It was interesting reading up on another site about Charlotte, people that really knew the Key product, the director/creator of the various series, what to expect, his usual plot turns etc.
They are totally correct, but it's gotta make watching it on a weekly basis rather hard, especially as the marketing before release was over the top, so anything less is a letdown. Not that I'd watch it again, most of his stuff is that way... but overall, still good by the end, but a lot of waste in the early eps, as if he couldn't make up his mind how to tell the story in 13 eps.. then, half way through, it starts to strint to the finish line.... lack of money?
Oh well. Interesting to read the pages and pages of commentary, which seems mostly due to the expectations were set too high and the creator said he was going to correct his previous mistakes et al. Interesting, because he didn't, though I wonder if he wasn't simultaneously trying out other storylines that he usually doesn't make use of?
That said, I liked Planetarium... which seems all setup so far as well, but directed or focused better towards, hopefully a resolution or engrossing storyline... haven't read the book. But the characters have shown potential.
Just checked out Taboo Tattoo... a lot of the usual characters as expected, but outside of some fan service that seems out of place, it is packaged well, directed rather well with good momentum and revelation in the characters, their story etc... only problem is more political, as it is essentially making the Chinese, named something else of course,
into the bad guys, while the Japanese students are rather forced into a relationship with the Americans... the 'good guys' sort of... maybe not, hard to tell so far as one of their team seems to be going a little bit independent regarding the MC... kind of hard not to see the current political situation re: Japan/USempire vs China in this anime's storyline... but it is being told rather well. [PS.... that fan service could have been done better, if they want it in there to attract a larger male audience, it just isn't placed properly IMO, like a lot of porn... they simply don't have any clue how to make a better product, so they keep doing the same thing, over and over like our central bankers]
One that I checked out that isn't too bad, though its targeted to the elementary set in a schoolhouse fun style educational manner, is Time Travel Shoujo Mari Waka... It's ok for what it is... could be better, but interesting to see how anime or film, song etc can be used for educational purposes... as she travels back in time for various famous inventors.... accidentally it seems for now, as if following her 'missing' father in his travels... osis. Interesting enough to watch.... maybe. Many of these are ok if you don't have to do a single ep a week... that's a killer in today's marketplace IMO.... increasingly so these days as we get accostumed to season releases... ie. ReLife and so many series on Showtime/HBO etc that are released after the season ends... like a film or miniseries... better IMO.
Speaking of what I said earlier on rewatching anime series... how often does anyone do that? I've only done it with a handful of series, especially short single season ones, rather rare isn't it? I wonder if this isn't part of the problem? So many customers and so few good product, mostly average stuff to fill up the schedules, sort of like with music, a couple of hits and the rest of the album is filler... rare is it that an entire album, or most of it, is rather good and full of hits.... those are rare indeed and usually the making of a superstar... probably not much different with anime, right? Isn't that why so many were criticizing Charlotte? Expectations were high, put up their by marketing hype and director/creator hype of improving past mistakes etc.... because the fans of any product really do want the product to improve, the creator of it to improve their abilities, right?