[Review] Charlotte’s “Time” has come – Charlotte ep. 9

After all the waiting for things to make sense, and anticipation for something greater, Charlotte’s “Time” has come. And not only has it appeared but its been kicked right into turbo and things are going to start happening very fast and they are going to be very important. So put on your thinking cap and keep the tissue box close and try not to get lost from here on out.

Episode Summary

Yu acts like a girl when picking out clothes to go meet Nao for the concert. When he sees her he recognizes her beauty and sort of stumbles on his words as a result. Nao still seems to be very enthusiastic about the concert while still being dismissive towards Yu and their closeness. They wait in line hours before the concert to get merchandise. Nao is ecstatic about the experience and being happy all the while. At the end of the concert ZHIEND plays a new song that Yu somehow has heard before. He freaks out and passes out and wakes up listening to the same song somewhere else, now with Ayumi sitting next to him.

Now him and Ayumi are in the scientist’s research facility and we’re clearly in another timeline or something. Yu is aware of things that have been going on and is in the midst of planning an escape. His escape is helped by one of the more progressive thinking scientists who help him out of his cell when Ayumi’s ability shuts down a part of the facility. Yu breaks into running to go free his brother who has the power to time travel so he can change their fate. Yu uses his full ability, which is to take other abilities, and makes it to his brother who uses his ability causing Yu to wake up in the timeline were familiar with.


MFR ON YOUTUBE (latest video)
Help us reach 5K Subs!

The drenched guy (Kumagami) walks into the hospital room where Nao is with Yu. Yu remembers seeing him in his dream and being an important part of the escape. Yu clearly has questions and when Kumagami reveals that he knows Yu’s brother he demands he sees him. Of course the reason Kumagami is here is for exactly that, also with the prospect of saving Ayumi. It’s also revealed that Yu’s older brother Shunsuke has also been a big influence in Nao’s life post scientists, and is the person she was cryptically talking about in episode two.

They go to a secret underground base and Yu is reunited with Shunsuke. Shunsuke appears to be blind. The episode ends with him about to reveal his history with time travel.

Episode thoughts

Now while the meat of this episode clearly lies in all the exposition that is delivered. I’d like to first start off with the status of Nao and Yu’s relationship. In this episode we see Yu looking at Nao in a more feminine way. And while it may be because she’s wearing cute clothes, I think combined with the fact that he himself didn’t know what to wear means he is wanting Nao to look at him in a certain way. But There clearly is some hesitation to take the plunge, so he discretely tries to probe Nao and see her reaction to the idea and implications of them being a couple. Nao acts dismissive towards these thoughts and almost makes it seem like the idea is disgusting to her. So while Yu may be coming around it seems Nao still is keeping her distance. But I’m pretty sure that her emotions will be more developed and justified with the upcoming events.

ZHIENDS concert for the most part was pretty entertaining. Considering that this is a Jun Maeda show I thought that the concert animation would somewhat resemble the “Girls Dead Monster” concerts of Angel Beats!.[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi7qYAmPF3E[/embedyt]

But it was definitely serviceable to getting the tone of the songs and how the characters watching the concert were feeling. I guess I just was hoping for too much on this one. As for the songs, they were mostly fine. Sure the lyrical timing of using English words seems off still as a native English speaker, but the message of the songs is impactful enough for me to compromise. But I did truly love the song “Trigger”. It was obvious that this song was the best written and it shows in the way the lyrics are structured and how it seems to be pertaining to the overarching story. I hope I can download it eventually because I would love to have this song on my phone.

I also think its ironic that the song is named “Trigger” seeing that the song itself is a trigger for Yu to remember things about an alternate life that he has forgotten. It’s subtle enough that it could go over your head easily, but if you happen to catch it, it’s a nice treat. And because of this “trigger” we’re treated to this glimpse to another time, allowing things to finally start to makes sense. We are finally finding out how certain prior events relate to the greater story. And we are narrowing down to a through line for the show and possibly an idea of what the conclusion will be.

One thing that is brought up is when Yu is talking with one of the researchers is quite interesting when you relate it the direction the story seems to be going in. Seeing that this researcher sees things differently from others has made it so he’s been ostracized. This shows the difficulty of having an idea that may be better for everyone but people are too stubborn to accept it. Changing the minds of people is hard but its something that needs to happen in order for us to progress. This can be equated to Shunsuke’s time travel ability and directly effecting the way things are, and how Yu needs to trudge through a possible unfavorable situation to get to the favorable outcome.

As for all the characters we see here in the facility, I can’t make a real determination until we see them more. Sure we saw the pink haired girl again who was there when Ayumi died, but we still don’t know how she pertains to the situation yet. But with the prospect of more important characters I hope they don’t forget about Yusa and Jojiro. Sadly I think they’re trying to do too many thing at once and I don’t see these characters being fleshed out enough by the end of the show.

Yu on the other hand is shown as a very important person in this time-line. While he is obviously the protagonist of the show, here he’s shown as a protagonist of the world itself. This gives his roles more importance to the world and not to just us as an onlooker of him. And with the reveal of his true ability and his importance in this scenario, it makes his quote from the beginning episode make more sense in context. Its getting more and more clear that Yu is connected to everyone, but just how much and why is still to be revealed.

One thing I did find odd was that Kumagami knew when to show up at right time when Yu gets his memory back. It seems a little convenient too, considering that the fact that he went to the concert and received “trigger” was all a coincidence. That is unless the fact that Sarah bumped into Yu in the last episode wasn’t a coincidence. Maybe she’s connected to this in a way too and she was prepared to give him a ticket and get him to the concert if Nao didn’t invite him. So the show may be taking measures to manipulate the events, which makes sense when your dealing with a show that has introduced the idea of time travel. And I’m not sure how yet but I’m pretty sure that the reasons Sarah and Shunsuke are blind have to be one in the same. Which could strengthen the argument that she planned to bump into Yu to get him to her concert to receive the “trigger” for his lost memories.

Clearly Charlotte’s “Time” has come and its somewhat clear where the story is going from here. Something to do with saving Ayumi and using time travel as the means to do so. But Shunsuke must have a grander plan beyond saving his sister and plan on saving everyone with abilities. Its clear his plan is already in motion and things have turned out the way they are for a reason. And the fact that he’s the one who helped Nao and set her on the path she’s taken must mean that she has an important part to play as well. But like I said it doesn’t seem like Yusa and Jojiro will get even close to the same level of importance.

At this point the plot and story really have me guessing more that it ever has so far. I just hope they don’t get too out of control and convoluted with the time travel mechanic. And there is also the addition of so many characters that it doesn’t seem that they all can have satisfying conclusions. Charlotte has four episodes left to deal with the heap of plot and character that it has introduced this late in the game. And hopefully they can manage to wrap up everything in “time”.

Logan Peterson
Logan Peterson
My names Logan and I love writing about Anime. Other art is guchi too. When I'm not writing gonzo reviews I'm writing books. *If interested look up The Dream Sequence on Amazon.* I usually write more editorial stuff than just plain reviews. I like my writing to be more big picture. I feel consumer reviews are a thing of the past and more personal reviews are the most valuable nowadays.