Top 20 Moments That RUINED an Anime
Top 20 Moments That Ruined an Anime
Another Top 10 Moments That Ruined an Anime
Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we are counting down our picks for the top ten moments that ruined an anime. For this list, we’ll be looking at key points in an anime that put a damper on the series as a whole. As such, be on the lookout for several spoilers down the line.
#20: ALFheim Online
“Sword Art Online” (2012-14) The first arc gave us everything we could want from a power-fantasy series, all of which was helmed by Kirito and Asuna’s touching romance. After escaping their RPG prison, you would have thought that the two would take a sabbatical from gaming for a while. Then came ALfheim Online, where Asuna goes from proud warrior to your typical damsel in distress in the worst possible way, while it's Kirito’s job to venture out and save her. You know, in-between all of his extracurricular flirting. He’s lucky Alicization ramped everything up to eleven.
#19: The Fillers
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“Bleach” (2004-) The battles against the likes of the Gotei 13 and the Espada were by far the highlights of this Shonen juggernaut. Want to know why? Because none of it was anime-exclusive filler made to stall for time. Bleach is rather infamous for this, given that it doesn’t just get filler episodes, it gets filler arcs! The Bounts, Shusuke Amagai, Muramasa, the list goes on! It’s a shame there’s such an ocean of unneeded episodes, since it does detract from the series’ greater moments. Thankfully the Thousand Year Blood War has left these in the rear view mirror.
#18: Brock Leaves
“Pokemon” (1997-) It’s no secret that Brock falls in love with every single girl he meets, but did he really have to leave Ash and company just to have a shot at a sexy professor? While we still got plenty of Pokemon battles, Team Rocket blasting off again and all the other usual clichés, the series just didn’t feel the same after the resident ladies’ man went AWOL – and Tracy was a poor substitute. Sure, he would eventually return in the later series, but that only led to him leaving AGAIN. We were fools for ever trusting you, Brock.
#17: Missing Plot Points
“Tokyo Ghoul” (2014-15) Kaneki’s struggle to exist in a world as a half-Ghoul definitely made a splash. However, despite some truly disturbing aspects and a gripping tone…its adaptation took a lot of liberties as far as the source material was concerned. The chronological orders of some storylines are swapped around, essential character development for Kaneki is either rushed or skipped, the anime even had him joining the organization that had him tortured as opposed to forming his own separate group. It all went downhill from there, as Root A and Re can testify.
#16: Season Three
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“Rurouni Kenshin” (1996-98) How do you follow up a brutally awesome season that involved Kenshin taking on the likes of Shishio Makoto? What could you give us after one of anime’s most burdened heroes clashed swords with such a ruthless villain? You give us an entire season’s worth of filler. It wouldn’t be so painful if it was actually entertaining, but after coming off of such a high and then giving us over thirty episodes that lacked any real tension, characterisation or even decent sword fights – it's no wonder it got canceled.
#15: Satoru Doesn’t Get The Girl
“Erased” (2016) After all that they don’t end up together? Lame. Upon discovering he has the power to travel back through time into the body of his eleven-year old self, Satoru tries to change the future by saving his old classmate Kayo from being killed at the hands of a serial kidnapper. Along the way they form a sweet friendship that you hope will flourish into a romance one day as adults. But alas, even after saving her, back in the present day, Kayo has already gotten married and become a mother. They would have been so perfect together!
#14: The Fourth Great Ninja War
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“Naruto Shippuden” (2007-17) Goes to show that by trying to throw everything plus the kitchen sink in a short space of time, you end up spoiling what could have been monumental. In the space of a single arc we get rapid-fire battles not only with resurrected foes but with brand new characters that were given no development whatsoever. But perhaps its greatest crime comes from the fact that the main antagonist title changes hands several times! First it was Obito, oh no wait, he was working with Madara. Well, I guess that’s not so bad, oh no wait, it was actually Black Zetsu. Hang on now, why would – oh no wait it’s actually Kaguya.
#13: The Death of L
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“Death Note” (2006-07) The battle of wits between Light Yagami and L was the crux that made this supernatural procedural so engrossing to begin with. With contrasting views of justice, both were embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse, which eventually came to an end when Light managed to win the day by killing his greatest adversary. However, as expected, L had a backup plan in the form of his successors, Near and Mello. And…yeah they kind of sucked. They weren’t especially awful characters but compared to L they just felt like pale imitations. Especially Near.
#12: Endless Eight
“The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” (2006-09) You all know the trope: a character finds themselves waking up with a major sense of déjà vu only to discover they are literally reliving the previous day? It might be good for a laugh if you confine it to one or two episodes. Turning it into the majority of your second series on the other hand is ridiculous. The aptly named Endless Eight sees the SOS Brigade discover Haruhi has unknowingly trapped them in an infinite loop so their summer vacation never ends. We have to sit through eight episodes of pretty much the exact – same - thing. Well, there’s a few hours of our lives we’ll never get back.
#11: The Animation
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“Berserk” (2016-17) You all remember the original series, right? How despite its obviously limited budget it gave us a haunting tale of Guts? Given how it ended on the mother of all cliff-hangers, we all hoped we would see a continuation, only to realize we should really be careful with what we wish for. The whole thing is saturated in an ugly art-style and framed with lackluster camerawork to the point where the series suffers for it. The sad thing is, whenever it transitions to 2D animation it looks awesome. Why can’t we have nice things?
#10: Kyousuke and Ruri Break Up
“Oreimo” (2010-13) We’re kind of beating a dead horse at this point, but even if we somehow managed to look past the fact that this guy decided to romantically pursue his sister, Ruri was the best romantic option in the whole show! Sure, she loves to cosplay as a gothic Lolita and has huge social insecurities, but she was best girl, damn it. As opposed to Kirino, who degraded and slapped Kyousuke around every episode. Who, again, is also his sister. Who he eventually tried to marry. The breakup in of itself is a truly heart-breaking scene to watch, and knowing what could have been only makes it worse.
#9: It’s the Digimon Emperor…Not
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“Digimon Adventure tri.” (2015-17) While giving old school fans of the anime everything they could want from a reunion with the original Digidestined, there were also a few surprises along the way that more than warranted excitement. One of them happened to be the arrival of a figure who looked almost identical to Digimon Adventure 02’s former antagonist; the Digimon Emperor. Did this mean fans were getting cameos from the rest of 02’s Digidestined? Maybe it was going to retcon some of the worst parts of the series? Could Ken have gone back to being evil? So many possibilities! Oh, it’s just a pointless disguise by evil Genai. Well, that’s a digital dud.
#8: Aliens. Really?
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“Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer” (2010) Aside from having a title that has no reason to be so long, this flick does a sorry job of being a love letter to those that enjoyed the 00 series. The mecha battles certainly have some polish to them, but the narrative is so convoluted and stuffed with characters that even diehard watchers may find themselves getting lost along the way. And yes, the villains of this movie are actually extra-terrestrials. Remember when Gundam was about opposing ideologies and the consequences of war? Glad they’ve started to go back to those.
#7: A Lewd Confession
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“Kokoro Connect” (2012) As far as creating a light-hearted atmosphere, nothing beats an anime that focuses on the highs and lows of high school friendship and romance. Sure, there might be the occasional nod towards more mature content but more often than not all you’ll be getting is gentle blushes and a serious case of ‘notice me senpai.’ Not here. Turns out that both Taichi and Himeko like each other so much they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves during their alone time. It’s certainly different but very much clashed with the tone of the series.
#6: No Kiss
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“Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions: Heart Throb” (2014) After two seasons of waiting, two seasons of build-up and two seasons of being on the edge to see this adorable couple finally lock lips, they go and pull a stunt like that? While having to overcome all manner of social awkwardness, namely Rikka’s inability to separate the real world from her fantasies, she and Yuta manage to nonetheless proclaim their love for each other. However, her frailty and introverted nature prevents her from entering the ‘kissing stage’ of the relationship, at least for most of the series. Then comes the sixth episode and it looks like they are about to finally take that next step…until it’s interrupted. It took until the movie came out to rectify this crime!
#5: From Grim to Goofy
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“Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ” (1986-87) Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta may have reached or surpassed the pinnacle of the original depending on who you ask. As a sequel it carried over the central theme of the brutality that comes with war. And then the threequel came along, where it became very clear that it was going to be taking a lighter approach. When you’re coming off the back of two very somber shows that focus on the deaths of thousands, then you’re suddenly focusing on the goofy antics of some junker kids, it kind of kills the mood. Granted if you get past the first batch of episodes it gets pretty dark, but this introduction just left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths…
#4: Where The Fudge is Kogami?!
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“Psycho-Pass 2” (2014-15) In a future where humanity traded individuality for safety, we have the awesome duo of Kogami and Akane to confront the flaws of their supposedly perfect society. Not to mention blow up a hell of a lot of limbs while they’re at it. Needless to say, after the first series we were eager to see what was on the horizon. Said horizon turned out to be Akane running around with new, aggravating side characters, while Kogami just got on a boat and left! Don’t get us wrong, Akane is fine but one of the best parts of the show was how these two worked off of each other. It’s no wonder so many fell off the bandwagon after his departure!
#3: Kid Goku
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“Dragon Ball GT” (1996-97) Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Any hope this show had of being considered as respectable as its predecessors went right out of the window when they turned everyone’s favorite Super Saiyan into a child. Were they trying to recapture the glory of the original Dragon Ball? Whatever angle they were aiming for, it failed miserably. Considering how bad the rest of the series was, you can easily point to Goku’s anti-aging dilemma as the tipping point for what followed.
#2: Frill
“Wonder Egg Priority” (2021) There was so much to enjoy here. The visuals. The commentary. The way it took dark themes surrounding young women and their insecurities and mixed it with flashy animation and a compelling set of leads. Things were going so well. And then Frill happened. Turns out that the reason teenage girls around the world take their own lives is due to this artificial girl that was randomly cooked up by a couple of scientists on a whim…who decides to make every other girl out there do horrible things to themselves because she has…daddy issues? Look, it’s a dumpster fire that soured every bit of good will this series had – and the OVA did not help!
#1: Season Effing Two
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“The Promised Neverland” (2019-21) If we had to highlight a moment that truly epitomizes this sequel season’s fall from grace, it would be its PowerPoint presentation of an ending, but in all honesty, Emma and company’s second outing was terrible from the get-go! The lack of the Goldy Pond arc, how it stuffed the entirety of the source material into a few fleeting episodes, the missing characters, the rushed exposition, it all cobbled together to not only make an abysmal anime viewing experience, but also did irreparable damage to such an amazing first season! That’s just tragic.
