Top 10 Biggest Downgrades In Anime
For this list, we'll be looking at the anime series that went downhill during the course of a sequel season, either due to technical or narrative drawbacks. Even if you enjoy these, there's no escaping the fact these installments were severely lacking in quality when compared to the original.
#10: “Medabots Spirits” (2000-01)
Finally! A chance to see Medabee and Warbandit finish their battle! To see Ikki and the others reach new heights as Medafighters and perhaps mature as characters. Who knows, maybe some of those Meda-pairings could come into play? Turns out that all that wishing got us was a show that was a shadow of its former self. With Bee Train no longer running things, the animation quality dipped big time, with key characters like Henry, Koji and even the freakin’ Referee were removed from the plot. Give us early 2000 cheesy anime any day over this!
#9: “Tokyo Ghoul Root A” (2015)
Hello darkness, my old friend. Infamous for going off the rails and abandoning the manga’s well-crafted narrative for seemingly no reason whatsoever, Root A takes tortured hero Kaneki on a whirlwind adventure filled with episodes of non-stop running sequences, random alliances, out-of-character decisions and an ending the show probably thought was the most poetic thing to ever devour a carcass. Re; may have somewhat picked up the pieces, to a lesser extent, and Glassy Sky remains one of the most breath-taking music pieces in modern anime, but this sequel was a misfired disaster from the start.
#8: “Black Butler II” (2010)
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The capers of the young Earl and his demon butler certainly garnered enough of an intrigue and cult-following to warrant a second outing. After all, Sebastian’s uber-suaveness were borderline intoxicating. So, what happened? Well, filler once again came into the picture, only this time it was an entire season comprised of it. The idea of Ciel taking on another wealthy, cross-dressing lord with his own all-powerful servant was a good idea on paper, but the execution turned the whole thing into one big head-scratcher. Characters we thought were dead randomly came back, the final confrontation was underwhelming, any form of subtlety was sent right out the window, and an ending that future sequels have since completely disregarded.
#7: “Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor” (2009)
Remember, this is the show that gave us Hobo Hei. One of the most badass, masked vigilantes out there, and they turned him into a depressed drunk who occasionally gropes young girls. If that’s not character assassination, we don’t know what is. It may fling the occasional action scene at us and the odd conspiratorial plot point, but unlike before, the machinations of the Syndicate and the battles between Contractors just felt lacking. The Black Reaper deserved so much more, and is a damn shame that we’ll never see him get the chance at a redemption arc. Or take a shower.
#6: “Eureka Seven: AO” (2012)
Honestly, did we even need a sequel? There was never going to be anything that could measure up to the likes of the original, mecha-surfing masterpiece in terms of spectacle as well as its intricate romance. While we’d love nothing more than to see Eureka and Renton live their lives, we didn’t want it to be at the expense of the show’s legacy. With their child serving as a poor-replacement protagonist and the time-travel elements lacking any real excitement to them, we wouldn’t be surprised if the AO stood for “Awful Outing.”
#5: “Soul Eater Not!” (2014)
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Not is right. Not engaging. Not in any way worthy of the Soul Eater name. Not worth our time. A prequel that focuses on the DWMA meisters that came before Maka and the rest is all well and good and held potential to expand the lore and world-building, but all it ended up giving us was laughable fight scenes and a strange shift towards the slice of life genre. We’re not saying that it had to be all happy-murder-time, but at the very least offer something that still captures the spirit of what made the original so enjoyable. We miss Death the Kid.
#4: “FLCL Progressive” (2018)
The return of Haruko Haruhara should have been ushered in like royalty. After all, no one does crazy quite like this guitar wielding, galactic enforcer. This should have been a blast, but as it happened it didn’t even manage to live up our lowest expectations. While Gainax were off doing absolutely nothing while raking in the money from old projects, this classic was left to meander in mediocrity. The animation is a far cry from the beautiful madness of the original, the new cast aside from Haruko are a bore to be around, including the painfully disinterested lead, all the while the plot comes painfully close to re-treading old ground but with only a pinch of the pizazz!
#3: “One Punch Man” Season Two (2019)
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You knew it was coming. With Madhouse leaving the building, what was arguably the most anticipated animated sequel in decades was left in the hands of JC Staff, who to their credit mostly managed to maintain the show’s credibility. However, when compared to the godly animation and narrative structure that came before, it does indeed drop the ball. Corner cutting has been known to run rampant in some episodes, resulting in moments that should have been phenomenal falling pretty flat. While this season did manager to deliver on some great action and comedy, it still failed to reach the heights of its predecessor.
#2: “Psycho-Pass 2” (2014)
Where the flying fiddlesticks is Kogami?! Seriously! You can’t just give us a cyberpunk epic and scrub away a half of the leading duo. The relationship between our brooding Enforcer and naïve Detective was the crux of this dystopian darling, and what did the sequel give us? Akane struggling to solve a series of homicides while accompanied by one of the most infuriatingly sidekicks we’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. Our poor girl is giving it her all, and all we can do wonder how she ended up having to helm such a lacklustre effort.
#1: “Berserk” (2016-17)
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It boggles the mind at how they could take the sequel to the definitive dark fantasy anime and turn it into a laughingstock. The music may be top tier and seeing the Berserker Armor animated for the first time did give us chills, but for the most part this adaptation of Guts’ trail of vengeance post-Golden Age arc was a Zodd-sized failure. Cinematography that was liable to cause nausea, 3D-CGI uglier than sin, out of place sound effects that were practically deafening, all these elements melded together to create a sub-par experience for casual watchers, while diehard fans were left agape at what an insult this anime proved to be.
