Anime: Charlotte Review

First off on the list is Charlotte. With a 13 episode season and premiered in 2015, this was a show from the producer and creator I was sure that I would love. Adapted from the original story by Jun Maeda, creator of Angel Beats and Clannad, both classic Animes in their own right.

From the producer Aniplex, I had high expectations going in. Aniplex has produced some of my favorite anime. Sword Art Online, the Fate series, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Senpai Girl, that’s only to name a few. Looking at Charlotte, I found it hard to believe this wouldn’t be an amazing show.

Charlotte features the main character, Yuu Otosaka, an ordinary high school boy except he has the power of leaving into other people’s minds and control their bodies for 5 seconds. With this power, he cheats his way into a prestigious high school, hoping to make a better life for him and his sister Ayumi. When he gets caught using his power by Tomori, she forces him and his sister to transfer to Hoshinoumi Academy, where there are others with different abilities.

After transferring, Tomori convinces Otosaka into joining the school council where they go around the city tracking down other high school students that choose to abuse the powers they have.

Check out the trailer below and see if it's worth the watch.

*Spoiler time*

If you made it this far, I’m going to assume that either you already watched the show or like me, you don’t care about spoilers.

If you do care, I suggest you stop here and come back in 5 hours once you’ve finished.

This is one of those shows where the synopsis doesn’t do the show justice. After the first 2 episodes, I expected Otosaka and Tomori to track people abusing their powers and eventually finding someone that would refuse to stop and that would be their antagonist. I also thought this would be pure comedy. I was very wrong.

The second Ayumi dies, I knew the show was about to get deep. Otosaka slipping into a depression, and losing the one person that meant everything to him, it’s enough to make anyone feel depressed since his will to live was essentially gone. Through these episodes, I think the show does an amazing job highlighting the stages of grief. With every scene of Otosaka watching tv, his friends visiting, going from depression to enraged, and eventually negatively using his powers, the audience feels everything with him. Eventually finding that Tomori was watching over him the entire time only to step in when he went over the edge.

Tomori saving Otosaka from himself was the turning point and the catharsis for all that followed in later episodes. For the first time, the audience sees a shift from him just thinking of himself and his sister, spending time with the lead singer of Tomori and her brother’s favorite band then to make the trip for the singer to sing for Tomori’s brother.

It took me 2 full watch throughs to fully understand the purpose of episode 9 “The World Is Not Here”. The initial watch, I wasn’t sure if their time in the facility was just a dream or a memory. Even though Otosaka is told that those are all memories of another timeline, I wasn’t 100% convinced and the pacing seemed rushed to understand all the events that transpired. All of the actions seemed similar to what would happen in an issekai anime rather than what had been shown thus far. Considering I’m a fan of the genre for this, I didn’t entirely mind.

Although the main protagonist is Otosaka, I would’ve like to see more of his brother and friends, while the show does a great job summarizing the time-traveling and steps he took to get to where they are in the present, I enjoyed the minor characters. If the anime was 24 episodes, we could’ve seen more of the history or timelines that weren’t shown.

Throughout the entirety of the show, I wondered why it was called Charlotte, and it took 11 episodes to finally get the answer. I was originally expecting Charlotte to be a name of a character that plays a major role in the series, and it was interesting to see that it’s a comet that is “responsible” for some of the major supernatural geared historical events in history. I didn’t hate that aspect of it.

In the last 2 episodes, we see what becomes of our main character and the growth that he’s undergone since the beginning. By fully accepting his power and the burden that comes with it.

I admit, I am a fan of longer animes but the last two episodes summed the show up perfectly. From saying goodbye to Misa to Otosaka traversing the world it was a build-up to the end when he wakes up to Tomori waiting for him in the hospital.

Tomori takes the spot of my favorite character. She is a great representation of a strong female lead that supported all the other characters of the show and there wasn’t a single time that she relied heavily on Otosaka’s validation. Her representation had many layers showing her wits, independence but also understanding to others when it is needed.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. For only 13 episodes I thought it did a great job developing the main character and showing the transformation of many minor characters. The humor was present and was nicely contrasted by the sad moments. If I had to rank the show, I give it an 8/10. While I enjoyed it a lot the first time, it took a second watch for me to fully understand the things I missed or other aspects that may not have been well explained. It was a good watch and I recommend it.