First things first, Charlotte was a fairly interesting concept, and the premise of it was one of the things I liked most. The animation was stunning too; vibrant characters and scenery. However, the execution of the show was one of the largest problems of it.
The plot progression was atrocious, 90% of the entire story happened in the last 4 episodes; it felt like everything before hand was almost like a filler. Almost as if nothing happens in the first 5 episodes, a little bit of plot occurs in the next 4, and EVERYTHING happens in the last 4 episodes. Honestly, the final episode could have been it's own episode; it contained literally a journey across the entire world, and a reunion with a lover condensed into 20 minutes.
Charlotte introduces several characters, far too many for it's length. Many of the characters are quickly forgotten or thrown aside. Along with it, Charlotte tries to give tragic moments to characters who the viewer doesn't even have a chance to connect with. It's hard to feel bad about the death of a character when you hardly know anything about them.
Charlotte tried too hard to be many things: action, romance, comedy, sports, school, slice of life... it just didn't work out too well in the end. The last episode could have been its own season really. It lacked proper direction and a clear goal in mind; as stated before it muddled around for what felt like half of the series and didn't begin to let the viewer what was the aim or objective of the characters until the late second half.
To conclude, Charlotte was a nice idea that could have been better had it had more direction, and better writing.
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TL;DR
Pros:
- Interesting premise
- Nice animation quality
Cons:
- Plot progression is horrible
- Many characters are 1 dimensional and quickly forgotten
- The show lacked progression
- Wonky conclusion
