Anime has been better than ever in recent years, and with the likes of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War coming this fall season, anime fans are spoiled for amazing shows from Japan.
Still, not all that glitters is gold, and there have been some hilariously bad anime in the past decade. From unbelievably bad animation to stories that make even the most tolerant of fans scratch their heads, these anime are fondly ed for all the wrong reasons.
Junji Ito Collection
Horror anime has had it rough since the hilariously dubbed Ghost Stories. Unfortunately, the trend continues with the long-awaited Junji Ito Collection. What should have been the best horror anime of the decade turned out to be a rush job that failed to capture Ito’s iconic style.
The production was a mess, thanks to absurd deadlines pushed on the staff by corporate heads. The result is an anime that horrified fans not because of the stories themselves, but because of how ugly the final product was. It takes a special anime to turn horror into unintentional comedy.
Arifureta
Arifureta was the long-awaited adaptation of the light novel of the same name, and that monkey’s paw curled, much to fans’ dismay. The anime was incredibly sloppy, and most notoriously, condensed entire arcs into single episodes, giving the anime a chaotically rushed vibe.
The production team behind it most definitely shared that vibe. Although LN fans were angry, they decided to make the best out of a bad situation by pointing out how terrible the writing was for this adaptation. Silver linings, though fans still clamor for a proper adaptation.
Strike the Blood
Strike The Blood was not terrible because of production issues, a rarity in the industry. In fact, the show clearly has a ionate team behind it, which makes the terrible it is all the more amazing. The characters are complete morons, and comedy gags such as the pervy bleeding nose become actual plot points.
It’s an unhinged showcase of action fantasy, and the commitment to this vampiric lunacy made it incredibly charming to fans. It’s better to be a bad show with a 100% team behind it than a mediocre show with a team that’s basically on autopilot, wanting to go home for their four hours of sleep.
Keijo!!!!!!
Keijo!!!!!! (Yes, the exclamation marks are necessary) is the culmination of anime fans getting sick and tired of being called pervy for their taste in anime. If they’re going to think that anyway, then it’s time to go the full mile and make a whole sport around fanservice.
This is exactly what the team behind Keijo!!!!!! did. The show takes the sport of “American Gladiator but with hot girls using their butts and boobs to push each other off” to its logical extremes. The animation is beautifully crafted, and all the voice actors are committed to the intensity of the scenes. The premise is terrible, but the production team certainly gave it their all.
High Rise Invasion
High Rise Invasion is “bad” in the same way that movies like The Purge or Saw are bad. It’s a death game anime, and as with any death game, there are loads and loads of blood. In fact, that’s 50% of the show’s appeal. The other half is how schlocky the writing is.
The fun part of death games is always the silly characters that should be terrifying, but just look hilarious to the viewer. It doesn’t help that the main character gets called a “God” for Three Stooges routine as her way out of deadly situations. Add to that excessive fanservice, and anime fans have the perfect B-Horror anime for a Saturday night.
Rent-A-Girlfriend
Rent-A-Girlfriend takes the trope of spineless harem protagonist to its extremes with the living spaghetti noodle Kazuya Kinoshita. The production here is competent, and the opening theme is a catchy good time, but the main character singlehandedly sinks this rom-com ship before it even sails.
The premise of a teenage boy wasting his grandma’s money on a pretend girlfriend was bad enough, but the constant self-sabotage is legendarily bad. The “mean girl”, Mami, framed as the villain, has nothing but accurate statements about Kazuya’’s character, making the story even more hilarious. It’s fun for those who want to see one of the worst simps in anime.
Cross Ange
Cross Ange is a mecha anime that ruthlessly tears apart the sillier sides of the beloved genre. It’s an honest-to-god parody, and the “badness” is fully intentional. The characters are blatant caricatures of cliché characters from series such as Gundam Seed, and each credits scene has the characters blatantly pointing out how dumb the show they’re in is.
It’s a great palate cleanser for mecha fans who still want their cool action but none of the typical drama. It’s junk food for mecha fans that makes fun of the fans, but it does so with love. It’s no Legend of Galactic Heroes, but it doesn’t need to be.
Domestic Girlfriend
Not wanting to be outclassed by live-action soap operas, Domestic Girlfriend decides to have one of the messiest love triangles in anime history. After an awkward “first time”, Natsuo Fujii parts ways with the quiet Rui as strangers. Instead, he continues to pine for his teacher, Hina.
However, a bombshell is dropped when Fujii’s father reveals that he has remarried, and his wife is none other than his teacher Hina. Not only that, her daughter turns out to be the quiet Rui, making anime fans everywhere question if they were watching an anime or the start of a hentai. The show’s melodrama is as absurd as any telenovela, and fans loved the trainwreck.
Neo Yokio
Although some may say that this is a “western production”, Neo Yokio was still animated by a Japanese-American team, with anime fans behind it. For all intents and purposes, it is considered anime. With how crazy and nonsensical the premise is, it could only be anime, truth be told.
The story follows Kaz Kaan, a “magistocrat” (do not autocorrect this, editor) demon slayer who just wants to continue his bachelor lifestyle. The premise is paper thin because every episode is just an excuse for them to get into hijinks. Add to that a weirdly in-depth alternate history of the real world, and audiences are met with a hilariously incomprehensible mess.
EX-ARM
EX-ARM is such a bumbling mess in all aspects. Based on an okay manga of the same name, the adaptation takes everything good from the manga and wrings it all out in favor of horrible, horrible CGI animation. The studio behind the show had literally never made anime before, and it showed so clearly in the execution.
Many comparisons were made to RWBY’s first volume, which was notoriously low budget. Unlike RWBY however, EX-ARM didn’t have Monty Oum’s stellar action choreography. All they’re left with is animation stiffer than hard liquor. It was so bad that it actually got its source manga canceled. EX-ARM is a master class of incompetency that will be ed for years to come.
