Forget quality! What are the WORST anime you've ever watched?

[Lovux The Great]

We all love anime. When everything in a good anime comes together, all those ingredients known as good storyline, loveable characters, interesting themes that we might not see much of here in the west, it creates a splendid mix that can make you laugh or cry or bite your nails out of excitement. Or all three at once.

But that’s not the kind of anime we’ll be talking about here.

Here, we list our worst anime experiences. And I’m not talking about adding mediocre series that were just boring or didn’t engage you – I’m talking about the bile stuff that made you think “What were they thinking when they made this?” or “Damn it, this is an insult to me as a person!”. Even if it was a horrible experience, tell us about it. What it was that made you dislike that one series that immediately came to mind when you knew what this thread would be about? I’ll start…

(Warning, LONG rants ahead! Read ONLY if you have lots of time on your hands. )


Gun Frontier
Let me tell you this; I’m a total whore for everything Matsumoto Leiji. If something has his name on it, I’ll fight with my claws and fangs just to get a glimpse of it. This was no exception, and to put more fuel on my already burning interest – it’s part of the Harlock franchise!! I knew I was to expect something radically different than the typical Harlock stuff; as opposed to large-scale space operas with the gallant, charismatic Captain Harlock holding soul-shaking speeches about nobility and freedom and what it means being A TRUE MAN, Gun Frontier is a (rather black) comedy set in a dirty, ugly wild west with dirty, ugly cowboys. I honestly did give this (for Matsumoto) odd work a try and approached it with a completely open mind…
And was disgusted like nothing had ever disgusted me before.
The source material for this series is from the 70s’, which means it has tons of homophobia and especially misogyny to it. I’m not a straw feminist by a long shot, I can laugh at the way some women are portrayed in fiction and take it with a grain of salt, but this was just too much. Sexobjectification galore! It’s laughable that they tried adding a female main character that would serve as the series’ femme fatale, but had nothing of that deadly elegance that makes a femme fatale. If she wasn’t getting tied up by bandits, she was naked. Or both. And every guy who doesn’t turn into a slobbering horndog when she drops her clothes, she just asks “What are you, GAY?”… and strips some more. She was a useless fanservice chick trough and thorough.
But what angers me more is what they dared to do with Harlock. A magnificent figure that has influenced manga-kas for generations and whose presence on the screen is larger than life itself… gone is everything that made him truly epic, and they re-wrote him into a perverted, cowardly, forgettable loser bum with no backbone whatsoever. As if this wasn’t worse enough, he is the sidekick. To a character whose original incarnation was full of unexpected charisma, but now served mostly as a way to show off for the Japanese audience how much better the Japs are with their ancient samurai swords. Speaking of which, there was an anti-racism message throughout the whole series, but only racism against Japanese people. Way to go with the über-nationalism, Japan.
Oh, and the series ends unfinished and without solving anything, in the most cliché “The adventure goes on” kind of ending that I loathe.
As if this wasn’t enough, the series LOOKED and SOUNDED awkward. Stiff movements, sloppy lineart, music I can’t even remember, lazy seiyuu. All these technical “qualities” could have been redeemed if it had a storyline with loveable characters that could save it, but no.
When I had finished watching it – which was with the help of a burned DVD - I literary broke the disc in a million pieces and threw everything into a fire. I was so fucking angry with what they had done to characters I love that this was the only way for me to calm down. But nope, it didn’t erase the pain of having actually watched it. If I had to admit that there’s something this series succeeded in, it’s making me unable to forget it. I’ll remember it till the day I’m six feet under. Because Gun Frontier is THAT BAD.

Dragonaut the Resonance
Let’s see… It’s a romantic, ecchi, action sci-fi drama with mecha dragons flying around in space. Sounds kind of awesome in theory, but in practice, it’s not. It’s supposed to be a heart-wrenching tale of two star-crossed lovers who were just very unfortunate to be caught up in a war against aliens, but depending on how patient you are as a viewer, it either turns into a weekly half hour torture OR the feel-good comedy of the year. I watched Dragonaut two years ago, but I still can’t figure out what the hell it was about. Heck, even the poor fansub team called it a trainwreck and cheered when the show finally was over. The plot was confusing and relied more on ass-pulls than on engaging story-telling. You didn’t care about the BIZZARRELY DESIGNED characters. Speaking of which, I SWEAR that at least 70 percent of the show’s budget went to animating the bouncing movements of all those senseless, gravity-defying jelly breasts. It does, however, get a few points for at least trying to include both cheesecake AND beefcake, so to speak. But like everything else in this show, it just comes off as awkward and/or unintentionally hilarious. Even the seiyuu seemed tired and uninspired, which is particularly shocking since it did not only have the whole S.O.S. Brigade from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but also one of my personal favourites, Suwabe Junichi. Not even he, cast as a tall, dark and handsome bishie, could save the containments of this trashcan known as Dragonaut the Resonance from being anything other than… trash.

K-ON!
The most hollow fictional work I have ever experienced in any media. Rant can be found here.

FLCL
Okay, I know I’m probably upsetting a lot of people by having this on my list, but I must be sincere – this… REALLY was not my kind of little series at all. It’s not that I have anything against extreme use of symbolism and mindfuckery deluxe – If I did, I wouldn’t be watching Revolutionary Girl Utena and be totally fanatic about it. Unconventional story-telling and symbolic devices are fun, but only if it’s done right. Which I personally feel that FLCL does not do.
I know it’s supposed to be a multi-layered coming-of-age story, but I couldn’t even get a glimpse of it. It was way too random and incomprehensible. I can’t help but feel that this was something without any hint of love from the production staff. The character designs where flat and ugly without any traces of charm to them, their personalities had no consistency whatsoever, the voice work was ANNOYING (especially Haruko’s seiyuu made my ears bleed), the music was screechy like nails on a chalk board… and then there was the shotacon. I’m not kidding when I say that every time those girls were coming on to the little boy, caressing and kissing him, I felt something nauseous rise in my throat.
Maybe I had unreasonably high expectations. Everywhere, you see other otakus praising it to the skies and up, calling it a masterpiece. I had heard some of my (now former) classmates talking about it and explained to me how awesome it was to see a boy getting hit in his skull by a guitar and then have giant mechas growing out of his forehead. Of I course I was looking forward to see it! Really hyped! But when I finally got to see that moment with my own eyes… I could barely keep them open, since I was too busy fighting my urges to go to sleep, caused by the pure boredom that is FLCL.

Gravitation
Because it practically embodies everything that I can’t stand with yaoi and Boys Love. Namely, annoying seme and uke stereotypes and unhealthy relationships that aren’t based on love, but pure sexual desire without any emotional attachment and tons of forceful acts like rape. Even worse is that I watched it as my first yaoi/Boys Love ever, because of the frequent claim that it’s one of, if not THE, most well-received and loved Boys Love manga ever. And I hated it. It makes me wonder; if this is what the “best” work of the genre is like, then what about the WORST? Okay, I know that there are several, several yaoi mangas and animes out there that are much worse than Gravitation, but I don’t care. I don’t read/watch them anyway. And most likely never will. Which turns yaoi and Boys Love into one of the few manga genres that I actively avoid and try to have as little to do with as possible. OH THE IRONY. *points at sig*
Right, and constant chibiness annoyed the hell out of me. I’m not making this up; FOUR episodes into this anime, I was sitting with my arm in front of me, literary checking my watch to count how many seconds it took before a “serious” scene was completely ruined by someone going super deformed or dressing up in a dog costume. The yaoi clichés were bad enough, but they didn’t have to deprave it even further by not realizing at all that they should have left a serious scene intact and letting it sink in, without forced attempts of so-called humour every five seconds.
It’s pulling you into it like gravity? I’d say it’s repelling magnetism.

School Days
Yes, I did know about the ending before watching the series, but who on the internet honestly haven’t heard of the infamous “Nice Boat” meme that is School Days? I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece, not by a long shot, but I never imagined that I’d be so upset about the show. It’s been a long time since I encountered such a selfish and stupid cast of characters. How they treated each other made me cringe. There was especially one nasty action towards a side character that was so unfair and uncalled for, that I almost get depressed only by thinking about it. Not that I felt sorry for the characters because I liked them or anything, but because the show was so pathetically written. From start to finish, it was just a trainwreck. What the hell all those insecure, egoistic harem girls saw in a thoroughly unsympathetic horndog for a jerkass like Makoto (who isn’t even that good-looking) is beyond me.
Meh, I don’t think I need to go on. Those who watched it know exactly what I’m talking about. That School Days was an idiotic show with an idiotic plot and even more idiotic characters. As simple as that. But hey, Nice Boat.


Hmmm. I think that’s about it. I know full well that there are animes out there who makes the series I just listed seem like intricate masterpieces, but why would I want to watch a bad show? Anyhow, now it’s your turn to warn others – go for it! Give us your thoughts of what YOU thought were a waste of time, so that we know what to avoid like the plague.

Attention! Due to the nature of this thread, it’d be appropriate if we could keep things on a sane and clean level, without senseless claims such as “I hated [series blah blah] and anybody who likes it is fucking STUPID!”. Not everyone’s going to like or dislike the same things, so please, no flame wars. Also, please avoid comments like “All [genre X] works ever”. There’s a high probability that you have just watched the wrong show(s) of the genre and therefore disowns it as a whole when there are gems out there that you simply have not discovered yet. Don’t be narrow-minded, my friends.



Did you read everything? Then you must be completely nuts!

[steve]

Macross Frontier

I could not get into it. It seemed utterly ridiculous on the face of it, and the only reason I was going to watch it was because it was vaguely similar to Code Geass, which I loved for who knows what reason.

Ghost in the Shell

Try as I might, I can not appreciate this anime. It is difficult for me to watch. I don't know why, but it just isn't my cup of tea. The twenty minutes of bliss per episode I get with other anime turn into agonizing torture. And the story seemed interesting at a conceptual level.

[DavidAre]

Gatekeepers
I hate it. The idea that  grumpy japanese are bad aliens and the uninspired cast of characters with the boring background made me sick. I only watched 3 episodes of 5 that I had. Delete all 5 without remorse

[ManaYagami]

The title that came to my mind when I read the topic was Final Fantasy Unlimited. I hope that I don't need to describe how bad it is.

[Naz]

The title that came to my mind when I read the topic was Final Fantasy Unlimited. I hope that I don't need to describe how bad it is.

Now you made me want a description  =.='

[ManaYagami]

The reasoning behind that is that I watched it 6 years ago, right after I watched FMA. I know! I had a lot of patience at the time to support bad shows. And I don't remember most of it. Here goes!

Animation: The same poor animation that Gonzo has used us to, with lots of bad CGs and flashy lights.
Soundtrack: Forgettable.
Voice acting: I don't remember well, but even if it was good, that alone couldn't save the show.
Character development: what is that? The characters are the same thing from the beginning to the ending and, when there is a backstory, it's so ridiculous that you would prefer to not have seen that disgrace.
Story: A couple of kids lost their parents. They start searching for them with the help of a woman. Every episode, consists of the kids and/or the women getting into trouble and starting a fight with someone else, which would make you think that it's an action show, but no, because the "fights" consist of a Vincent wannabe, who always appears at the right time, putting colored bullets on a gun and firing them which summons a monster that kills every enemy of that episode. Yes! Every single time! Just like a poor sentai!
When there is a twist, which could have made the ending a little better than the rest of the show, but it's so stupid that you feel offended by it and, when it finally ends, you ask yourself "That's it? I watched 25 episodes and this is what I got? I want my 9 hours back!"

I know that I could rage more about it, but I would have to suffer through that show again.

The last anime that made me rage hard was Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When the Seagulls Cry), which had everything to be awesome, since I read the first 4 visual novels in which it is based, but it failed miserably.

For the people that don't know, Umineko is a story by Higurashi's author that's been going on for 3 years and it's last part will be released this winter. It consists of the typical mystery scenario of an island isolated for a weekend where people are killed until no one else is left alive and, everything appears to be the work of witches, according to the stories told on the island about the witch Beatrice. Once everyone dies, there is a reset, the time goes back and everything happens again. Even though the story isn't yet finished, the author has been giving the readers hints about what's really happening on the island, who/what is the witch(es), the motivations behind the killings, who gets what after the events on the island, etc. and even though it's a story that starts slowly with the needed introduction of almost two dozen characters, it's really interesting.
But that's exactly where the anime starts to fail, they butchered the introduction to most of the characters, so you barely know them when the deaths start happening. Added to that, there were several other important scenes that were cut or modified, which made it harder or even impossible to understand the subtleties that were on the author's original work and that difficults the understanding of what's happening.
Most of the OST was modified and because of that, the impact of some scenes was lost. The best parts of the OST were the OP sung by Akiko Shikata, who also worked on the original visual novels and, the ED by JIMANG. Which aren't simply popular J-Pop/Rock songs inserted to help with the sales, but they were pieces created as if two of the characters are singing them.
Regarding the character designs, most of them are improvements on the author's original art, but they exaggerated the size of the breasts of most female characters, who already had good proportions. Typical fanservice approach. Which is aggravated by the bad animation and the bad facial expressions that are often used.
The best part about it is the voice acting. Umineko combined a great cast of VAs, with some veterans like Hirose Masashi (Ramba Ral in Gundam from 1979) and Mugihito, and also some newer and equally famous VAs like Ono Daisuke, Sayaka Oohara, Yukari Tamura, Marina Inoue and, Yui Horie who did their parts just like I imagined them when I read their lines.

Even though it's not only composed of bad parts, Umineko is a terrible anime. It's really bad for people who read the original work and wanted to see it animated and even worse for people that don't even know it's origins and just want to watch an anime without having to read a more than 50 hours long visual novel to understand what's happening on screen. That's how bad it was adapted.

[Naz]

Wow...
That sound pretty bad   

[ManaYagami]

I could talk about K-On!, but I was sleeping through the 8 episodes that I "watched". Even when I woke up, I hadn't missed anything from the "plot" (I was reminded about it by the other thread, but I didn't want to derail it). It's not that I was expecting to see Dune in anime format, but since I liked Lucky Star and it's constant anime/manga/gaming inside jokes with several Azumanga-like segments in the middle, I expected something along those lines, but no!
They skipped everything that was related to humor and filled those spaces with the main characters drinking tea and eating cakes, pretending that they play in some kind of band or even that they give concerts. Add to all of that, 2 beach episodes on a 12 episodes long show.

"But, at least, it has good music and there are lots of musical references on a music anime", you say. No, there aren't and the music sucks (typical bubbly J-Pop combined with worse than Britney Spears' lyrics). Sure, they pick up their instruments a lot, but the only thing that they played in 8 episodes, when they played, were the same chords all over again which were part of a song that they later play at school. When there is a character who references Jimmy Hendrix, she plays for some 20 seconds and is turned back into a moe useless character that's there to fill the empty place left for a supposedly single, lazy and funny teacher.

The only good thing on it's favor is the quality of the animation that's almost always good (unless you are talking about the Endless Eight) on a Kyoto Animation show, but when it's not based on someone else's works, they can't work out a plot. In before, "but K-On! is from someone else!". It's a 4koma, it doesn't have a plot.

After that, I dropped it and started watching Umineko with high expectations. "How could they mess up Umineko?" I was so wrong... lol

[Anri]

Must say it was Pretear and maybe in the same category Princess Tutu....quite a lot like Sailor Moon and therefore so washed out.

[hammershoney315]

Neo Ranga without a doubt. I am not one to judge a show on the first couple of episodes. There are several of my all time favorites that got off to slow starts. So I like to give everything a fair shot. There are 48 episodes of Neo Ranga. I watched 16 of them. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of the 16 episodes that I did not fall asleep very shortly after the opening. And have fingers left over.... I think 16 episodes was more than a fair chance to gain my interest. So far it is the only anime I began watching and did not, nor will I ever, finish.

[Asterisk]

Tokyo Underground

I watched this entire series and I couldn't make sense of it at all. It felt like there was no real story for this and was just all mindless action ... and the action didn't even make any sense either.

[Lin]

Tokyo Underground

I watched this entire series and I couldn't make sense of it at all. It felt like there was no real story for this and was just all mindless action ... and the action didn't even make any sense either.

I'm was thinking of watching this one, but now I think I'll be taking this review under advisement before doing so.     It really is irritating to try to make one's way through a series that makes no sense!

[civer]

akane maniax ... ok it was just a 2 episode offspring, but I couldnt even watch one episode straight -.-"

[hairysl]

I haven't watched alot of animes but: DRAGONBALL Z anime series

I'm pretty sure that for every 20min episode you watch the story progresses 5min.
For the first ten min they recap all the vocal exchanges of the last episode. Then for five min, they show them exchange 1-2 blows. Then they end the episode with some lame quotes. It's a torture.

But Dragonball Z anime movies are really worth their weight in gold. Though it's really hard to find nowadays where I live I don't know why. Too old school I guess.

[wowO_O]

kishin douji zenki

just one i thought of because i watched that recently. anyways i watched it because i was looking for an anime to watche and it was a somewhat long series so i thought it might be good since it managed to stay on air for so long and the plot sounded interesting. but it turned out to be one of those animes that follow the same basic plot every episode like sailor moon. i could go on about the other bad aspects of the anime but i'll just stop at this point.