Episode 182 – The Most Disappointing Anime

Have you ever been watching an anime and a few episodes in found out that it has been disappointing you the entire time?  Nothing is worse!  We talk about some of the most disappointing anime we have ever watched, for a variety of reasons.

10. Un-Go – I watched this anime expecting it to be some great mystery.  Everyone spoke highly of the original creator and it was in an era when we had GoSick, which was amazing, and other mystery based anime and this fell so flat.

9. Initial D 5th Stage – After the long break between the 4th and 5th stage (9 year gap) and with the 4th stage being so great, there was a lot of anticipation for both me and for other anime fans to which I spoke about the subject.  However, stage 5 really lacks the style and effect that the 4th stage had.  The 5th stage focuses heavily on racing but does a poor job of making the races interesting (epic) and does an even worse job of building up the hype for the race.  The show probably needs to have a few less races and a few more episodes to build up the anticipation.  Also, the quality of the animation and art dropped quite a bit.

8. The Sacred Blacksmith – The concept was a love-letter to fantasy fans.  Girl decides to become a knight, on a quest to defend her home, a handsome and aloof blacksmith for her to have come around, and a magic sword in the midst of turmoil.  Too bad they decided they’d rather turn it into tropes and shit.

7. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – Here is an example of disappointment in that the anime feels like it’s finished after the first five episodes and then keeps going.

6. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni – It’s not quite fair when you have to live up to something like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, but that’s the bed these people made and they had to sleep in it with Umineko.  It’s not an overly horrible series but let’s face it, when you go into it with a Higurashi mindset and come out with… this, it’s disappointing to say the least.

5. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya – Okay, yeah, we’ve hated on it.  But let’s admit it after the show being genuinely good and previous additions being okay at best this movie is the longest anime disappointment of all time just by the fact that they took a good show centered around a quirky main character and thought it’d still hold up if they gave her no screen time.

4. Kite Liberator – After the entertaining, fast paced, and action packed show Kite, people were excited to have a followup. (Also, apparently deserving of a Hollywood movie).  There was quite a gap in between the 2 animes (10 years).  Kite Liberator lacked the style, the pacing and the interest that the first anime had.

3. Wolverine – at least following this steaming pile of crap Marvel and Madhouse did their homework and made improvements so that by the time we got to X-Men we were working with something actually interesting.  But this show was so awful in so many ways when it didn’t have to be if it just held up to it’s source material a little better.  It’s really disappointing when you’re handed something good only to see it shat on.

2. (TIE) Blood C – The Blood franchise is long-running and well known for keeping up a certain standard of “good” let’s say.  But Blood C throws all previous formulas out the window for boredom piled onto boredom.  The gore is hardly there (save for the last episode) and the other elements of the blood franchise?  Forget about it.

2. (TIE) Gundam AGE – I think the Gundam community generally agrees with this assessment.  Gundam AGE was a very disappoint series mostly because of the potential that I had to be quite good. The series had many things about it that people liked, including Flit Asuno and Commander Grodek, which were two badass characters that people enjoyed.  Also, I think the design and concept of the Gundam AGE-1 was fairly well received.  This show dropped the ball with the 3rd arc, Kio’s portion of the anime.  The anime became soft and bitch like with both its ending and with the personality of the 3rd main character Kio Asuno.

1. Ponyo – We usually expect the best of the best from Miyazaki, so when he puts out a work that is even an above average anime, we are disppointed.  Ponyo is maybe the weakest of all the Miyazaki movies.  It has a totally unoriginal story, an unbelievable romance, a story that feels trivial, and an annoying main character in Ponyo.  The movie was successful financially, due to the Miyazaki name, but in our hearts, Ponyo is a movie that is lackluster even beyond Howl’s Moving Castle.