First of all.....i say this has to be the most overrated anime i've watched;i tryied to be as open minded all the way to the end of the series.... and yes, i must say that the characters are the best part of the entire Series; and the Story resulted to me the most lacking.
I recognize that it needed some time to really introduce the characters; but the slow pacing resulted to me in a disconnection from the series... ; certain twist (which i will not mention) i saw coming almost from the beginning of the series; so i was not really surprised at any point during 23 episodes, and when i say 23, it's because there is just 1 episode that i absolutely loved, and im not talking about the ending.