Top 10 Anime Storylines That Went Nowhere (Ft. Todd Haberkorn)

“JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable” (2016)

By this point, we were all very aware that anyone who made fun of Josuke’s “awesome” hairdo was liable to suffer a whirlwind of punishment. However, with the revelation about how a mysterious man with similar hair once saved his life as a child, what was once a gag became an endearing character trait. Of course, with said saviour looking practically identical to Josuke’s teenage form, one couldn’t help but start to think some kind of time-travel hijinks were on the horizon. This was only further cemented with Killer Queen: Bites the Dust; a Stand capable of sending someone back in time, to an extent. Did any of these elements coalesce? Of course not.

“SSSS.Gridman” (2018)

Studio Trigger have a bit of reputation for creating awkward yet investing romances between their characters, and from the way things were going, we fully expected the same to be true of Yuta and Rikka. After all, he’s got that lovable dork thing going for him and she’s got enough charm to break the internet, it was practically written in the stars that they would end up indulging in their own little kaiju showdown. Yuta even fully acknowledged that he had the hots for Rikka…for one episode. One episode. That’s it. Dude, even if you are spending your afternoons fighting giant monsters, that doesn’t mean you should abandon the wooing!

“Beyblade” (2001)

Come on Kai, it’s not like you to forget about an evil grandfather who wants to conquer the world with the spirits of ancient monsters sealed inside spinning tops. Introduced as the would-be final villain of the first season, Voltaire’s plan for world domination apparently hinged on the results of the Beyblade Finals. After Tyson took home the win, he must have retired and gone to the old folks home for evil elders. How else do you explain him never being mentioned in the sequel series despite him saying things weren’t over?

“Tokyo Ghoul: Root A” (2015)

In what world does voluntarily joining the organisation that tortured you a good idea? We can understand that Kaneki wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind given how he had just been physically and mentally deconstructed, but still! What would have been wrong with him starting his own group, seeking vengeance on the other Ghouls and basically everything else from the manga? They both arrive at the same destination anyway. Obviously Root A thought contrivances equalled narrative gold. Ah well, at least Kaneki was in much better company…right?

"Medabots" (1999-2000)

Why, in the name of the Medaforce, would you dedicate the latter part of your series to a robot tournament if you're just going to abandon it during the championship match! Did you really think that dream sequences, aliens, and the Rubber Robo Gang's retirement was more investing? Na-uh. We're here to see Medabee and Warbandit shoot each other to pieces to see whose top bot. They even had the gall to end the whole thing on a freeze frame right as their battle was set to continue!

“Dragon Ball Z” (1989-96)

Isn’t moonlighting as a superhero kind of redundant? Especially in a series where aliens, giant apes and all-powerful blondes are commonplace? Guess everyone’s college years are different. While Gohan would later revisit this moniker in Dragon Ball Super, the character of Saiyaman never really amounted more to than just a few flimsy bits of comedy and some light filler. No offense Gohan, but maybe you should stick to the whole “all-consuming rage” thing, was way more effective!

“Bleach” (2004-12)

Talk about wasted potential. From the getgo, Tatsuki was introduced as a firecracker of a character, who not only served as a source of courage for Orihime, but also a capable martial artist who had great spiritual awareness. So…what happened? Well, she gradually was pushed into the background, to the point where she’d only show up randomly outside of filler episodes, neither of which helped develop her that much. Couldn’t she have stolen some of Chad’s screen-time?

“Yu Yu Hakusho” (1992-94)

Not everything can be solved with a tournament arc guys, just saying. With political strife growing in the Demon World, various factions are all set to tear each other to pieces in a bid for bloody supremacy. Nothing can stop them from hacking each other to pieces for the sake of the crown, nothing! Except Yusuke Urameshi randomly declaring a tournament to help settle things. From there, everyone’s all onboard with no backlash to be seen. Apparently in times of crises all you need is a grandiose spectator sport with people beating the hell out of each other…

“Digimon Adventure 02” (2000-01)

A haunting force plagues a teenage girl with nightmare visions of a black sea, drags her into its corrupted dimension, tricks her into releasing its creepy denizens…and then declares that they want to make her their Queen. All concluding with a terrifying silhouette of their infamous Master rising from the ocean like Cthulu. Pretty powerful stuff right? Shame it’s mentioned again. While the Dark Ocean gets brought up again later down the line, we never see or hear from Dragomon ever again… so we’ve basically got this massive tyrannical being committing all kinds of evil and the digi-destined are just turning a blind eye. Nice!

“Pokémon” (1997-)

Behold, the ultimate mcguffin. A golden Pokeball that can’t be opened by traditional means. Does it contain a brand new Pokemon? One of the legendaries? The secret as to why Ash has remained a ten year old for the past two decades? Well, we’ll never know, because even after lugging this all across the Orange Islands and Johto region, we never find out. Seriously, Ash just hands it over to a specialist for analysis, and that’s the last we hear of it. We’re used to disappointment since Ash has never won a Pokemon league in his life, but this is the definition of pointless!