Charlotte

Review:

Recommended to me by my friend Vivichuu. 

First of all, very interesting concept. However, it was pretty boring up until Ayumi's death. but everything following that was crazy. This anime isnt my favorite, but my third favorite. My favorite anime go in this order: Demon Slayer, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and Charlotte. And here's why: this show reminds me alot of bunny senpai due to the interesting concepts, crazy plot twists, emotional moments, and using time travel to save people. These aspects make the shows very intricate and overall intense. I think bunny girl senpai had a much happier ending (movie ending) than charlotte. That is why bunny girl senpai is better. However, I'm not really mad at the ending of charlotte. I mean he accomplished the goal, but with a cost. Kumigami dies, and Yuu loses his memory. These two things make for such an unsatisfying ending, but it was unavoidable. If he time travels instead and tries to get the ideal "Good Ending" where everyones alive and he has his memory or whatever, he's an idiot. Time travelling alone won't guarantee anything for anyone, the better and smarter option is to get rid of all the powers from the world. THAT is why he doesn't heal his eye, and that's why this "bad ending" is inevitable. I accept this ending being semi unsatisfying because of its inevitability, some other anime *cough cough bokuben and akame ga kill* could have easily gone with even just slightly better endings but they didn't do so because of "bEiNg dIFfErenT thAN tHe MaNGa" like bro wtf shitty ass ending for no reason my god.

 Anywho yeah charlotte overall was really really good. I think one thing Charlotte has over bunny senpai is the fact that there was WAY more at stake. There isnt just romance and a couple lives on the line here, it's the lives of all your friends and tens of thousands of people (the people with powers) across the world. The reason demon slayer is #1 is because of the journey that Tanjiro has to go through to earn his power and the hardships he has faced, which just makes for a better story in my eyes and fits the genre perfectly.

Review (Rewatch):

Rewatch with Detrezo.

Damn that was better than I remember! This show was placed really high on my list originally, and I had many occassions where I was questioning its placement. I originally did not like the fact that Kumigami died (and stayed dead), and that Yu lost his memory. I also complained about the pacing. These main things made me feel that Charlotte was overrated on my list, but now I actually feel that it's underrated.

The story is pretty much how I remember it. A main character that resembles Light Yagami from Death Note, a world that resembles Bunny Girl Senpai (powers/syndromes, Ayumi is freakishly similar to Kaede, time travel), and a very interesting ending that can be taken very differently depending on what type of person you are. I really appreciated the story for what it is this time around. The first half of the show is very repetitive, with a basic formula of Kumigami sending the squad to go look for a power wielder, getting rid of their power and making them a better person. This went on for a while, and it got kinda boring to the point where it was a pacing issue for me. The second half of the show is obviously amazing. I really thought it was cool how in the last episode, Yu almost went back to his own, selfish personality, but then realized that he had a job to do for the greater good. He develops really well as a character throughout the show. I do have one main complaint about the story, however.

My original complaints I already mentioned, and I no longer have those complaints btw. Kumigami's death was really siginifcant I feel like for Yu's motivation to go and save the world, and I feel like reviving him by using time leap would ruin that significance. I also feel that Yu losing his memory is a very interesting consequence that gives a lot of weight to what is actually happening. I don't really have as much of a problem with the memory loss this time around. My sole complaint with the story is that Yu's dream in like episode 10 I think it was, it makes no sense. How could Yu, in THIS timeline, have a dream about being in the lab and having Shun use time leap? Perhaps it's some Bunny Girl Senpai timeline memory fusing going on? We'll never know, because they NEVER explain it. It's really frustrating because this dream was bothering me throughout the last quarter of the show. Otherwise, the story doesn't have any holes and I'm satisfied with the ending. I'm not gonna change the story score, because while I think I'm more lenient on the ending, that plot hole is dumb asf. 

The last thing I want to talk about is visuals. This anime is beautiful. The scenery, character designs, and CG are all done really well. I won't raise the visuals score TOO much, because it doesn't look out of this world, but it does look a good bit better than 8/10.

Overall, this anime is better than I remember! Glad I rewatched it. I had this practically tied with Assassination Classroom for a while, but now Charlotte sits on top. Jujutsu Kaisen is next...