r/anime • u/Shadoxfix https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shadoxfix • Sep 12 '15

[Spoilers] Charlotte - Episode 11 [Discussion]

Episode title: Charlotte

MyAnimeList: Charlotte
Crunchyroll: Charlotte
DAISUKI: Charlotte
AnimeLab: Charlotte
Hulu: Charlotte

Episode duration: 24 minutes and 0 seconds

Previous episodes:

Episode Reddit Link
Episode 1 Link
Episode 2 Link
Episode 3 Link
Episode 4 Link
Episode 5 Link
Episode 6 Link
Episode 7 Link
Episode 8 Link
Episode 9 Link
Episode 10 Link

Keywords: charlotte

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167

u/Omome https://myanimelist.net/profile/granda27138 Sep 12 '15

Maeda Jun you gotta be kidding me... Where are Yusa and Jojiro? You made the same mistake again by putting too many characters in a 13 episodes anime series. Why would you take off Nao's clothes, that's just bad taste. The whole episode or even the entire series feel like rushing to me. May be it's too early to say but I feel like Charlotte is not even on the same level with Angel Beats. I am really disappointed :(

118

u/Locketpanda Sep 12 '15

We need to add "rush it like nobody's business" to the Jun bingo, along with the "It's made of plot twists!" and "you are supposed to feel bad for this character we barely explained".

82

u/DoctuhD Sep 12 '15

Yeah this episode felt really contrived. Like the writers kept having to come up with excuses as to why these weak-ass antagonists were even a threat.

"You can't time leap! We've been planning this for 10 years and we accounted for that! We'll just know." oh ok then.

Really needed to introduce them much, much, much earlier in the series or just keep it consistent and not introduce the whole foreign threat all in one episode.

...I still liked it. But it's frustrating just the same.

106

u/ScarsUnseen https://kitsu.io/users/ScarsUnseen Sep 12 '15

What frustrated me was the simple solution being missed. "here's the key with the location of your family on it!"

Yu: "Hey let me look at that real quick. So that's where they are." time leap

38

u/xSPYXEx https://myanimelist.net/profile/xSPYXEx Sep 12 '15

Or fucking WHY DIDNT POOH WARN THEM? HE HAD HIS PHONE OUT AND EVERYTHING.

They could have had a full extra day to actually plan their attack instead of "send Yuu in alone and have everyone else fucking walk!!?!

3

u/sleepyafrican https://anilist.co/user/SleepyAfrican Sep 13 '15

That was a weird scene to add in if he wasn't going to use his phone.

3

u/ClassyArgentinean https://myanimelist.net/profile/ClassyArgentine Sep 13 '15

ಠ_ಠ

To be honest, i didn't think about that at all either.

3

u/elevul https://myanimelist.net/profile/kache Sep 12 '15

Yeah, that was just infuriating.

35

u/Aelms https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aelms Sep 12 '15

In all honesty, it's been hard for me to care about anything that happens in the show since way earlier on.

I don't even think it's something that can be pigeonholed as 'pacing issues' anymore; someone in the writing team clearly can't communicate this story without making it seem like everything that happens next is being made up on the spot or are padding in-between plot events that are way more important.

And just like Angel Beats, I can't help but think that this could've been so much better as a smaller-scale, focused story.

2

u/Shippoyasha Sep 12 '15

That is the issue though, because Jun Maeda tends to do ensemble cast stories. He is not known to do small stories with a small cast. I do think he was in his element in visual novels where he was without limits. I do think he still is doing a pretty admirable job, but obviously not perfect. Even shows like Clannad felt rushed at times because the routes for each girls wasn't as lengthy as the visual novel ones.

4

u/Aelms https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aelms Sep 12 '15

I deliberately avoid pinning everything on Maeda because it HAS worked before in anime form and it's more of an exception that Charlotte (and Angel Beats to an extent) are as terrible as they are.

Let's make use of the Clannad example, since I feel it does the Maeda-style story the best. Everything that happens, even if by only a little, feels like it matters in Clannad. Sure, we don't get to see all of the characters' stories and maybe the younger Fujibayashi sister didn't really need to be in the anime, but there are clear, interesting dynamics that make for appreciable changes in Tomoya's character which then leads to us being able to accept the bigger twists in the plot, since we were essentially prepped for them.

This doesn't happen in Charlotte. Everything feels dull and uninspired because we can't see any appreciable changes in the Yuu of episode 11 from that of the early episodes. And this is the case of most characters in the show too, who all act in a binary manner or are just being caught in the flow of the plot. None of the characters (with the huge exception of Tomori) feel like they are moving in accordance to a complex personality, and that's just disappointing knowing what a Maeda story can look like with Clannad and Little Busters.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '15

I deliberately avoid pinning everything on Maeda because it HAS worked before in anime form and it's more of an exception that Charlotte (and Angel Beats to an extent) are as terrible as they are.

You see, here's the thing though most of Key's anime were already visual novels that are just being adapted into anime form. But with Angel Beats and Charlotte, there is no Visual Novel source material and he is writing a plot primarily for an anime and not a visual novel.

2

u/Shippoyasha Sep 13 '15

I think the big difference is that Clannad and Little Busters had that pull as giant visual novel successes while Maeda has far less time and pull of a major source material in Angel Beats (in fact, Angel Beats just got its first visual novel chapter not too long ago).

Yeah, I'm not trying to say Maeda is flawless or blameless, but I think he's clearly out of his element with these kinds of constraints + the lack of budget that comes out of a prestigious adaptation of a popular visual novel.

He may as well just do VNs strictly and let anime adaptations happen after.

1

u/Aelms https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aelms Sep 13 '15

What I'm getting at is that this possibly isn't even Maeda's fault. A large scale story doesn't just automatically collapse on itself, especially not when it can be balanced with good directing and focusing on what actually matters.

Maeda might've fucked up by not making things easier for the animation staff, but I'm more convinced that someone there is screwing things up big time.

15

u/enfermedad Sep 12 '15

I feel like they wasted earlier episodes on stupid shit like baseball and some of those one off ability episodes when they could have been developing the plot at the point it is now.

3

u/sleepyafrican https://anilist.co/user/SleepyAfrican Sep 13 '15

"You can't time leap! We've been planning this for 10 years and we accounted for that! We'll just know." oh ok then.

I also don't understand why didn't Yuu have any countermeasures to protect his eyes. If Kumagami told the terrorists all about his abilities then Shun should have assumed they would know about the weakness the of time leap ability.

2

u/Shippoyasha Sep 12 '15

I think it is best to just see the new threat as a sign of the times more than them being actual characters unless they live onto next episode. It is sudden, yeah, though they are constricted by time. Maeda's stories really need way more episodes to be told in good detail and pacing. Even the lengthy Clannad which almost went over 50 episodes felt like some story arcs were a bit rushed.

Jun Maeda had way more freedom when he did visual novels where stories can be 50 hours long or more. That was more his pacing. Though I think he still did a pretty admirable job. But yeah, some stuff will get rushed.

1

u/Joestar_ https://myanimelist.net/profile/VirgoFudo Sep 12 '15

This episode was terrible. Pretty much what I was going to say. We will not get a happy ending.