Charlotte

It starts out well and extremely promising, although it's based at first on a simple idea.

So the first episode i would rate on it's on a clean spotless shinning impeccable 10. Job well done there.

But then there is a random yandere grill popping in with her friendly basement dork friend who ruin the day of the main character and the worth of continuing to watch the anime. So i continued watching in the hopes that the main character would come back to "life" and be once more exciting to watch how he goes through exciting adventures of great deeds.

I liked the art, it's not perfect, ... but it's alright > okeyish no doubt there.

Sound was a bit irritating at times due to the squeaky voices of some characters and nonsense that was poured into the show.

Characters and character development all went downhill, as there is a complete difference from what went on in the first episode and every episode after that.

Enjoyment wasn't there after the first episode, but i was very curious to know what happens and how it's going to end so i kept watching.

So basically the yandere grill ruins the main character's relation with the school's alpha bitch, just so she (the yandere grill) could have him. Hell, he even looses all his memories. Really fucked up anime to be honest and that's not because of the killings and blood, you can see that on the news all day, it's part of your world, therefore you shouldn't rant it's abnormal unless you actually do something about it, which you obviously don't since you waste time checking for conformist reviews.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 his love interest) wanted him to. Yes, he has a soft spot for his little sister, but that didn't stop him from acting like a total jerk before. Maeda never adequately explains why he becomes such a chivalrous, boy-scout like hero, a plot point that comes up in a rather infamous episode late in the series. This inconsistent characterization was the central reason I never really felt invested in his character.

Meanwhile, Nao Tomori is our only solid character in the class. She keeps a tight leash on our lead to ensure he doesn't misbehave. Of the cast, she's the only one I was truly captivated by. Her range of interests, emotions, and convictions really reach the par for the craftsmanship Maeda normally shows in his characters. Even better, she's rather unique for a Key lead as well. Not normally do we have a lead who defaults to a more blunt, rather abrasive demeanor without coming off as a tsundere. From her character design to her seemingly uncharacteristic (yet fitting) fangirling over her favorite band Zheind, Nao really was a joy to watch, and she MADE the romance between her and Yuu work.

Joujiro Takajou is our next main character, and at the start of the show, he had a lot of potential. Since our lead was established as a rather over-the-top jerk, he's a foil in a much different way. He's polite, friendly, and rather calm about the awkward situations around him. He provides information about different aspects of the characters for our lead in an understandable fashion, and I couldn't wait for Maeda to elaborate more about his character.

Only . . . Maeda never does. Joujiro never gets a chance to become a fleshed out character. After episode 1, his dialogue tends to get drowned out in running gags that are only funny the first couple times, and he only has one especially meaningful conversation that reveals something about his character in episode 5. After the first half, he and fellow lead Yusa/Misa become very unimportant, and that's disappointing for people who were billed as main characters.

Speaking of, Yusa and Misa are two characters in one. One is a giddy, super-friendly pop star, the other a hilariously abrasive older sister. The contrast between the two makes up a number of the gags in the first half of the series. Unfortunately . . . They don't get a lot of adequate development either. Much like Joujiro, her dialogue is overwhelmingly filled with gags that don't really expand on her character at all. They just repeat broad traits about her over and over again. Unlike Takajou, however, she does get an arc that's resolved. It's not as much as I'd like, but her resolution does remind me that Maeda can write convincing characters when he puts his mind to it.

Ayumi is exactly the type of character you'd expect her to be; she's a very childish archetypal "onii-chan" character who's only distinctive quality is how overbearingly happy she is. She never develops a significant character beyond this, however. It's rather depressing when we see a scene from when she was eight years old, and her dialogue sounds more mature than it does now when she's a middle schooler. Hah . . .

There are a decent number of supporting characters and episodic plot characters who encompass the "find a super-powered being, and get him to stop using it" part of the first five episodes' formula. While a couple of these characters get close to being meaningful, none of them ultimately stuck out to me as being effective. There are a bunch of other characters who I can't talk about in detail without spoiling certain aspects of the plot, but the ones who aren't painfully flat never have their potential fully realized, a flaw which seems to be a theme for this series.

Enjoyment (4/10): What really upsets me about Charlotte, however, is I rarely found myself enjoying it.

There were times I'd get excited about the once-a-week plots, only to find out they never lived up to what they promised they would be. I normally like Jun Maeda's sense of humor, but here, it just didn't work for me. There were too many gags that would only work a couple of times that were played ad nauseum with very little variety, and they did little to establish the characters and their interactions beyond what we already know. Worse, the plot didn't have a lot of luster for me because inside I knew many of the people I would see in the plot weren't going to get adequately developed. That feeling of anticipating failure is not a fun way to watch a series, and it really hurt my enjoyment of this show when I knew it wasn't going to meet my expectations in various ways.

Now, every so often, there was an occasional gag that hit the mark, and Nao was a solid character that made the show a tiny bit palatable. But, the ridiculous number of plot-holes, the inconsistent/under-developed nature of the rest of our cast, and the underwhelming artwork made this feel like a show the creators didn't really try their best at.

Then, there's one other thing about this show that really ticked me off; the thematic conclusion of the series. The super powers are treated by the main cast like they are disease. Despite the fact only a couple are activated subconsciously, the consensus seems to be the world would be better without them. Why? Because these uber-powerful evil organizations want to persecute us for them, so it would be best if they go away. That's right; these special gifts that can be used to help people are deconstructed into a sickness that causes trouble for no rational reason. These powers are even used to benefit others a couple of times in the show, but this is seen as not enough to justify them. Why would you take away gifts that can be used to benefit mankind? If someone can find a way to use a limited version of invisibility, or healing, or pyrokinises to help the world, why in the world should they have them taking away before its time? Has Jun Maeda heard anything of compromise? This is a rather important part of the show's theme, and it really ticks me off that the show reaches a thematic conclusion that I'd find wrong even in-universe.

Overall (4/10): I wasn't asking for the next Clannad for this show; all I wanted was a well-executed series that delivered, if nothing else, solid characters that made a questionable plot worked. All the pieces were there, so there is no reason the series should have been much less than that.

Unfortunately, it was. Charlotte fails to deliver in nearly every category, proving itself to be the first work by Maeda/Key Visual Arts I can confidently say is bad.

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.

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!

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.

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 main character’s reaction to his sister’s death. He basically goes crazy. At first he’s depressed and just eats cup noodles (which I found kind of funny because I was watching Kokkuri-san as well and there’s a lot of cup noodle jokes in that). He brushes off any attempts by people to help him. This, while dangerous and self-destructive, is not unrealistic. I know plenty of people who simply refuse help when it’s offered to them. It’s one of the sad realities of depression. One things that I did find kind of stupid about this episode was that Nao was following him being invisible the whole time. But she can only be invisible to one person right? So then when the one girl came into his house to see if she could cheer him up, why didn’t she notice Nao. To her it would seem like there was just this random white haired girl in the corner of the main character’s room. And what about all those times he was fighting the gangs of people. Did not a single one of them notice this random white haired girl watching? Why did she wait so long to reveal herself to him? It’s almost as if the plot forgot she could only be invisible to one person. Whatever. It’s not like that’s the last time we’re going to see something like that.

Episode 8 is devoted to this completely pointless side story about the main singer of Zhiend. She never shows up again after that episode. The main character learns nothing new, at least nothing that matters. We see her brother finally recognize his sister because reasons. But none of this ever shows up or is mentioned again. The entire episode could have been removed and the anime would actually have been better. Why am I even questioning this anymore…

Episode 9. Oh dear god where do I even begin with this episode. The only episodes that rival this are episodes 6 and 10. The episode starts off with the main character and his sister in some sort of prison. I assume it’s the research facility or something, although it’s never explained. Things are very confusing but that’s fine because I’m sure everything will be cleared up eventually right? Nope. It’s never explained why they are there or how they got there. The plot seemed to just forget his sister was dead. We have the whole conflict of “you need to save your sister because she’s going to be dissected.” Um excuse me, what? Did you just say dissected? If that made no sense to you, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY would dissect a human being unless they were descended from Dr. Mengele. There is no way this is legal. Even Elfen Lied didn’t go this far. This anime is basically ignoring any pretenses of continuity and realism and discarding them for cheap dramatic effect that falls apart the moment you turn on your brain and THINK about what YOU ARE WATCHING. If this had been going on for a long time, as it has been implied it has, then the government would have eventually found out and shut them down for inhumane experiments. Human experimentation is already illegal. Even if psychics were seen as nothing more than animals, there are still laws in place to protect animals from cruelty, which seems to be what is happening to the psychics, even the ones who aren’t being dissected. It also is in this episode we learn about the main character’s ability to “steal other people’s powers”. Yes, you read that right. This whole time he has had the ability to steal other people’s powers. But then how did he get his power? I suppose his power could have come with the ability to possess them as well, but he certainly used his power on plenty of other ability users. Why did he literally never notice anything different? He he had stolen so many abilities it would have been simple for him to save his sister. It’s implied that Nao at least already knew about this. Why didn’t she just tell him “here take all our powers and go save your sister. While you’re at it, go destroy that research facility since you’re so powerful”. I feel bad for this series’ ass. It must hurt from all the things that were pulled out of it. So then we learn that the main character has a big brother. A big brother that we heard nothing about before. And he can time travel too, but he can’t do it because he’s blind and needs to see in order for it to work. Um excuse me? Why is this? This makes no sense. Then again, the main character needs to be able to see his victims before he can take them over, so many it’s a genetic thing? But then his little sister doesn’t need to see in order to use her ability. Whatever. We never learn anything about the research facility or why the main character’s sister was still alive. I really think the anime just forgot she was dead.
Episode 10 is basically episode 10 of madoka. There isn’t much to say about it. We switch main characters and he goes back in time over and over in order to save the psychics from despair. The episode itself is pretty stupid because we have all these half-assed this set up. Like Mr. Drip doesn’t actually have to be wet in order to use his power. It’s just a disguise. Because nobody would ever recognize him with his hair in his eyes… Then the big brother is like “I know, I’ll disappear from the lives of my family. We’ll just erase their memories.” But how does he erase their memories? No power of memory alteration was mentioned up until now. The guy who goes in and does it is also never mentioned before.
Episode 12 worked fine as a final episode. All the problems felt resolved although we have this awful romance between the main character and Nao. Just because you have two characters doesn’t mean that they will work together in a romance. This is exactly what happens in Charlotte. Even the characters themselves admit that they don’t work together. I can even remember a scene where the main character watched Nao get beaten by a group of older students and did nothing, despite the fact that he had the power to control them and make them stop. It’s just stupid and cliche. But why is there an episode 13 if episode 12 felt like a such a relatively satisfying ending? Well, your guess is as good as mine. What posessed them to include this episode is beyond me. It would have worked great as a beginning to a second season, but not as a final episode. It felt rushed and pointless. The story was already over. We didn’t need more. Episode 13 is pretty much season two packed into one episode. It was a rushed progression of events that should have had a series all to itself and had no place in this season.


Characters: 1/10
Right up till the very end we are presented with a cast of two dimensional characters who we’re for some reason suppose to care about. We have someone who can teleport, has a creepy obsession with idols, and… that’s about it. He never develops, he never learns from anything. He’s just a cardboard cutout that things happen to. We have Mr. Drip who has to be wet to use his power except no just kidding it’s actually a disguise (like seriously wtf). We have our main character who’s selfish and self-centered only using his power for himself. He’s pretty badass. But then all of that leaves in episode 2 and we never see any of that agian. It’s like the tempted you into it with this pretty sweet MC and cool hook and then went and destroyed any semblance of what could have been good. We have the idol girl, Yusa who’s basically Misa-Misa but with less personality. She can channel the dead, or more specifically, her dead big sister. Her dead big sister has the ability of pyrokinetics. But wait, her dead big sister is at least 20 years old, right? Why does she still have her powers? Whatever. She doesn’t have much more personality than her younger sister. She’s the Action Girl who talks like a man and insults you. It’s been done so many times. Mr. Drip gets almost no personality. His major character trait was “Big Brother’s best friend”, and he doesn’t develop at all. They play his death off as if it were supposed to be super sad and tragic and all I could think was “why on earth am I supposed to care if this guy dies?”. The little sister was cute but could get annoying at times and had no personality other than “genki girl”. Nao is the only marginally interesting character. She has an actual backstory. Sadly, she’s the only good character in the show. I don’t really feel like talking about this anymore, I said most of it in the beginning. The characters are just plain boring, about on par with Sword Art Online characters. In fact, these characters just might be worse.

Art: 8/10
Just like with Angel Beats, the art in this was decent. The character designs were good, although there were times I couldn’t tell some characters apart. Other than that, the general look of things was very pretty. Especially Nao <3

Sound: 6/10
The voice acting was fine, but nothing spectacular. The music was good and fit the scenes and tone very well, but unfortunately wasn’t memorable enough for me to listen to it and say “Ah, that’s Charlotte music”.

tl;dr this is one of the worst anime I have ever seen in my life. Nothing about it was good. The plot was a mess with Deus Ex Machina and asspulls right and left, more holes than swiss cheese, and poor characters that I cared nothing about. There were more plot holes than I care to count and events so ridiculous that I’m pretty sure an episode of scooby doo would have had more credibility. Watch this anime if you wanna have a good laugh, but don’t expect anything special.

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.
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[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.
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[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.
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[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.
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[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.
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[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 suffered from horrible pacing, little character development and a very rushed ending. If the series had 25 episodes then this would have been a great show.


Pros:
+Decent Story
+Outstanding Animation
+Great OP and ED theme songs
+Great Soundtrack
+Decent Characters

Cons:
-Pacing issues
-Supporting characters, including most of the main characters, got little to no character development.
-Show is plagued with plot holes
-Unexplained Terrorist group near the end
-Very Rushed Ending
-Pointless Episode 8

Some kids got rid of my review AGAIN but I guess I'll have to say it again : Charlotte started out strong. We were expecting a really strong protagonist from episode 1 and a really good anime, however Charlotte didn't deliver at all.

The plot had as lot of potential but they simply did not exploit it at all.

The art and the sound were good but this is just the minimum, nobody would watch a really beautiful show if it was boring as hell just like Charlotte is.

The character is what makes a good show a good show and this is where Charlotte is REALLY ... BAD. First we've got our potagonist that was supposed to be Lelouch number 2 but instead he literally is a carbon copy of 80 % other protagonists, a weak and meek guy who can't do anything by himself.

Ayumi is the single most unbelievable character I have ever seen. NO LITTLE SISTER WOULD ACT LIKE THAT FOR ANY REASON EVER. Not only that but she was really really annoying.

Nao was a really creepy stalker that followed the MC for no reasons at all or maybe because he was the MC.

As for the rest of the cast I have nothing to say, they are just boring.

The enjoyment was good in three episodes, episode 1.7 and 8. The rest of the time it was torture.

Overall this anime just isn't very good, it could be worse like Nabari no Ou but still it's really really bad, it felt like none of these characters were believable or relatable to, it felt like they weren't humans.

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

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)

I started Charlotte, as usual, because the opening was nice. I haven't read anything about it and Lia had a great song. I didn't expect a lot, and with that in mind I decided to give it a chance.

Story: 8/10

It's a nice story, for me it has a new concept (faulty superpowers) and that was good enough. The story itself is quite entertaining, it has some interesting moments, touching and funny. It's not Hamlet or Othello, but it's good enough to binge watch it.

Art: 8/10

Not bad, not memorable. A nice color pallete, dark when it must be, light and happy when needed. The characters are ... well designed, it does not abuse fanservice to cover flaws. There are not missed frames, there's no abuse of CGI. It's a nice anime.

Sound: 7/10

As I said, the opening caught my attention, and the BGM is nice. But it's not wonderful, you won't be singing or mumbling anything from Charlotte in the shower

Character: 9/10

The strongest point for me. Every character has it's own trauma, it's own agenda and a nicely developed personality. The MC has a decent growth and it's not perfect, but not in the "MC is a boob obsesed guy", more likely in a "what the hell do I do with my life and superpowers?".
Every other characters has it's place and it's needed, there are no wasted characters.

Enjoyment:9/10

It's easy to enjoy, even the darkest moments let you enjoy the anime. It's not something heavy, has some messages and let you with a few questions. It's not a "Anime's over, lets grab a burguer" thing, but it won't traumatize you.

Overall: 9/10

An anime worth watching. Don't expect a memorable masterpiece, but don't expect some time filler piece of crap. It's a god series, it's a good story told in 13 episodes. It has a close ending.

I highly recommend Charlotte.

"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

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.

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

First of all I wan't to say that this show was not in anyway a masterpiece but I still found this anime to be enjoyable. I saw a lot of disappointment related to this series before and almost didn't watch it at all. So thinking there might be other people like me out there who might consider not even trying this because they only see the bad stuff written about this in the internet I felt it was needed of me to write this review.

For me the biggest problem was the start. It was prolonged a bit too far just to set up the basis ... for the 'student council work' that in the end was not all that essential for this anime. However it did give chance to get to know the characters better and around episode 6 I felt like they had finished "laying the foundation" and the plot started to really progress. I was hooked and just had to see it all the way 'til the end.

I was thinking that I'm not going to focus on every aspect (art, sounds, characters etc.) separately but just try to express my feelings in words for the series as a whole. Though maybe I should mention few pointers that I noticed.

Art: if you've seen Aniplex shows before you pretty much know what to expect. Nothing all that amazing but solid animation all the way.

Sound: I liked both OP and ED but in some of the background music sometimes had these weird sounds on regular intervals that at least for me disrupted the feeling of the situation and got me annoyed. Still just a minor annoyance that didn't happen more than few times.

Generally speaking: Though having some cliché elements I found the way this story was told to be to my liking. I have always enjoyed this "situation based" humor that is typical to anime and what the first half of this anime offers a lot. Staring glowing eyes under a dark cloud from other guys who feel jealous, people rambling about their target of admiration and then getting treated accordingly for this overly stupid behavior are some of the small things I enjoy seeing in so called school-anime. This show delivered that but if you are expecting only school anime that has, synopsis quote: "The student council of the school, led by Nao, is tasked with secretly tracking down adolescents who abuse their powers." you should brace yourself because this show will turn a bit more drama focused around the halfway point.
The second half of the show focused on dealing with the problems that the characters have mostly because of these abilities and how they are trying to deal with the situation. There was also more than one plot twist that I did not see coming and they made this show more interesting.

I don't want to ramble for too long and accidentally write spoilers so for short conclusion: Despite a bit slow start that had some wasted screen time I think this story was well told in 13 episodes. The main reason why this anime got 7/10 from me instead of better score was that there could have been more focus on character development and that there some rushing in telling the story which was even more evident flaw after slow start. Despite these problems I still found the overall enjoyment to be 'good' hence 7/10

My first ever review. I hope it will be helpful to somebody