Charlotte / YMMV - TV Tropes

Accidental Aesop: The ending could easily be interpreted as meaning “the qualities that make you special are pointless, transitory and will cause you to be ostracized, so it’s best to just forget about them and conform to society’s expectations.” To extend the homosexuality metaphor that the X-Men comics like to use, it's like telling gays to go to conversion therapy and become straight so that they won’t have to suffer from homophobia or societal discrimination. Considering Japan's tendency towards conformity and resistance or even outright hostility to anything outside of the normality, it would not be surprising if this value was channeled into the writing even if unintentionally.
Yuu: Ability is sickness.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Fans are divided into two category regarding Yuu's initial behavior in episode 11 after being told by Shun to meet the ability wielders hunters face to face. Whether he's a Spoiled Brat who didn't have any balls to save the person closest to him (and his brother), or he's just an emotionally unstable teenager who was suddenly dragged out into the conflict just because of his Cursed with Awesome ability.
Arc Fatigue: For some, the initial episodes that largely followed a Monster of the Week^note formula were considered to have gotten old fairly quickly. It was only by episode 6 that people felt that the story was finally going somewhere.
Ass Pull: The sudden appearance of the ability wielders hunter/terrorist group in episode 11, after the previous 10 episodes state that the scientists are the only antagonists.
Awesome Music: Standard for a Key/Jun Maeda project. The OP, "Bravely You". which has a sort of Angel Beats! feel to it. The sudden change at 0:48 has also captivated a lot of listeners.
Broken Base: Fans were unsure of whether Charlotte is better or worse than Angel Beats!. While nowadays, the latter is seen to have held up much better and is more widely appreciated, the new point of contention is whether or not Charlotte is better or worse than The Day I Became a God.
Fanon: With all the comparisons the show draws between Takajou and Takamatsu, the idea that they're the same person reincarnated became widespread.
Franchise Original Sin:
- Jun Maeda wastes most of the episodes on comedy, then he throws in a terrible event as a plot twist that is meant to make the show more serious, only to undo it with magic that takes away all the negative consequences. This is also the case in Kanon and CLANNAD, but in CLANNAD, this happens once in the span of 47 episodes, making viewers more forgiving. In Charlotte, this not only happens 3 times in just 13 episodes, but too often and very close to each event, making it impossible for even fanboys of melodrama to overlook it.
- Charlotte is also heavily criticized for being rushed. Air, also 13 episodes long, was also rushed and had two recap episodes, including the last episode, close to each other. The final episode of Charlotte crams a whole season into 20 minutes, turning even Maeda's biggest fans against him.
Growing the Beard: Most fans seem to think the series really picks up in Episodes 6 and 7 with Ayumi's death and the fallout of that event.
Harsher in Hindsight: The last time Ayumi makes omelet rice for Yuu is in Episode 3, when Yuu has no desire to eat it and wipes off the sauce words on it. Later, it becomes her truly last omelet rice for him.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: The reason why Ayumi is so obsessed with pizza sauce in almost all of her cuisine is because she wants Yuu to be happy. The pizza sauce written as a "secret recipe" for his favorite food can be found in a recipe book written by their mother, which was later inherited by Ayumi.
He's Just Hiding: There is a group of fans who aren't convinced that Ayumi is dead, considering they never saw a body. It was eventually revealed that she really did die from getting crushed under the rubble, only that Yuu had managed to undo her death by using his newly acquired Time Leap ability to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
Ho Yay: Shunsuke and Kumagami. Shunsuke is the only one who calls Kumagami Pooh, has No Sense of Personal Space around him, and really, really does not take his death well in episode 11. Even Yuu notices that Shunsuke becomes a husk of his former self after losing Kumagami, and acts the same way as he did when he lost Ayumi. It's also worth noting that while Shunsuke remained calm and composed in the previous timeline even after learning of his sister's death, in contrast to Yuu who took it very badly, he immediately went into a Heroic BSoD after losing Kumagami in the new timeline.
I Am Not Shazam: Between Nao Tomori's stereotypically Western appearance and prominence within promotional material, it's understandable how many people who haven't watched the series assume her to be the titular "Charlotte". The name actually refers to the comet.
I Knew It!: After Ayumi died in Episode 6, some fans speculated that either she was actually still alive and being held captive or that Yuu would be able to use his powers to save her. The latter happens in Episode 10.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: A lot of fans believe the series would work better as a full-cour (24 episode) series or a Visual Novel than a 13-episode anime.
Les Yay: Audiences refer to the sexually charged nosebleeds to see a lesbian bent from Ayumi towards the Japanese pop-culture idol Yusarin.
Memetic Mutation:
- Nao's hilariously annoyed expression to Yuu's love confession in Episode 12 became a meme in the anime fandom overnight, largely because many viewers felt her expression mirrored their reactions toward the latter episodes of the series.
- Likewise, Nao's annoyed expression when being suggested to buy a slice of melon for a barbecue became a meme to express disgust towards something, or trying to obtain something but getting something unwanted instead.
Narm: The fuss that is made about food. Granted, this is a theme home to more than just this series, but when it continuously turns moments that would otherwise be quiet and emotional into an awkward and cartoony mess, it starts to become grating. Yuu's mood doing a 180-degree turn at times in particular can be so absurd that it ruins the drama.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It seems for a while that a major plot thread involving ZHIEND is being set up, only for it to turn out to go nowhere and be retconned out of existence.
- Sala Shane's blindness and discussion of bartering her eyes to God appears to take on massive significance when it's revealed that using the time-leap power to change the world slowly cost Shunsuke his vision. Her story about her past and 'cheating' her way to fame also implied that she had an ability in her youth.
- The ability of her music to reach through Kazuki's psychosis and to cause Yuu to suddenly access memories of a completely different timeline implied that she still had some manner of power despite being an adult, which would have been massively game-changing for the setting if followed up on.
- However, after time-leaping to prevent Ayumi's death, Sala and ZHIEND are never mentioned again, and Yuu leaves without ever attempting to contact Sala to recreate the incident with Kazuki, or even tell Nao about it. It's somehow referenced in the ending anyway, even though by that point Yuu would not possibly have remembered and Nao never knew.
Tough Act to Follow: Just like its predecessor Angel Beats!, which was criticised for following the more popular CLANNAD, Charlotte is criticised for following the now more popular Angel Beats!. Time will tell whether Charlotte is Vindicated by History the way Angel Beats! was.

YMMV / Charlotte

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