Neomo’s Otaku Theater: Charlotte Episode 12

Okay, so life isn’t all roses, but seriously I should have known better when choosing a Studio Key show. People just…die. And we’re meant to feel bad about it in a Jun Maeda show. Or are we? I mean sure enough they were mourning Pooh-bear, and blaming it on the one guy who was sent to rescue him and Nao in the previous episode (how grateful can you get?). And of course we have to feel bad for Shuusuke, who lost his boyfriend. And thus in that essence, Yuu can finally see the kind of person he once was when Ayumi kicked the bucket. This week we’re given another episode focusing pretty much solely on Yuu, this time instead of going down a downward spiral, he works his way through rehabilitation in order to put things right, and thus prove to Nao that he is no longer the cheating swine he was when they first met.

Even with the loss of his right eye, which he didn’t seem to mind (personally, I would have gone crazy, but I’m vain like that), he can see with his remaining eye how much the people around him matter…not only to him, but the fact that they once had amazing lives until their abilities pretty much took it away from them. Just take Nao’s case: her mom was the one who begged her and her brother to be sent off to that same facility she escaped from. Another good example of this is with Yusa and Misa – Yusa’s job means she can’t visit her folks more, and Misa being dead means she couldn’t get the chance to say goodbye to any of her family in a decent manner (something she obviously takes seriously, even though she’d never admit it). With homemade food being a serious thing in Japan, it doesn’t matter whether the food is bad or not; the fact that the one you treasure the most made it is the most important thing. And this is something Yuu first thought about after Ayumi died in that previous timeline (ugh! Science sucks!) and the pizza sauce she copied from their mother, and has now come full-circle with her feeding it to him again at his hospital bed. And Yusa and Misa’s mom’s food might have been bland and normal, but even still…

I was worried (kind of) last week that Charlotte‘s finale would fizzle into a tiny pulp, but I really don’t know what to think now. With Yuu worrying what to do, now that he effectively has the weight of the world on his shoulders, Nao has pretty much given him a foot in the door, by offering him a crazy suggestion which he actually takes seriously, and uses that chance to confess too (in the dullest and least passionate way ever – something Nao easily saw through).

So from boy tsun and girl tsun to saving boy from killing spree, to post-rock ‘date’, to this now. We all saw this coming, but the way it was executed was just too ridiculous for me. Even the old-fashioned way would have worked for me; you know all those soppy school romances in like every school rom-com show ever made. So anyway, Nao has sent Yuu off on what can only be described as a suicide mission.

Will he come back in one piece? Of course not! This is a Jun Maeda show, so that means one main character will end up six feet under. Halfway through, we all thought it was going to be the sweet and innocent one, because Maeda can be mean like that, but with Yuu going on this absolutely insane mission which will most likely turn him into a creature that’ll make Tetsuo jealous…well, I’m not optimistic at all. In fact, my caring of him disappeared the moment he left home. I just want Ayumi and Nao to be okay. If they can survive one more episode, then I can say that Charlotte was…umm…okay in my books.