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“Angel Rhythms”, in its own good anime, still disappointed with the funeral ending. Alas, this creation of Jun Maeda I liked even less.
Another "ordinary Japanese schoolboy" Otosaka Yu suddenly discovers that he can briefly inhabit other people’s bodies. He actively uses this ability to deceive to get high marks, to become popular and respected. But one day, everything falls apart: He knows that there are not so many people like him who are like him. And super-teens are on the hunt: scientists want to find out the nature of their powers. The fate of schoolchildren who fell into the clutches of researchers is unenviable - after exhausting experiments and the opening of the skull, they become "vegetables" or riotous madmen. Therefore, Otosaka should join an organization designed to protect teenagers from the arbitrariness of the authorities. Fortunately (or unfortunately), abilities disappear as soon as the period of sexual development ends, and the body matures completely. So "lucky" students enough for a few years to hide, then they are not threatened.
The weakness of this series is the construction of its world.
First, the school where super-teens are hidden from evil “scientists” is right in the middle of the metropolis, and this is not a closed educational institution with a strict regime – “hidden” can easily walk around the city, and none of them have ever been caught. And this is a secret organization that opposes the authorities and the mafia? How is this almshouse safer than those schools in which the unfortunates studied before?
Second, what kind of bad scientists are they? No scientific organization can have the authority to abduct or arrest children by the hundreds, it can be the government, the security services, the army, but not the “scientists”. Perhaps Japan has some difficulties with censorship when it comes to the negative image of the authorities?
Thirdly, why do "scientists" arrange a living conveyor with a prison full of adolescent superhumans? They’re not monsters, they’re mostly normal kids to negotiate with. Why treat them like recidivist maniacs, break their psyche, cripple them with experiments? Only a few of them are dangerous to others, and they will soon lose the ability to harm people (as soon as they grow up). Meaningless cruelty.
Fourth, the very story of the creation of the rescue organization (by the way, the writer did not bother to invent a name for it) is just a joke. Unfortunately, without serious spoilers, it is impossible to explain in detail what the problem is, but here is at least one fact. What are the odds that, in a world where “scientists” are hunting down children with unusual “talents,” a teenager who wins large sums of money in sweepstakes won’t attract any attention? The creators of this series are sure that this would not be suspicious.
For some reason, this is a “charitable organization”. A small detachment engaged in “violent recruitment” into the ranks of “dissidents” is too famously, with apparent pleasure, suppresses the excesses of another “super-reviewer” or “super-peeper in the locker room behind classmates.” Their zeal sometimes reminds Cartman of South Park, who was given a baton and cop powers: "Respect my power!"
I also don’t like the idea that without superpowers, the world would be a better and more peaceful place. The point is not that it is wrong, as far as the world of "Charlotte" is concerned, this bitter conclusion is quite true, for such commissions are more like a curse to their bearer. And yet: here he may have been at hand a way to make man more perfect, to give him new possibilities. Are there only two ways out: a blood-drenched world or a world without miracles? I, a man who grew up on the old science fiction, would like to believe that humanity will sooner or later refuse to despise the weak and envy the strong, and will embark on a path of unification and perfection for the sake of universal progress.
However, in the Network I saw an expression that, they say, anime is not about facts at all, it is more about emotions. But here you can see the great diversity of the series. Ordinary school life is replaced by tragic pathos, then by a depressed black woman, then the series acquires a meditative and philosophical tone, and in the end breaks into heroic pathos. Some episodes are not that superfluous, but the series is not rubber, it is directly glass - 13 episodes - and therefore breaks down into separate fragments, different in size and shape. I am not against lyrical retreats, but here they capture two series in a row and just catch up with sleep.
Bottom line: to accept the ending of "Angel Rhythms" you probably need to be at least a little Japanese. With Charlotte, things are much worse. This kind, in general, and humanistic series is simply filled with a hidden disbelief in humanity. It is represented here by an evil “difficult teenager” who urgently needs to take away a dangerous toy (one can say, the central metaphor of the work). I understand that watching the world’s political news is difficult not to be disappointed in people. And yet I would like at least a little optimism and belief that miracles can be not only evil.
4 out of 10
Original