Top 10 Bad Anime With Excellent Concepts

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#10: “Mobile Suit Gundam F91” (1991)

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This could have been a juggernaut of a Gundam title, if only internal disputes hadn’t turned the planned fifty-episode series into one movie. As a result, all the freshness that could have come from a new pilot taking on the threat of an enemy that wasn’t Zeon for once was lost due to poor pacing and narrative shortcuts. It’s a mighty shame as well, since if it had been given the treatment it deserved, Seabook’s battle against the Crossbone Vanguard would have made for a worthy follow-up to Char’s Counterattack.

Stereotypical, generic, bland and a far cry from the dark and engaging premise found within the original novels. A rom-com with an underlining supernatural element, the series’ narrative did little to stop either aspect from being purely mediocre. The most painful part? This was given to us by Kyoto Animation, the masterminds behind such classics as Haruhi Suzumiya. What happened to all that innovation? Where are the daring risks? Why give us a craptastic slice of life trying to sell itself as anime Ghostbusters?

The plot of this anime is so batshit insane that even Gurren Lagann would tell them to tone it down. Or at least they would if the show ever bothered to do anything with said batshit plot. You have a giant meteor floating around Pluto spawning dragons who want to destroy the Earth. How do you not at least find someway to make that fun? The answer; by giving us characters with paper personalities moping around about the will-they-won’t-they-of-course-they-bloody-will romance!

You are tearing us apart Studio Bones. Why put in all that time and effort to give us a beautifully looking mecha series if you’re going to give us a story that’s as lazy as it is nonsensical. To be fair, we should have seen the red flags when our intergalactic antagonists were introduced as the Kill-T-Gang. It’s a frighteningly shallow show with characters as forgettable as their motivations. We’re going to need a little more than special child finds special robot and tries to save the world because he’s special!

When the original director of Haruhi Suzumiya made his grand return, armed with the promise of an anime that was going to defy all of the tropes that all mainstream series had slipped into, you can bet many were excited to see what he had in store. Unfortunately, the result turned out to be mired in so many of said tropes that not even a nifty little premise could save it from scorn. A world where humans no longer interact with each other because they can create doppelgangers? How philosophically intriguing, please tell us more Mr Yamamoto. Oh, its just going to be one great big moe-fest? We’ll pass, thanks.

Okay anime, you want to give us witches in World War 2? Fine. You had just better come fully armed with a plot that manages to mingle them together in an organic way to create a truly enticing elsewhere story. Surprise, surprise, they failed. Our two leads aren’t only wooden in personality, but still manage to fall into all the magical girl pitfalls – ala acting like total idiots – even in the middle of a warzone. Unless you really like seeing not-Germans get unceremoniously blown up, there is no reason to give this one the time of day.

You know why we like Cthulu and the rest of the Lovecraftian elder gods? Because they’re beings of unimaginable horror. Creatures that not only tower over mankind with their hideous presence but are also easily able to induce insanity without a second thought. Now, does any of that sound like it would make for a decent cute girl anime? Nope? Well too bad, Cthulu’s cousin is now a quirky moe girl who has fallen hopelessly in love with our boring lead. Honestly, we’d rather go visit the corpse-city of R'lyeh.

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#3: “The Lost Village” (2016)

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In the world of horror anime, we’ve seen everything from murderous children all the way to demonic bunny rabbits. Yet as far as classic hauntings? Not so much; which was what initially made this series so appealing. Hoping to find a new way of life out in a remote village, a whole slew of adolescents slowly discover that their new utopia isn’t as perfect as they’d hoped. The same could be said of this anime. Sure, the first couple of episodes are rather spooky, but then the whole thing takes a narrative nosedive. Too many characters, too little scares and a whole lot of wasted time in-between. Can we please get back on the bus now?

If there ever was an anime that had the potential to take characters from a Vocaloid music video and make a successful series out of their exploits, it would have been this one. After all, the animation is beautiful, the cast are certainly intriguing and the use of multiple perspectives to structure the story works well enough. So, what went wrong? A convoluted plot that repeatedly squandered its potential, to the point where we’re wondering if the real Blindfold Gang were the series’ writers. That would explain a lot.

Will you people please leave Oda Nobunaga alone! He’s been in so many anime, the majority of which are either forgettable or total trash. In this instance; both! Here, the famed warlord is actually a carefree loner who ends up joining forces with Leonardo Da Vinchi and Jeanne D’Arc to stop a planetary war. In a giant mecha. If the creators had maybe alluded to the show’s ridiculous nature, then maybe this could have come across as a decent comedy. Instead, it’s a run of the mill sci-fi action-fest that falls woefully short, no matter how many characters from history they toss on screen.