Anime fans desiring to watch Charlotte Season 2 probably will be in for quite the wait.
Released in 2015 and ending with Episode 13, the anime series left audiences hanging, wanting to know what happened to Nao Tomori and Yuu Otosaka after the ending. But could the five-year anniversary of the anime series be an opportunity to create a Charlotte reboot?
On April 2, 2020, the official Angel Beats!/Charlotte Twitter account noted that the Angel Beats! anime “celebrated its 10th anniversary today”, while the Charlotte anime will be celebrating its 5th anniversary later on July 4, 2020.
“I may report on a continuation soon!?” said the official Twitter account. “Please look forward to it!”
The tweet did not specify which anime series would receive a continuation. The word continuation usually implies a sequel.
But anime fans know that Charlotte’s ending makes Charlotte Season 2 fairly unlikely. The same can be said for an Angel Beats! Season 2 anime, which also features a conclusive ending.
On May 10, 2020, a New Project Announcement Conference by visual novel company Key, Aniplex, and animation studio P.A. Works took place. Anime fans began to get excited since the official Angel Beats!/Charlotte account began advertising that a major “decision” will be made and promoted the new anime project in connection to Angel Beats! 10-year anniversary and Charlotte’s 5-year anniversary.
Instead of a sequel, the anniversaries for these two anime were simply being used to promote a new anime project called The Day I Became a God (Kami-sama ni Natta Hi). As expected, the new project involved the production team behind Angel Beats! as a collaboration between Key, Aniplex, and P.A. Works.
As a similar example, the Tiger & Bunny anime series was initially used to promote the Double Decker! Doug & Kirill anime even though the only connection was the anime staff members involved in the latter anime project. It wasn’t until much later that the Tiger & Bunny Season 2 anime was finally confirmed to be in production.
Hopefully, the same could still happen in the future for the Charlotte anime series. And the anime’s anniversary still has not happened, yet.
The good news is that a Charlotte OVA episode, Charlotte: Tsuyoimono-tachi, has already been released. The bad news is that the Charlotte anime was an original story, which means there’s no ongoing manga or light novels to justify the creation of Charlotte Season 2.
The screenplay for the Charlotte anime was created by Clannad and Angel Beats! writer Jun Maeda. The project was a collaboration between Aniplex, Key, and P.A. Works that brought in original character designer Na-Ga. The anime project was helmed by director Yoshiyuki Asai, who was also the series director for the Fate/Apocrypha anime and episode director for Ah! My Goddess.
The Charlotte OVA episode called “Record of the Future” was bundled as part of the limited edition of the Blu-Ray/DVD Volume 7 box set. Released on March 30, 2016, it added a side story that took place after Episode 4. Unfortunately, Crunchyroll is streaming the first 13 episodes but not the OVA episode.
Updated May 11, 2020: Added Jun Maeda’s new anime project name.
Updated May 1, 2020: Added news related to Jun Maeda’s new anime project being announced on May 10, 2020.
This article provides everything that is known about Charlotte Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
The Charlotte manga shows why the Charlotte Season 2 anime needs to be a reboot
As of the last update, Aniplex, Key, and P.A. Works, or any company related to the production of the anime have not officially confirmed the Charlotte Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Charlotte sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information. In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Charlotte Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
From a financial perspective, the anime did very well back in 2015 and 2016. The Charlotte Blu-Ray sales in Japan outpaced other popular anime released during that time frame. In fact, the Charlotte anime is one of the best-selling works from P.A. Works so it’s financially justifiable to greenlight a five-year anniversary project.
Story writer Jun Maeda also teamed up with artists Haruka Komowata to create the Charlotte manga series that ran for 6 volumes. There was also a 4-koma manga called Charlotte the 4-koma: Seishun wo Kakenukero! that Maeda created with illustrator Haruka Komowata that ran for only three volumes, but it was more of a prequel comedy series with a greatly different art style.
The main manga’s ending was released on January 26, 2019. Unfortunately, an official English translation was never released and fan-made scanlation projects only translated the first several chapters.
The Charlotte manga follows the overall outline of the anime’s story with some minor differences. If Charlotte Season 2 were to happen, the anime sequel can’t use the Charlotte manga as the source material for a direct continuation.
The crucial difference is that the light-hearted moments of the anime’s first half were greatly expanded upon by the manga. To put the Charlotte manga in perspective, it did not start adapting Episode 7, which is when the plot became heavier, until Volume 5. That means the second half of the anime is only a third of the manga’s story.
Yu Tsurusaki
Therefore, adapting the manga’s expanded content into an anime would make more sense if the anime series was rebooted from the beginning rather than create a direct sequel as Charlotte Season 2.
Arguably, the second half of the anime felt rushed, especially the ending which could have been an entire season on its own, so it’s possible the entire story could be fleshed out more so it’d fit into two seasons.
Other options for creating Charlotte Season 2 are just not as attractive. The Charlotte comet only passes Earth once every 75 years, so conveniently having yet another comet pass by and bestow superpowers would just be too contrived unless the second season is set in the deep future.
If the anime were to keep the current characters, just having a slice-of-life continuation would work better as an OVA celebrating the five-year anniversary of the anime’s release.
The only other option would be to essentially retcon the entire ending with a dark plot twist. When Yuu was traveling the world stealing abilities he eventually lost his memories only to be rescued and have Nao tell him she’s his girlfriend.
But what if this never actually happened? Charlotte Season 2 could open with this happy ending being the fever dream of a deranged mind. Now, Yuu’s friends need to rescue him from himself in reality.
While this idea is semi-plausible, such a twist would probably turn off fans of the first season. So, it’s better to reboot Charlotte Season 2 as an anniversary project that’s a retelling of the story, not a continuation.
Instead of expansion, the story could also be condensed into a Charlotte movie. But a full reboot would probably be more welcome by the fans.
Even so, Charlotte Season 2 still seems unlikely at this time. Let’s just hope the production of some new OVA episodes or maybe even a Charlotte movie is greenlit. Stay tuned!