Yuu Otosaka

Yuu Otosaka is the main protagonist from the Charlotte anime and manga.

Yuu is a first-year transfer student at Hoshinoumi Academy. He has the ability to temporarily possess a person for 5 seconds. However, it is later revealed that his actual ability is stealing the abilities of the ability-user he possesses. Towards the end of the series, he becomes widely known (and feared) as the One-Eyed Grim Reaper. He is also the younger brother of Shunsuke Otosaka, and the older brother of Ayumi Otosaka.

Appearance
Yū has dark brown hair, and pink eyes, various outfits throughout the series but is mostly seen in his Hoshinoumi uniform, which consists of a black jacket and a white under-shirt with a dark blue shirt underneath, black pants, and brown shoes.

As for Happiness, You Did Not Notice he is seen wearing the summer variant of the uniform, which consists of a white shirt, black pants, and brown shoes. After Ayumi's death (The End of the Exodus), Yū wears a dark red hoodie with a red undershirt, blue pants, and brown shoes. During this time he has dark rings under his eyes, implying malnutrition.

Other outfits donned by Yū include his Hinomori High School winter uniform, which consists of a white blazer with a turquoise tie and white undershirt, grey pants, and black shoes. Interestingly, the uniform of his middle school is identical in design to his Hoshinoumi uniform, except that it is turquoise in color.

While he uses his original ability, his irises become lime green and his pupils become light teal. When he uses telekinesis, a purple glow surrounds his body. When he uses time-leap, his eyes glow bright blue with white lines spinning within the irises.

After the events of Charlotte, during which Yū's right eye is slashed by an enemy assailant's knife, a scar is clearly visible where he was injured. Therefore, he wore a medical eyepatch while he was hospitalized.

During the second half of Memories to Come, Yū is seen wearing a black coat with a hoodie and rolled up sleeves, a red undershirt, blue pants and black shoes. He also wears a black watch on his left wrist. He is noticeably taller, and his hair is longer and almost completely covers his scarred eye.

Personality
Yū, at the start of the series, is a selfish, arrogant and narcissistic boy, who misuses his ability on a daily basis. It is implied that he is an academically poor student and hence needed to cheat to achieve top ranked grades; whether this is accurate or he simply saw it as easier than having to study is unknown, but Nao implies that his standardized test scores are low. Despite this, Yū is clearly intelligent, being able to devise carefully calculated schemes to achieve his devious goals. He is also able to calmly analyze situations, shown during the base ball game in Moment of Earnest. Furthermore, considering the fact that he is able to memorise the answers of the smart students under 5 seconds he shows potential to be exceedingly diligent however he does not put his academic abilities and talent to use. While a master of his own crafts, Yū isn't the best at socializing with others and is quite rude at the beginning of the story. He acts differently only when talking with his younger sister, Ayumi, with whom he tones down his personality and becomes more open and brotherly. It is also implied that he has a sister complex. While masquerading as a model student, he hides his narcissistic personality but occasionally starts laughing like a villain if his plan succeeds, even if others are present. Yū can also be perverted at times whenever he possesses a girl's body. He uses his ability to cause fights among people he dislikes and to cheat on tests by possessing smart students and memorizing their answers. He cares little for other people, including his classmates and strangers; he even orchestrates an accident to "save" Yumi Shirayanagi without any concern for the truck driver he possesses. The only exception to this apathy is his younger sister. Although he attempts to form a relationship with Yumi, when he leaves her behind after she fell while he was trying to escape Nao, it becomes clear that he only likes Yumi for her looks.

He also loves to eat good food to the point of crying, the reason being that his sister adds pizza sauce to everything she cooks for him (even french toast). After being forced to transfer to Hoshinoumi by Nao, Yū's personality slowly begins to change for the better. At first, he is clearly against using his ability for anything he doesn't want to and only does so after urging from Nao, though this changes as time passes. Although he dislikes Nao in the beginning, he feels sympathy for her regarding the situation with her brother and her difficult past, as well as her rocky relationship with other students. Throughout the series, Yū acts as a comedic straight man whenever something bizarre or abnormal occurs due to the other members' antics. An example of this is his reaction to Jojiro Takajo's physical state after using his ability to get lunch from the cafeteria, or his reaction to Misa Kurobane's threats to burn things. He unknowingly begins to enjoy his time as a member of the student council, as evidenced at his excitement at winning the baseball match in Moment of Earnest. As of The Sound You Heard Sometime, he becomes a fan of the post-rock band ZHIEND.

After Ayumi's death, Yū goes through severe depression and instability. He goes as far as locking himself in his room for days, doing nothing but eating instant noodles and watching TV. After escaping Hoshinoumi, Yū's mental state continues to deteriorate, and he begins picking fights with gang members, finding joy in having them beat each other up while he possess them and injures them. He is also shown to be borderline sadistic, as he laughs with glee after stabbing one such gangster in the leg with a wooden skewer. He continues to go in a downward spiral and even reaches a point where he is about to use drugs. This goes on until Nao stops him.

After returning to Hoshinoumi, Yū is noticeably more grateful towards his fellow members and is much more accepting of their antics, seeing them as close friends. He begins to try to move on from Ayumi's death but finds himself reminded of her constantly, including a number of times when he thinks about calling home to tell her he'll be late, only to realize she's not there anymore.

His encounter with Sala Shane allows him to realize that he has become more gentle and considerate towards those around him, and that it was Nao who caused him to change over time. This new attitude is shown when he takes Sala to meet Kazuki Tomori in the hopes of curing Kazuki's mental illness, despite there being no gain for Yū. He also begins to develop feelings for Nao, though he never directly says it until later on.

In the original timeline, his personality is the same as it was when he met Sala. Despite the fact that he never met Nao in this timeline, it is also implied that he never developed his villainous tendencies, possibly because of his older brother's good influence on him. He is still a caring older brother to Ayumi, and everyone thinks he has a sister complex. He also cares greatly for and looks up to his older brother, Shunsuke, and has a lot of faith in him, even risking his own life to save Shunsuke so that he could time leap and change the past.

As a child, Yū is shown to be quite responsible for his age, as he helps Ayumi cook breakfast and later scolds Shunsuke for sleeping late instead of making breakfast.

During the events of Charlotte, Yū ultimately overcomes his selfish nature completely; despite his initial fears, he attempts to rescue Nao and Kumagami from a group of foreign terrorists who want to use him for their own goals. Later, Yū is saddened when he learns of Kumagami's death, and he feels responsible for it.

As of Promise, Yū is shown to care for his friends immensely and wants to be able to protect them from harm, no matter how much danger he may have to face. This, as well as his promise to Nao, allows him to decide to take a huge risk and attempt to plunder all abilities outside of Japan. His determination is strong enough to snap Shunsuke out of his depression over Kumagami's death.

Over the course of his journey, Yū's abilities, as well as the constant danger he faces, begin to take their toll on him. He shows signs of PTSD and is unable to sleep, and if he does sleep he sleepwalks and attacks enemy ability users as well as innocent civilians. Gaps in his memory start to form, and he finds himself unable to remember either his past or his goal. He isn't even able to remember Nao, but he is able to remember their promise. He also appears to no longer fear death, either because he could save himself using his newfound abilities, or because he is becoming emotionally numb. As time passes, he embraces the moniker "One-Eyed Grim Reaper"; it is implied that he has forgotten his own name at this point, and he begins plundering abilities with glee. He briefly shows signs of his old, narcissistic, ability-abusing personality but ultimately forgoes this way of thinking when Nao's flashcards bring on feelings of regret, as well as determination to keep his promise, despite his inability to remember who he made this promise to, or why. He continues to plunder abilities in a somewhat emotionless state, though does seem to get angry at enemies occasionally. At the end of his journey, he is a shell of his former self, almost completely devoid of emotion. He barely even shows much reaction to having three arrows shot into his back. Despite this, he saves the life of the last ability user and tells her to get to safety after plundering her ability of courage, thereby completing his mission.

At the end of the series, Yū has lost all of his past memories. As a result, his personality is a blank slate. However, he is still similar to how he was before he left, as he tells Nao not to cry, showing he has retained his kindness despite the trials he has faced. Yū now looks forward to making many new, fun memories with his friends as he moves towards the future.

Abilities
"Main Article: Plunder"Yū has the ability to take over someone's body for approximately 5 seconds. He often uses this power to view honors students during their exams to memorize and steal their answers. While in use, his irises become lime green and his pupils become light teal. However, his body slumps into unconsciousness while this ability is in use. Recently, it has also been discovered he can use other abilities whilst controlling their bodies. However, the five seconds time limit still applies. As of The World that is No Longer Here, it is revealed Yū's true ability is "Plunder" which takes someone's ability away from them (They can't ever use their ability again) and use it as his own.

Trivia

 * Even with thousands of looted abilities at his disposal (Memories to Come) he frequently uses Telekinesis as his go-to ability during battle.
 * He has the same voice actor of Gin from Hotarubi no Mori e, Yuri Plisetsky from Yuri!! on Ice and the same English voice actor as Noctis Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV.


 * A running gag occurs whenever Yuu uses his power to take control of someone else, his body slumps forward in a humiliating pose where he's bent over on all fours,with his head faceplanted and his rear protruding upward.