Now, the concept here is quite imaginative, especially how every ability is flawed in a way, which creates a lot of space for some strategic play. But sadly, the anime does not capitalise on that potential and instead sticks to the usual Jun Maeda routine involving the silver haired female lead with a tragic backstory and the 'special' baseball match. Still, it all remains fine and they stick with an episodic format for about 4-5 episodes, which is indeed fun to watch. And the show gets even better after they introduce that little dark twist. But this is where the show fails really hard. After that twist, the scale of the story changes in a ridiculous way and everything goes haywire. And then the last episode just takes a massive dump over eveything and the series wraps up in the most ridiculous way possible. To put it in perspective, it is like if Naruto wrapped up the whole great ninja war in a couple of episodes (no fillers). Simply put, the show had a promising start, which was carried nicely halfway, but everything after that is just a catastrophe.
The only thing that I really liked, was how the dynamic between Yu and Tomori was developing around that little twist, but then what happened afterwards just completely wiped it all off, ruining it for me. And because of that, the romance later on came off as really awkward and forced drama. The main character did get developed because of the enormous amount of screen time, but all the supposed good bits which really mattered (the psychological aspects from using abilities) were rushed at the very end. I will say that out of all the characters, his character was the most human considering how he wasn't always playing the goodie two shoes stereotype. He abused his abilities, learned a lesson from that, and when he got insanely powerful, his conviction did waver for a second. As for the other characters, no one was really relatable/memorable/good, in fact, majority of the characters were there for the sake of comedy and the punchlines and had no emotional impact whatsoever. I really think they should have handled Tomori's character better because the dynamic between her and Yu could have blossomed really well. But sadly, it ended up being a disappointment.
As for the production, P.A. Works has done a fine job. The animation and sound were both above average. They weren't phenomenal but I can at least call them good, especially the soundtrack. I liked some of the songs in the anime. The opening and ending sequences were meh/okay. I watched them once and skipped them afterwards.
Overall, Charlotte started off nicely with promise and it did carry that momentum halfway, but at the end, it turned into a giant clusterfuck. They could have better handled the situation if the series were 3-4 episodes longer. They could have done a better job with their romance pair and the characters that way but they didn't. So, in the end, the show becomes this weird awkward mess which just makes you wonder why they squandered all their potential like that. The show isn't that annoying at all, but the fuck up is just so obvious and so stupid that it is really hard to stop yourself from raging (which is why there are so many rants cum reviews here). So with that little warning, go try it if you want to, but be ready for all the frustration at the end.
