Its very difficult for me to really describe how I feel about Charlotte. It's one of the most popular shows from the season and one that I had quite high expectations on. The premise looks great, a group of people with supernatural powers struggling to understand the extent of their own abilities, mixed in with elements of drama, comedy and slice of life. It has all the elements of a good shounen anime.
Did it meet my expectations? Definitely not, but neither was Charlotte a completely terrible show - there were some good elements, namely the art and sound. Trust me, I tried very hard to like this show, I really did. But even the excellent animation and character design cant make up for the huge plot inconsistencies, terrible pacing (largely due to the lack of episodes), and a very large array of characters that are never developed properly. The show itself is not all bad, if you enjoy good art and animation, you will probably enjoy this. But personally I couldn't get past the subpar plot and characters, and the art/sound alone wasn't enough to warrant a higher score for the show.
I will start with the positive elements since its probably the easiest to get through.
ART: 10
Charlotte had excellent art and animation, I especially loved the character design - every scene was done well. Its clear that alot of time and attention has been put into every small detail.
SOUND: 9
Sound was generally well done. I though the voice acting was on point for most characters. Soundtrack was also pretty good, I particularly liked the OP.
Now here is where everything goes downhill...
STORY: 5
As I explained earlier, charlotte had a very good premise - its like a nicely decorated cake from an expensive bakery, but one which is actually uncooked and inedible on the inside. The first few episodes were somewhat acceptable, they were the "episodic" slice of life type where the student council went around finding other students with special abilities. Very similar to the "missions" that the SSS went on in the first few episodes of Angel Beats! Everything went downhill after episode six - full of plot inconsistencies, extremely rushed pacing and unexplained events.
**WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - SKIP AHEAD IF NECESSARY**
One of the biggest problems I have with the story is that Ayumi died but was somehow brought back to life. Her death made the story substantially more interesting, giving Yuu a potential motive to get rid of the superpowers - as well as significant room for added drama, tragedy and character development. Why was she brought back? She never served any particular purpose afterwards, and barely had any screen time. The use of time-travel to fill the inconsistent plot holes about bringing Ayumi back to life, and explain the existence of the older brother was lazy and unacceptable. The ending in the last two episodes were so rushed and inconsistent to the point where I found it rather insulting as a viewer. Were we supposed to accept that Yu ALONE managed to remove all the superpowers from the ability wielders?
**END OF SPOILERS**
CHARACTER: 6
The only thing that I can say about the characters in this show is "wasted potential". At the beginning, we have some very interesting characters. The arrogant and rebellious MC Yuu who uses his abilities to cheat his way through life. The cold and smart mouthed Nao who is supposed to become his love interest. The main problem that I have is that throughout the show, none of these characters are ever fleshed out and developed properly. Yuu's arrogant and rebellious personality is thrown out the window after he joins the student council, and he becomes the generic cookie cutter bland and boring MC.
Neither is the romance between Yuu and Nao ever built up or developed, there is no chemistry anywhere. For the most part of the show they are indifferent to each other, and as viewers we're expected to accept that they suddenly develop romantic feelings for each other.
None of the other characters are properly developed, and frankly all have very bland personalities. We are constantly introduced to a large array of characters on each episode, existing solely to drive the plot in that particular episode, after which they are either never mentioned again. Or don't receive any level of development to justify why they were ever introduced in the first place.
ENJOYMENT: 7
Despite all this, Charlotte wasn't all bad - the animation was very pleasing to watch, and I was mildly interested in the plot - enough to keep me going till the end. Again, my general displeasure at the show mainly stemmed from the way that the plot unfolded, which I only found out towards the end of the show. The biggest problem that I had with Charlotte was that it shared too many of the negative elements which also plagued its sister show Angel Beats!, and it looks like the creators did nothing to improve on the predecessor show.
OVERALL: 6
Now I know this show has alot of fans, and I can understand why - it has nice art, sound, and nice premise for a good shounen anime. While I really wanted to give Charlotte a higher score than this, remember that six on MAL is equivalent to FAIR - and that nicely sums up my impression on the show. Its certainly not a bad show, but frankly I really can't give it anything higher than that.
