Story: Otosaka Yuu is a boy with an amazing ability. Born with the ability to take over someone's body, he is able to control that person's will and make them do whatever he wants. However, he is only able to do so for five seconds. This has been able to as a result, help him cheat in tests at school in order to make him seem like a smart guy. In an attempt to try and woo over the school idol, Yuu comes in contact with Tomori Nao, a girl who has an ability just like him, the ability of invisibility. (Though only against one person.) He is then told that he will transfer into a school built for the sole purpose of housing ability wielders, and that Yuu will join the student council in the hunt for saving people with abilities.
The main story of Charlotte follows Yuu's journey into the world of abilities and ability users. With the rest of the student council president, primarily Nao, Yuu goes episode-by-episode dealing with various ability users and the impacts that they as people have because of the ability they have. The obvious issue with this is the fact that the Charlotte becomes very repetitive. For about half of the entire series, Charlotte is basically the same story with just a rehash of who the ability user for the episode is. As a result, the show doesn't really have much variation in its first half and the idea of slogging through six episodes worth of what is essentially the same story, isn't a very exciting prospect.
However, beyond episode six, the story becomes very...different as I should say. From the start of episode 7, the story makes a complete shift on what it was doing before, and made a complete turn on what it's focus was. Making Yuu as the primary focus for this section of the anime, the show elevated what it could do for a little while, but...then fell down to some explanations that while kind of make sense in the grand scheme of the anime, didn't really fit in because they weren't integrated correctly. The main issue with this is the sheer convenience of some points that they leave behind. Especially in the last few episodes, a couple things don't make sense and as a result, leave quite a bit to be desired. They add in a lot of factors to the equation of this anime and because of the time crunch, weren't explained and as a result, failed to add anything but confusion and questions to the series.
Character development in Key anime is generally one of the more sought after things in a Key anime. Since the shows are relatively solely character-based, a Key anime is a Key anime if it provides a lot of character development and growth of the cast. Charlotte does this rather successfully primarily with Yuu. Since the show completely focuses on his perspective, most of the character growth appears in Yuu and turns him into a pretty good character, channeling as much of the screentime that it can possibly allow to shape his personality, sometimes spending entire episodes to shape him up, which helps the series out immensely. However, as a result, unlike Yuu, the rest of the characters either get some to help shape them up, or are simply just non-existent. Aside from the main female protagonist, Nao, the other characters don’t really get that kind of development and as such, are kind of left in the dust in that sense.
All in all, Charlotte’s story is a lot like the way abilities work in this show. It’s good, but there’s always some kind of heavy drawback for it. For the story, there was always some kind of drawback for the show whenever it decided to be good, which made the show less glamorous than it could be. Still though, the show ended on a very soft and nice note that brought the story to a relatively sweet conclusion. Still raised quite a few questions questions, but a good ending nonetheless. (I'm talking about the last few minutes of the show. Everything before that, don't even mention it.)
Overview:
+ Lots of character development (though only for one character)
+ Good midpoint
+ Good bittersweet ending
- Episodic first half
- Lack of character depth for a lot of characters
- Rushed ending
- Many plot holes
Characters: Characters in Charlotte go into one of two camps. Either they’re important like Nao and Yuu, or they’re there to aid the plot like everyone else.
First, let’s start with the main protagonist of the series, Otosaka Yuu. As a boy with the ability to possess someone’s body for a grand total of five seconds, Yuu is very proud individual as he utilizes his ability for nothing more than dirty, dirty cheating. As a bit of a narcissist, Yuu takes full pride of his ability and uses it as nothing more than a way to make himself look good in front of the populous. As the main aforementioned protagonist of the series, Yuu is the character that absorbs most of the character development in the series. As the series moves along, Yuu stats to change out from his narcissist personality and turns into someone who genuinely cares for the people around him and wishes to help people out. This turnaround is one of the pinnacle moments of the series and one of the reasons why it's good.
And then we have Tomori Nao, the main female protagonist of the series with the ability of invisibility. (Though she is limited to only being invisible towards one person.) As the character that becomes most often associated with Yuu, Tomori is a girl who bears a similar personality to the man she meets and learns about. She's a bit narcissistic herself and doesn't hold back on anything in order to get the job done. She's a great character because she actually feels like a character. While she doesn't have the same volume of character growth as Yuu has, she stands alone as her own person and as someone who really helps Yuu, both traits which make her a great character.
The rest of the cast mostly falls into the "plot device" section, due to the fact that the show really doesn't put much character development into them. Emphasis on any characters that play a key part in the series really only serve as a way to provide more development to the main characters, primarily Yuu, and as such are generally related to plot progression rather than actual characters. Hell, the other student council members are shelved off for half of the series, and they are supposedly main characters.
Overview:
+ Great character development
+ Good main characters
- Every other character is either plot device, or only brought up or involved when needed
Art: The art in Charlotte was made by P.A. works and Key, and due to this combo, is GLORIOUS. The art for Charlotte is by far one of the best qualities of the series on account of its sheer detail. Every scene in Charlotte is made with a stunning background and fantastic quality, making each part of this series look like a work of art. (I mean, dat sunset though...)
In addition, the characters in the series are also rather well designed, as they flow very nicely into the style of art and host the same kind of quality that the backgrounds and the rest of the series has. It's a breathtaking style that really brings a lot of beauty to the series, overall making it a very good show aesthetically.
Overview:
+ FANTASTIC ART (That's all I have to say)
Sound: Similarly, the soundtrack for Charlotte is a group of tracks that are great pieces to hear. The OP gives off a very whimsical feel and tie into the series' more serious tones in the latter half of the series while also creating a bit of a pleasant tone.
The ED in Charlotte plays off as a very hopeful and calming song that ties into the character ties that the series has. With this, the show brings a wonderfully whimsical group of songs that add to the aesthetics of the series.
Overview:
+ Good soundtrack
+ Decently memorable
Personal Enjoyment: Out of the entire summer season, Charlotte was one of the few shows that I was really looking forward to. As it was a Key work with P.A. helping out with its production, one could only hope to see what could come out from that combo, and in the end, I was pleased.
Did I enjoy this anime?
Yes, in fact, I did; far too much, in fact. Its character development for Yuu is one of the best parts of this series and seeing him change was a nice storyline to follow. Plus, Nao-chan is an amazing character; she really brings quite an interesting thing to this series. (Also Ayumi's nano-desu. Nano-desu!)
What didn't I like about this anime?
My biggest complaint with Charlotte is how it didn't completely explain itself. The last few episodes focused on a plotline that had an outside group going against our characters in the series. They didn't explain this all too much so that left a bad taste in my mouth. They also didn't really make use of a lot of the cast members since only Yuu and Tomori took the brunt of the screentime and the story, making those two the only true characters in the story, and as a result, made everyone else a bit lackluster in comparison.
Would I recommend this anime?
To be fair, it's mixed. On one hand, we have great aesthetics with its soundtrack and artstyle, as well as refreshing main characters, but at the same time, we have a spindly story with a resolution for the last episode plotline that seemed completely out of the ballpark, as well as an entire cast that doesn't really show themselves to be anything more than plot progression. So really, it's your choice. If you want a great looking show without caring about specifics in the plot, then you might like this. However, if you plan on watching for a good story, then, you might be out of luck.
