The characters are very cool, you can identify with them a bit, even if they have these skills and you can stick to them a lot. Overall: I particularly enjoyed the anime, would recommend it to anyone who likes this school environment and powers, but people who are quite critical probably will not like it very much because it does not really leave some things clear and drastically changes its pace, but in general , Is a cool anime.

This is a short and spoiler free review. Long story short: If you liked Angel Beats, you'll like this anime too. It has the same characters, who have the same sad back stories, the same high school setting, the same love-hate relationship between the protagonists, similar excuses for including music in the series (pop idol + post punk rock band) and VERY similar looking protagonists (Visually and character wise, Nao is an amalgamation of Yuki and Angel) My biggest problem with this anime was how it went from comedy/slice of life to X-Men to [insert name of any dramatic anime] to Tokyo Ghoul to Attack on Titan real quick. But I guess that shouldn't surprise me - Angel Beats was an equal mess when it came to the story and various story arcs. The ending was anti-climatic, so that's another negative for me. But I'll give where credit is due - the relationships explored here were more organic and natural, than in AB (where I felt the relationships/love angle was forced just for fan service). In my opinion, though, from now on I'll be avoiding any anime coming from these writers. Not my cup of tea.

Story: ???/10 Story was all over the place as it jumped around way too much. It's follow-able, but not enjoyable. Emotional moments never had enough build up to warrant an emotional response. It seemed like the show was stuffed with too many on-hand emotional moments to try to hit close to home at least once with any viewer. Art: 10/10 Some of the best animation and general presentation. Sound: 7/10 Not too picky on sound but some of the songs weren't that great. Characters: 6/10 Either the characters remain stagnant and do the same gags consistently, or they undergo an immediate change of heart. Characters felt either ripped straight from a common archetype or injected with too many conflicting personality traits. Enjoyment: 3/10 In short, I was disappointed with what I expected. I had seen short clips from various episodes and wanted to see how they all fit only to find out they did not match up how I thought. Overall: 3/10 If not for the art quality and the unanswered questions I had each episode, I would have dropped this show very early on.

Charlotte is an ongoing manga from Maeda Jun, the same writer as Angel Beats. He also did some work on Air, which was considerably less impressive. Last year, Charlotte got a thirteen episode anime adaptation from P.A. Works. The same studio behind both Angel Beats & Another. Knowing nothing else about the series, that's a couple of good signs. We've got a writer who's shown skill in another work and the same studio that worked with him on it. On the other hand, Penguindrum also had a writer and studio that had both shown great ability before and we all know how that turned out. I'm still cautiously optimistic for this one, so let's take a look. Story: We open with our protagonist, Otosaka Yuu, explaining that he has the power to take control of other people for five seconds when he's within visual range of them. He uses this power to cause trouble for people he doesn't like, peep, manipulate events to his advantage and cheat at school. With the only disadvantage being that his regular body slumps over while he's doing it. One day, he's approached by a member of the student council who sits him down to retake a test. Otosaka tries to take control of him to get the answers, only to find that the supposed answer sheet is something entirely different. He finds himself being chased by two students from a different school, Tomori & Takajou. Both of whom exhibit strange abilities like his own. They explain that the abilities manifest at adolescence, like Marvel's mutant powers but, unlike those, they fade away with time. The two compel him to join them at their school. That's where the meat of our story begins. There are a few points that act to the series' detriment. The first is that it has some tonal problems. We start out with things keeping a fairly light-hearted and kind of silly tone but, not quite halfway through, things suddenly get pretty dark and a lot more serious. It's more than a little awkward. The second issue is with the very final episode. This episode crams in enough material that, well-paced, should be at least three or four episodes. As a result things that should get developed more strongly or that should be built up or that should have some time to develop tension, end up getting rushed through as everything gets wrapped up. Finally, we have a slight problem with the romance. To Maeda's credit, I do like that the main romance in this is built on mutual respect and that it does drive both characters involved to be better people. However, the romance arc itself unravels in a pretty clichéd way and it's not one that develops particularly naturally. That being said, there are a lot of strong points to the series. The more light-hearted moments are really enjoyable and funny. There are also some really strong emotional moments. If the series had done a better job of integrating both from the get go, both would be handled nearly flawlessly. As is, the execution is still very impressive. The story itself is also strong at introducing hints about the main narrative throughout the more episodic content, which allows for some strong tension as things progress further and you get more curious about where they're going with certain things. I also do like the way the series handles its super powers. It's a refreshingly unique and clever take on the way those kinds of stories are usually done. Characters: Maeda actually takes a pretty significant risk in introducing the main character in this series. Namely, there's nothing likeable or even that interesting about Otosaka in our initial look at the character. He's petty, pervy and just generally terrible. Only after we get this initial, bad impression does the character start getting fleshed out and his positive aspects start coming through. First impressions mean a lot and this could have, in the hands of a less skilled writer, killed any potential for us to identify with him. However, in this case it works. For one thing, the first positive traits we're exposed to are the result of his affection towards his little sister, which does have verisimilitude. We also see the character gradually change as a result of his interactions with the student council. Not only that, but his negative traits are still present, just less pronounced. He also does suffer consequences for all the nasty things we see him do. The other major characters are pretty compelling and developed as well. There are some really strong interactions among the characters in this. The side characters vary quite a bit. Some are pretty fleshed out while others are stagnant and flat. Art: I have to give P.A. Works credit on this one. The animation in this is pretty fantastic. The backgrounds are very nicely detailed. It's a very nice looking series. Sound: We get some really strong vocal performances in this. Especially coming from Sakura Ayane, Uchiyama Kouki, Uchida Maaya & Ono Daisuke. The music from Anant-Garde Eyes & Maeda Jun is really well done. Which isn't really surprising since they also worked on the music for Angel Beats. Ho-yay: There is a little bit. When Yuu's sister, Ayumi, talks about Yusa she tends to get hearts in her eyes and nose bleeds which kind of indicate that she has a crush. Final Thoughts: So, with everything said and done this anime is great. There are a lot of narrative and character strengths with really strong acting, music and artwork. While there are a few factors that do hold it back, it's still a great watch. If you were a fan of Maeda's work on Angel Beats or the premise sounds good to you, check it out. My final rating is going to be a strong 8/10. Next week, I'll look at another requested anime with Rakudai kishi no cavalry.

I don't know about others this anime was a great great watch i personally recommend this anime to all otaku :P this anime kinda starts slow but picks ups the pace and reaches to the peak in the last episode. this anime has all the genre in it i dont why the MAL gave to be only Drama, School, Super Power but i enjoded the comedy the drama all in nut shell it was the great watch after a long time.Ending is amazing but felt a bit of sorry for the girl in the blue hair in it really sorry( Yumi Shirayanagi)

When I first heard of this anime i was interested to start watching it , it was written by the same team behind Angel Beats ! one of my favorite series as well as being an original title. When i finished the anime all it did was leave a sour taste in my mouth. Story : The first 8 episodes were actually decent and enjoyable for me , there was actually build up and character development throughout those 8 epsiodes with tons of interesting character interactions among the characters. Not only that , there was actually a sense of progression which was sorely lacking in the second half. However i really felt like the encounters with the other ability users could have been cut shorter instead of dedicating an entire episode to it but that might just be me. Now for the episodes after 8 or what i would like to call the 2nd half , the 2nd is actually a lot darker which was a change i personally really liked , but was it executed properly ? Hell no, everything was off in the 2nd half. The pacing was incredibly poorly done , everything was going so fast that it left you overwhelmed with question it never truly answers. It also undoes everything the first 8 episodes were building up for and then proceeds to throw all the character development down the drain. This was personally something i couldn't look past , why make something major that changed all the characters then proceed to take all the impact that it had away by undoing it ? Next is the ending , Oh. My. God. How could someone actually write an ending like this and release it is beyond me. I have no idea how to describe it to you since this is an entity on its own. Go watch it and you will know what i mean. Characters : My main problem with this anime actually lies on its characters and while i enjoyed the main characters and their interactions with others i have to say that aside from 2 characters which was Nao and Otosaka none of the others were given enough development to make me actually feel attached to them at all and this is due to the massive influx of characters that the show keeps on pouring in as the episodes progressed. An example would be Ayumi , being a major character that played a part in progressing the story , she was given so little screen time and development that i really didn't care or felt attached at all to her character. She was the typical little sister character that was there for the sake of being there , same goes to the majority of characters in the anime , they are given so little development and was just there for the story to move forward which is disappointing coming from the people who made Angel Beats. Art : One of the saving points of this anime is actually its art and animation , the characters were designed pretty well and backgrounds were beautifully made. There were some scenes where i just paused and observed how beautifully drawn the background , some fighting scenes were insanely well animated as well so kudos to the people behind the art and animation you guys deserve a cookie. Sound: The voice actors actually did a really decent job in voicing the characters , all of them sounded like i expected them to sound which was a huge plus for me. The OST and songs that were used for the OP and ED were also pretty amazing and this is definitely one of the merits of this show Overall : While i enjoyed some parts of this show I couldn't look past the faults to give it a score higher then 5/10. I left the show with a ton of questions and was given an ending that left me unsatisfied , perhaps it could have done a better job with 24 episodes but at its current state a 5/10 is all i could give it.

"What do you think happened to the first person who ever voiced a different opinion?" - a quote from Charlotte I found to be quite fitting. Being a fan of Angel Beats! I was excited to hear that Jun Maeda was creating another anime original that was described as the spiritual successor to Angel Beats! I was even more happy to hear that Jun Maeda planned on fixing all the problems that plagued Angel Beats! with Charlotte. After finishing Charlotte all I can say is their attempt at fixing Angel Beats! problems just brought a whole bunch of new problems to Charlotte. Despite my rating for Charlotte and its problems, I still actually thoroughly enjoyed Charlotte, at least for a majority of the episodes. ---Spoilers Below--- Here's a list of pros I found: -Good concept. The idea of a world with some teens developing unique super powers really intrigued me. -Good soundtrack. I especially like the ED: Yake Ochinai Tsubasa -Good art and animation. As expected of P.A. Works. -Interesting two main characters introduced at the start. (Yuu and Nao) Cons: -Bland side characters. They get almost no development whatsoever. -Yuu's character development is a mess. -Rushed pacing. One minute everyone is playing cards, the next minute someone has been kidnapped. -The story feels like a jumble of ideas that they tried cramming into 13 episodes. -Deus ex Machina ending. How did they find a single lone person in China? It's never explained. -Running jokes that are almost never funny. -The characters have some idiotic moments just to get the plot moving. Let's approach some highly prepared terrorists that have hostages with hardly any plan at all! -Many things left unexplained. Ever wondered why Nao is bullied? You have to read the freaking MANGA to get a vague explanation on it: http://i.imgur.com/yzNPJid.png -Random unexplained events appearing to move the plot forward. Terrorist appearing without any foreshadowing at all? To expand on some of the above. Yusa and Takajou have almost no importance to the story at all, we hardly learn anything about them and they don't make any large lasting impact on the story other than continuing to be friends with Yuu after everything. This is especially obvious with Takajou since he's pretty much there as Yuu's friend and comic relief with no actual development at all. Speaking of character development Yuu's personality is... confusing. Despite showing signs of being quite cunning and described and introduced as a narcissist he never really shows these traits after the first episode and acts like a generic MC with a bit of snark. The only defining trait I found that sticks with him throughout the whole series is... having a sister complex. Story: 5 Art/Animation: 8 Sound: 8 Character: 3 Enjoyment: 6 Overall: 5