'Charlotte' centers on Otosaka Yuu,a good looking teenager who lives with his sister.Otosaka has the power to possess anyone but only for 5 seconds.He gets by life easily by abusing his power.This power gets spotted by a Tomori Nao,a member of a team that scouts for such extraordinary teens.We are told that powers are an illness.Otosaka reluctantly transfers to a school for 'special children'.Upto this point the anime is your run-of-the-mill anime that involves teenagers with powers running away from evil adults who want to exploit them and do experiments on them.However,the show manages to go into very dark places.Don't let the initial light tone fool you.The show undergoes a hard tonal shift somewhere around the mid-point and it keeps escalating.
'Charlotte' benefits from well laid out stakes.Inspite of using familiar tropes it manages to bring a new perspective.'With great power comes great responsibility' gets a new lease of life with the anime.The relationships between the characters are very well done.The anime rides high on it's emotional core.The plot holes don't matter.'Charlotte' is eventually a love story.And a very good one at that.The pacing is great and the show never lingers on any character or theme for too long.The drama is fluid,the characters are lovable and the music is nice.Strap on for this emotional roller coaster.
Do give it a shot.This anime deserves a lot more love than it gets.
