Neomo’s Otaku Food Theater: Charlotte Episode 2

• I saw precious little in Episode 1, aside from 3 narcissistic kids who enjoyed using their supernatural abilities to turn their hum-drum lives to their advantages, and the imouto who loved referring to herself in third-person, like all moe imouto seem to like to do. I suppose I should feel better now we have some kind of story behind these powers of theirs.

• And yet I still saw a lot of gaps and holes…then again with Nao being the wide-eyed moe lead girl, her story seems to be the only one (so far) that matters, tragic as it may be. From going from an ambitious middle-school aiming to be a doctor who looks up to her onii-chan who loves post-rock (a genre which always goes down well with me, I hasten to add). Then suddenly being thrust into a creepy world of fake classmates and scientific experiments…and so we now know why Nao is that determined to ‘protect’ other schoolchildren from abusing powers they have in case something similar happens to her or her brother (who could manipulate sound).

• But while Nao is the most focused, Joujirou just seems to play the tag-along so far. Humorous megane-boys being what they are, he seems to play the obligatory Studio Key comedy role. Unlike Nao, who dedicates what time she has to searching and ‘aiding’ others, or Yuu, who (so far) just blends into the background, shocked at what goes on…Joujirou just uses his power of teleportation regardless of what will happen to him. Sure he wears body armor underneath his uniform so most of his injuries aren’t severe, but we’re still meant to laugh at his misfortune.

• Then again, looking back, did I really feel this way when I first watched Angel Beats!? I admit that I was rather clueless on how Yuri could develop such a large-scale military force to take on one girl, along with the added fact that not only were they all at school, but could not actually die from their injuries. My feelings as I watched the beginning episodes? Massive confusion, followed by humor, then relief (on knowing who the girl was and what this school environment actually was meant to be), and then came the required heart-touching scenes. Will we see some kind of confusion/humor/understanding/sadness sense in this show? I actually think so. Being optimistic for the future over a show you’re not entirely getting completely immersed in so far (whether it be by the lack of storyline or lack of character design) is a good thing. Yuu’s harem will get bigger, or we’ll get some filler episodes going into great detail over each character, or we’ll get both…

Now if only all clubrooms were like this…

• Ok, so perhaps I was exaggerating a little last week when I suggested that Nao’s little group would turn out to be an X-Men/Avengers/Justice League group. Although I did have that niggling thought at the back of my head; I mean it would be kind of fruitless for P.A Works/Studio Key to dish out a story where we hear casual tales of what went on at school…not far off from what your average slice-of-life show would be like. Now this is certainly not the Jiggly Jiggly Heaven that Shirobako showed us. That’s the thing with amazing shows by studios we have mixed opinions with; when a near-masterpiece like Shirobako is over, we expect something of similar par to follow. The same thing happened once Nagi no Asukara was over…we were given the hell that was Glasslip. What a dilemma, because when I started to watch this show, I knew that it wouldn’t match its previous show, but at least we could have gotten something solid, even by episode 2. Now don’t get me wrong; I would very much like Charlotte to be better. I really do. But I surely would have expected more. Perhaps I’m just being too greedy and am just used to how Studio Key work their usual magic into their stories. Or…perhaps Studio Key has decided to alter their own ideas for a story. Their previous work has always had a fantasy element, but had the added notion of ultimate tragedy or loss, like what we had in Clannad and Angel Beats! That little thing that you can’t put your tongue to that would leave us clinging at our heartstrings……and I just don’t see that here in any form whatsoever.

• But I would never ever fault the animation. We’re treated with sparkling HD shots of pretty ocean and pretty stars, Nao’s bright blue eyes and flowing light-grey hair make her stand out in a good way…as if every other girl in the academy is just non-existant. Could this be because we’re just waiting for more prominent female characters? Or could this be a hidden sign of Nao’s mysterious and slightly solitary life making us sympathize with/relate to/care for her? I actually like to think that it’s both. As Yuu has remained the jerk he had been from the beginning, and Joujirou has become the Studio Key comedy character that I always hate, Nao is the sole character we all have our eyes on, both for her beauty and her character design (which is better than Yuu’s and Joujirou’s combined).

Her other power: staring into your very soul.

• So maybe the hype train over this show had led us on a horrible path again (like what hype trains seem to like to do), but I still believe that Charlotte has something inside it that could make it a worthwhile show to watch. I know the other main character will arrive next week, so here’s hoping that they will add some kind of substance to this show, since while so many people are hyping this show, I just cannot find the substance that they can see.

• But note that I tend to say the “let’s hope the next episode will be better” line a lot…and I turn out to be wrong.

But Ayumi is still best imouto.