Is it true that Angel Beats was originally set for 2 cours before being cut down to 1?

Question

The following claim frequently pops up in discussions of Angel Beats:

The reason Angel Beats seems so rushed is that the show was originally planned for 2 cours (24-26 episodes) before being cut down to 1 cour (13 episodes) late in production, at which point it was too late to re-pace everything correctly for the shorter length.

I have never actually seen evidence to support this claim, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this might be one of those things that somebody on the internet just said once, and everybody else picked up on it because it makes for a good narrative.

Is there any evidence that the above claim is true?

Answer 1

No, Angel Beats! was never supposed to become a 26-episode Anime (2 cours).

Due to the lack of character building, a lot of people have assumed that it was supposed to become a 26 episode anime, but so far all are false speculations.

I also remember reading the notes about it becoming an anime in either the LN or Manga where he stated something along the lines of not having enough space to tell the story. So they most likely decided on this setup to still give the core points of the story, and getting you into reading the rest.

One of the sources that mainly instigate this kind of rumors includes small quotes on sites such as TvTropes.org where was said.

The reason for this is most likely that the show was originally planned for 26 episodes but was then cut down to 13. Angel beats tropes

Although this might not be the exact starting point of the rumor, they usually start from frequently visited anime related sites, where after they spread to Yahoo, forums, SE.