Charlotte (not to be confused with Wakakusa no Charlotte, some unrelated obscure anime from the 70’s) is as of this post a currently airing anime series from the summer 2015 season produced by P.A. Works and written by Key’s Jun Maeda. It is his return to working on an original story with P.A. Works after the two previously collaborated on the 2010 smash hit series Angel Beats.

Initial protagonist Yuu Otosaka is a narcissistic cunt with the ability to switch bodies with someone in his immediate line of sight for five seconds. Instead of using this ability responsibly, he ends up causing fights between passersby, sneaking peeks at girls’ panties, and cheating on tests. That all goes well enough for him until people get suspicious of his perfect scores and he’s exposed as a fraud by Nao Tomori, a girl wielding a camera who had been invisibly following him around documenting his abuses of power. After trying to run, Nao and her peer Joujirou Takajou convince Yuu to transfer from his current school to theirs, Hoshinoumi Academy, a safe school specifically for teens with supernatural abilities. Using their student council privileges, Yuu, Nao, and Joujirou then scout out more people with powers to make sure they don’t draw unwanted attention and further endanger themselves or anyone else.

Starting with the positives, goddamn, does this show understand comedic timing. It’s mostly slapstick and yelling, but it’s above-average slapstick and yelling. The superb voice acting helps, and some of the displays of superpower usage aren’t just silly, but actually kind of creative too. Because the characters are all lovable idiots or lovable assholes, as long as it’s not taking itself too seriously, Charlotte won’t fail to get a laugh out of you. Also holy cow this OP. And this scenery. And the faaaceeeees. Love it.

But here’s the show’s supposed hook; if the kids don’t stop overusing their powers, they’ll get caught by scientists and have experiments run on them until they become mentally ill, vegetative, and/or dead. This is explained early and the show (like most other Jun Maeda shows) fumbles over its attempted nuance. It doesn’t help that Charlotte doesn’t seem concerned with explaining why the kids got their powers, why it only affects kids and teens, and how Hoshinoumi is a safe haven despite all the shit that goes on there. The school itself isn’t really expanded on at all, and we only follow about 5 or 6 relevant recurring characters. It doesn’t have a huge cast, and at the moment I’d say it’s working in the show’s favor, but if you like ensemble cast shows, this might not do a lot for you.

In spite of those things, Charlotte’s mostly worked so far. Chalk it up to the first half of the series being (probably) lighter in tone than the second or what have you, but it’s exceeded my expectations. It helps that the art is goddamn beautiful and the animation quality is consistent and smooth, but those two things alone don’t make a good show. With a well-pulled off cliffhanger in the latest episode (6), the drama has significantly improved from its early stumbles and overall the pros are easily outweighing the cons at the halfway point. I can’t promise it will end well, but all things considered, if you’re looking for something good to watch this season that isn’t a sequel, Charlotte may have what you’re looking for.

...just as long as you're not looking for Wakakusa no Charlotte or a city in North Carolina.

I love the fact that most of the powers have some sort of draw back. Like the "teleportation" is more like spacial displacement except he can't really control where he stops, and the invisibility is only able to hide you from one person.

"Jun Maeda"

Sold.

>>3
Fun fact, this is probably the first anime ever to include a character who's a post-rock musician.

You know, just in case Jun Maeda wasn't actually enough to interest you. lol

>>4 Good god - if there's post-rock music in this show thats actually written by Jun Maeda...

It could be the most beautiful music ever written.

I like this show, It's what high school woulda been like. Everyone bein so weird and all haha

This was really hyped on about on Animax
The synopsis seems cool...
Fellow dollars seem to dig it...
Art looks gorgeous....
I think I'll check it out!

I've been watching the show as well. It's getting interesting so far and since this is Jun Maeda, I'm expecting a lot of tears and supernatural twists on this one.

Anyway, there's an episodic Charlotte thread going around here: http://kazamatsuri.org/

It's a really friendly community that analyzes KEY's works in a deeper and intellectual level. It's pretty fun here too and if you like Charlotte you could talk about it to the people around here.

what happened to yuu and his sister I NEED TO KNOW! ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

I can't wait for the new episode tomorrow! I really hope that nothing bad happened to Ayumi.

Buzzing for new episode. Someone has to die!

Not to rain on your parade Raita but Ayumi just died

>>12 I doubt she really died.

Yeah ! I think that her power protected her somehow

Hmm... I've heard about this show, just not much. It seems to be pretty good though, I'll put it on my list and check it out.

I think ayumi's alive, since there's no way she'd die so suddenly, as an important character.

I have a feeling that either she's gonna become one of the ghosts inside yusa or is gonna be found alive but under posession of the people who had been previously keeping an eye on her

I hope she stays dead. She was never a particular good character and her death means more to the better-written characters than her living somehow through a deus ex machina ever could.

Not gonna lie, I also wanted her to haunt their apartment and cover everything with sauce. Seeing Yuu hit rock bottom was nice though. He was totally about to snort crack there.

Silly comments aside, that was a great episode. Very emotionally charged.

The show is actually really good you should give it a shot

for some reason this show heavily reminds me of angel beats. i wonder why.

The show is one of the best currently airing.

>>19
yeah wow
no clue there

>>21

/s

bump of actual Charlotte thread
also I've had this situation several times
such goes the post-rock life

Seeing as how so many people have watched this, I might as well check it out.

For those fellow dollars that have actually seen the anime there is this lore/rumor idk if this was talked about in another thread but some plp have been talking about the fact that this might have a time travel element.......something to ponder I say.

I prepare to watch it , but i have little time .does it need IQ to appreciate?Orz

>>26
...as in "do I have to be smart to appreciate this?"
No, not really.

Or do you mean "do I have to pay attention to appreciate this?"
I'd hope you pay attention to anything you bother checking out, but uh, yeah, I guess? Like, there are plot points you should probably keep track of, as there are in almost any show. :/

>>26

If you are especially genre savvy, it's easy to pick up the eventual plot elements to be used by looking into the OP and stuff.

>>25
I could see that. After all, Jun Maeda's got his shtick with time-travel in a lot of his works. To be honest, I also agree that the sister should stay dead, but today's episode leads to think think otherwise for a good ending.

On another note, Zhiend's vocalist is blind, and her "bargain with God" leads me suspect that she was an ability-holder-- much like Yu's now-blind older brother.

This anime sounds interesting I'll watch it

THE NEW EPISODE (9) WHAT EVEN HAPPENED?!!

the anime gone crazy. In a moment they have been listening to the ZHIEND band and in the next moment shu was fightening to get his brother out so he can change the world. now the anime is getting more excitement.

Yuu power is really powerfull,he could take another people power.Looks like he's going to be a badass character.

Man, it's been a while since I posted on this site...
But I saw this Charlotte thread and I just have to say... THIS ANIME IS AMAZING AND THANK THE LORDS FOR JUN MAEDA

Also, Sala Shane may be another Time-Leap ability holder

I've only just started watching, in the third episode atm, but I really like this show. Takajo is so weird, I think he's my favorite character because hes such a goofball.

It sucks so much that Kumagami dies... I hope that he stay dead and Yuu doesn't use the time-leap to save him unlike Ayumi. (This is episode 11 by the way).

I love this show, but it makes me cry way too much, especially the most recent episode.

I doubt that Yuu can steal everyone's ability.

I'm not feeling the impact in this anime...

Anyways, guess who's dead?? And guess who has the power of a medium?? ;D

Make it happen Maeda!

I think i've never loved an Anime more <33

>>35
Yuu can't use his time-leap anymore because he lost one of his eyes, and you need 2 functional eyes to use the time-leap.

I thought that Maeda learned his lesson with Angel Beats... The same flaws from AB are still present here in Charlotte...

Yuu's emotional plight would have left a better impact if this anime had another cour. The 13th episode could have been the season two--- hell I think if they actually started with something like episode 13, the second season can act as the prequel-- the prior episodes leading up to that point where it focuses on the rest of the supporting characters.

Alas. I've heard that they're putting Rewrite up as an anime. I should lower my expectations for Maeda's anime...

Anyways, this anime has made me look forward for the actual visual novel.

The last episode just sucks. I hope that there's a season two.

The last episode was a bit rush but it was beautiful.

fucking christ that was a stupid finale

I feel like people should only let Maeda write the first 2/3 of each of his shows and get someone else who actually understands long-term narrative structure to wrap up his ideas

episode 13 was a fucking disgrace

>>42

Just take in mind that the manga is still ongoing so there probably will be a second season

>>45
Is the manga related to the anime? The last episode is really disappointing so I hope that there's going to be a second season.

guys, let's be real
no second season could fix the mess that last episode created
it could only get more contrived from there

>>47
Personally, I thought that they tried to rush the last episode but it wasnt too bad, come on, at least let us dream for a second season :P

Like This :3

Well, I'm apparently setting myself up for disappointment, but Jun Maeda post-rock's still got me, so I'm gonna give this a watch now that it's over.

Im surprised about how the series of this ended it left a lot of stuff unanswered.

Episodes 8, 9, and 10 will rip your heart out but really show how they are competent writers. From being a show I randomly clicked on while sick one day it surprised me so much. While nowhere near my favorite show, I still loved it anyways.

Edit: It's episodes 6, 7, and 8 that'll make you really sad.

i feel anticlimaxing in episode 13 though

actually this anime is good, but kinda disappointed with the ending.. i think angel beats is still better

I love this show,that's all I can say. At the end I was a bit disappointed,but then when I saw the very ending of it, I thought it was really sweet. Funny when the very first episode came out I tried watching it,but because of my nature, I tend to really hate characters who are cocky,so I gave up after I saw him talking,but then I re watched the whole thing with my older sister,and I have to say don't underestimate this anime just from the first episode,this was one of the most amazing anime I've ever watched

i love this anime, when i saw by the first time my impresion was "a tippical anime cliché" but in chapter 7 "what the fuck just happened" and i love it

Just me or is this the same brown haired kid....Maybe a little older?....

>> 58
Eye colors are different, facial expressions aswell.. So no.

Charlotte is Amazing

I wanted to see more of Yuu interacting with his older brother after getting his memories wiped

I really want to see what happen after Yuu have his memories wiped and it will be much better if there's an enemy with actually interacts with the characters a lot through out the whole anime.

This is one of the most amazing anime I have ever watched..

The only thing I didn't like was how rushed YuuxNao was. It feels like BOOM yup we're in love now~

And I'm left wondering what in the world just happened.