Tomori Nao (Charlotte)
To start off, I am writing this review so I can really give potential viewers an idea of what this show has to offer, without influencing their opinion with a biased score. This show seems to be a classic hit or miss anime, which is very well reflected in the range of review scores given. Most of the reviews on this show award either a perfect score (10), or an absolute rubbish one (1-4). I think I understand why these ratings are given (and will give my opinions on this later on in the review), but I don’t think it’s the right way to review this show objectively. People who read these reviews shouldn’t be met with a bunch of bad ratings (and discouraged from watching it) just because a couple of people who didn’t enjoy this show as much gave it a 1, because that is just not a rating this show deserves. You might not have enjoyed this show but that doesn’t mean all those people will dislike it as well. The same goes for the people who gave the show a 10. This anime is personally one of my favorites, yet I don’t rate it a 10 as opposed to the other anime in my favorite list due to the fact that I review the show objectively rather than the enjoyment it gave me. I won’t include any hopes I had for this anime, nor my personal feelings towards it. But I digress.
Story: 5.5/10
Charlotte is a 13-episode story about Yuu Otasaka, a teenager with a special ability: he has the ability to slip into people's minds and fully control their body for five seconds. When he uses – or rather abuses – this skill for his own good, he is caught by Nao Tomori, a girl from a different school who also has her own special ability: it turns out he is not the only one with powers in this world. Together with Takajou Joujirou she tries to stop every ability user from using their ability so they can live a normal high school life. Yuu joins Nao Tomori and together they try to stop the abuse of abilities in the area, day by day. While the start of this anime feels simple and just like any other “supernatural” slice of life anime (typical Key anime anyone?), Charlotte starts of quite well. The first few episodes introduce us to the characters and really introduce us to the darker story that follows. While the first part of the show should have been a bit shorter (it felt a bit stretched out), I wasn’t too bothered by it as it didn’t make the show boring or repetitive. From episode 7 onwards the show suddenly takes quite a few unexpected turns, and (sadly) starts to feel rushed. There is just too little time (episodes) to tell the story they wanted to tell. Honestly the story had a lot of potential and possibly would have been much better if it had been a 24 episode show, or if the start had been a little faster. I think episodes 6 up and until 13 (especially 13) are the reason some people were severely disappointed by this show. Whether you like Charlotte depends on how much you enjoyed the show up until this point and how much you mind the rushed feel of the second half of the show. Objectively speaking the story as a whole is definitely nothing to be praised, but it isn’t as bad as people portray it to be (it’s probably just not as good as most people hoped it’d be, as like most Key titles it was highly anticipated). That being said, the story is still likely to pull you in from the start and you just might be one of the people who don’t mind the second half as much and enjoy it a lot, so I definitely recommend watching these 13 episodes anyway. Overall I think the story deserves a 5.5; the minimal passing grade. The show could have been a masterpiece if the story wasn’t this sloppy.
Art: 9/10
Charlotte absolutely deserves praise for its art: even for 2015 the art is top tier. Everything just looks really clean, the characters look amazing, the colors are great and the art manages to portray the atmosphere of the scene well at all times. It never feels rushed or sloppy and the characters are drawn really well too. There are pretty much no complaints to be made here other than the fact that the animation could have been a little bit better.
Sound: 9/10
The voice acting and background music in this show is absolutely amazing. The background music is never out of place and really strengthens the mood the scene is trying to portray; the powerful and sad scenes will most likely hit you hard (they sure did for me). The only reason the show doesn’t score a 10 on sound is because I think the OP and ED music weren’t that special or memorable. All in all Charlotte did a great job on the audio of the show.
Characters: 9/10
In my opinion, the characters really are Charlotte’s strongest point. The (main) characters are written in such a way that you are bound to like them, but most of all care for them. This allows you to feel sad when something sad happens to the characters (and trust me, you will feel). Because the characters are written so well you keep wondering what will happen to them, which in turn keeps you interested in the rest of the story. All main characters have some very simple and recognizable traits, but this doesn’t mean there is no character development at all. Yuu is the only character that really develops much over the course of the show (and he develops quite well), but I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the other characters don’t develop as much. The story is pretty short which would have left very little room for the main characters who get less screen time to actually develop well, so it probably would have felt rushed if they did develop a lot. I personally loved the character of Tomori, but I think all of their characters were very likable. The characters in Charlotte are definitely worthy of a near perfect score and really saved the show where the story/plot lacked.
Enjoyment: 10/10
I won’t take the enjoyment into account in my final rating, but to me Charlotte was incredibly enjoyable to the point where I rated the show a 10 on my MAL and it became one of my absolute favorites. I think the show is really powerful and is able to really play with your feelings: the sad moments hit me like a ton of bricks, I laughed a lot at the earlier episodes and I have been genuinely happy for the characters. I personally wasn’t so bothered by the sloppy second half of the show because I was still hit really hard by the powerful moments of the show and still cared a lot about the characters. I couldn’t refrain myself from watching all 13 episodes in a row. That being said, objectively speaking the show is far from perfect.
All in all I honestly recommend watching Charlotte, as it’s only 13 episodes and you definitely might be one of the people to whom this show is a masterpiece. Just don’t go in with ridiculous expectations like most people did and you just might enjoy yourself!
