Most Disappointing Anime of All Time

These are the anime that had promising ideas but executed them poorly, giving out worse results than expected.
The Top Ten
1 Sword Art Online Sword Art Online is a series of Japanese light novels written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. In 2012, it received an anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures and the SAO Project, and is directed by Tomohiko Ito . The first season is divided into two arcs known as "Aincrad" and "Fairy Dance". It has also received a second season, titled Sword Art Online II.

Sword Art Online is an anime that has incredible potential as a long-running action series, yet it completely went downhill after Episode 2. Without spoilers, imagine Lord of The Rings, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, or your favourite fantasy/adventure story. Okay, now take out all the action and adventure. Next, the main character becomes so powerful to the point where they aren't even scratched when two dozen guys jump them all at once, and they have the mind of an eight year old boy. Finally, every possible "their" type character falls for the main character because of one simple acts of kindness that they do for them. Yep...

The show talks about how there are 100 floors, yet less than half are actually shown, maybe even less than 20%. Also, the reason this happens is because they skip by a few years, I guess as an excuse as to why Kirito is able to survive several sword slashes by over 4 players. Also whenever someone kills him he takes forever to disappear and then takes down the guy that killed him, and THEN he disappears. Also, EVERYONE is this show relies on him. It feels like the point of this is to spend over 15 episodes bragging about how "awesome" their show's protagonist is.

I admit it's a good anime but I'm just so disappointed. It could have been so much more! I think this show had the potential to be like the best anime ever but they ruined it with too much romance and not even clearing all the floors. Seriously Kirito never even finished the game and they decide to end it and switch it to some lame fairy game? This anime disappointed me greatly they took an amazing idea that had potential to be the greatest anime ever and ruined it. Such a shame..

I thought this would be a great anime. Kids get trapped inside a video game? Hell yeah! Unfortunately, it got ruined with the rushed relationship between Kirito and Asuna. That's not the right way to make a good anime couple!

2 The Irregular At Magic High School Originally a light novel series by Tsutomu Satō, this anime adaptation aired in 2014. It delves into a world where magic is recognized as a technology and follows siblings attending a magical high school. The series is noted for its exploration of social hierarchies and technical aspects of magic.

This show is so terrible, both me and my brother hate it with a burning passion. It's offensive to siblings, by making Miyuki and Tatsuya incest. Again, Miyuki and Tatsuya are mary sue and gary stu who can do ANYTHING. Tatsuya can even block the enemies bullets just with his HAND. His HAND! and Miyuki is equally terrible and annoying. The magic system was cool and madhouse did a good job when animating this. But It was terribly executed story and character wise. Other characters like Erika or Saegusa seemed to have great potential in them, but they barely get actual attention or recgonition as It's always Shiba sue siblings! Kirito isn't a living god. TATSUYA IS. And Miyuki is the living goddess

The visuals are great, the world is interesting, & the premise is a good idea. Sadly, they spend about 95% of this anime just standing around & talking, so we never get to see what drew us into this series in the first place. And the conversation is always either ridiculously boring or unbearably awkward. At least the opening was awesome, but there really isn't much to consistently enjoy.

The only reason Sword Art Online has more comments than this show is because few people have seen it. Seriously, this show is lower than Sword Art Online. If you thought Sword Art Online was disappointing, wait till you see this.

Although not as bad as Boku no Pico or School Days, The Irregular At Magic High School is the second worst anime I have seen next to to that stupid Soul Eater Not!

3 Naruto Shippuden Naruto: Shippuden is the ongoing sequel to the original Naruto anime and covers the Naruto manga from volume twenty-eight on. The TV adaptation of Naruto: Shippuden debuted in Japan on February 15, 2007 on TV Tokyo. It is developed by Studio Pierrot and directed by Hayato Date.

Honestly I loved Naruto so I was excited to watch the sequel to it. But like the fillers oml were SO excruciating like the ship I can never get over the ship ahh and all in all there are probably like only 300 relevant episodes or something yikes. I skipped all the fillers and honestly like someone else mentioned it really was going downhill by the time the war began. But overall it wasn't the most disappointing in my opinion

The characters never properly develop, the show resolves issues between the most powerful characters and villains by randomly introducing new characters that are more powerful instead of properly developing the characters they already have, and OH GOD THE FILLERS MAKE IT STOP!

When the war arc started, it was really going downhill.

4 Gurren Lagann Gurren Lagann, known in Japan as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, is an anime series animated by Gainax and co-produced by Aniplex and Konami. It was also directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by veteran playwright Kazuki Nakashima.

I had very high expectations for this considering nearly everyone thought of this as a masterpiece. So I watched it but the cheesy messages about "believing in yourself" and "never giving up" were shouted out so loud it literally annoyed the hell out of me.

I really wanted to like it after I heard the premise of the show but I just found it unbarable to watch due to the generic characters, bad plot, lack of character development and dumb dialog that tries to sound wise, it was like watching a michael bay movie

This is like, my number one anime. How is it disappointing? The battles are amazing and awesome.

This is one of the most inspirational anime series I have ever seen! It's not disappointing!

5 Berserk Berserk, also known as Sword-Wind Chronicle Berserk, is a Japanese anime television series that aired from 1997 to 1998. An adaptation of the manga Berserk, it comprises 25 half-hour episodes produced by Oriental Light and Magic and first aired on Nippon TV.

With poor camera angles, removed and changed story arcs and animation with the same quality of a Sega Saturn 1995 videogame, the 2016 and 2017 anime adaptations of Berserk are painfull to watch for those who read the manga.

Everything was fine... Until the ending... and then the 2016 sequel came in... and tore everything apart.

Why is berserk here? It's great

6 Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid

The "Mighty No. 9" of anime
a huge disappointment and a colossal disgrace to the Lyrical Nanoha franchise and its fans

7 Akame Ga Kill! Akame ga Kill! (アカメが斬る!, Akame ga Kiru! is a manga published in Gangan Joker authored by Takahiro and Tashiro Tetsuya. It received an anime adaptation that premiered on July 6, 2014 and ended on December 14, 2014.

This anime is good, when talking generally. But you know, the story does not focus on Akame. The group is killed, and only Akame survived. I'm disappointed at the deaths. The deaths doesn't satisfy me. The ending sucks, to be honest.

Imagine how many episodes it would have had if it followed the manga all the way through. Probably around 100 episodes. It could have been that long. Sadly, they crammed the anime into just 24 episodes. That part is a shame.

Not as disappointing as The Irregular At Magic High School, but the anime disappointed me more than Sword Art Online. Which is saying something.

Overall, I thought this was an amazing anime. The final episode was a little bit underwhelming though.

8 Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

I watched it expecting it to be one of the best Gundam series of all time but it turned out to a big mean-spirited, pretentious mess of a mecha anime. Also, the less talked about the ending the better.

9 Pokemon XY

It's a Pokemon anime, what did you expect?

10 Dragon Ball Super Dragon Ball Super is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation that began airing on July 5, 2015. It is a sequel show to the Dragon Ball manga and the first Dragon Ball television series featuring a new storyline in 18 years.

People tend to expect too much from sequels of great series, and that's the reason why DBGT and DBS are being horribly bashed, as they didn't live up to their predecessor's greatness, which is DB and DBZ. I think the main problem with Dragon Ball Super is that the characters are too OOC, the animation is pretty bad and last but not least, too many Super Saiyan transformations. It was originally supposed to be a legendary transformation, but they are turning it into a joke. DBGT and DBS, in my opinion, are not that bad as stand-alone series, but they ARE disappointing as they are expected to be as great as DBZ once was, which is very difficult, as very few anime series can be as great as it was. That's what would happen with sequels of legends - people would expect too much from them and then be disappointed when it's not as good as they had expected it to be.

Terrible continuation of a once-great series.

Episode 5. Enough said.

The Contenders
11 Parasyte The anime was simulcast by Crunchyroll outside of Asia. Aside from the manga and anime, the series also has two live-action film adaptations. The Chinese Ministry of Culture blacklisted Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu as well as 37 other works on June 9, 2015. ...read more.

Animations and soundtrack are amazing, and the first couple episodes are quite well made. However, even though the anime is praised by the themes and it's story, the characters and the plot are subpar at best, and comically ridiculous at worse (yuko, ep. 10 ).

The anime has meaningfully constructed moments, but they are strung together in ways that undermine or even contradicts what the scenes are supposedly showing (almost all human characters deaths follow this pattern).

Furthermore, it's interesting themes are barely tackled on, giving place to mindless fight that, while good looking, end up composing episodes you would expect from something like mirai nikki, *NOT* from something supposedly acclaimed by it's deep themes.

There's a single great character in the show (whose identity itself is quite a spoiler), but it's quite underutilized, and the character arc's development gets progressively
weaker, with the exception of the end.

All in all, it's a ...more

The story definitely had potential, but by the end of the series everything became weird, confusing, ambiguous and unnecessary.

Whoa, really?! Parasyte is one of my favorite horror anime series of all time! Parasyte is already a masterpiece.

I will admit it was still good but it had the potential to be a huge masterpiece! At least it wasn't bad.

12 Mega Man: Upon a Star
13 Black Rock Shooter

Bam. A promising anime that felt like a bore.

14 God Eater God Eater is an anime adaptation of the God Eater video game series. It is animated by Ufotable and began airing on July 12, 2015 after a one-week delay.

While I did like God Eater, I do think that it kind of deserves to be in this list, considering some pacing issues of the animation. Still, it's far from the worst, but this is a disappointing anime list, so I somewhat agree with this being in the list, despite the fact that it is a great anime in my opinion.

Not the worst, but although I am still invested in watching the last episodes of the anime, I can't call this better than One Punch Man.

I could have watched other good anime during the time I watched God Eater!

15 Bonjour Sweet Love Patisserie

At least the guys look cute

This looks like B-Project: Kodou Ambitious. Was this made by the same studio?

16 Aldnoah.Zero Aldnoah.Zero, stylized as ΛLDNOΛH.ZERO, is a mecha anime television and print series created by Olympus Knights and A-1 Pictures.
17 The Asterisk War Known in Japan as "Gakusen Toshi Asterisk," this anime series debuted in 2015 and is based on a light novel by Yuu Miyazaki. It features a world where individuals with magical abilities compete in battles at an academy. Known for its high-octane action scenes and harem elements, the series received mixed reviews but has a dedicated fan base.

They should rather call it "The Stereotype War". Ayato is even worse than Kirito and just a Frankenstein monster of all overpowered stereotypical Shonen-protagonists. Julis is just a clichéd tsundere and everything is just incredibly boring

18 The Seven Deadly Sins The Seven Deadly Sins is an anime television series based on a Japanese fantasy manga series of the same name.

Funny thing is, I had a feeling this would be disappointing. However, the first two seasons were surprisingly good, making you anticipate more content. But lo and behold comes the 3rd season in all its glory... the rest is history.

There is an anime with this name... But it's not a good one.

It's this one lol

19 Death Parade Death Parade is a 2015 Japanese anime television series created, written, and directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa and produced by Madhouse.

I like the opening of this anime, but I hate this anime

Again. It bored me.

20 Rail Wars
21 Avatar: The Last Airbender Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in an Asiatic-like world in which some people are able to manipulate the classical elements by use of psychokinetic variants of Chinese martial arts, known as "bending". This show is often seen as one of the greatest cartoons of all time and is commonly thought to be an anime.

Why is this on the list? Avatar: The Last Airbender is so much better than Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, or possibly even One Piece and Bleach!
It had great characters with development, epic setting, awesome fighting scenes, honest and yet emotional moments... and no fillers!
Even though each trouble is done through one or two episodes, this sends the moral message perfectly.

22 Ghost in the Shell Debuting in 1995 as an anime film, Ghost in the Shell was based on a manga by Masamune Shirow. The franchise has since expanded into multiple series and films. It explores themes of identity, artificial intelligence, and existentialism through its protagonist, Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg federal agent in a future Japan. The franchise has had a significant impact on cyberpunk culture and media.

While some episodes were really good, there is way too much filler. I honestly could substitute this show for sleeping pills.

23 The Legend of Korra The Legend of Korra is an American animated television series that aired on the Nickelodeon television network from 2012 to 2014. It was created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino as a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender.
24 Azure Striker Gunvolt: The Anime
25 Beyblade Beyblade is a 2001 Japanese anime television series based on Takao Aoki's manga series of the same name, which itself is based on the Beyblade spinning tops.
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