Welcome back to the place where we quiz our staff about various things to get a take on their experiences and interests within fandom. This week we posit the question of what their worst anime experience and I’m already disappointed that nobody said Spirited Away.
Because goodness that was an awful movie that put me to sleep each time I watched it.
Anyway, there are a pretty interesting and good range of answers and reasons why here and though there are some familiar titles to be sure, there are bound to be more. What’s your worst anime experience? Drop a line in our Questioning Fandom forum under this topic!
Josh Begley
Dog & Scissors
Dog and Scissors. That piece of junk had everything I like: cute girls, books, dachshunds, and it still managed to be incredibly moronic, nonsensical, and boring. That’s several hours of my life that I want back.
Sakura Eries
Ocean Waves
Ocean Waves and Night on the Galactic Railroad. I didn’t think it possible for Ghibli to put out a bad film, but Ocean Waves proved me wrong. Basically it was a bunch of high school memories with no real plot to tie it all together. As for Night on the Galactic Railroad, that was a bunch of disjointed scenes with a lot of nothing in between, and I still don’t know why the main characters were talking cats.
Melina Dargis
Strange+
I “trial” animes that seem interesting and if they don’t hit a chord with me right away, I stop. But, I have to say one of the most bizarre anime shorts I watched was Strange+. It was so off the wall, I didn’t know what to think about it! –
Cain Walter
Bloodivores
Bloodivores takes the cake without competition. The newest of the China/Japan cooperative efforts, it offers terrible art and animation combined with supernatural story elements (vampires born from a drug’s side effects are forced to kill each other while wearing collars that explode if they break the rules of the game) that don’t just beat the dead horse, they hand deliver it’s mutilated corpse straight to the Elmer’s factory. I honestly can’t think of a single show that has been a bigger waste of time than this congregation of the worst cliches in popular culture today.
Luis Cruz
Galerians
Inu Yasha… Just kidding! Or am I? I tend to be selective about what I watch, so “worst” is a relative term. Out of all the titles I’ve reviewed, Galerians would probably top the “worst” list simply by looking like someone clipped together all the FMV out of a video game. “Worst family friendly conversion” would have to go to Knights of the Zodiac, the horrific butchering of Saint Seiya. My scathing reviews of this series earned me a death threat in Brazilian Portuguese. Good times…
Ink
Wanna Be the Strongest in the World
Wanna Be the Strongest in the World. If the first five minutes of orgasmic wailing doesn’t turn you off of this idol-based wrestling anime, maybe the next five episodes work of orgasmic wailing will. Worst show I ever had to watch for a podcast ever. I initially dropped it after literally five minutes.
Kate O’Neil
Glass Fleet
Why did I watch those five episodes of Glass Fleet?
Karyna Kouruklis
Mangaka-san and His Assistants
This one’s harder than I thought. I will probably name something that doesn’t deserve as much hate as something else, just because I’m forgetful. I would say Mangaka-san and his assistants. The worst part of it being that it managed to have some genuinely funny and sweet moments only to ruin them with random sexual harassment. I hate these type of shows where the guy is abusive and perverted but everyone forgives him because he has a good heart. Look, if you’re taking care of someone sick and are being nice and attentive and then you decide to jump on her because she’s lying down in your house, yeah, no. It also plays into the premise that guys are dumb and can’t help it which is insulting to everyone. Strangely it has one of the funniest beach episodes I’ve seen and one of the only parts where the guy actually managed to be decent. There’s probably something much worse out there but I either can’t remember or I’ve gotten good at avoiding them. Oh, wait, there’s also Wonder Momo, the anime that never quite answers the question: Why?
Gabe Peralta
Skull Man
Skull Man. The more I dig into Ishinomori titles, the more I realize that I enjoy their basic premise more than their execution. I haven’t seen too many anime that I’ve downright hated, but this one cuts it pretty close if only because it had me hooked and then started throwing stuff out of left field. There’s subverting expectations, then there’s establishing a totally realistic world only to toss in mutant furries and Greek gods into the mix. I’m glad I only dropped $5 on the complete series
G.B. Smith
Doki Doki School Hours
Doki Doki School Hours. I’ve seen plenty of mediocre shows over the years, but you want the one that makes me blanche just thinking about it, it’s that one. A comedy that’s unfunny. Not just unfunny, but often the opposite of funny
Doki Doki School Hours. I’ve seen plenty of mediocre shows over the years, but you want the one that makes me blanche just thinking about it, it’s that one. A comedy that’s unfunny. Not just unfunny, but often the opposite of funny
Gregory Smith
N/A
The absolute worst property I’ve seen is an ecchi that I will not name. I streamed the first few episodes of the series, and when I saw where it was going, I couldn’t stand to watch it. It really seemed to embody all of the negative stereotypes of Japanese pop culture. It is the only thing I’ve ever watched that made me feel shame at having watched it. I will not mention the name because I don’t ever want to be associated with the show nor do I want anyone to watch it just to find out how bad it really is.
AJ Adejare
Holy Knight
Too many to mention, but Holy Knight for the OVA’s sheer inconsistency, and Shuffle! because that property was just not that good. Average to death would be Lance N’ Masques where I forgot I reviewed the property, thus I would argue a bad property. Master of Martial Hearts went so off the rails that I just wanted to bail out and never touch it again. Man, is this cruel making me remember stuff I wasted my time on
Lauren Gallo
Robot Carnival
I know it’s one of those landmarks from the wilderness 80s years, but I’ve always had this strong dislike of Robot Carnival (sorry, Darius!). Just something about it bored me to tears. But let’s be the real, the big one for me that will be the super bone of contention- Neon Genesis Evangelion. I just couldn’t get into it! I feel like the hype around it was it’s heavy themes for the time it was released, but it just never grabbed me
Katherine Parker
FLCL
FLCL is absolutely at the top of my personal list of most hated anime, and if you go by the major identifiers of that series you’ve got a good recipe for what i don’t like. I need my anime…or really any media…to make sense and be linear… and not do too many really weird visual things. I also find myself highly irritated by harem anime, anything that doesn’t have a plot and it just fluff, and anime that focus on a gaggle of preteen girls. I suppose you could say that i like substance, clarity, and some weight to my anime
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
Welcome back to the place where we quiz our staff about various things to get a take on their experiences and interests within fandom. This week we posit the question of what their worst anime experience and I’m already disappointed that nobody said Spirited Away.
