FAILURE OF THE SEASON CON-BLASTED-FIRMED.
This review will be structured into an unspoilered section with overall impressions, followed by a link to an archive of the midseason review along with some spoilery opinions. The linked document has FULL SEASON SPOILERS, so read at your own risk.
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//The Quick and Dirty//
Charlotte is a profound disappointment. Its story begins promisingly before alternating between mundane filler, nonsensical twists, and Angel Beats "oh crap we only have 3 episodes left" syndrome. Its characters begin promisingly, but soon delve into forced archetypes to fit the checkboxes on a "Jun Maeda Feels Trip" roster, with pointless interactions given entire episodes and with meaningful ones abandoned at the drop of a hat.
Charlotte is Angel Beats 2.0, and not in a good way - it did everything Angel Beats did wrong, and nothing that Angel Beats did right. It promises the world - deep characters, feels-jerking twists, and a grand story - and delivers nothing.
I wish it was better. I honestly wish I could praise this show like it was the masterpiece it had the potential to be - but to do so would be lying.
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//STORY - 2 [9]//
At its core, the plot of Charlotte is a solid one. It offers an interesting angle on the industry-standard "highschoolers with superpowers" premise by throwing in a bit of reality: What would a *real* highschooler with body possession do? Go save the world from evil alien invaders? No, he'd use it to peek at girls' boobs, cheat on tests, and generally be the brat teenagers tend to be. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and absolute power in the hands of hormone-addled children is terrifying. Into this core theme we throw the plot hook - Lelouch, er, Yuu gets caught by some goody-two-shoes ability wielders who use their powers for GOOD, to protect those with powers from the mysterious, evil, all-powerful scientists that would sooner vivisect you than give a damn about basic human rights.
That's episode 2. It's all downhill from there.
The plot of Charlotte is disjoint, and that's being generous. If I *wasn't* generous, I'd say the plot of Charlotte is as rushed and disjoint as one of my infamous "I have two hours to write 10 pages on a topic I know nothing about" papers. Those papers are shit, and Charlotte's plot is worse, veering from one theme to another and jumping between arcs without a trace of narrative transition.
There are a LOT of good story ideas. The student council's quest to find and warn others from abusing their powers. Yuu's emotional struggles. The ending arc alone could very well be the basis for an entire anime in and of itself. The problem is, none of these ideas are given an appropriate measure of time - the first few episodes of Charlotte feel slow and repetitive before it realizes "Oh, I have 6 episodes left to tell the rest of the story."
Charlotte wants to have the character investment of a Slice of Life, the spectacle of an Action show, and the suspense of a Drama. However, these elements are neither balanced nor executed properly. Several episodes are absolutely WASTED on boring, poorly written SoL-esque episodes, where the obvious intent is to build rapport with our characters before ripping your heart out, and later episodes don't give their elements enough time or detail to be effective. Story elements that should have been half a cour long are compressed into a single episode, and story elements that should've been 5 minutes of the pilot episodes take five episodes.
What strong story moments there were, Charlotte wasted. There are moments within Charlotte that I have previously described as being "The biggest waste of emotional capital since Aldnoah Zero S2," though unfortunately describing them would be spoilers. So, imagine a show where the Episode 6 twist is that the pre-OP scene is the MC's house burning down. The OP plays, and the next scene is a continuation of a battle scene from the previous episode, and the whole "Your home, possessions, and immediate family all burned to a crisp before your eyes" is never mentioned again. THAT'S the kind of waste Charlotte commits over, and over, and OVER.
Charlotte had the POTENTIAL to be a 10/10 story. However, and yes this is a buzzword, ABYSMAL pacing dropped that all the way down to a 2, salvaged only by the quality of what good storytelling there was.
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//Art - 8//
There's little argument that Key Visual Arts and PA Works are among the best studios around when it comes to sheer quality of animation and character design. I've little to really say here besides "It looks fantastic" - animation is consistently top-tier, even when other elements of the show faltered. I salute thee, animators of Charlotte, for maintaining quality of work even whilst your writers and directors did fuck all.
I would, however, like to point out that Charlotte's OP is my undisputed BEST OP OF THE SEASON. There's more to animation than making the drawings look good - there's stylistic choices, framing, and raw imagination that makes a well-drawn picture into an amazing animation. Charlotte's OP is prime example of that. Words alone can't do it justice - just watch it. Even if you don't want to watch the whole show, watch the OP - it's just that good.
I do have to knock off points for a few egregious technical mistakes, at times, which can largely be attributed to piss-poor storyboarding; it's notsomuch the animators' fault for animating poorly as it is the producer's fault for ordering them to animate a shitty scene. As I just mentioned, there's more to animation than pretty pictures; cinematography, the art of framing camera angles and effects, is an art unto itself that requires considerable attention. There are several times where, in order to accommodate extra dialogue or to stretch out a scene, the camerawork is flat out SHIT. There's one instance of a camera shot from the perspective of something falling onto someone (no spoilers: it could be a girl falling onto our MC in a classic comedy setup, it could be a meteor sent by the hand of god to smite some side character for drama). This camera angle is *very* common in both animation and live action. You quickly pan into the victim's face just long enough to register the look of surprise, then cut - whether it's to a humorous scene of the standard "MC groping heroine's breast" shot or a display of blood and gore that'd make Tokyo Ghoul cringe. In this scene, however, it lingers - it cuts to a pan of a closeup, rather than cutting away. It was one of the most disorienting moments I've ever experienced just from watching anime, so much so that I STILL am ticked off by how bad it was weeks after the fact.
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//Sound - 8//
As is a specialty of Jun Maeda and Key Visual works, Charlotte uses music from its pet band, with an obligatory concert scene to boot. The soundtrack is, save for the OP and ED, largely forgettable. Application of music to scene is hit or miss, with some scenes having very well matched music and some scenes feeling totally disjoint.
The voice acting, however, deserves praise. With a mix of veteran and newcomer seiyu, the vocal performances manage to carry through, even when required to deliver some really crappy lines. Of particular note, a shoutout to Uchiyama Kouki for his performance on Yuu, with a fantastic range of emotional delivery; and to the VAs who delivered the English lines in a certain later episode. Save one, that was some TOP NOTCH English impersonation - for once, it actually sounded like English, rather than a Japanese person reciting English words. Heck, the worst lines in that episode are actually the fault of what (as far as I can tell) is an *American* VA.
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//Character - 5 [8]//
As collateral damage of the show's abysmal plot pacing, the character development of the cast suffers immensely. To start off with, we have some very well designed and intriguing characters, who are archetypical in some aspects but with enough unique aspects to be interesting. However, as the show progresses, so-called "character development" reveals flatter and flatter personalities in all but Yuu's case (who has his own problems). For instance, Joujirou, who at the start has a good hold on a comedic character element with his own quirks, is quickly relegated into a purely gag role, and an unfunny one at that, before fading from the show entirely - he stops being relevant a few episodes in, and then he turns up in a later episode being treated like he's somehow just as important and developed as our MC. What character development there IS for the cast is either ineffectual or counterproductive - the episodes devoted to Slice-of-Life esque interactions offer no lasting developments. What's worse, the show pretends like it's being totally effective in building up a connection between the viewer and characters, and because of this assumption a lot of moments in the show have absolutely no impact - "So, this guy's sad for some reason, why, and why should I care?"
Yuu is a whole different demon when it comes to HIS character. Yuu has an odd mix of being intriguing one minute to being more passive than a harem protagonist the next. He only seems to act in-character as the plot demands - something bad just happened, so Yuu must be angsty! Something weird just happened, so Yuu must be confused! Several elements of his progression of his character come from nowhere, and others are gone like the drop of a hat. There is one episode that deals with certain psychological trauma Yuu endures - ONE episode. He experiences trauma, he has a depressive period, then he's redeemed by the power of friendship and it's NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. Y'know how, in Pokemon, Ash goes through all these adventures and hardships yet still reacts to every experience like he's fresh out of Pallet Town? That's Yuu's character development.
Charlotte, again, has GREAT character design, but utterly wastes that potential with sloppy storytelling and sloppy character interactions.
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//Enjoyment - 7//
To be honest, in the long game I enjoyed Charlotte. I don't finish anime that I don't enjoy in some way, shape, or form (looking at *you,* Glasslip). For all its flaws, Charlotte does manage to be entertaining from episode to episode. It bears testament to what the show COULD'VE been that the elements of the good that managed to shine through were enough to carry me through the entire show.
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//Overall - 4//
Charlotte is Angel Beats 2.0: doing everything Angel Beats did wrong, and none of what it did right.
In a way, I almost imagine Charlotte as being the product of Jun Maeda sitting down and asking "What did people like about Angel Beats? I'll just do those things, and make them even BIGGER, which will make it better." The influence is obvious - we have the (attempt) at building rapport with interesting, human characters, we have a midseason tearjerker that changes everything, we have a blossoming love between two complementary souls that's tensely built before reaching a heartwarming confession. Everything about Charlotte is tangibly formulaic - this scene is meant to make you laugh and like this character; this scene is meant to show this character's secret weaknesses to make you sympathize with them; this scene is meant to TEAR YOUR SOUL OUT. Jun Maeda's formula worked in his previous stories to varying degrees - Clannad, Little Busters, and Gunslinger Girl all spring to mind as examples where it was wildly effective.
Charlotte checks all the boxes and fits all the requirements of what, historically, should be another masterpiece from Jun Maeda. However, good fiction, almost by definition, CANNOT be a checklist - in meeting all of those requirements, Charlotte ceased to be an organic story and became a mechanical slog. Characters were left to waste, because they'd done their job in ticking off the "genki girl" or "stoic heroine" requirements. Fantastic plot hooks were left unused, since once they completed the "dark and troubled past" mark they were discarded like throwaway gags.
It's disappointing. Charlotte should, by all respects, have been a masterwork. All the elements were there - talent, ideas, resources. But just having all the parts available doesn't mean you'll assemble it right - and Charlotte, be it through hubris, negligence, or honest screwups, is broken even beyond the capacity of Key Magic to repair.
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FULL SERIES AND FINALE SPOILERS BELOW. READ AT OWN RISK.
Midseason Review archive, plus finale thoughts. Also, more f-bombs dropped than an average Panty and Stockings episode.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RpwYMTnBp69zp7MSMQ70t2M9Hf1LFbwFpvTwrXeE3XE/edit?usp=sharing
