Forum - View topicREVIEW: Charlotte Blu-Ray 2
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6869 Location: Kazune City |
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Imo an actual second cour consisting of the events in the last episode would've just been repetitive and depressing anyway. So I'm fine with the way things turned out. Interestingly enough, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad did essentially the same thing in its final episode, but didn't draw nearly as much hate for it as Charlotte did.
Just a shame that Aniplex's subtitles for this show were so bad, and I doubt they substantially changed them between the stream and the BD release.
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Junko666
Posts: 35 |
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@MiloTheFirst: Yeah I have a similar opinion to yourself. I rather enjoyed the first episode of Charlotte and was excited to see what would come next. Then it changed into a "villain of the week" format for the next few episodes which I was okay with initially as I thought it was building up to something for the second half. Then we got to the half-way point which was Ayumi's death and from that point to the conclusion, it was a complete mess and I agree with the reviewer on this, hence I won't repeat what reviewer has already said. I also thought the idea on how to solve the main issue in the end was not only bad, but it was terribly executed as well.
Charlotte was without a doubt my most disappointing anime I watched of 2015. |
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Number 6
Posts: 46 |
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Zalis116. It is? Then it is my mistake, I apologize. I did say it's been awhile.
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2867 |
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that's not what has been suggested, but rather, give the whole series better rythm, so we can actually relate and care aobut the characters, so the plot events build up; there are a few episodes that feel great, like the depression one, it's kind of like a mid 2k0 visual novel adaptation where some episodes are good and others rush as hell even skipping content (umineko is a perfect example ), whihc is lame because this was produced for tv. |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 976 Location: Kansas |
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I don't see how "objectively" anyone could say Charlotte was anything other than a trainwreck. That doesn't mean it wasn't entertaining. I was never once bored watching Charlotte, and there were some scenes I thought were very powerful. But there were too many characters squeezed in and therefore had no meaningful development. It spent the first half doing unimportant "monster of the week" episodes and tried to cram in 2-cour worth of story in the second half (and at least a movie's worth into the last episode!) Not to mention all the time wasted promoting not one, but TWO musical acts just so Key Sounds Label can sell more CDs. Every truly touching moment was made irrelevant by time travel shenanigans. Oh, and Yuu's personality was completely inconsistent in the first half. Is he an asshole or not?
I really hate this excuse and I don't think it applies to Maeda's work as a whole at all. Clannad, for example, spent an enormous amount of time making sure you got to know each character and loved (or not) all of their quirks before hitting you in the gut with drama. Charlotte just seemed confused. Except for Tomori, the characters Yuu spends time being friends with in the first half are completely forgotten in the second half, where it bombards you with sad stories about all these people that you really didn't have time to care about at all. And by doing so, it completely killed the immersion for me. The scene where Ayumi reveals her power - which was supposed to be a very emotionally powerful scene - was made laughable by Yandere girl coming out of nowhere. I get that some people can shrug that off but it completely broke my suspension of disbelief. And the second half is filled with characters that only exist to trigger sad scenes.[/code] |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5426 Location: Iscandar |
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What is so wrong with the subtitles? I checked out the link you provided, and the people in that site appear to love nitpicking every little wrong translation they can find. I guess some people have very creative ways to lose time. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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My god.... I thought I WAS bad.....but this is the silliest, most nit-picky post ever. lol Fitting that it's on a url labeled "crymore" ha.
"Really hate this excuse"? Lol is there really anything worth "hating" here? Clannad had WAY more time to flesh out its characters and their stories so that's hardly a fair comparison. By episode 07, I definitely felt like I knew Yuu as a person and I felt his pain when tragedy struck him; I cried when he cried. Well, rizuchan, you're just going to have to accept that opinions differ on what makes an anime a trainwreck. lol Last edited by Chiibi on Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:25 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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SaitoHajime101
 Posts: 283 |
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Honestly, this example isn't a reflection upon Maeda, but upon standard jokes in many anime over the years. You could actually apply the concept of the joke to the standard boy-falls-into-girl-causing-hand-to-be-placed-inappropriately. These types of over-the-top jokes are all over. Charlotte felt good in concept, okay in execution. I disagree with the review thinking this anime was that bad though, but I'm assuming that's more of a personal enjoyment of the series from the reviewer than from a critiquing perspective (felt there was a bit of exaggeration there). In any opinion piece, personal involvement (especially with an emotionally-charged series) matters as much as the actual writing and technical aspects do. If I were to compare Charlotte to Angel Beats, I would be hard-pressed to come up with a final score between the two. Charlotte succeeded in telling a more-or-less emotional story, but failed to capitalize on it's large character base. Charlotte, while still emotional at times, was less effective, however had a smaller cast and effectively used the strengths of the characters to flesh out scenes that would have otherwise fallen a bit short (looking at the muscle-bound glasses guy who got kicked out of a window)  Some funny stuff right there.
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Edl01
Posts: 117 |
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Not sure if you came up with this, but it's fantastic and I'm totally stealing it in future. OT: There is a time when I was around 15 when I would have told you that Clannad was the greatest anime ever made with a completely straight face. It made me cry and that was enough of a reason for it to make my top 5, topping even shows I found better because, "Feels". When I was a bit older Little Busters came out and I was excited as hell, a new Jun Maeda work after Clannad based off an acclaimed visual novel. Then after watching it I couldn't stand it! At first I told myself it was simply JC Staff's fault, but after watching Kanon and Air I found myself doubting my faith even more. Then, finally, Charlotte came out and basically proved all of the bad things I thought about Maeda were true. His work truly was just, "Emotion Porn", with no real depth or substance besides being really sad. There is clearly an audience for that(see also: Your Lie In April), but I am far from that audience. I still have lot of nostalgia for Clannad, but in retrospect I find a lot of it's story arcs kinda hard to watch, and it is easily Maeda's best work! Then on the other hand is Charlotte... (Note: This comment is about 2 hours after I wrote it due to my internet dying.  )
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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The issue is that it had too any ideas for a short amount of episodes. He needed to tone them down and cut a huge chunk of them for it to work as a cohesive show. He's just used to writing VN that allows for long pacing.
His writing still holds up, but I think it's best in writing. He has some things that do irk me at times like some of his comedy.
I never can understand this "tragedy porn" term. It can go for any genre that is trying get any emotion from the audience. There is lots of meaning in his work and it isn't just for a "sad" factor. He has depth and substance to his writing, which isn't hard to see. Charlotte however just didn't work out. Last edited by grooven on Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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wastrel
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Same here. I love emotional porn. It lets my otherwise cold dead heart know I can still feel, without going through the bother of cutting myself or something. Seriously, I really liked the series, even the second half. Just not enough to pay the price currently asked for the BDs. It's on my 'look for a sale' list, though. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Oh, I would never use it as a negative term. Actually the contrary. Adding "-porn" onto the end of something has become somewhat of a little joke when there is either a lot of said thing and/or or it's given great attention to detail. I.E. "Food porn" "scenery porn". So I'd call something "emotional porn/tragedy porn" if it focuses heavily on it and gets a strong reaction from the viewer. Imho focusing on how a character feels by showing their grief or their joy in such detail *is a really good thing* because it makes them more real. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5839 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Yuu is the villain of the second half.
His actions are no different, than those villains trying to 'cure' mutants against their will in the X-Men series. Think many of you would be singing a different tune, if Yuu came to your home town and beat you up and stole your powers or abilities from you. The show shouldn't have had the happy ending it did. You don't do what Yuu did, and think there would not be any consequences from all the people he attacked and their governments. |
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russ869
Posts: 424 |
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I liked this show a lot. Yes, they threw really big plot twists and story ideas at you so fast that you kind of had to stop after each episode to process what the hell was going on, but I still found it really interesting. Any time you start dealing with time travel, it's pretty easy to poke holes saying "Why didn't they just..." And this show is no exception, but they at least made an effort to plug those holes and explain why some apparently easy solutions to the whole problem wouldn't have worked.
I know the ending takes a lot of criticism, but really I mostly like it because of how unexpected it was. I really enjoy endings that I can't predict way in advance (which is pretty rare, because I'm good at predicting how things will end). This is a lot of the reason why I watch anime, for these really unconventional, bizarre, bittersweet endings. For example, I really like TarsTarkas's explanation of how the ending could be interpreted as Yuu being a monster who perpetrated a great crime against mutant-kind. It's that kind of fridge logic that makes you keep thinking about this show for a long time. I think in general I'm just one of those people who likes these kinds of frenetic paced shows (A Certain Magical Index also throws tons of weird plot points per episode sometimes). I still have a hard time getting into Clannad because it just seems to move so slow with nothing much happening. Anyway, I wouldn't say Charlotte's one of my "favorite anime." I'd put Angel Beat above it. But I still definitely recommend it. |
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rinkwolf10
Posts: 750 |
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The thing that Charlotte did was have Yuu go through the whole event in full, he didn't have relief from his torment of spoiler[Ayumi's death] part way through to spare the protagonist some emotional pain. Yuu went through it all, to the point of accepting it all and growing from the experience and when it was all settled, THEN spoiler[they bring her back]. That is so much more productive than how most anime deal with this type of event. So, it's not a copout like the first comment made it seem like. Yuu came to a realization and got a second chance which he didn't even expect to have and came to terms of never getting it. Him getting a second chance is really bittersweet and appropriate and just as valid as him never getting a second chance. Thus, he values that second chance that much more because of the event that transpired.
Just one point to the bold text, the deriving of the ending has to make sense and you should be able to find hints of event that build up to the such a climax. It can't just come out of nowhere just because. Build ups like Berserk and the whole sacrifice event, the show tried to warn you that a major event would come about but you just underestimated how major or what form that event would take. It makes sense if you go back and see the hints and the problem want how the show got there but rather that you just underestimated the magnitude of said event. Anyways, you have to give credit where credit is due and Charlotte, if nothing else, stays true to the characters. Take Tomari and her fallowing Yuu around spoiler[after Ayumi died and he goes down into a spiral of decent. Aside of the point of her feeling partly responsible about Ayumi's dead, you also have to remember that she doesn't trust ANYONE anymore (besides Yuu's older brother). Keep in mind she knows that Yuu has the ability of plunder to take other peoples abilities at this point.] So you have to remember that one of the reasons she fallowed him around was to make sure he doesn't realize what is his true ability is and put an "end" to him if he ever did. She is the only one that could essentially eliminate Yuu if he ever went "to the dark side" and realized his full potential because spoiler[she can erase her presence from his view]. Thus, she could (and would because that is who she is as a character) end Yuu's life if in his despair he spiraled out of control. It was not just her sympathy but her cynical nature to keep tabs on Yuu (a great threat because of his true ability that can't go unchecked). Last edited by rinkwolf10 on Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:43 am; edited 2 times in total |
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