In theanimeindustry, there are highly popular anime likeFullmetal Alchemist,Hunter x Hunter, orAttack on Titanwith interesting and well-crafted stories that make them easy to recommend to others and that manage to engrave their names as some of the best in the medium. However, there are series that also manage to achieve similar recognition, although under the condition of being remembered as one of the worst animes in history. This way,bad anime with hilariously low animation and disappointing stories are still popular to this dayand prove that success doesn’t always mean quality.
Despite being infamous productions, sometimes with horrendous visuals or character design, a narrative without any purpose or reasonable logic, or characters with a lack of charisma,viewers are attracted to watching bad anime for many different reasons. This could be due to them having a unique element or a story that turns so confusing that it becomes interesting. Because of this, many bad animes are popular enough to be renewed for new seasons and continue to be successful on streaming services despite not being highly regarded among viewers.
Arifureta: From Commonplace To World’s Strongest
Cast
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest follows Hajime Nagumo and his high school classmates as they are transported to a fantastical world. Unlike his peers, Hajime lacks powerful abilities and must navigate a monster-infested dungeon, where he faces the challenges of survival through determination and sacrifice.
Arifuretaisan isekai animewhoseoriginal light novel has achieved popularity for its interesting characters and world-building, which includes many references to Norse mythology. But this isn’t the case for the anime, which is considered a bad adaptation asArifuretahas bad pacing, rushing through the story andcutting many scenes from the light novel. Even from the first episode, the anime is more focused on the action from the get-go instead of delving intoHajime’s background and motivations, without properly building upthe series' setting and making it confusing to viewers.
10 Isekai Anime That Will Make You Fall For the Controversial Genre
Isekai is one of the more controversial genres in anime, but these 10 choices are a solid point for someone who wants a great series to watch.
Arifuretafaced production problems, so one of the adaptation’s biggest problems was its bad animation and awful CGI. Moreover, the anime also had character writing, making them feel plain and without giving them a memorable development. However,Arifuretawas still renewed for a second season and remains popular mostly because it’s consideredthe perfect example ofanime “so bad it’s good.“Moreover, many viewers have been attracted to the series despite its issues because of the protagonist, Hajime, and because of its unique revenge premise, similar to other isekai likeThe Rising of the Shield Hero.
Rent-A-Girlfriendis an anime with an original concept about a topic that actually exists in Japan, which easily grabbed viewers’ attention with its beautiful character design, starting as a really entertaining rom-com. Unfortunately, the pace of the narrative, the personality of its protagonist, Kazuya—who is considered one of the worst in the medium—and the little progress of his relationship with Chizuru, as well as the other girls who are slowly renegaded on the sidelines makes the anime become burdensome to continue to its audience, with many eventually dropping it.
Moreover, the criticism ofRent-A-Girlfriendwas reinforced as viewers found out that the story in the manga doesn’t advance either, andKazuya never experiences any real character development. However, the anime remains popular with those who enjoy the cute design of the girls or still watch it to see how low Kazuya can continue falling as a protagonist. This decline makesRent-A-Girlfriendone of the greatest examples of how a successful anime can sabotage itself by lengthening its story without purpose just to take advantage of its popularity.
During its first season in 2021,Tokyo Revengerswas so popular that it became a best-selling manga, surpassing titles likeOne PieceandJujutsu Kaisen. This was due toTokyo Revengersinteresting premise, where its protagonist regresses to the past and gets involved with high school gangs to save his first girlfriend, in addition to its charming side characters and doses of action and tragedy. However,Tokyo Revengers’anime didn’t live up to the expectations of the viewers, with low-quality animation, censorship, and a lack of compelling action scenes fitting the violence of gang fights.
Moreover,Tokyo Revengerswent downhill as the story progressedwith plot holes, bad character writing, andintroducing many side characters without properly developing them. However, despite having noticeably less hype than during its first installment, the series still has a big fanbase that tends to overlook the series' flaws, as proved byTokyo Revengersupcoming fourth season.
Domestic Girlfriendfeels like watching a soap opera, but not in a good way. The anime has many dramatic themes that make it intriguing for viewers: forbidden love entanglements, misunderstandings, love triangles, and a great start in terms of tension escalation. While this may have given the series an opportunity to develop itscontroversial topics well and become a good romance anime, sadly,Domestic Girlfriendfeels underwhelming.
There’s Bad Anime And Then There’s 10 of the Worst Anime Adaptations of All Time
As popular as anime adaptations may be, plenty are better off ignored, and 10 adaptations, in particular, are especially not worth watching.
Beyond their flawed behaviors,the characters inDomestic Girlfriendjust don’t feel realistic enough, making many questionable decisions that only make viewers feel frustrated and uncomfortable. Because of this, even thoughDomestic Girlfriendis still well-known and continues to be watched as a guilty pleasure by those looking for a toxic and forbidden relationship, the most redeemable aspect of the anime is its incredible opening theme, which remains popular to this day.
The Future Diary, also known asMirai Nikki, is a death game anime that reached success thanks to introducing a psychopathic protagonist, Yuno Gasai, one of the most popular yandere characters, and the audience’s preference for battle royale stories. However, its protagonist, Yukiteru Amano, is still remembered as one of the worst parts of the series due to his annoying and unconfident personality, incapable of making decisions and always being protected.
Furthermore, Yukiteru’s relationship with Yuno was not only toxic, but also wasn’t well-developed, and even thoughThe Future Diaryhas thrilling moments full of tension and twists, the plot lost itself progressively with many plot holes, characters without compelling development, and a resolution that closed the story in a disappointing way. However, despite its inconsistencies,The Future Diaryis entertaining and enjoyable for those who look for a dark and gory anime.
In Another World with My Smartphoneis a typical harem isekai with an intriguing enough concept that it’s badly executed. In the anime, Touya is reincarnated in another world after being killed by god, and instead of asking for exciting powers or a weapon, he asks for his cellphone. While this plot wasn’t perfect to begin with, In Another World with My Smartphonedidn’t offer much more for Touya to be an interesting protagonist, as the story became repetitive by basically giving him everything to be indestructible.
Touya resolves everything easily with his phone, learning to summon powerful spirits, leaving no room for difficult battles, and instead, the story focuses on an average harem protagonist having many fiancées. Even though the anime was popular enough to have a second season due to the rise of isekai, as the story’s main theme became the harem, it lost a lot of potential for what it could have been.
School Daysstarts as the typical rom-com, as during the first part of the series, nothing interesting happens beyond Makoto’s continuous deceptions and affairs with most of the female characters. However,School Daysfeels like a melodrama as Makoto’s causal relationships are poorly elaborated and lack substance.
However, the defining point ofSchool Dayswhich would make it stand out and be remembered even many years after its premiere is its ending. This way,School Daysis one of those strange cases where a bad anime causes exaggerated hype thanks to a specific element,with a macabre ending that no viewer expected. While its popularity might have been unearned based on its quality, this is more due to its infamous shock factor, which is still a meme among the anime community.
Although it is a typical fantasy adventure anime, the premise ofThe Seven Deadly Sinsis interesting, introducing, one by one, the deadly sins and unraveling the mystery of who they really are and why they were banished from the kingdom. Furthermore, one of the reasons whyThe Seven Deadly Sinsachieved popularity was because it was a good adaptation of the manga, having an outstanding soundtrack and fluid animation, gaining followers all over the world.
However,the story became monotonous, and the animation quality decreased significantly with the change to Studio Deen, with bad action scenes, exaggerated use of still frames, mediocre character design, and censorship of the most violent moments, which caused controversy in the anime. This, added to its original problems of having excessive fanservice, questionable characters, and bad writing towards its ending, caused the series to not be considered a good anime. Yet, despite losing its initial hype during its last seasons, it is still a fairly popular franchise, having a recent sequel based on the next generation ofThe Seven Deadly Sins.
