The Worst Anime You've Watched Recently

[bsu legato]

Unless you're some pathetic, deluded fanboy who gobbles up anything even tangentially related to anime, there's bound to be some anime that you watch and just loathe. Hours of your time gone. Wasted. Wasted on anime that sucked. Post here about the latest piece of garbage you've had the misfortune to watch. Me, I just sat through 13 episodes of...

Gun Frontier

Now, I likes me my westerns, even moreso than I like old school anime. So you would think the combination of Harlock and the wild, wild west would be an instant hit. Well you thought wrong, and I should stab out your eyes with this pen I'm holding for even entertaining the notion. This show was awful. It really is telling when, in a mere 13 episode run, the writers keep using the exact same schtick in each of them. Sure as hell, every episode features a combination of the following elements:

- New town, new arbitrary (and somewhat idiotic) rules. ie, "No short people allowed"

- Tochiro gets shot (but not really, cuz he's so tiny under that cloak)

- Tochiro nearly gets hung

- Emereldas...er, I mean "Sinunora" gets naked.

And then there's the man himself, Harlock. When the HELL did he start shooting the guns out of people's hands? And since when does he need everything explained to him by Tochiro? He's supposed to impassively stand there with a smug look on his face while muttering something about "freedom," not slouch around with his thumb up his ass while every slow-witted cowpoke in the west gets the drop on him. Gun Frontier makes his non-performance in Harlock Saga look positively action packed in comparison.

That aside, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about this show. The animation is barely Anime Friend caliber, the music is uniformly horrid, the character designs (aside from the main cast) are not worth mention, and the plot is dull, dull, dull. Interestingly, Gun Frontier is supposedly based on a very old manga by Matsumoto. I don't know if something was lost in translation, but this is clearly NOT the Arcadia that Matsumoto & his creations need to return to.

Edited February 21, 2006 by bsu legato

[Mr March]

Steamboy was a big steaming pile of pants.

That's the most recent example I can think of. I'm actually quite the opposite of the anime elitist. Most anime has to work very hard to earn my respect as a quality production worth my time. Especially given the fact that anime is still to this day VERY expensive, it's ever so important to me that I spend my money wisely. But that's pretty much how I feel about everything, film included. Only difference is, film is so much easier to find and watch than anime, so I own far more live action film than anime.

Edited February 21, 2006 by Mr March

[Spatula]

Steamboy was a big steaming pile of pants.

That's the most recent example I can think of.  I'm actually quite the opposite of the anime elitist.  Most anime has to work very hard to earn my respect as a quality production worth my time.  Especially given the fact that anime is still to this day VERY expensive, it's ever so important to me that I spend my money wisely.  But that's pretty much how I feel about everything, film included.  Only difference is, film is so much easier to find and watch than anime, so I own far more live action film than anime.

372142[/snapback]

You buy anime? Whoa. That's crazy talk.

(Actually I was at one time contemplating on getting the whole GITS: SAC season 1 on regular release DVD...but I learned to torrent. My anime world changed, for the better).

LOL.

Okay, to be fair, I do have the Manga release of the Patlabor films, since I loved them so much. But I think that's pretty much it for actually anime bought. Yeah the Manga release sucks, but that's all I have at that point. They're being re-released again...I saw in some thread.

I save money for stuff like...the aliens dropship, HELLO?!?!?!? Mr March!

Edited February 21, 2006 by Spatula

[Sdf-1]

Surely you would buy Macross, Spatula? I mean, I've bought some selected GOOD ones. They're just a cool thing to have in bookshelf. Like Macross, Cowboy bebop, Trigun, Escaflowne etc... Though some other stuff I can download also. It depends.

[Mr March]

As an aside, I have to say that subjecting oneself to an entire series of episodes before making a quality judgement is something I will never endorse. Every writer knows that if you don't grab your audience in the opening of any story, you've failed.

When I watch a film, 99% of the time I can tell whether I will like the movie enough after 15 to 20 minutes. Further, those few films of such high quality that I adore as the greatest ever made ALWAYS have me hooked from the first five minutes. Granted there are exceptions and one can't always be right all the time, but it's a good rule of thumb.

I made the mistake of watching shows I hated through to the end and I will never do so again. Gundam Wing was crap from the word go and watching all 49 episodes of the show at the insistance of my friend did nothing to improve it. I gave Neon Genesis Evangelion, Macross 7, and Trigun all 7-8 episodes (typically 2-3 DVD rentals); each failed to entertain and as such they will remain failures in my mind. I don't want to watch a series again in which I hate the first 7-8 episodes, even if the ending turns out spectacular. I love nearly every episode of SDF Macross, Cowboy Bebop, or Ghost In The Shell: SAC, especially the first few. I want a whole quality show...not just fragments of a "could-have-been-good" series.

IMO, watching the entire episode roster of a weak anime is just a lame excuse. More worthy material is waiting to be watched.

Edited February 21, 2006 by Mr March

[Mr March]

*snip*

You buy anime?  Whoa.  That's crazy talk.

(Actually I was at one time contemplating on getting the whole GITS: SAC season 1 on regular release DVD...but I learned to torrent.  My anime world changed, for the better).

LOL.

Okay, to be fair, I do have the Manga release of the Patlabor films, since I loved them so much.  But I think that's pretty much it for actually anime bought.  Yeah the Manga release sucks, but that's all I have at that point.  They're being re-released again...I saw in some thread.

I save money for stuff like...the aliens dropship, HELLO?!?!?!? Mr March!

372146[/snapback]

As someone working towards earning a living in the visual arts and entertainment industries, pirating anime and film is like shooting myself in the foot, to say nothing of the personal disrespect I would have to hold for the work of my contemporaries.

Luckily I make a good wage right now. Properly managed, my funds allow me to buy nearly everything I desire of all my hobbies...dropships included

[Spatula]

Okay alright, I guess the virtuous worker would like to support his/her company by buying the goods.

I mean there are some stuff that demands money, ie model kits and dropships, and I'll gladly lay down some bling $$$ to get it, since that's where quality matters. (Quality matters also for a good viewable electronic material, but usually the booted stuff work good enough for me).

Gundam Wing wasn't that bad, c'mon. Sure it's got the whole 5 man Sentai element to it, but it attempts to be somewhat sophisticated with the whole war thing ( as much as any other military based series).

I remember getting my VCR to tape the Escaflowne episodes in English like 5 years ago. I got up to half way since I started to not like the series. That Hitomi was such a biatch yelling about this and that...

I was also thinking of getting the whole smack of Evangelion, but ended up getting it rented from a friend. Best $150 saved, ever.

All I'll say about EVA is episodes 1-24 I absolutely loved, last 2 are no. And EOE was just Clockwork Orange on acid. Oh wait.

Wow, sorry for the derailment.

Okay for a shitty recent anime series?

Um, I hated Xenosaga the Animation. Terrible terrible rip off from PS2 game with same name.

[Mr March]

Okay alright, I guess the virtuous worker would like to support his/her company by buying the goods. 

I mean there are some stuff that demands money, ie model kits and dropships, and I'll gladly lay down some bling $$$ to get it, since that's where quality matters.  (Quality matters also for a good viewable electronic material, but usually the booted stuff work good enough for me).

372165[/snapback]

I'm self centered enough already, best for me to avoid profiting from piracy

Gundam Wing wasn't that bad, c'mon.

372165[/snapback]

I'd post a sentence comparing GW to some disgusting adjective if there weren't so many appropriate words to choose from

All I'll say about EVA is episodes 1-24 I absolutely loved, last 2 are no.  And EOE was just Clockwork Orange on acid.  Oh wait.

372165[/snapback]

I've seen EOE and I would never dream of dragging down Kubrick with a comparison to such garbage. Your mileage may vary.

[Spatula]

CW Orange was good, but weird. EOE was strange AND weird.

[mikeszekely]

I'd post a sentence comparing GW to some disgusting adjective if there weren't so many appropriate words to choose from smile.gif

And yet Wing still manages to be better than SEED Destiny. Ponder that one for awhile.

[myk]

I still don't understand why EOE is such an enigma for people. What is so difficult to understand about it or 'Eva in general? Over-analysis is the problem here. Ignore the religious overtones and you'll see 'Eva is a very simple story...

[Keith]

Wow, how could you possibly hate Gun Frontier? Sure it's a little light in the plot, and the ending was open, but aside from that, I thought it was pretty fun.

I haven't seen anything bad lately, but Armitage Polymatrix still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, it's been nearly 4 years since I've seen it, and I hate it just as much now as I did then.

[Spatula]

I still don't understand why EOE is such an enigma for people.  What is so difficult to understand about it or 'Eva in general?  Over-analysis is the problem here.  Ignore the religious overtones and you'll see 'Eva is a very simple story...

372184[/snapback]

EVA now isn't so much a mystery to comprehend, but still, it's damn weird, visually speaking, don't you agree?

I mean, wow, Rei just turned into a giant OH SH--!

get what I mean?

[Spatula]

And yet Wing still manages to be better than SEED Destiny. Ponder that one for awhile.

Enlighten me on the whole of Gundam Seed: Destiny.

I've only seen like 15 or so eps of the 1st season of GS in English dub over here, so I really didn't bother.

GS got a huge positive reception around the world, but where did Destiny fall?

So I hear the last bit was ripped right out of SW Episode 6. It's that bad huh?

Edited February 21, 2006 by Spatula

[mikeszekely]

Enlighten me on the whole of Gundam Seed: Destiny.

Positive reception or not, I'm not a big fan of SEED in general. It picks up a bit near the end, but the first half to two thirds of the series is almost a straight copy of the original Gundam, only with bland characters and flashier mecha.

But Destiny just sucked. They started off by introducing new main characters, which were slightly less irritating, and moving the original characters into tertiary roles, ala Zeta. (Speaking of ripping off Zeta, Shinn's relationship with Stellar is Camille's relationship with Four, right down to the Destroy/Psyco Gundam.) The plot advances by way of ALL the characters making stupid decisions and being stubborn a-holes to each other for awhile. Then, for no apparent reason, the original cast becomes the main characters again, and the new main characters development becomes largely wasted as none of them will ever again show the potential the story had been building up to as they are forced into the background. This leads to a climax that pretty much the same one as the first Gundam SEED, except that it seems like an even bigger waste the second time.

[ComicKaze]

Mr. March, I'd say Trigun is one of those slow animes with a boring concept that eventually becomes very invovling by revealing the true nature of the story, the character, his relationship to the world they are living on, etc. and becomes great.

But I can't stand GITS.

[yellowlightman]

I pretty much can't stand any anime made after the late 90's, but a lot of the 90's stuff was junk too. The only exception to this is GiTS: SAC, but I'm not super crazy about it.

Part of it is that I'm just jaded, I've seen a lot of anime and been around fandom for a long time and new ideas don't pop up very often. Garbage like Gundam SEED is a perfect example of the repetitive and unoriginal state of the current anime industry.

[kensei]

I'd post a sentence comparing GW to some disgusting adjective if there weren't so many appropriate words to choose from smile.gif

And yet Wing still manages to be better than SEED Destiny. Ponder that one for awhile.

372183[/snapback]

That's a close one. Wing is one of the Gundam shows I really hate, besides G Gundam.

[Black Valkyrie]

Wing was OK even if the story wasn`t original, I only liked Gundam Heavyarms and Zechs even though he was a Char clone.

[Guppy]

I tried watching Chobits. Made it through 2 episodes. Hated it. Looked like kiddy porn to me.

[Ghadrack]

Worst Anime Crap I bought and watched was the Panda-Z shorts. I expected something a little more "Adult Swim", these 2 minute shorts were apparently aimed at 2 to 3 year olds with the attention span of a cat. I haven't thrown the disc away yet, maybe I will gift it to someone with an ADD baby.

[Twoducks]

While I worked on a parking lot on Sundays during collage I got to watch tons of morning anime. Out of boredom I got to see One Peace, Shin Chan, Bayblade, Pokemon, Medabots, Monster Rancher, Digimon, Yugi-oh, Medabots... even Hamtaro (*pukes*), so I can say I've seen my fare share of funny, nice, not so good, crappy, boring and just plain $#itty comercial anime.

Hamtaro and Medabots come of as the most painfull. One Piece and Shin-chan were fun and others got me hooked in a sick way like Yugi-oh (12 hour cooked up in a parking lot make you seek every distraction you can find, stupid as that distraction may be).

I really like comedy mixed with drama and can handle slow pacing in a story, so Trigun was a really good watch for me. It's also nice to see a thing that doesn't have a 15 year old as the lead. I still like EVA, even with it's flaws.

GITS is nice because they try to make complex storylines and the CG doesn't look like crap but I've grown a little tired of it. Many episodes just boil down to using hacking as the magical solution to the story. I know it's part of the universe but it gets repetitive and smells like an easy way to explain all sometimes.

SEED Destiny in the end felt like such a train reck... It had it's good moments but after all those recaps, the sence that they didn't know what to do with the new cast and wasting space when your almost on the last episode to develope a stupid character... well it just makes you go "way to screw something that had potential when it started". I liked SEED but I'm tired of shiny MS's and kids piloting them.

I remember watchin Spriggan and going "nice animation but what a brainless piece of $#it". I'm affraid Steamboy is going to be the same.

[CoryHolmes]

The last "new" crappy anime I watched was Gasaraki. Oh, did that ever suck more than anything had sucked before or ever will suck again. The only thing going for it was a pretty decent mecha design, but other than that it was a total rip-off of Evangelion, right down to the main female character's hair style.

[bsu legato]

Wow, how could you possibly hate Gun Frontier?

372193[/snapback]

How about the fact that, aside from the conclusion-that-wasn't-really-a-conclusion, each and every episode was exactly the same?

Harlock - "Our horses died again."

Tochiro - "Oh look, we're saved! Another town."

Sinunora - "Don't mind me. I'm just being mysterious."

Townsperson - "Hey, no skinny people allowed."

Tochiro - "Ack, I'm being lynched. Again."

Sinunora - "Whoops, there go my clothes!"

Narrator - "A place where every episode seems just like the one that preceeded it. A place called....Gun Frontier."

[Mr March]

I'd post a sentence comparing GW to some disgusting adjective if there weren't so many appropriate words to choose from smile.gif

And yet Wing still manages to be better than SEED Destiny. Ponder that one for awhile.

372183[/snapback]

I gave up on Gundam after the brief year I spent watching all of it that I could; in my opinion Gundam 0080 was the only interesting and compelling story of the entire franchise (it's the only Gundam I own). It's good to know that I've missed nothing, though I wouldn't really care either way

[Mr March]

I still don't understand why EOE is such an enigma for people.  What is so difficult to understand about it or 'Eva in general?  Over-analysis is the problem here.  Ignore the religious overtones and you'll see 'Eva is a very simple story...

372184[/snapback]

I can't speak for the others, but I never had any trouble interpreting anything of NGE. My opinion is based solely on the weakness of the production.

[Mr March]

Mr. March, I'd say Trigun is one of those slow animes with a boring concept that eventually becomes very invovling by revealing the true nature of the story, the character, his relationship to the world they are living on, etc. and becomes great.

But I can't stand GITS.

372239[/snapback]

I've often heard that of Trigun, but honestly I disliked the eight episodes I did watch so much that it's beyond redemption at this point. Even if the entire series were to change gears and become something different halfway through, I'm not really interested in half of a good series.

[Duke Togo]

I saw Steam Boy about a month ago. 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

[jwinges]

Burst Angel ----Damn my wife for like it. So I'm stuck watching it.

Madlax ----Not even close to the quality of Noir. Shitty story

I My me Strawberry eggs --- total suckage and just to weird

Petit Corsette ---- too weird

In reply to others

I actually like most of the gundam series except G-gundam ---the worst anime of all time.

Chobits is very weird at the start but after about 6 episodes gets better

If you thing chobits looks like kiddy porn wait till you see DearS.

[jwinges]

Oh I forgot one thats a possible. We went and bought "Shrine of the morning mist" at best buy the other day out of shere boredom since we had a 30% off coupon (found in those little anime mags at best buy) and the entire series was like $22 before the discount. In hindsight I probably should have realized that a $22 series probably isn't that good. Watched the first ep and man it sucks. I pray that this gets better.

[Jemstone]

I'd post a sentence comparing GW to some disgusting adjective if there weren't so many appropriate words to choose from smile.gif

And yet Wing still manages to be better than SEED Destiny. Ponder that one for awhile.

372183[/snapback]

I gave up on Gundam after the brief year I spent watching all of it that I could; in my opinion Gundam 0080 was the only interesting and compelling story of the entire franchise (it's the only Gundam I own). It's good to know that I've missed nothing, though I wouldn't really care either way

372343[/snapback]

I can't speak for the others, but I never had any trouble interpreting anything of NGE. My opinion is based solely on the weakness of the production.

Such blasphemy....

[Mr March]

Such blasphemy....

372358[/snapback]

LOL

Remember, as long as you like it, that's all that matters

[Final Vegeta]

Rahxephon was deeply ugly, and I've seen it all. It was like taking Evangelion and splitting its characters in two, either personality, role in the anime, personal story and such. Also it had kitschy designs, and I ain't kidding. This is a monster of Rahxephon, and this is the first image google gave me for "kitsch". Mind the resemblances.

If there is something I can't see is bad chara designs, not in the sense of badly drawn, but simply ugly. I don't think I'd like Eureka 7 because I find its designs ugly (even though mecha designs are good, which couldn't be said for Rahxephon).

By the way, interviews help the understanding of Evangelion.

FV

Edited February 21, 2006 by Final Vegeta

[Hikuro]

In my honest opinion some of the anime I've seen that were absolutely horrible were like Better Man, I mean wtf? The character designs were god awful, one character had like blue, pink, yellow or what ever hair colors, they looked out of proportion in some way, and the story line was just crap.

Another was something I think called Dog Warriors......it was okay at first but then the animation changed where it became very sloppy and cut corners in the movement where the guy might be running from Point A to Point B, but no motion, he just suddenly appears in Point B.

What else have I seen that was god awful..........................crap I can't remember.........

[Keith]

Gun Frontier wasn't meant to be a deep series (for something like that go after Galaxy Railways), just a fun romp with Harlock & Tochiro. It does have much more of a plot than you're giving it credit for though.

Worst Anime Crap I bought and watched was the Panda-Z shorts. I expected something a little more "Adult Swim", these 2 minute shorts were apparently aimed at 2 to 3 year olds with the attention span of a cat. I haven't thrown the disc away yet, maybe I will gift it to someone with an ADD baby.

I don't know what you were expecting from Panda-Z, but if you thought there would be anything more serious than parody going on after looking at the box, then that's your fault! Besides, have you never watched Mazinger Z? Panda-Z is a great parody.