Originally Posted by
Majorasfan
Yeah, pretty much disappointed overall. If you told me I was being colored by my previous KEY experiences, you would be absolutely right. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this more if I didn't know what Clannad or Kanon, or even Angel Beats, was. I'm sure I would have, right? Maybe I'm just becoming super cynical, but yeah, my enjoyment tanked around episode 8-9 I would say. Before then it had a lot of promise, but then really really rushed events, seemingly random things to cause the plot to move forward that were then basically forgotten about or dealt with in a strange manner, and a strange conclusion left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Even before episode 8 and 9 I was complaining about character development. I couldn't feel very much for the tragedies because I barely knew the characters. Especially after episode 8 and 9, when events happened so quickly, how could I care about the feelings of characters that I'd seen for maybe 5 minutes on screen, some of which was in a flashback? So if I was forced to ignore the characters because they couldn't move me, then I guess next was the plot, which also got weird around then. SO much bothered me, ugh.
Basically, KEY has been trying to branch out into fantasy with character drama, rather than making character dramas with fantasy elements in them. That's the mistake in my eyes. Their classics and masterpieces have been so well received because they fleshed out the characters. Was that because they had the time to? Yes, that's certainly a major part - Kanon was 24 eps and Clannad had 2 seasons. AIR was only 13 though, and they did a decent job (mainly because they focused solely on the main female protagonist, but I agree with their call with time limitations in mind). Angel beats only had 13 eps, and the plot got iffy at the end as well, but the difference? There were 2 I see that really got me.
- They focused on the characters in a way that was not only natural, but brought you close to them. You got used to their struggles, etc.
- The end was a resolution that was bittersweet. It was a happy moment, but it was sad at the same time. It wasn't a happily ever after thing, and that was emotional.
With Charlotte, frankly the only two characters I even somewhat cared about were Yu and Nao. Yu had some interesting changes in his personality, to say the least, and while episode 7 did a good job with that (and might have been my favorite ep overall), the last episode was too bogged down with his quest to make us feel for his plight, in my opinion. I could also mention that I'm still bothered that he became such a normal and kinder person after a few episodes from the beginning, but I'm biased against those sort of semi-generic MC's, so that was just wishful thinking on my part I think. Nao held my interest until the end, but.. maybe it was just me, but that ending wasn't sad at all. I didn't get watery eyes, and I only felt slightly bad. This was the worst that happened? You sent the guy on a damned mission to get every power in the world, and the worst is he has amnesia? If you cared for him that much why didn't you go with him on his journey or something? Well, whatever. My point it, the end was not sad. Everything worked out in the end. Like, too well. I'm not saying every KEY work has to be sad, but this just had so little character drama that it was more a fantasy show, and an iffy one at that.
Granted, the show's art stayed consistently good and the first half of episode 12 was done very well in my opinion. The first 7 episodes showed a lot of promise and I enjoyed them. I'm not ragging on the whole show. But wow, it really disappointed me is all. I'm glad I watched Plastic Memories last season, because it did every I wanted in a character drama (by the end anyway). But that's another discussion.
Well, that's that. Time to watch as the Rewrite adaptation is done poorly, since I can't possibly see it working as an anime, yay!