Charlotte is a 2015 Japanese anime television series produced by P.A. Works and directed by Yoshiyuki Asai. The anime aired 13 episodes in Japan between July 5 and September 27, 2015. An original video animation episode was released in March 2016. Two manga series were serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Comic. The story takes place in an alternate reality where a small percentage of children manifest superhuman abilities upon reaching puberty. The main character, Yuu Otosaka, is a high school boy who awakens the ability to temporarily possess others. This brings him to the attention of Nao Tomori, the student council president of a school founded as a haven for children with such abilities.
The story was originally conceived by Jun Maeda, who also wrote the screenplay and composed some of the music, with original character design by Na-Ga. Both Maeda and Na-Ga are from the visual novel studio Key, and Charlotte is the second original anime series created by Key following Angel Beats! in 2010. Maeda had thought up the concept for Charlotte long before he was approached in early 2012 to work on a new anime series. Maeda narrowed down the number of main characters compared to Angel Beats! and attempted to put more of a focus on their behavior. Instead of utilizing the same staff that worked on Angel Beats!, the aim for Charlotte was to bring together a team that would add new variety to the creative process to prevent being influenced by the work done on Angel Beats!.
Charlotte was praised for its unpredictability and evocative moments, but its pacing and structure have been criticized as inefficient. It has been described as approachable for a wide audience, and praised for defying the "moe anime" stereotype. Although some comedic elements have been criticized, overall they were lauded for offering relief from serious moments.
Plot Charlotte takes place in an alternate reality where a short-period comet called Charlotte passes near Earth once every 75 years. As this happens, it spreads dust onto the Earth, which causes a small percentage of pre-adolescent children who inhale the dust to manifest superhuman abilities upon reaching puberty. In Japan, the story follows the protagonist Yuu Otosaka, a boy who awakens the ability to temporarily possess another person for five seconds. Although hoping to use his ability to fraudulently live a carefree high school life, he is unexpectedly exposed by Nao Tomori, a girl who can make herself invisible to a specific target. She forces him to transfer to and join its student council, of which she is the president. Also on the student council is Jōjirō Takajō, a boy who can move at uncontrollably high speeds. The student council's main objective is to ensure the safety of ability users from organizations who seek to exploit their powers. In doing so, the student council warns ability users of the potential danger of using their abilities openly. This leads the student council to Yusa Nishimori, a pop singer who has the ability to channel the spirits of the dead as a medium. Yusa's dead older sister Misa frequently makes use of this ability to freely possess her at any time, which allows Misa to use her own ability, pyrokinesis. Nao soon arranges for Yusa to transfer to Hoshinoumi Academy and join the student council.
Yuu's younger sister Ayumi unexpectedly awakens an ability to cause anything around her to suddenly collapse, which results in her death. Yuu falls into a deep depression as a result and isolates himself, but Nao successfully manages to pull him out of his depression and gets him to return to the student council. While attending a concert of the post-rock band Zhiend with Nao, Yuu recollects previously suppressed memories of his older brother Shunsuke, who has the ability to time travel. Shunsuke had used this ability to establish Hoshinoumi Academy and an affiliated organization attempting to develop a vaccine to prevent children from developing abilities before they manifest, but his repeated use has left him blind. Yuu learns the true nature of his ability enables him to steal another person's ability by possessing them. Yuu takes Shunsuke's ability to go back in time and ultimately prevent Ayumi's death by stealing her collapse ability before she can use it.
A terrorist group manages to abduct Nao and Kumagami, one of Shunsuke's closest friends and aides, and holds them hostage in exchange for Yuu, who attempts to rescue them. However, the operation does not go as planned, which results in Kumagami's death and Yuu being gravely injured. After Yuu recovers, he resolves to protect all of the ability users around the world by stealing their abilities as per Nao's suggestion. As Yuu travels the world stealing abilities, the more powers he takes on soon takes its toll on him as he starts losing his memories and sense of self. However, he still manages to steal everyone's abilities throughout the world before collapsing. Shunsuke rescues Yuu, bringing him back to Japan among friends and family. Yuu is left with no memories, but Nao tells him she is his girlfriend. Yuu and his friends look forward to the memories they will make from now on as Yuu continues to recover from his ordeal.
Characters Main
Yuu is the protagonist of Charlotte. He develops a rude and narcissistic personality once he discovers he has the ability to take over another person's body for five seconds, but the true nature of his ability enables him to steal someone's superhuman ability by possessing them. Yuu is a first-year student at Hoshinoumi Academy, and he is forced to join its student council. Initially a fake honors student and chronic cheater, Yuu is reluctant to use his ability to aide the student council, but as time goes on, he becomes less narcissistic and much more selfless and caring towards others. Over the course of the story, he becomes a fan of the post-rock band Zhiend and falls in love with Nao. After Yuu travels worldwide to steal every ability user's power to protect them from being exploited, the strain of it causes him to lose all of his past memories. His older brother is Shunsuke, and his younger sister is Ayumi.
Nao is a first-year student at Hoshinoumi Academy and is also its student council president. She is a hardworking, intelligent, and shrewd girl, but is also narcissistic, self-righteous, and short-tempered. She has the ability to make herself invisible, but this is limited to one person of her choosing at a time. She uses this ability to her advantage to attack others she believes deserve to be kicked, but this causes her to be shunned and bullied by her peers. Although she initially shows no attraction towards Yuu, she eventually falls in love with him and stays by his side even after he loses all of his memories of her. She is a fan of Zhiend, influenced by her older brother , who once had the ability to control air movements and vibrations, which he used when playing the guitar.
Jōjirō is a first-year student at Hoshinoumi Academy and is a member of its student council. His ability enables him to move at very fast speeds, but he is not able to control where he stops, resulting in frequent injuries. To counteract this, he wears protective gear under his clothes. He is a huge fan of Yusa Nishimori and is extremely obsessed with her.
Yusa, also known as "Yusarin", is a first-year student at Hoshinoumi Academy and is a member of its student council. She has a bright and innocent personality complementing her popularity as a pop idol and lead singer of the band How-Low-Hello. Although her actual surname is Kurobane, she uses the stage surname Nishimori. She has a series of "magic spells" derived from her time as a regular on a variety show. She has the ability to channel the dead as a medium. However, she is initially not aware of this and only thinks she is sleepwalking whenever she is possessed.
Misa is Yusa's deceased older sister by one year who died in an accident six months prior to the beginning of the story. Misa freely possesses her at any time, represented by a change in Yusa's eye and hair color. While possessing Yusa, Misa is able to use her own ability, pyrokinesis. Misa has a tomboyish and ill-tempered personality, and she is not afraid to be violent against anyone looking to harm her sister. She disappears after Yuu takes away Yusa's power.
Ayumi is Yuu and Shunsuke's energetic younger sister in junior high school. She has an innocent personality and deeply cares for Yuu, providing moral support to him. Ayumi often cooks for Yuu and has a tendency to add pizza sauce to every food she makes, unaware Yuu's tastebuds cannot handle the sweetness. She is a fan of the band How-Low-Hello and an avid admirer of Yusa. She eventually awakens an ability to cause anything around her to suddenly collapse, but this is stolen by Yuu to prevent her death.
Others
is Yuu and Ayumi's older brother, who has the ability to time travel. Using this power, he eventually manages to establish Hoshinoumi Academy to protect his fellow ability users. Overuse of his ability leads him to become blind, preventing him from making further use of it. He is voiced by Daisuke Ono in Japanese and by Robbie Daymond in English. is a mysterious student at Hoshinoumi Academy, who has the ability to locate an ability user and determine their ability. He helps the student council in finding ability users. He works for Shunsuke, who nicknames him "Pooh". He is killed after protecting Nao from falling wreckage. He is voiced by Eiji Takemoto in Japanese and by Ben Pronsky in English. has the ability of hypnotism, which she uses to make someone fall asleep, but as a result, she falls asleep as well. She works for Shunsuke. She is voiced by Asami Seto in Japanese and by Marieve Herington in English. has the ability of permeation, which he uses to pass through solid matter. However, this causes extreme exhaustion. He works for Shunsuke. He is voiced by Kengo Kawanishi in Japanese and by Bobby Thong in English. has the ability to erase one's memory, which requires physical contact and time to find the wanted memories. He works for Shunsuke. He is voiced by Natsuki Hanae in Japanese and by Griffin Burns in English.
Production Creation and conception The original creators of Charlotte are Jun Maeda and Na-Ga of Key, and Charlotte is the second original anime series created by Key following Angel Beats! (2010). Yōsuke Toba of Aniplex approached Maeda in early 2012 with an offer from P.A. Works president Kenji Horikawa to do another anime series with the studio. Maeda was surprised by this, as he never expected to work with P.A. Works again. Horikawa explained the production staff could now handle things that were not able to be fully materialized during the production of Angel Beats!. Maeda did not think he would ever be involved in the planning of another anime series, but he said he had no choice but to accept Horikawa's offer after discussing it with him. Toba asked Maeda to write a "Key-like story", and Maeda started out by applying his prior experience of working on Angel Beats!. He went through a trial-and-error process to work out what kind of setting and story would work well for an anime series.