Lost in Translation
Tokyo Ghoul has somewhat managed to resurface after the calamity that was Root A. However, it’s adaptation of :re has still been mired in fan controversy given its sub-par treatment of certain scenes. With the second season only weeks away, one can only hope it really manages to claw its way back to the glory it found in its inception. Unfortunately, a lot of these other anime don’t have similar opportunity at redemption.
#5: “Deadman Wonderland†(2011)
Remember the adrenaline rush of the opening scene? How it shocked us to no end? Needless to say it didn’t last too long. The horror aspects were slowly replaced by generic action until it reached its anime original conclusion that unfortunately dragged the whole thing down into the realm of mediocrity. The manga itself may not have been a supernova of magnificence, but it certainly knew how to inject a fresh dose of genuine dread every now and again.
#4: “Hakyu Houshin Engi†(2018)
Aka, How To Enrage Fans: The Anime. A beloved fantasy manga that ran it course in the late nineties, many were anticipating this second anime adaptation of Taikobo’s heavenly adventures. Turns out Japanese fans were so unhappy with the final product that a petition went out to remove it, one that’s already on the cusp of receiving 1500 signatures, and you don’t see that very often in Japan. It’s not hard to understand why they were upset, after all even newcomers should be able to see that plot points are all over the place, characters are hardly developed and the pacing is liable to give you whiplash.
#3: “The Flowers of Evil†(2013)
What have you done?! You maniacs! What are we even looking at here?! The answer to that would be a snippet of an excellent manga that explores the hellish years of adolescence, which then proceeds to devoid it of its most unnerving moments, and then animated through the oh so distracting medium of rotoscoping. Honestly, whatever potential this anime had to capture the source material’s unadulterated primality was tossed aside when we got a look at the creepy character models. This anime is more like a failed experiment than a faithful adaptation. What a shame.
#2: “Berserk†(2016-17)
We’ve talked to death about this particular continuation of the original 1997 anime, how it not only fails as a spiritual successor but essentially spits in the face of arguably the greatest manga of all time. As such, here’s a rapid-fire summary: the 3D CGI looks terrible, never blending with the environment and constantly taking you out of the moment, failing to counterbalancing what little genuinely good animation they had. The character models are stilted. Corners are constantly cut and on nearly every level this adaptation falls short. But hey, least the music was good.
#1: “Tokyo Ghoul Root A†(2015)
We won’t pretend that the original Tokyo Ghoul anime was perfect, but it was a damn good first attempt that hit a lot of the right notes. A successful sequel should have been a no brainer. After all, the manga is well on its way to becoming a modern classic. However, what we ended up with was a series that decided to go off on the mother of all tangents and essentially undo everything epic and enthralling about its predecessor. Fans of the manga hated it, fans of the anime were disappointed, it pretty much was doomed to fail from the very first frame. And who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to completely skip the final boss?
Be sure to check out the video below to see our picks for the Top 10 Most Disappoint Anime of All Time.
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