Charlotte

[Kraco]

"Very few adolescent boys and girls have an onset of special abilities. Yuu Otosaka is one such man who uses his ability unbeknownst to others in order to lead a satisfying school life. Then one day, a girl named Nao Tomori suddenly appears before him. Their encounter reveals the destiny for wielders of special abilities." - Official site (in English)

Genres: School, Super Power
Subber: Horriblesubs



Great and strong first episode. I didn't really know what to expect from this, so the surprise was nice. Some spoilers below.




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Watching the beginning of this show made me think, once again, that (Visual Art's/Key) Maeda Jun doesn't know how to fail to make an interesting story. His last, Angel Beats, was great, not to mention the likes of Clannad, Kanon, and others. While select youth possessing a super power and trying to keep it secret isn't anything new (not by a light year long shot), this was surely launched funnily by the MC exploiting his power to the max without remorse and enjoying the wicked results. While his eventual fall was expected and it was a pity to see his pedestal of lies crumble, I dare hope he's not entirely done for. In fact I don't really see why he would be. His humble home and broken family was another thing that felt natural, as well as his total duplicity before his sister. It's great he cares for her, though.

One thing differing from Angel Beats is that the female lead didn't really impress me. Hard to say exactly why. A big reason must be that she put a stop to the hilarious antics of the MC, which is a huge pity, even if necessary for the plot. I wish it had happened another way, but perhaps that was impossible. The dude had grown so arrogant that nothing short of this probably would have forced him to do anything. I know I'm going to be sad if she keeps him like this for the rest of the show. I have always enjoyed the most the Maeda Jun works where the MC is really proactive and humorously messes with the other characters.

I don't see how I wouldn't keep watching this.

[shinta|hikari]

Loved every second of this. I had forgotten that this was a Key work until the OP credits were rolling, and then I knew I was in for an awesome ride.

[MFauli]

i saw this anime being hyped elsewhere and now also read the above reactions ... and Im confused. The first episode was extremely bland and generic. No idea why this manages to garner such strong positive feedback. I even read some people compare it to Code Geass, and Im like "wtf".

[neflight86]

Most enjoyable. I enjoyed the frivolity of the protagonist and look forward to his powers being used for reluctant good, which the writing so far indicates will be at least somewhat in-depth.

[shinta|hikari]

i saw this anime being hyped elsewhere and now also read the above reactions ... and Im confused. The first episode was extremely bland and generic. No idea why this manages to garner such strong positive feedback. I even read some people compare it to Code Geass, and Im like "wtf".

The answer is you have no taste.

[Kraco]

Episode 2 - HS




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This second ep wasn't overly strong. As I feared, the strength of the first ep (or perhaps the whole show) relied on the personality and attitude of the MC dude. Now that he's cracked, there's little substance here. The MC girl still doesn't interest me, and the kind of artificial, unrealistic, and generic background sob story didn't help. I wish they had come up with something better than human experiments in broad daylight and nobody giving shit. Why, even the subjects don't seem to care enough to try to stop it and bring the guilty ones to justice. I hate to say it, but I don't know if this is worth watching with the MC's awesome personality totally changed. Or 99% changed. I guess I'll give this an ep or two still, just for old times sake.

[shinta|hikari]

Please drop it.

[Kraco]

Please drop it.

No, let's not be so hasty. You shouldn't drop it either, not yet. It's still possible the dude will get adapted to his new situation and redevelop a cool personality instead of the totally passive one he has now, only able to react to stuff but not act. This was only the second ep. Realistically speaking this is now totally Nao's turf, and Yuu just arrived. He deserves a couple of more chances to prove himself, don't you think?

[MFauli]

Re-watched ep1 and saw ep2. The biggest problem of this anime is the generic high school setting. The mc reminded me a lot of Light in the first episode, while looking like Lelouch. Both of which is very fine with me. The super powers are done in an interesting way, too, although I think the mc shouldn´t take as much shit from the invisibility girl ... one blink with his eyes and he could kill everybody within his vicinity.

But the modern day school setting takes all the fun out all of this. Death Note made away with this because it had a very strong hero who had clear plans. Lelouche was living in a fantasy future world with mechas. This one here ... has neither going for him. Right now this feels an awful lot like ... Plastic Memories :/ Half-interesting missions and not a whole lot of exciting overlaying plot. Meh,

[Buffalobiian]

Angel Beats never excited me too much so I was never as "high" as Kraco over this. Overall it's kinda meh. The "secret nice guy" is clearly the MC's long lost older brother.

I'm slightly annoyed at how obvious CG is in anime. I don't mind it so much for fights etc, but when you can see layers of objects glide and think "oh look, that's CG" it becomes a distraction.

At least MFauli sees the similarities between the MC and Lelouch. I was going to write something about that, but now I don't have to.

I agree with Kraco that an uninteresting main girl hurts this series. The most interesting power is actually Mr "Teleportation". At first I thought it sucked hard that he uses speed instead of instant matter transfer, but it does have its perks to be physically existent while in transit.

[Kraco]

The most interesting power is actually Mr "Teleportation". At first I thought it sucked hard that he uses speed instead of instant matter transfer, but it does have its perks to be physically existent while in transit.

Yeah, he's a pretty cool side character, after all.

[Ryllharu]

I waited to watch the two episodes together because had actually heard that the first episode was bland.

And it was. In some ways, the first episode is a self-contained plot line that closes the MC's story, or at the least his rise and fall. The first episode was a completely generic cliché set up chapter.

The second episode sets expectations a lot better. As annoyed as he is at his little sister, the parallel with Nao's brother causes him to think. He found out that siblings are more likely to develop abilities if one of them already has it and he witnessed what happens to a person when their abilities are publically known. Their mystery of the additional sibling/relative aside, Yuu is not going to want his little sister to share the same fate as Nao's brother.

Similarly, now Nao's desperation to find these people before scientists do makes sense. She wants to be the same as her benefactor. She had great opportunity for herself, of her own ability, and it was crushed by her mother's fear/selfishness. She's made the best of what she was given, and now strives to ensure that no one else ends up like she did as a result of having powers, or their relatives having them.

It's an interesting comparison to Yuu, who never really did anything with his own ability but leech of the success of others. I'm actually looking forward to watching Yuu have to rebuild his entire life, since it was entirely founded on lies and cheating.

The teleporting guy is excellent comedy relief.

[Kraco]

It's an interesting comparison to Yuu, who never really did anything with his own ability but leech of the success of others. I'm actually looking forward to watching Yuu have to rebuild his entire life, since it was entirely founded on lies and cheating.

Hell, no. Can't you look forward to anything more interesting or entertaining? I have long ago lost count of the annoying trope of a main character so stupid he's (usually it's a he) in danger of failing bloody middle school or high school exams or even in a danger of needing to repeat a year. Here we had a dude who was too stupid and lazy to bother to study the little he would have needed, but instead he was using his ability to ace the exams and live a (teenage) dreamy life. Now, however, he's nothing but another dime a dozen loser MC, who can't use his ability anymore because the female MC is dragging him down and he's allowing her to, no questions asked. As a perverse reverse reparation for ruining his life, she's forcing him to help her on her private crusade that has absolutely nothing to do with him.

I'll only forgive her if he can make a decent girlfriend out of her. Then it might be worth it.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 03





I can't see any decent girlfriend material in that girl at all. I'm trying to see a heart-breaking story about the long lost brother cutting family ties to set up this special facility to ultimately benefit his siblings. It's possible, but I don't feel it just yet.

[Kraco]

I can't see any decent girlfriend material in that girl at all.

Yeah, I have to agree with you on that. She seems to be only and solely interested in her own project and past. Everything (and everybody) else is irrelevant, or at worst mere tools. I suppose it makes sense as kids separated from their parents and relatives and brought up at inhuman facilities are oft broken for life, even if they could perfunctorily perform decently at some job. Nao seems to serve such a role. Too bad she's not cute at all, so she won't fit into the same emotionally broken category as Tenshi and many others, whom I liked a lot as MC girls.

What I hate the most is how Yuu is 100% passive now. Or 99% if you give 1% for trying to avoid his sister's nasty food.

[MFauli]

I think I can give this anime one last episode. This new ep was really bad and boring. If next week isn´t significantly better, more exciting, I call quits.

[Buffalobiian]

Yuu's special power is to make her special sauce taste like anything she wants. The special factor is that this ability works only on herself.

[Ryllharu]

I'm just not really sure where anything is going. This is an anime that feels like it showed all its cards in the second episode. Or pretty much any time a new character appears.

Nishimori is a main character, but this feels more like Witch of the Week with Yamada-kun (the anime, the manga has vastly different pacing).

[KrayZ33]

Oh man, I can't even imagine how bad this show would be without speed-guy.
The side characters are keeping this alive and I'm actually getting my laughs out of this show because of them...

I don't get how they managed to ruin a decent MC *so* fast. Main girl doesn't help this show either, she's really hard to like.
The "story" is really boring so far and the whole scenario is really hard to believe (especially the part with her brother and how they found out he could make the air vibrate)

[Buffalobiian]

I agree 100% with the above. The speed guy was the only highlight this episode. The rest of it was boring as hell, except for fire girl. She was okay.

I also really, really, really don't give a shit about the pizza sauce thing anymore.