Charlotte Dunois (シャルロット デュノア, Sharurotto Dunoa) is a 1st year transfer student at the IS Academy In Class One and is the IS Representative Candidate of France. She is the 4th heroine to be introduced to the Infinite Stratos series.
Appearance
Being sent as a spy by her father, her appearance is that of an androgynous male with long blonde hair that is tied up in a ponytail. She has purple eyes and wears the same IS Academy uniform as that of Ichika.
In episode 8, when she decided to re-introduced herself to the class as "Charlotte" Dunois, she wears the IS Academy female uniform with a skirt. Her IS Training uniform also changes to the female version with orange edges and has changed from a two piece to a one piece suit.
Personality
Even if her true purpose at the academy was to spy on Ichika, discover how he is able to pilot an IS, and acquire data from his IS, Charlotte is very kind, always maintaining a polite demeanor towards everybody. She has an inherent dislike for lying to anyone, as she mentions that she is relieved she was able to tell Ichika the truth and that she apologizes for having to lie to him all the time.
She is one of two girls that does not have a 'Tsundere' attribute; the other being Laura after their fight in the tournament. It must also be noted that unlike the other girls, who primarily focus upon making Ichika fall in love with them, Charlotte instead prioritizes making Ichika happy. Due to this, Ichika views her as the kindest girl among the five, even going as far as describing her smile as 'The smile of an Angel/Goddess'. The only problem is that Charlotte, even when angry, tends to keep this facial expression (with addition of the usual protruding blood vein mark), which he refers to as 'The smile from the Angel of Death'; this, ironically, makes her the scariest heroine to anger.
While Charlotte has been shown to be quite mature, she doesn't mind being girly or childish, such as getting Laura and herself cat pajamas and even teasing her with them (although she became very embrarrassed when Ichika saw her in them). She can also be very impulsive, usually creating very awkward and embrarrassing situations for her and Ichika, only realizing what she doing (or has done) when it is too late, such as when she brought him into a changing room to hide him from the other girls, only to start changing her clothes anyway.
Relationships
- Ichika Orimura - Even if Charlotte was sent to IS Academy to spy on Ichika, she never showed a sign of arrogance but respect and politeness toward him. After seeing his defending actions after hearing her story, Charlotte falls in love with Ichika. Although Charlotte appears as timid in the beginning, she becomes more confident thanks to Ichika, but that doesn't mean that Charlotte never gets angry because of affairs with someone.
- Laura Bodewig - She became her roommate later in the novel after she revealed her identity to the class. Somewhat of her counterpart, she is currently teaching her the proper social skills. At first, Laura treated Charlotte with hatred and disdain because of the inter-class tournament, but during the seaside arc and later on, the two become as close as sisters.
- Chifuyu Orimura - Her class instructor in Class One and Ichika's older sister. She respects her, but at the same time thinks of her as a rival to getting Ichika's affection, as she mentioned that Ichika had a different reaction to seeing Chifuyu in a swimsuit as opposed to the others.
- Ran Gotanda - Charlotte first met her in Volume 6.
Infinite Stratos & Abilities
Her knowledge of IS is vast, being able to give detailed explanations on her company's 2nd Generation IS and able to discern the abilities and issues of other models. Her skills are quite top-notch, as she was able to buy time for Ichika to rescue Cecilia Alcott and Huang Lingyin by holding Laura Bodewig off with her IS, despite being the oldest model in IS Academy. Charlotte is also the only one who has mastered the Rapid Switch technique on screen.
Charlotte's Personal Infinite Stratos (IS) is the Raphael-Revive Custom II, provided by Dunois Corporation. It is a heavily modified version of Raphael-Revive, a latest-model 2nd generation IS, famous for sturdy design and ease of use.
History
Charlotte was born as a daughter of a mistress to the CEO of Dunois Industry, the largest IS-production and development corporation in France.
Her presence wasn't noticed by the Dunois family, even by the CEO himself, until Charlotte came to him after her mother died and left a letter explaining her ties to him. (In the anime, Charlotte's father knew about her, but they stayed at a separate area far from the company and home, until her mother died 2 years prior to the story and a representative came to take her back.)
Being an "unwanted daughter" in the Dunois family, she was constantly mistreated and abused by them.
When it was discovered that she had great aptitude for IS piloting, the CEO thought of a plan to keep his company afloat, which was being pressured hard for not showing much progress in development of 3rd Gen. IS. Unlike the other powerful European nations, France did not join the EU and was in turn forced to develop a 3rd Gen. IS all by itself. This burden fell heavily on Dunois Industry. When the company continuously failed to show any viable results, the French government considered withdrawing its IS development and production rights, which made the CEO even more frantic about the matter.
Unable to produce satisfactory results, the CEO decided to obtain the data from elsewhere, and faked Charlotte's gender. Believing Charlotte to be the world's "2nd male" IS pilot, the French government chose her as one of its representative candidates, and sent her to IS Academy. According to Dunois' plan, Charlotte was to get close to Ichika (this part was no problem, since Charlotte (under the alias of "Charles") and Ichika were the only "male" in the IS Academy, and would naturally be assigned same room) and steal important data from his IS, Byakushiki, which was viewed as the newest 3rd Gen. IS at that time.
Plot Synopsis
Episode 5: "Boy Meets Boy"
Charlotte is first introduced in Class One as a "male" transfer student and a French IS Representative Cadet under the name of Charles Dunois. After hearing that it's another male student, all the girls in the class screamed with joy until Chifuyu tells them to shut up. She also tells Ichika to look after Charles since he's a boy too. When Chifuyu tells the class to change quickly and prepare for IS practice with Class Two, Ichika took Charles' hand (which she blushes) and ran through the hallways only to narrowly escape the girls chasing after them.
After they made it to the changing room, Ichika says that he's relieved that Charles came to the school, since being a sole male in school is pretty tough. They then introduced their name for the first time which they didn't have the opportunity earlier. Time was catching up so Ichika tells Charles to change quickly and removed his clothes in which Charles blushed and looked away. Charles then tell Ichika that he'll change in condition that Ichika has to turn around. Ichika turned and two seconds later Charles was done, which Ichika compliments on her speed. He then start talking about how tangled the clothes are, making her blush. They then talks about Charles' background and family (Dunois company), which Ichika compliments about her aura from a high class family.
During the IS demonstration battle between Lingyin and Cecilia against Maya, Charles made a commentary on Maya's IS, as requested by Chifuyu, displaying her wide knowledge of the Dunois company's IS making. After the demonstration, Charles, along with the other Personal Machine holders (Ichika, Cecilia, Lingyin and Chifuyu) did a group practice, presenting their IS machine to the split group. Charles had a tough time receiving advances from other girls.
After the practice, Charles was invited by Ichika to eat together with Houki (she invited Ichika only) on the school roof. Seeing that the atmosphere was tense between Houki, Cecilia and Lingyin, Charles asked if it was a good idea that he's invited. Ichika then tells him that it's okay and that boys should get along with each other since they will be sharing the same room as well. She also commented on how Ichika and Houki get along after seeing the latter feeding food to Houki. Later on in the dorm, after hearing that Ichika does IS practice after school, Charles asked him if he could join since he also has a personal IS, which Ichika accepts without problem.
Episode 6: "My Roommate is a Young, Blonde Nobleman"
The next day during an IS practice, Charles asked Ichika for a duel and wants to try fighting the Byakushiki, revealing his orange personal IS Raphael Revive of the Dunois company, France's second generation IS. They battle for a while until they rest and talk about Byakushiki's weaknesses and how Ichika can improve his IS combat. They then practice shooting accuracy. Charles helped Ichika shoot by holding him very close, making Houki, Cecilia and Lingyin jealous. Suddenly, Laura Bodewig appears with her 3rd generation Schwarzer Regen German IS and declares a fight against Ichika. Upon his refusal of a battle, Laura shoots him but Charles used her shield to protect Ichika, commenting that Germans are hot-tempered. After being scolded by an Academy instructor, they all stopped fighting. In the locker room, Ichika thanked Charles and suggested that they change/shower together, pulling her closer to him. Charles blushed and ran away.
Later in the day when Charles was taking her shower, Ichika opened the bathroom door to give the body soap bottle that was missing and accidentally saw Charles body. They froze and Ichika, shocked, left the bathroom awkwardly without any word about it. Moments later, he suggested that they have some tea but upon hand contact with her, Charles hesitated which made the hot tea cup spill on his hand. Ichika ran to the sink to put cold water and Charles tried to help him. Ichika tells her that he can feel her breast sticking to his arm, which made Charles blush and call him a pervert. A few minutes later, Ichika asks Charles why she's pretending to be a boy. She then reveals her true story about her father forcing her to attend IS Academy, spy on Ichika and getting information about the Byakushiki. After the story, she felt better and apologized for lying about her gender. Ichika then confessed that parents shouldn't treat their children like that, saying that he and Chifuyu were abandoned by their parents. He asks Charles what will she do now, in which she responds that since her gender's been revealed, she'll surely be called back to her country and be sent to prison. Ichika replies that he'll keep his mouth shut so all matters will be settled and that even if the case become public, Charles' father nor the Dunois company can't do anything because of a special IS Academy article stating that "The students within this Academy , while they are enrolled, do not belong to any country, organization, or group." He also says that they can take time to think about it while in the IS Academy. Relieved, Charles thanked Ichika for defending her, but he commented that her breasts are showing when she bends down. She calls him a pervert again. They are interrupted by Cecilia knocking on the door, asking Ichika to go eat dinner with her. Ichika and Charles then pretend that the latter is sick, and that Ichika was just putting a blanket on him. Cecilia then took Ichika away.
Later in the night, when Ichika came back, he brought some dinner for Charles. She had a hard time using chopsticks so Ichika volunteered to go get a fork but Charles refused for fear that she'll bother him. Ichika then tells her to learn to depend on others and that she'll suffer if she keeps being so hesitant. Upon Ichika's suggestion to start depending on him, Charles asks Ichika to feed her using the chopsticks, probably in reflection with the previous scene where Ichika fed Houki earlier. Ichika hesitated but agreed saying that men keep their word. They then have fun for the rest of the night.
Episode 7: "Blue Days ~ Red Switch"
Everybody in the class was talking about the rumor that if one of them was victorious in that month's inter-class tournament, that person can go out with Ichika. Charles asked them on what they're talking about but they blushed and ran away.
In the hallway, when Charles was walking with Ichika and talking about the special training before the tournament, they hear about three representative cadet fighting so they immediately ran to the scene. Observing Laura's fight against Cecilia and Lingyin, she explained Laura's A.I.C. (Active Inertia Canceller) weapon feature, an ability that negates the inertia of a moving mass. As Cecilia and Lingyin's life were in danger, Ichika jumped into the arena and fought but couldn't solve Laura's A.I.C., forcing Charles to fire against Laura. Ichika took the opportunity to get Cecilia and Lingyin away from the battle but Charles got trapped with one of Laura's guided-wire daggers. As Laura took her beam saber and attacked Charles, Chifuyu interfered. The instructor told that they should settle the remainder of their battle in the inter-class tournament, Charles and Ichika agreed.
In the hospital, Charles commented that Cecilia and Lingyin were "overdoing it", explaining that it must be quite embarrassing for them to show their awkward side to the person they like. Ichika didn't understand it but the two hospitalized one got nervous. Charles also asked if it was all for Ichika, making Cecilia and Lingyin jump on Charles to shut him up. A bunch of girls barged into the room showing them an announce for the inter-class tournament: the event will be in pairs. They each asked the two boys to pair with them but Ichika apologized and says that he's pairing with Charles, making the girls walk away. Cecilia and Lingyin told the boys they have to win and they'll support the boys.
Later in the night during the walk back to the dormitory, Charles thanked Ichika for him choosing to pair with her and that she's very happy. Ichika explained that if Charles were to be paired with someone else, they might expose Charles as a girl, which would be bad. Charles replied that Ichika's kind, making him blush.
In room 1025, Ichika tells Charles that when no one else is around, Charles doesn't have to force herself to speak like a man. She tells him she's been trained to act and speak like a man before coming to IS Academy and that she might not be able to revert back so suddenly, but if Ichika is bothered by it, when they're alone together, she'll try to speak like a girl. Ichika replies that the Charles who uses male speech mannerisms is pretty cute too, making Charles blush. Ichika decides to go away and change but Charles insists that he stay, stating that people might think it's weird if one of them were to go outside since they're (supposedly) both guys. Ichika suggests they change with their backs facing each other. While changing, Charles got her leg caught and trip, making Ichika turn around. A series of similar events happen and they struggle to change without seeing each others bodies. When Ichika felt and accidentally picked up Charles' panties, the latter blushed and unwillingly kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious. Later, when Ichika was sleeping, Charles commented to herself of the awkward clothes changing session and that Ichika is trying too hard not to look. As she went to her bed, she turned back and thought it was the first time that she felt someone needed her. She went to kiss Ichika on the forehead before going to sleep.
The next day in the locker room, Ichika and Charles looked at the tournament announce board: it is decided via lottery that Houki is to be paired with Laura to fight against the two boys.
Episode 8: "Find Out My Mind"
The fight has started and Ichika immediately went on to strike first at Laura, but is stopped by her AIC. As Laura prepared to shoot Ichika while he's paralyzed, Charles appeared behind Ichika and counter-attacked Laura with her Rapid Switch but Houki interfers stating that she won't have them forget about her. Laura felt that Houki was in her way so she used her tentacles to remove her out of her business against the boys. While Ichika and Laura fought, Charles defeated Houki first and resumed his battle against Laura.
During the fight, they discover the AIC's weakness: Laura can only focus on stopping one enemy per time. They then use different "sacrifice-and-attack" combos to slowly defeat her. Ichika got his energy shield exhausted and Laura took advantage to pin him down to the ground but Charles keep protecting him with her Ignition Boost, stating that it's the first time he's using it. Charles then used her Shield Pierce weapon to brutally punch Laura's shield multiple time and exhausting her armor. Laura, fainting, is suddenly consumed by her IS and transforms into a large dark mech that matches Chifuyu's fighting style. Angry about this, Ichika decides to fight against it but Houkiholdshim back telling him that he doesn't have to do anything and the matter will be resolved by the instructors troop. Ichika still refuses and Charles offers him enough energy to manifest his sword, making him promise that if he loses, he'll have to wear a female uniform to school starting the next day, embarrassing Ichika and Houki. After Ichika got enough energy, he went to cut through the mech and save Laura.
While Ichika and Charles were discussing the match at dinner in the cafeteria, they see Houki observing them with a frustrated face. Ichika goes up to her and says that he'll go out with her, and Houki, thinking that he wants to be her boyfriend, becomes excited. However, Ichika only meant that he wouldn't mind going shopping with her. Upon realizing Ichika's actual intentions, Houki punches him in the face, kicks him and leaves. Charles comments she thinks Ichika might be doing things (being oblivious to the advances of girls) on purpose. Maya appears and congratulates them on their hard work and they must had a hard day. She tells them that to compensate their hard work, a place has been revived from that day on: the Boys' Grand Public Bath.
Later in the Boys' Grand Public Bath when Ichika was relaxing, Charles joined the water making Ichika extremely nervous. The latter proposes that he'll get out but Charles insists that Ichika stays, stating that she's got something to tell him. Talking back to back, Charles started to confess that she wants to stay at IS Academy if Ichika's there. She also confessed on how she should be and started hugging Ichika from behind, having skin contact, making Ichika even more nervous. Charles then requested that Ichika calls her "Charlotte" from now on, saying that it's her real name, the name her mother gave her, Ichika agreed.
The next day, Charles introduced herself to the class under the name of "Charlotte" Dunois, shocking the whole class. As everyone knew Ichika and Charlotte used the Boys' Bath the night before, Lingyin charged into the class with her IS to jealously attack Ichika, probably jealous that he bathed with another girl than her but in the nick of time he was save by Laura.
Episode 9: "Ocean's Eleven!"
In the morning in a train with Ichika, Charlotte asks why is she the only one with Ichika. He replies that it's seaside school soon and since both of them don't have swimsuit, he brought her along. Upon Ichika accidentally call her Charles, she got a bit angry and asks him to call her Charlotte again. After getting off the train, Charlotte tells Ichika that she'll forgive him if they hold hands, which he agreed. She is a bit deceived that Ichika doesn't understand that she's trying to flirt him. Meanwhile, Cecilia and Lingyin and stalks them along with Laura. Ichika stops walking and tells Charlotte that since everyone knows Charlotte's a girl, calling her "Charlotte" isn't anything special anymore and that they should think of another name for her, one for the two of them. He suggests "Char", easy and very intimate. Charlotte gets excited and agrees to the new name she's got, saying to herself that she feels like a bit more special. They walk a little bit more and Ichika tells Charlotte to go on ahead without him because he has a different stuff to buy, looking at the jewelry store.
A moment later, Ichika runs into Dan and Ran shopping too. When Dan tells him that the tons of bags he's holding were Ran's swimsuits and that she planned to showing them to Ichika, Ran kicked him away, surprising Ichika. She then tells him that next year she'll join the IS Academy and become his underclassman. Ichika wishes her good luck and tells her to study for her exams. While Ran looks for Dan, Charlotte appears and pulls Ichika away to a swimsuit store and they get into the changing room.
Ichika, surprised, asks her why are they hiding. Charlotte replies that she wants to know what Ichika thinks about the swimsuit she picked. She then takes a peek outside just to see Cecilia, Lingyin and Laura still stalking them. Charlotte says to herself they if they find her, they'll interfere with her plan to flirt with Ichika. She then start undressing, shocking Ichika as he turns around. After a moment of hesitation, Charlotte keeps undressing and Ichika starts reciting the number pi to distract himself from imagining Char's naked body. After she's done, he turns around and see she's in a beautiful orange swimsuit. Charlotte, blushing, asks him if it's weird and he screams "Not at all! I think it looks great!", which the shop owner heard from outside. Coincidentally, Chifuyu and Maya were in the boutique and heard Ichika and Charlotte's voice in the changing room. They open the curtain and Maya was shocked to see both of her students in the changing room. Ichika and Charlotte then gets a moral lesson from Maya in the middle of the boutique about drawing a line even as classmates.
At the beach, Maya tells everybody to enjoy themselves and to return to the inn in time for dinner.
Charlotte gets to Ichika and presents a girl with an eye patch wrapped in towel, which Ichika freaks out and calls her the Bath Towel Monster. Ichika discovers it's Laura by her voice. After Charlotte purposely teases her that she'll have fun with Ichika without her if she doesn't show her swimsuit, Laura removes the towel and exposes her black swimsuit, telling that they can laugh if they want. They then tells her that there's nothing funny about it and Ichika says that she's cute, making Laura blush, saying that it's the first time anyone had said that to her.
Honne and her friends then asked Ichika to keep his long awaited promise: beach volleyball. As they play, Laura gets so obsessed by the fact that Ichika calls her cute that she gets hit in the face by the ball. As Ichika gets close to ask if she's alright, Laura blushes even more and runs away. Maya arrives and ask if she can play volleyball with them, bringing Chifuyu in an attractive swimsuit that makes everybody praise. Seeing that Ichika blushes at the sight of his sister, Charlotte asks if Orimura-sensei is Ichika's type. He replies "what are you saying?!" Charlotte then tells him that it's quite the different reaction from the time when she and the other girls showed him their swimsuits. She then sighs and says that's a lot of rivals and that Orimura-sensei joins the fray. Ichika tells her that Chifuyu is quite the strong enemy and they shouldn't be unprepared. Charlotte sighs again, saying that maybe Ichika didn't understand that by rivals, she meant love rivals, not volleyball enemies. They then have fun playing volleyball for the rest of the day.
Episode 10: "Thin Red Line"
Episode 11: "Get Ready"
Episode 12: "Your Name Is"
OVA: "A Sextet Yearning for Love"
Quotes
- "Ichika no Ecchi!" (Ichika you pervert!)- Simply translated to "You are a pervert!" in the english dub
- Charlotte to Ichika every time they're in a perverted situation (Many time) - Charlotte: "I've told you before, but..."
Ichika:"Staying in school, you mean?"
Charlotte: "Yes, that. I think I'll stay here. If you're here, I want to stay here too."
Ichika: "O..Oh, I see!"
Charlotte: "Also you see...I've decided something else as well. I've decided how I should be."
Ichika: "H..How you should be?"
Charlotte: "Could you call me Charlotte from now on? Even if it's only when we're alone..."
Ichika: "Is that your real-"
Charlotte: "Yes. My real name. The name my mother gave me."
Ichika: "Okay, Charlotte."
- Charlotte and Ichika in the Boys' Grand Public Bath (Episode 8) - Charlotte: "Ichika, could you feed me?"
Ichika: "Huh?"
Charlotte: "You said that I could depend on you, right?"
-Charlotte asking Ichika to feed her (Episode 6)
Reception
- As of recent polls regarding the viewers favorite female IS character, Charlotte has ranked number one over all other main characters. In one particular poll, she recieved an impressive rating of 64% at theakiba.com as of July 6th 2012 with the closest competition being Houki Shinonono (whose rating was only 17%). Such reception has brought up the question whether or not Charlotte will end up winning Ichika's affections by the end of the series, since Houki has been hinted as being his favorite.
- This is often used in the light novel. As at the end of Volume 3, Houki regret her action due mostly the fact Charlotte was in the same class then. In Volume 4, Lingyin put Charlotte in the same postion as Houki when she was thinking about getting ahead with her plan.
Trivia
- Her color and "goggles" on her head are references to Transformers: Animated Jetfire.
- Her relationship with Laura is a historical in-joke based on the real relationship between France and Germany: They were enemies in the beginning (which is shown in several scenes in the anime wherein they insult each others countries), but established the "Franco-German Friendship" after the second World War. Similarly, Charlotte's and Laura's friendship only started to bloom after a particular event.
- Charlotte's IS, the Raphael-Revive Custom II, bears a slight resemblance to the CB-0000G/C Reborns Gundam from Gundam 00 when viewed from the back.
- The Raphael-Revive shares the same colors as Allelujah Haptism's Kyrios, Arios and Harute Gundams, also from Gundam 00.
- Ironically, while Charlottle is kind and respectful to everybody and admit she likes Ichika because of how kind he is, she doesn't like it how he's kind to everybody (even wishing that Ichika would treat just her this way). She shares this trait with the other girls.
- Ironically, while Charlotte would quickly call Ichika a pervert when he touches or is being touched by her, she is always the one who creates the situation for this to happen. When she tried to prevent her and Ichika from changing in the same when she was pretending to be a boy, she would start trying to change in the same room as him after he learned she was a girl (this also reversed Ichika's postion of trying to change in the same room to wanting to avoid changing in the same room).
- As seen in volume 8, Charlotte's ideal world is where she's been working as a maid and is currently working for the Orimura family and is Ichika's future wife. This could be the reason why she likes wearing a maid outfit.
- Charlotte dream world is by far the most different from her real life. Her dream world is more her own history than Ichika's.
- She has a similar appearance to Kintaros, Although her first name were taken from Strike Witches character, Charlotte "Shirley" Yeager.
- she alongside Cecilia make a cameo in the manga Maken ki chapter 60