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I never said that characters should follow the same rationale as I do. This has nothing to do with rationale, and it's expected that all characters will approach a situation or ethical dilemma slightly differently from how I would. Obviously there's a problem if characters make an decision that's not consistent with their experiences and personality to date, but that's just poor storytelling, which is a much more objective flaw.
This is about being able to identify with characters. If you can't identify with characters to at least some extent, it's much harder to truly connect with them, and thus, become absorbed in their stories. Sure, it's possible to make fascinating stories from completely unsympathetic characters, but these types of stories tend to be really focused character analyses, which this certainly is not (either that, or stylized violence, but that's a completely different kettle of fish).
And yes, part of all of this is that I can't always understand their thought criteria, and it's not out of lack of trying. These are such emotionally-driven characters, and they so frequently act purely out of emotion. I, personally, am not. I tend to try to minimize the influence of emotions in my decision making as much as possible. The good thing about this anime is that it hasn't tried to baby its audience by spoon-feeding us character rationale each and every time they make a decision, but the disadvantage is that it loses people like me, who aren't immediately susceptible to the same thought process that these characters tend to use.
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