Ask John: Which Anime Has John Liked Least?

Question:
What’s John’s list of worst anime to date? Has there been such a list, just your personal list of titles you abhorred?

Answer:
I consider myself an anime fan, meaning that I respect and enjoy all varieties of anime. Moreover, I don’t expect anime to earn my viewing attention or prove anything to me. I’m already a fan; I naturally want to like every new anime that I encounter. But simply due to the fact that I don’t have the time or opportunity to watch every anime, I must be selective and choose which shows and titles I devote my attention to. Furthermore, I’m naturally attracted to certain genres over others, so I’ll naturally gravitate toward action or horror or sci-fi anime before historical drama or sports or children’s anime. So there have been countless shows that I’ve enjoyed, some of them because and some of them regardless of their production quality. And there have been shows that I’ve not especially liked. But there are very few anime that I outright detest. For example, I didn’t enjoy the 1990 RPG Densetsu Hepoi television series because I thought its protagonist was creepy. Similarly, I had a difficult time sitting through the first episode of the 1997 Sakura Momoko Gekijou: Coji-Coji television series because series’ protagonist Coji-Coji is so infuriatingly, selfishly ignorant. I also didn’t like the 1997 revival of Mach Go Go Go because it’s a pointlessly bland, lifeless rehash of a fun classic show. I recognize the merits and quality of World Masterpiece Theater anime and shows of a similar genre, like Watashi no Annette, Shokojo Sara, Shokoshi Cedi, Romeo no Aoi Sora, Sasurai no Shoujo Nell, Futari no Lotte, and Nils no Fushigi na Tabi, but I typically don’t enjoy watching them. I want to be entertained by anime, and I find most of these shows highly didactic. They’re also frequently uniformly depressing stories about children being unhappily separated from their parents. I’m also not a particular fan of the thankfully short-lived mid-1990’s sub-genre of anime & live-action hyrbid educational fantasy adventure anime that included Kynkyuu Hashin Saver Kids, Kyouryuu Wakusei, Gene Diver, and Kyuumei Senshi Nanosaver. But the list of anime that I outright detested, simply abhorred, is relatively small compared to the total number of anime titles I’ve watched.

A handful of anime have successfully merged serious gunplay action and slapstick comedy, among them: City Hunter, Grenadier: Hohoemi no Senshi, and Trigun. But the effort is difficult to formulate properly, and shows that don’t get the mix right usually end up disappointing and frustrating. I particularly dislike anime that try to merge innately serious and violent action with slapstick humor. Gonzo’s 2004 Sunabozu and 2005 Trinity Blood TV series both tried to mix grim, post-apocalyptic settings and intense gun action with goofy, slapstick humor. I hated both shows passionately. Sunabozu ends up feeling like a one-trick pony, and Trinity Blood compromises itself, creating mediocre gothic horror action and mediocre comedy. The Kite Liberator OVA feels like an action OVA that doesn’t want to be an action anime. It’s often cited as a satire, but it doesn’t feel deliberately satirical. It’s just an unpleasant, half-hearted mess to sit through.

After spending the early 1990s intently enjoying the Tenchi Muyo franchise, the 1997 Shin Tenchi Muyo TV series tried to be different and ended up messing with a good thing. Even though I managed to watch all 26 episodes in untranslated Japanese, recorded onto VHS tapes from Japanese TV broadcast, I hated every minute of the show. I disliked the show’s uncharacteristic effort to merge genres, the show’s rather ugly character designs, and the show’s ridiculous, rubbery stylized animation.

Similarly, after enjoying the nicely animated and well characterized 1998 Majutsushi Orphen television series, I absolutely hated the following year’s Majutsushi Orphen Revenge sequel that tried to spin the serious fantasy show into a goofy, slapstick, and very un-funny comedy.

I’m not instinctively opposed to South Korean animation or co-productions. In fact, I rather like the 2004 Korean/Japanese co-produced anime film Shin Angyo Onshi. However, I do have an accute antipathy for bad Korean co-produced anime, most noteably the 2001 Geisters: Fractions of the Earth and RUN=DIM. Geisters was just practically unwatchably bad in every respect. The obscure Run=Dim full CG mecha anime TV series is a typically bad video game adaptation rendered even more unwatchable by its terrible, primitive CG animation.

I enjoy a grim and ominous tone or atmosphere in an anime when it’s used as a backdrop for engaging characters and an exciting story. Anime including Yoju Toshi, Vampire Hunter D, Cyber City Odeo 808, Midnight Eye Goku, and Elfen Lied all achieve this important balance. I’m much less forgiving of anime that exist solely to convey grim, gloomy atmosphere, like Texhnolyze and Ergo Proxy. And I typically detest anime that combine perverse morbidity with unpleasant characters. The Koroshiya 1 Episode 0 OVA and Gantz television series were gratuitous shock value trash trying to pass themselves off as intelligent, insightful, satirical social commentary. The Bokurano television series was so deliberately obtuse and so rife with unlikeable, unpleasant characters that it quickly became torturous to watch. The Narutaru television series was a disjointed, unfocused, mish-mash of genres, ideas, and characters that ended up intensely unpleasant for no effective reason.