Being a fan of Angel Beats! I was excited to hear that Jun Maeda was creating another anime original that was described as the spiritual successor to Angel Beats! I was even more happy to hear that Jun Maeda planned on fixing all the problems that plagued Angel Beats! with Charlotte.
After finishing Charlotte all I can say is their attempt at fixing Angel Beats! problems just brought a whole bunch of new problems to Charlotte. Despite my rating for Charlotte and its problems, I still actually thoroughly enjoyed Charlotte, at least for a majority of the episodes.
---Spoilers Below---
Here's a list of pros I found:
-Good concept. The idea of a world with some teens developing unique super powers really intrigued me.
-Good soundtrack. I especially like the ED: Yake Ochinai Tsubasa
-Good art and animation. As expected of P.A. Works.
-Interesting two main characters introduced at the start. (Yuu and Nao)
Cons:
-Bland side characters. They get almost no development whatsoever.
-Yuu's character development is a mess.
-Rushed pacing. One minute everyone is playing cards, the next minute someone has been kidnapped.
-The story feels like a jumble of ideas that they tried cramming into 13 episodes.
-Deus ex Machina ending. How did they find a single lone person in China? It's never explained.
-Running jokes that are almost never funny.
-The characters have some idiotic moments just to get the plot moving. Let's approach some highly prepared terrorists that have hostages with hardly any plan at all!
-Many things left unexplained. Ever wondered why Nao is bullied? You have to read the freaking MANGA to get a vague explanation on it: http://i.imgur.com/yzNPJid.png
-Random unexplained events appearing to move the plot forward. Terrorist appearing without any foreshadowing at all?
To expand on some of the above. Yusa and Takajou have almost no importance to the story at all, we hardly learn anything about them and they don't make any large lasting impact on the story other than continuing to be friends with Yuu after everything.
This is especially obvious with Takajou since he's pretty much there as Yuu's friend and comic relief with no actual development at all.
Speaking of character development Yuu's personality is... confusing. Despite showing signs of being quite cunning and described and introduced as a narcissist he never really shows these traits after the first episode and acts like a generic MC with a bit of snark. The only defining trait I found that sticks with him throughout the whole series is... having a sister complex.
Story: 5
Art/Animation: 8
Sound: 8
Character: 3
Enjoyment: 6
Overall: 5
