Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Charlotte
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abeltensor
Posts: 3 |
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Why don't I give you the gift of seeing a first then. I have been a Maeda/Key fan for anywhere between 12-15 years now and I believe that this show was a clear failure, despite having a decent core plot and premise, it just didn't work. I also hated the Little busters! Anime to a point of loathing because I liked the original Visual novel so much and they completely ripped it to shreds by trying to animate it. Oh and then there is Air, the absolute worst visual novel written by Key in my opinion and reading it again would be tantamount to torture for me. There you go, a truly die hard Key fan admitting that they make mistakes. On the other hand, I still think that the novels and anime that were done well were done ridiculously well and wouldn't be nearly as good without Maeda's brand of magical realism. Anyways, while I am of the opinion that Maeda's writing is quite good, I still believe he sucks at pacing when writing alone and when he tries to get too ambitious et la, Air and Charlotte, he isn't able to control them alone. I actually believe that the reason why rewrite was so good was because Maeda wasn't a writer on it, it was so ambitious and yet it was well paced and had a good emotional payout. |
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grooven
Posts: 1425 Location: Canada |
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As a long time KEY fan I have to say I'm also miffed as what to rate this. I feel he wrote the story and again tailored it to anime after the fact. The pacing issues really are the biggest issue and foreshadowing. I really liked the ideas but there was too much going on to set them up properly. Feels like a throw back to Jun's earliest work, MOON.
The whole Madoka comparison is such a joke. Just because of the whole going back in time to save someone in another time line. This hardly makes it a comparison. Even before Madoka came out, Maeda had part in writing a specific Key novel of going back in time to save people, and have the same timeline repeat. The game version makes it even more evident. Just saying. I don't see any Madoka influence what so ever. People only say this because they are unaware of this particular one and since Madoka is the most popular, they point to it. Last edited by grooven on Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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motormind
Posts: 89 |
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I don't think the last episode was that far in the future. Yu was already 16 when he started his journey, and he had to hurry because he would lose his powers once he'd leave puberty. spoiler[Ayumi also doesn't seem to be so much older, and Nao was still wearing the same school uniform. Of course, this raises the question how the heck he would be able to trace down all those ability wielders in such a short amount of time. Realistically, this would have taken him the better part of a decade.]
I also still keep wondering why he didn't simply spoiler[heal his eye when he had the chance. Sure, he would have to refrain from traveling back in time, but it sure is handy to have depth perception!] The story would also have been a lot more interesting if there would have been an ability wielder with the power of "Ability Nullification," much in the vein of Gakuen Alice's Mikan. It could have been an antagonist, able to thwart Yu's efforts by simply nullifying all of his powers in one go, maybe by aging him artificially. spoiler[ Now it was simply Yu becoming some sort of omnipotent god without much resistance, which was frankly boring.] Maeda Jun was never all that great when it comes to great over-arching plots. Honestly, he keeps using the same framing devices over and over, to the point where it becomes clear that this is where his talent is sorely lacking. I can forgive him for that though, considering he does a good job at dialogue and character interaction. I won't ever forgive how me made me cry during Air. Bastard! Still, I wonder if there is any quality control at Maeda's company when to comes to storytelling. Surely he must have a whole host of beta readers that could point out to him when his story is becoming stupid. Or maybe he has become so powerful that nobody dares to criticize him anymore. I will keep an eye on his work though. I love flawed artists who hang on by just a thread. Those tend to be the most interesting! |
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Hiroki not Takuya
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Nubrain01
Posts: 12 |
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I had rather liked Charlotte but now that I think on it I see a way the show could have been great and not just good.
Imagine if eps 1 started in medas res with Yu going around as the one eyed reaper stealing powers, half crazy and neither the audience or he knows why he's doing that or the significance of the flip book. With out knowing the why we'll question if he's a villain or not. It would show him going against the scientist and gangs that use powered people and maybe being annoyed at them for a reason he doesn't understand but you'd also see him getting powers form regular people. Instead of not having to sleep at all he has a power where he can enter a trance for 30 minutes and it's the same as 8 hours of sleep. When he enters this trance the audience gets a flash back to earlier events the first one being a condensed version of the first episode we got. This first flash back would end just as he's being asked to join the student council but would have to get across the ideas that he was already a bit of a villain in training but show the softer side he has with his sister. When he wakes it has to be clear that he doesn't remember this and he might even feel angry like he's lost something. after this happens a few times in show he might even reach the point that he acts like Nao's brother did in one of his fits only calming down from the flip book. The flash backs would humanize him and make us wonder what happened to make him fall like this. I think that would be a much more compelling mystery over the truth of his plunder ability. Then half way through ayumi dies and he unravles and we'd think that this is when it happens only for Nao to save him. this fake out would work really good if it came at the end of a first cour with the second one only being announced just after it aired. As long as the second cour came the next season on the one just after it. The second season starts with Yu and Ayumi in the lab before the first time jump to keep things from being too confusing you'd have to make sure to spend time with Yu after he remembers this talking to Nao maybe and making the decision to try to find his brother. then you'd cut to reaper Yu waking up and stick with him just along enough to remind everyone that this is where things are going. probably end on something that makes him seems even more like a villian. it would be a little clunky doing a flash back in a flash back but it should be doable. In the flash back dreams things would continue as they did in the show with a few exceptions. First saving Nao's bother should be done after saving Ayumi of it it happened as before it needs to be redone instead of just forgotten. Yu needs to have more time to not just befriend his bother's inner circle but to meet more people in the organization. Also it should make a point that anyone that Yu makes friends with you should see reaper yu use their powers. Since we would only see him take powers against people's will this would make us wonder if he had turned on them at some point. We'd never see him use the invisibility power though and you'd only see him use collapse after the flash back where he takes it to save his sister. we'd never see him use the water divination power either for obvious reasons but since we've never seen him use invisibility either when the two with those powers are kidnapped it would increase the tension even more and make us sure this is when he looses it and goes over to the dark side particularly when he looses his eye. The first episode opens with Yu reaching the last power user and the bounty hunter with the arrows. Of course this scene only makes sense if they explain later on that his bullet stopping power works easier the more force and speed in the projectile. So machine guns and RPGs no problem but sticks and stones are a major problem. After he takes the last power he turns invisible for the first time and gets away from the guy but he's hurt and loosing blood and passes out leading us into the final flash back. That's when we'd see him in the hospital reaching the decision to save everyone from their powers. we'd see his confession and promise to Nao, the other's willing giving up their powers and finally learn the significance of the flip book. When he wakes up he's in the hospital and Nao is there and for the first time he can remember he doesn't wake up feeling like he's lost something. You don't get to see his brother rescue him but it might be more touching to actually have him show up, hug Yu and make some comment about how he was hard to find. Also you need to put in allusion to the comet sooner. I'd say start with an image of a comet traveling alone through deeps space before cutting to One eyed reaper Yu in the first episode to parallel his solitary journey. Maybe one of the labs he goes to can have a picture of the Charlotte comet on a monitor. some of the groups he deals with might have comet's in their symbol or comet in some other language in their name. Any proper city names that are given are places were famous astronomers lived. it would be subtle and might not be picked up on a first viewing but someone would notice it for sure. Oh well the show we did get wound up being good too. |
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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Excellent review, and even better suggestions for how Charlotte could have been great instead of an extremely entertaining train wreck. Gabriella's idea of framing the entire show around Yu's world tour, with the back-story with Nao and the Student Council and Ayumi and all as flash-backs is BRILLIANT! That would have made the show. Then, somewhere around two thirds of the way through, his flash-backs stop, and we could see Shun and Nao planning to find him since they can tell by news stories that he is nearing the end of his journey. That would be a great show, and tell much the same story, just with better narrative arc. I wouldn't lose the episode after Ayumi's death for anything, though. I think some entirely flash-back episodes would be needed.
Also, this is the first time I've seen explicitly stated what I wondered for a long time: Angel Beats was originally intended to be 2 cour but was cut short and they had to jam the whole story into 1 cour. I still love Angel Beats, but I always felt that we were cheated out of what could have been an all time classic instead of something that is just very, very good. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11424 |
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Once he gained the tracking ability, no sweat, he's just following the map to them. It only takes a few seconds to reap the person, a little longer for the seeds. They tended to be clustered, so he could get a dozen in just a few minutes, perhaps a hundred or more in a day. Travel time between targets is the biggest thing, but since he can fly and go at superspeed, no more bothering with airports and customs. 
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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Gonna weigh in, but this isn't exactly as I expected, but as a Maseda fan I've come to expect the Bait-And-Switch plots for some time now. Even up until the last two i was expecting an entirely different story. his stories are always like two foreign concepts mashed together.
spoiler[For example in Air, one assumes the main character will go around town solving each girl's mystery, much like Bakemonogatari. However the last arc in Air was about a reluctant guardian warming up to the role of caretaker, only to have that snatched away the moment she understood how to care again.] I go into every new Key show with that expectation in mind. Much like how every Sonic game ends in a Space Battle, every Key story is gonna be different than what it pretends to be at first, and will do nothing but send the wrong messages the whole way through. I don't think Charlotte was great, it was interesting. If almost anyone else attempted this it would have been worse than Aldnoah Zero. But Maeda gets away with it because, well, beign Good at somethig has its perks. I mean, given the OP/ED, and the early prominence of Nao and her brother's story, the abuse she gets at school - Maeda trains the audience to keep expecting her to have a big role in the finale. Maeda keeps doign this with characters and plot elements and somehow does it in a way to not be bad. Just this time it wasn't exactly a tear jerker. |
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Sanyo
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Is still don't get why he couldn't at least spoiler[Heal his eye, since he got a healing power. It's not like he had to use the time travel power. It definitely would've helped having his depth perception back.]
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2250 |
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Pretty much with Gabriella on this (though the Christian allegories whooshed right over my head. XP). For me, Charlotte is a beautiful, occasionally moving WTF. And honestly, I think it's these last episodes that do it in; it tries very hard to make a dramatic shift and it just doesn't work at all on a pacing level.
But I also have some things that just bugged me: Yu's "drawback" (can only work for 5 seconds) seems like a cop-out to me. You don't need 5 seconds to plunder an ability. I'd guess that plundering leaving you defenseless is a lot worse, but we never see anything bad come of that. The title (in hindsight) is awful. The comet is tangential at best; why name the whole show around it? The girl who cut Yu's eye, is she still alive? Did she die with the Collapse? Is that why Yu never met her? Or if he did meet her (and the organization that did him in), why didn't we see that? That's actually plot relevant stuff! Why English? I get that it's considered the international BUSINESS language, but check out any episode of The Amazing Race where English speakers get transplanted to a non-English speaking country. Subtitling (incorrect) English into English. Does Yu lose his powers? Is the amnesia just blocking it out? This is kind of an important plot point to skip over! What was up with Zhiend's singer and her "deal with the devil" that cost her her sight? They made it sound almost mystical and then just dropped it. If you take away Tomori's brother's power, does that eradicate his madness too, or was it Zhiend who helped heal him? Is he even healed since Yu went off on his "save the world" tour? A very minor nitpick, but the ending shot of the opening shows the student council watching the sun set, but there is a very conspicuous empty space next to Tomori. Why? Is it symbolism? I thought it was reserved for Ayumi (when her status as a power user was revealed) or that maybe Yu would disappear (to show him leaving) and have someone else take that spot. Just bugs me from a composition point of view. What was this "incident" that made Tomori an outcast? It was played up a lot, but never revealed. Did she just wail on some kid and ended up seeing as vicious because of it? Why did all those girls hate her? @.@ Ugh, I can't shake this feeling that Charlotte was meant to be longer but ended up cut. It just tries to stuff waaaay too much plot in otherwise. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11424 |
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What language would you have used? While there are more native speakers of other languages, e.g. (Mandarin?) Chinese, English is the foreign language more people have been exposed to to some degree. Someone brought up the Philippines. Though probably most people there don't speak it fluently or at all, English is actually one of the official languages of the country, so many if not most people likely know at least a few words and phrases. Since she didn't have time (or probably knowledge) to make multilingual cards, I think English was the go-to choice.
There was a shot of him looking sane and happy with an autographed Zhiend album at the end, so I guess he got cured. I was under the impression that the scientists had already discarded him because he'd lost his powers and was no longer useful to them.
Can't speak to the slums part, but what was so wrong with the car plate (besides the numbering pattern, which is often deliberately fictionalized)? 
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secondkas
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Yeah, I think that’s why the production included the Philippines and Singapore, it seems more plausible to pick a random Filipino in the streets and he would know English. But I also think most Filipinos tend to get overwhelmed when confronted by foreigners (more so if they are threatening you in your own car) and wouldn’t spurt English at the drop of a hat. If that were me facing Yuu with his Engrish, the first thing that would come out of my mouth would be, “Ha?!” 
I also wouldn’t use English in my own thoughts, especially if I’m guarding them. Apparently Yuu’s target wasn’t like that, one of the very convenient scenarios for him.
You must be referring to the background of the plate. For me, however, that is irrelevant (didn’t even see it), as we are currently changing it to plain white this year. Therefore, that one digit missing and the order of the letters and numbers make the difference. If you “fictionalized” the plate, then that is not a local plate (and why would they have to, though? Is there a special/hidden meaning to it?). And while we’re at it, we don’t have left-hand-drive cars anymore. This is sheer nitpicking, of course, but you know how we roll. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11424 |
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I imagine they did their research last year. But yeah, to me the background is the plate since the numbers are unique, and they even got the renewal tag in the right place.
And they fictionalize the numbers to make sure they don't accidentally use someone's real plate number, like all the phone numbers in movies are 555-xxxx.
Does everyone get new plates at once? California has about 5 different kinds of passenger car plates (not counting special backgrounds that donate to a cause), because you keep the plate as long as you own the car (unless you pay to get new ones, or personalized ones). Unless the entire country is getting new plates this year, then wouldn't you still see some of the old style on the road for years to come? |
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secondkas
Posts: 95 |
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^
Numbers are obscured in telephone numbers in fiction to prevent the real-life owners of the phonelines from being harassed by strangers. I don't think the real-life owner of a copied plate number will experience the same disturbance (copyright infringement?) if it's put out there, especially if the vehicle is changed. But assuming it isn't so, why do they need to remove a digit and interchange the order of characters, instead of just filling in the spaces with an obviously obscured set, ex. XXX 111? They went to the trouble with the small details of the plate but the digits are glaring, as if stating, “This car is clearly not a car in the Philippines”. Would some of the old plates still be around at this time? Yes, and other than the special and vanity ones, they all have 6-7 characters on them. But I'm getting too caught up in this; I know what you're trying to say and hopefully you also do with me. This is the least of my problems with Charlotte. On a second watch, I admit, I could see the details that implied that Yuu's in the Philippines (signs and hanging clothes), but –I don't know...there's a certain lighting and coloration that makes it indistinguishable at first. |
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BassKuroi
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Great show. I loved its pace and narration. Following it every week was a pleasure, even when I throw the water plastic bottle I was drinking from to the wall and I had to clean it afterwards because they had killed the little sister. That's a sign of how the series really connected with me.
What I really hate is the anti-fans in this forum. Nobody needs to follow their opinions and ramblings, born of short-sightedness and some ethnocentrism, but mainly from a current kind of calling for a "fan dictatorship". |
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