Since it appears to be peaceful enough here for the moment, I guess I’ll just post a few thoughts while it’s all alright.
I felt it was lacking. Not in how it made sense or conveyed the show’s message, it did and was entirely satisfying in that regard - but in terms of execution it was quite weak. I remember saying (not on here) that they should at least have made this episode a one-hour special, and I still stand with that. Watching it, you feel they had to throw in the whole of Yu’s adventure despite it clearly being too long for the usual anime episode format, and it resulted in his supposed struggle feeling weak, because he navigates between distinct parts of it all in a matter of minutes, which makes the whole of it feel as if it were brushed aside. It felt rushed, and weak as a result. Another consequence of that is the final scene, which comes about so abruptly I barely knew what to say when it started.
The more global problem is that quite frankly I feel Maeda went for the “easy” ending, one where his characters aren’t hurt too much - the problem being that I expected a much greater sense of sacrifice and struggle from Yu’s adventure, and although it was partly because of what I said above, I wonder if any length could have fixed that entirely. That makes me really frustrated.
I feel especially frustrated because all in all, it’s a show with amazing ideas, and to me it was mere inches away from being a truly amazing work. That is to say, a better ending, or alternatively more episodes, from being quite a masterful anime.
Now as for how I rank Charlotte, I’ll still put it as my favorite anime of the summer if only for what an interesting and meaningful series it was, despite the ending being of unfortunately questionable quality and, I’ll say it, one of the show’s worse episodes in my opinion, if only based on what one could have rightfully expected from Charlotte’s finale after all that build-up. And while that might sound upsetting to some, I rank it way above Angel Beats!, aka the anime which never should’ve been one - at least Charlotte is fit to be an animation. (and also because Yu & Nao are amazing and I never felt as strongly toward any AB! character).