Why not both? 
Okay, this episode was really weird. It felt fine up until Kumagami was captured, and then things became unnecessarily dark. I don’t know if Maeda’s being rushed to bring the series to a close or not, but this turn of events felt strange with some awkward pacing here and there. The pay-off, though, was immensely heartbreaking, even though I’ve had less time to relate to Kumagami than most of the people in this thread.
At the very least, this episode did not ruin the series for me, unlike some others who watched this episode. I really have no idea how Maeda is going to wrap all this up, but I’m excited to see what happens next! 
EDIT: I thought I’d update my thoughts in this post. There really isn’t much difference from how I feel about this particular episode from last week. It’s pretty rushed, and parts of it make little sense, but the payoff is still heartbreaking. On to episode 12.
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I don’t see how making things dark and disturbing is bad. It’s just as many people have said before: Key is trying something new. As far as I’m aware this is the first Key work since Kanon to have a character who actually has ill intentions. And they’re taking that to the max. I think that that is one of the few things this show has done especially well.
That said, I think people are looking at this show the wrong way. Take Key and Maeda out of the equation when you look at Charlotte. Aside from those two aspects, there is absolutely no reason to compare it with the safe and overall happy stories of Clannad or Little Busters. It’s the kind of thing you have to take for what it is. Yes, it’s okay to go in with expectations, but it really isn’t fair to expect Key to pump out the same happy school days+tragic event+deus ex Machina formula time and time again.
Charlotte is far from perfect. It suffers from poor pacing in the beginning, paired with the lack of a central plot till 3/4 of the way through, but aside from that, it’s a fairly generic super power anime. Nothing horrendous, but definitely nothing to write home about. I think it represents a transitional period in the works of Key. They’re trying something new and seeing what works and what doesn’t. Looking at it in the context of Key’s work, it doesn’t fit in at all, but looking at it as an attempt to grow and try new things, it is in the least a fair attempt.
Personally, I waver a lot on my enjoyment of Charlotte. On one hand, it’s kept me interested enough to watch as soon as the episode has aired (which is rare for me) and I always want to find out what is going to happen, but by the same token it doesn’t fit my expectations at all.
tl;dr if you’re expecting another Clannad, you’re silly. This show is Key trying something new, so you should look at it as such. Either way the show is mediocre/good at worst/best.
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I wouldn’t say this episode ruined the series for me… My only major complaint was that the motivation for so many characters to suffer was that a side character (of which we never even saw before)'s family was in trouble. To me it just felt like everyone was wasting their life. If, let’s say, Ayumi or Nao was kidnapped it would be a motivation the viewers could understand and relate to. Or maybe in a previous episode they could have introduced the character and his family making you actually care for them…
I don’t think it’s the “dark” stuff that’s making the show bad. At least that’s content! Charlotte has already done dark, and it was one of the better episodes.
It’s just an easy way to describe the lack of direction the show has, or maybe for some it’s about the pacing.
For one, it was very sudden. I still don’t know the characters very well, and I still don’t know what the show wants to do. Some of the characters acted very differently to what I’d expect. When put under threat, I don’t think I care about a single character in this story so far aside from maybe Nomura… Who I only like because she has a cool hairstyle. Guy might lose his family? Okay. Pooh dead? Okay. Blind guy is sad? Okay.
Can we move on and see something more informative now? It’s probably too late to make me care about these people. At least make a good main plot.
The explanation behind all of the powers was also very half-heartedly done. They basically just told us what we already knew from the opening animation. They linked it back to the first episode, so pachi pachi pachi, even if it was incredibly forced.
You could take the exact same concept, throw it in something like… Classroom Class, and they’d probably manage it much better. Foreign guy kidnaps someone for some form of ransom? Little animal girl assassin shows up? It’s tropey, but that stuff has been used well in the past. Charlotte is just an exception.
You say people are comparing the show to Clannad and Litbus, but I don’t think most of us are doing that. Our complaints stem from Charlotte being bad as an anime. Not compared to other Key works… It’s not even good enough to compare to previous works imo.
If I were to compare it to every other show of the season, Charlotte’s charadev would be about as bad as Chaos Dragon’s. Maybe a bit better or worse depending on the episode, but overall, pretty neck-and-neck.
We’re 11 episodes in and I don’t know where it’s going.
Compare it to the previously mentioned anime…
Chaos Dragon episode 1: Oh okay, these countries are gonna fight and the main party will get caught up in it.
Classroom Crisis episode 5-6: Ah, a classic battle of families, and the main cast are the tipping point!
I could just compare it to the shows I’ve watched today…
Gakkou Gurashi episode 1: A survival slice-of-life.
Joukamachi no Dandelion episode 2: Following around different members of the main cast and learning about them.
Every show I watched this season. Every show I watched the season before, and the season before that… You knew what a show was before the first half of the season was over…
What is the point of Charlotte? What is it? While every other show was setting up for further weeks of entertainment, Charlotte was doing power-of-the-week segments and forced foreshadowing that screamed “please don’t drop me. We’ll do something eventually! I promise!”
When it finally stopped being an episodic, it forgot to find a new direction. At least, that’s how the show looks to me.
In it’s current state, Charlotte just doesn’t compare well to what’s out there, and it doesn’t stand up to my expectations of any show.
I look at my pretty little chart of anime ratings in worry, because Charlotte might be the show that puts my 4-point rating bar into the red.
I don’t think Charlotte is a generic anything. It’s sub-par.
Hamatora is a better example of a “generic super power anime.” Not that good, not that bad, but it has everything you’d expect.
It didn’t help it though. It was an okay episode, but it needs to be more than okay at this point.
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That’s actually a pretty good point. They explain the source of the powers, sure, but give no explanation to the reason people get the powers that they get. Kind of like we’re just supposed to accept this at face value.
And thus is the crux of the problem of the series. Ignoring whether or not it is a good or bad thing for the series, this much is true. We never really know where Charlotte is headed; the story doesn’t have any apparent direction on where it wants to go. And the PVs don’t help a lot either.
In a way, it’s pretty frustrating, but, in a way, it’s also somewhat exciting.
I’ve talked about things like character development and why I think Yuu’s is pretty good, but I often neglect considering whether I should care about the characters or not. It’s a bit of a personal issue, though, so I won’t talk about it. But let’s just say that no single character’s death in any piece of fiction would be capable of making me sad.
Dude, no. Charlotte has bad writings and it doesn’t have anything to do with comparing it to CLANNAD or LitBus!. I don’t expect it to be another sappy school romance with tragedy and tearjerkers. What @Takafumi pointed, I absolutely agree. It has no clear direction. After each episode I can only think “Okay, now what?” instead of getting excited for the next episode while thinking what might happen.
When you say “Key is trying to do something new”, I have Rewrite in my mind. Okay, Charlotte might be new, too… But is it a good excuse to make the storywriting horrible? No. It’s not being “dark” or “gory” or “trying to do something new” which makes it bad. It’s bad because we don’t know where this show is going.
Charlotte also failed to make me care for the characters. We hardly know any of them, maybe aside from Nao and Yuu? So when deaths happen I didn’t feel anything nor I care. Why must we care about Ayumi if she was just a high-pitched weird little sister who cooks daily for our MC? Why must we care about Kumagami if he was just a wet weirdo who randomly appears (even if he’s Shun’s homo partner best buddy)? And really, why should we care about the driver’s family when they’re not even the part of this story? Who the hell are they and why are they so significant!? Maybe for the in-universe character they’re important (but whoo Shun’s group doesn’t even know that the driver guy actually has family) but as a part of important plot point, it’s a bit ridiculous.
I think that’s a half-assed explanation because they only imply those things; it doesn’t guarantee anything about it being tied into a person’s inner struggle.
Maybe a half-assed explanation is good because it gives us more opportunity to imagine the influx of the powers… or maybe it is bad because we genuinely want to know more about this fictional world. I’ll leave it to you to decide.
I dunno, but are there any theories of storywriting that say that lacking an apparent direction makes a story considered as written badly?
I’m not a writer nor had I studied about storywriting theories. But as a viewer, on my personal taste, it’s bad.
Might be worth mentioning that it is your personal taste, then. You say it as if it’s storywriting is objectively horrible, which can be pretty misleading to some.
I would say so. Direction is one of the primary elements in a story that move it forward and give the viewer something to look forward to. In a slapstick comedy direction isn’t really required because you are just there for the laughs, but for a show like Charlotte that is based more on drama and thrills I want to know as a viewer, “Why am I watching this? Where is this story heading?”. The show’s lack of apparent direction keeps me from being fascinated as to what will happen from here. I guess that’s just personal preference but I prefer shows that have a goal, at least, one that is apparent before the last 2 episodes.
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If a song doesn’t follow “Intro, Verse I, Chorus, Verse II, Chorus, etc”, does that make it a bad song?
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There is a difference between the show having a direction and following a formula. As I said it is personal preference, but I like to know why the characters are doing what they are doing, why the show is doing what it is. I agree with what you said in the podcast about how the show doesn’t need to pander to the viewers by shoving said direction in their face, but I just want something to look forward to as opposed to thinking, “Ok, that’s over, now what?”.
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At least with the classic principles I was taught, you should only start a story once you have a focus. Of course, on-the-spot inspiration is always a driving force, but if you go on without a clear idea of what you want your writing to tell, or you write in a way that makes your audience believe you have no aim, your story will be worse off for it.
Find a reason or an interest, keep it short and simple, do your best not to stray from the main plot, and make sure that your original reason is brought to light for everyone to see. Don’t ramble, don’t get side-tracked, and remember your foundation. Oh, and generally you want to follow successful examples to find out what staples people rely on to enjoy a story. Something new is nice every now and then, but an audience likes it’s medium to remain consistent, with slow changes over the years. You can create something fresh from the ingredients left by others.
These principles are followed by most writers, even inexperienced ones. It’s why writer’s block is such a pain. A story is all about your reason.
Oh, and a slightly different thing that is equally important - Remember the importance of an audience. Writing for yourself is well and good, but it’s not ideal. You can’t just throw down an idea, move on, and expect your audience to fill in the blanks with the same words you did. You need to add enough for everyone to understand what you are saying. People want affirmation. They want to know if their idea was correct. They want as much information as they can get. Certain genres play with this, but Charlotte isn’t that show.
These ideas aren’t concrete… Everything depends on context after all~ But generally, you want to follow them.
I’d say direction is incredibly important for certain types of comedy. It’ll be dependant on the type of comedy, but something like Daily Lives of High School Boys or My Family The Yamadas… You can do some smart stuff.
No, but if it is just a mash of random notes, then yes.
You are thinking of structure.
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Which is why I specified by saying slapstick
I don’t watch enough comedy to know what that is, but I know direction is important for the types I like~
3 stooges, family guy, and almost any American Comedy film made in the last 5 or so years are good examples haha
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I see that some people are adventurous and they might like going to random places without any destination in mind. But the way I see it, I am a tourist, “Charlotte” is a tour plan set up by a tour guide named Maeda, and as a tourist I was expecting a well-planned travel, but this “tour plan” is not plan, but more like the tour guide do whatever he wants and drags everyone in the travel group into various random place, maybe taking us for grand dinner at 6 AM and taking us back to grand dinner at 9 AM and taking us back to grand dinner again at 11 AM. Then I, as the tourist started to feel that the tour guide doesn’t even know where he’s heading to. I start to think, “this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. This could be bad.” He’s not hinting where we’re going. I might even think that he’ll take us to somewhere dangerous because he don’t say a thing about where we’ll be going next. But other tourists say “nahh, I still believe in him and his judgement so let’s just follow him. Maybe he has some big surprise at the end of the tour.”
For adventurous person, the tour might be an “objectively” good tour. But for people like me who wants proper direction, it’s subjectively bad.
Plus, it’s hard not to be subjective at judging creative works :\
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That’s a good way to describe it, like it’s leading us on a blind journey with no major explanation as to what we are really doing…
