Top 20 Universally Despised Anime

When they call this a “collection” instead of an “anime,” they aren’t kidding. The story - and we use that term loosely - follows a group of ninja who go around defeating evil, smoke spirits. At least, we think. The actual plot gets lost pretty fast amid all the poorly-animated fight scenes. Every episode is only a few minutes long, meaning there’s no time for characterization, rising action, or any kind of coherent storytelling at all. You can technically finish “Ninja Collection” in under an hour, but the show is so offensively boring, you’ll still struggle making it to the end.

There’s two key ingredients to making a popular action-comedy. It’s literally in the name: you need action, and you need comedy. Yet, somehow, “Tesla Note” doesn’t have either. To start, the entire story can be boiled down to “get the thing before the bad guy does.” Rinse, redo, and repeat thirteen times, and you have the whole season of “Tesla Note.” The series tries to liven up its familiar tropes with some bantering humor, but it ends up falling on its face more often than not. Oh, and then there’s the animation. 3D anime already have a bad reputation , and to put it nicely, “Tesla Note” won’t be convincing anyone otherwise.

Buckle up, this plot summary is something else. In order to save a fantasy world, schoolboy Itsuki has to get down and dirty with twelve different Star Maidens to make an army of superpowered offspring. Seriously. Questionable ethics aside, the strangest part of “Conception” is that Itsuki doesn’t actually need to sleep with the women to make a child. A show like this was never going to be high art, but at the very least, we could’ve respected its commitment to the bit. Instead, “Conception” goes down as a disappointing fumble that’s too wild to recommend, and too tame to be a guilty pleasure.

For what it’s worth, this is probably the only anime in existence where you get to see Dracula steal Satan’s bride. Unfortunately, it’s not as cool as it sounds. Despite being based on a Marvel Comics character, the film’s creative merits quickly fizzle out thanks to its flat storytelling and flatter animation. It’s a droll, boring affair from start to finish. The story is practically nonsensical, anyways. Then again, what else do you expect when you cram 70 issues of comic book lore into 90 minutes? If this is the best Dracula could manage, he should’ve just stayed in his tomb.

Say it with us, now: there is no Tsukihime anime. Based upon the outrageously popular visual novel, “Lunar Legend” should have been a slam dunk. But, that would have required actually adapting it properly. Instead, the characters are unrecognizable, the pacing is atrocious, and the story is filled to the brim with head-scratching changes. “Lunar Legend” is such a misfire, many fans of the original joke that it never existed in the first place. We can’t blame them, either. There’s literally no reason to watch “Lunar Legend Tsukihime” when the visual novel is the same thing, just better.

Despite the name, “rise” is the opposite of what Naofumi did here. He got off to a strong start with a first season full of action, revenge, and heartfelt adventure. But, sometime during the hiatus, “Shield Hero” forgot how to tell an interesting story at all. It’s such a stark one-eighty, that you can’t help but wonder, what happened? With glacial pacing and no clear sense of direction, this sophomore slump turned “Shield Hero” from appointment television into a disappointing has-been. Season three redeemed the show a bit, but by then, most fans had already abandoned this sinking ship for good.

In this case, what you see is what you get. “Vampire Holmes” is quite literally about a knockoff Sherlock Holmes… who investigates vampires. No, it doesn’t get any more clever than that. Since it’s based on a mobile game, you’d expect there to be some kind of message or fanservice. But, nope. “Vampire Holmes” is nothing more than a low-brow parody that never should have been approved, let alone seen the light of day. As if to prove how little anyone cared about the final product, the animation - or lack thereof - is so bad, it’s almost funny. Elementary, this is not, dear Watson.

At the start of this reverse-isekai, Satan gets demoted from a Demon Lord to a fast-food worker. Then, in season two, he gets demoted again. This time, into a hollow cash-grab. The debut of “The Devil Is a Part-Timer” was engaging, inventive, and above all, hilarious - three things that this 2023 follow-up is not. The show also changed animation studios, and the drop-off in quality is impossible to miss. The downgrade wouldn’t sting so much if we didn’t already have 13 outstanding episodes proving how great the concept can be. “The Devil Is a Part-Timer” should have been one of anime’s best. But, after this season, it’s a cautionary tale.

As if moving in with a new stepdad isn’t hard enough, the teenage Ema also has to deal with a metric ton of romantic advances. That’s all fine and dandy until you realize her love interests are her thirteen step brothers. There’s more brothers than episodes in the series, and naturally, it’s a recipe for total disaster. “Brothers Conflict” throws a bunch of cliches in a blender, adds a thick dose of icky, family drama, and calls it a day. Oh, and there’s a talking squirrel, too. We’d try to explain it, but like most things in “Brothers Conflict,” it’s easier to just ignore and move on.

This three episode OVA has it all: a reluctant hero, a war-infested fantasy world, and a whole lot of overly-dramatic set pieces. It’s nothing you haven’t seen a million times before. But, in contrast to its forgettable plot, the English dub is incredibly memorable. Just not for the right reasons. Even for the 90s, these performances are so ludicrously over-the-top, it’s hard to imagine how anyone thought this was okay to release. The line delivery goes from bad, to so-bad-it’s-good, back around to just plain bad again. Some advice? Save your ears, and skip this one while you still can.

The scariest part of this horror anime isn’t the graphic violence, the titular Pupa virus, or even the tight, four-minute episodes. While those are still glaring issues, the real threat is Yume and Utsutsu themselves. When the two siblings are exposed to the namesake illness, Yume becomes a man-eating monster, and Utsutsu learns to regenerate at will. You can probably guess the gory places their relationship goes. With the right care, that idea could work. Sadly, “Pupa’s” meager runtime doesn’t leave much room for thoughtful analysis. Or, really, any kind of in-depth plot at all. Instead, fans were left with a shallow snoozefest that mistakes shock-value for actual entertainment.

Do you like sports anime? How about fanservice? Juicy plots, engaging rivalries, that whole thing? Good! Then stay clear of “Ladyspo,” because it’s none of that. Women playing sports in space sounds like a surefire premise, but rather than exploring that, “Ladyspo” devotes most of its episodes to literal potty humor. Oh, and when we say “episodes,” we really mean slideshows. That’s not us being mean; “Ladyspo” is actually just still images with mouth flaps. Even if you can somehow get past all that, what you’re left with is a sports anime that barely focuses on sports. The real question here is, what’s the point?

You’d think a franchise like “Gundam” would be too big to fail. But, in 2003, “Superior Defender Gundam Force” proved everyone wrong with an unmitigated trainwreck of an anime. Everything fans loved about the series was gone. The Gundams were sentient, the animation was pure CG, and the storyline was dumbed down to appeal to a younger demographic. To add insult to injury, this kiddie version was supposed to mark “Gundam’s” 25th anniversary, too. Surprising no one, this so-called celebration went down in flames. In fact, at the time, “Superior Defender Gundam Force” was the least-watched “Gundam” title in Japan, ever. Those kinds of numbers don’t lie.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or have never caught an episode, there’s no enjoying this 3D misfire. On principle alone, the janky CGI and lackluster pacing would make for an incredibly middling fantasy anime. But, the fact that this has the name “Berserk” attached makes it so much worse. The 1995 series is still beloved to this day, to the point that fans spent almost twenty years asking for a proper sequel. What they got instead was an ugly hack job that failed to do its source material justice. Suffice it to say, 2016’s “Berserk” is not the follow-up fans wanted, expected, or deserved.

You want a plot rundown? Okay, here goes. A samurai, a ninja, and a monk walk into a bar and start killing monsters. There, now you’re all caught up on the mess that is “Gibiate.” Despite some time-traveling shenanigans and an action-filled setup, the show is an exercise in staying awake. There’s just no stakes in anything that happens. Mainly because it’s impossible to take the hideous, CG monsters seriously. Keep in mind, this is a show about a pandemic turning people into mindless creatures - and it aired in 2020. Yawn-inducing at best and tone-deaf at worst, “Gibiate” is barely worth the time it takes to scroll past it.

Holding hands is a normal part of any romance anime. Here, though, it’s the entire show. For reasons we can’t even begin to unpack, Tazuna and Koyori have to remain joined at the palm in order to ask God for a wish. But, first, they have to defeat other pairs of Hand Shakers. Don’t ask us why. The plot is incomprehensible, and yet, the visuals are somehow even worse. If you like abhorrent 3D backgrounds, headache-inducing camera work, and oily filters over every frame, “Hand Shakers” is for you. But, if you value your time - or your eyes - it’s best to avoid this one like the plague.

Anyone who says there’s no such thing as bad publicity has clearly never read a review for “Mars of Destruction.” This OVA is legendary in all the wrong ways, and truly, we’d be here all day if we tried to break down why. So, we’ll just hit the big points: the animation is abysmal, the story is a walking cliche, and the so-called twist ending inspires more laughter than anything else. You can go through every department; there’s just nothing redeemable here. Add in lazily-edited death scenes and comically overblown voice acting, and “Mars of Destruction” is a textbook example of anime gone wrong.

Not every story gets the anime it deserves. But, this isn’t just a bad adaptation. It’s a full-on butchering. Unlike it’s brilliant first season, “The Promised Neverland’s” second go-round began needlessly deviating from the source material. All it did was create an overly complicated narrative that no one was happy with. But, even if you excuse the growing pains, there’s no defending the finale. Instead of getting things back on track, “The Promised Neverland” crammed half the manga into a montage and then had the gall to say “the end.” It was a spit in the face to the story, and had everyone agreeing that this anime had broken its promise.

There’s hideous, there’s unwatchable, and then there’s “Ex-Arm.” It’s no stretch to say that this is in serious contention for one of the ugliest anime to ever grace television screens. It’s not just that the CGI is genuinely atrocious; these shaky camera movements will actually hurt your eyes after a while. We wish we could say the story and characters were any better, but they’re not. “Ex-Arm” fails at every fundamental level, both as an anime, and as a piece of entertainment. To be fair, there might be a good story buried somewhere in its sci-fi premise. But, if there is, you won’t find it in this adaptation.

If you’re a diehard “FLCL” fan, the only thing we can say is “sorry.” In yet another attempt to cash-in on the magic of the original series, “Grunge” became a money-grubbing affair devoid of any passion whatsoever. At first glance, you probably think the cheap CGI is bad enough. But, since each episode is essentially the same story from a different character’s point of view, the whole thing feels redundant before it even begins. Ironically, that’s a good metaphor for how completely unnecessary “Grunge” is in the first place. Now that they’ve officially lost their fanbase for good, fingers crossed “FLCL” can finally rest in peace.

Did we miss any anime misfires? Let us know in the comments below!