Anime/Manga Charlotte

[derozio]

I feel that whole last episode could have been an entire season unto itself.

Exact-fucking-ly.

That's the biggest reason behind this anime's downfall. Lack of time.
Character comes and dies and you don't give a fuck? Said character wasn't given focus.
Slice of Life parts feel out of place if you consider the events that happened later? If the anime had a larger time frame given to it, the Slice of Life parts would've helped with the proper characterization, character development and helped viewers to form bonds with the characters. But nope.
Tomori's and Yu's love feels forced to a degree? That's because they didn't give it time to develop properly.
Do you feel sad that Yu forgot things in the end? No. Because you don't care about them. Not about Yu. Nor about his bonds with the said characters.

The only one I felt slightly sad for was Ayumi. When episode 6 was dropped on us. But that's because Ayu had her cute moments being served to us via those Ome-rice sequences (annoying as they were as a joke). Consistently. Which is why it made us feel (I did, at least!) something when that episode came.

Then there are other issues -
Like, Onii-san just coming up there in that helicopter all of a sudden at the very precise moment when he's in trouble? He could locate Yu just like that. In that place in China. WHEN he needs him.
The last "power" being "courage". Pfft.
The fact that they're shown living happily ever after despite the fact that Yu's face is LITERALLY known throughout the world at this point and Yu's a target of god knows how many organizations and he's literally in deep shit now that he'll lose his powers at any point. What can he do after losing his powers? He won't be able to protect himself, his family or his love. Nobody.

That's just...yeah. I can go on if I think about it. This anime was just this - a lot of cool ideas and a lot of budget and creative talent. But lack of time+focus and inconsistent writing. Which ultimately made it much more underwhelming than a lot of us expected it to end up as. Which is a damn shame. Because I always wanted to like this series a lot. The first episode was THE best first episode I had seen in the season. But it just had to go ahead and become a shell of its former self. A damn shame.

Still enjoyed it a lot and gave it a 7/10 on MAL. But, to be frank, it deserves a 5 at best if I try to put aside the gorgeous production values, the goddamn amazing Opening (I fell in love at first sight. That opening is just fucking gorgeous!) and some moments of brilliance that it showed. Here's to hope that Maeda collaborates with P.A. Works for something better next time. P.A. Works, though, as a studio, were AMAZING. Production values were amazing. Loved how the show looked from beginning till the end. So props to them for that.

Edit:
And don't even get me started on the last episode's content. They crammed SO much in there, holy mother of christ.