Charlotte

Summary: >

One day Otosaka found he had an unusual power: he could possess another person for a few seconds, and take control of their body. After causing some mischief and exploring the wonders of boobs, he hatches a plan to make a girl he likes fall for him. It goes well until a group of students from another school interfere, and threaten to expose him.

It turns out he's not the only one with special powers. He's inducted into a school group dedicated to stopping the kind of trouble he'd been doing before. This all seems new to him, but he's already involved far deeper than he realized.

Thoughts: >

The concept behind Charlotte is interesting, but it's been done enough in anime, making it seem destined for mediocrity. There's more beneath the surface if you give it a chance to grow into the story. I wouldn't say it does everything right, but it has enough going for it to make it worth picking up.

At first Yuu has a fairly malicious nature, then settles into a more generic male protagonist role. His inconsistency is problematic, as his personality takes drastic changes when the plot demands. It's not a bad idea, but I didn't always find it convincing. Nao makes an interesting love interest. Among the group there is a pop idol because... it's a requirement in modern anime. At least she seems very "idol-ish" with her natural air-headed charisma. Still, the anime never explains why she's in the group since she serves no real purpose.

The best character is Yuu's adorable little sister. A big part of why I like her isn't so much because she's cute, but because she's actually kind of a dork. Getting attached to her made this one far more gripping as the story unfolds in the middle.

The basis of the anime (people with unique superpowers) works well, but it's been done to death. However if you hang in there, the story takes some crazy turns. I won't get into specifics, since the odd directions taken are among the better features of this anime. While it appears to be typical light fluff, Charlotte gets dark and sometimes pretty brutal. These aspects clash heavily, but give it enough flavor to differentiate itself. Speaking of clash, the last episode goes WAY out there compared to the rest of the anime. And yet it works.

I liked Charlotte. It's balanced in concept, and story execution, with decent (but not exceptional) characters. In the beginning I hoped this wouldn't bore me, but it held my attention all the way through. You'll need to go at least half way through to really see where this one shines.

Screen Caps: >