5 Most Disappointing Anime of 2014

How should we rate the year 2014 in terms of anime? We did have some remarkably funny series such as Hoozuki no Reitetsu and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, the latter being more notable for the Sakura/Paras meme among ACG fans. There were impressive anime movies such as The Idolmaster Movie: Beyond the Brilliant Future!, with that epic live scene at the end. There were sport anime like Ping Pong and Haikyuu!! that earned widely critical acclaim. There were also shows that divided viewers for various reasons, such as Wake Up, Girls!, World Conquest Zvezda Plot, and Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. At the same time, acclaimed ones like SHIROBAKO, Kiseijuu, and Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso are still on the air till the end of Winter 2015.

One of the most popular meme of 2014.
One of the most popular memes of 2014.

However, there were also shows that made us shake our heads in despair and wonder what the production teams were even thinking in the first place. It might be problem with the visuals, the music, the characters, or the plot itself. In an age where fan service appears triumphant over anything else, shows like Daimidaler the Sound Robot and Recently, My Sister Is Unusual, among many others, also seem to indicate the anime industry is again favoring plots over plot, a trend that one might think would have changed after the year of 2011 where we had widely popular yet structurally brilliant shows such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Steins;Gate, AnoHana, and Mawaru Penguindrum. (Granted, we also got Infinite Stratos that year…)

Now, after watching SHIROBAKO, I fully sympathize with the members in the anime industry as I know there are many factors that could ruin the production of an anime, yet that could not take away my feeling of disappointment at some of the series. The five chosen titles listed below are not necessarily bad in the sense of being as bad as Mahou Sensou, which has become a synonym for bad anime nowadays; rather, they are series that were expected to do well, but failed to reconcile that expectation at the end.

5. Sora no Mesoddo

Main reason: Failing to induce any tears, as it was supposed to.

Pic 04Dubbed as the new AnoHana, Sora no Mesoddo has a good start and instills some mysterious elements that look good in the beginning. However, it gradually loses its appeal when the characters seem to take things for granted far too easily, when they ought to be surprised or at least confused by how things unfold. For example, no one ever bothers to ask why Noel doesn’t seem to have aged when Nonoka had met her as a child years ago. While the last three episodes create a new kind of suspense, it never explains why Shiori still remembers Noel, or why the saucer really matters throughout the series. If not for the comparison with AnoHana before it went on air, it is still just an “okay” show, with nothing that particularly stands out.

4. Selector Spread WIXOSS

Main reason: Failing to grasp on the hype of the first season.

Aki-Lucky, best character of the whole series
Aki-Lucky, best character of the season

When Selector Infected WIXOSS (the first season of the Wixoss series) ended in June, I was impressed that Mari Okada (scriptwriter of True Tears, AnoHana, Nagi no Asukara) managed to write a script based on a card game and spend very limited amount of time discussing the card battles themselves, but somehow she was able to pull off a strong story by focusing on the characters. Spread, assumingly, is the attempt to elaborate on the worldview of the WIXOSS world and explain the questions generated in Infected. Only that it doesn’t.

The major questions left behind by Infected remain unchallenged, and the second season only fuels more questions instead. Why was Akira attacked in Infected? Why did she still have memory of WIXOSS battle having lost three times already? How was the world of WIXOSS created? Why did Iona/Yuki change from being the villain to a heroine so quickly? The second season raises more questions that it attempts to answer, and along with the rather disappointingly premature worldview that was revealed by the end of this season, it seems like Mari Okada is better suit for writing teenage romance and not drama that requires a strong and detailed plot.

That said, if I were to vote for seiyuu of the year 2014 I would definitely cast my vote on Chinatsu Akasaki, Akira/Aki-Lucky’s seiyuu. Her performance was absolutely stunning by alternating her voice between a lovey-dovey teenager and an absolutely menacing psychopath.

3. Glasslip

Main reason: Just what the heck is happening?

Pretty much my expression throughout the series
Pretty much my expression throughout the series

The reason to watch Glasslip in the first place is mostly because it is an anime produced by P.A. Works, the production company that gives us acclaimed shows like True Tears, Angel Beats!, and Tari Tari. Like every P.A. Works production, Glasslip has amazing visuals and strong background music, but what it lacks is a coherent content that people could actually understand. After watching each episode, I simply asked myself, “So what was really going on?” There is never any clear indication of what those “future fragments” indicate or why P.A. Works is so obsessed with having chickens or an expressionless male protagonist in its productions. There are reviews that suggest P.A. Works is trying to do something experimental with Glasslip, but the Blu-ray sales figure, P.A. Works’ record low of having only sold 584 copies in the first week of sales (for comparison purpose, Nagi no Asukara sold 3717 and Angel Beats! sold 34108), shows that many of us simply don’t understand why Glasslip exists in the first place.

2. Mekakucity Actors

Main reason: trying to make an one-hour movie out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy

For anyone familiar with Niconico, basically the Japanese-equivalent of YouTube but mostly used by ACG lovers, Kagerou Project should not sound strange to the ear. Jin, the creator, uploaded MVs that he created to tell a story of nine teenagers’ struggle against the red-eye phenomenon. Extremely popular with viewers, with some videos receiving over million hits just days or even hours after being uploaded, the project was adapted into an anime in Spring 2014 and was named Mekakucity Actors. It would not be exaggerating to say that it was the most anticipated anime at the time.

The inserted music videos are pretty well done - this one from Lost Time Memory, episode 8
The inserted music videos are pretty well done – this one from Lost Time Memory, episode 8

The problem with Mekakucity Actors is that the project’s worldview is simply too big to tell within 13 mere episodes. Kagerou Project officially has 22 songs, and each song tells the story of either a character’s background or the development of the plot. Mekakucity Actors’ approach is basically to use one song for one episode, and by simple math one would realize that means many details would thus be left out. While this applies to many anime adaptation as well, Mekakucity Actors fails in producing a coherent plot that makes sense to viewers who know nothing about the original story. Some episodes, like the first three, could have been merged into two, and episodes 6 and 7 could have been merged as well in order to give more space for overall plot development. The last episode also portrays a counterexample to the classic“show, don’t tell” rule in writing: since the show basically runs out of time to develop, it explains everything in the last twenty four minutes instead of attempting to resolve the questions gradually over the last few episodes. Even if one considers this to be a fan-oriented anime, it still speaks volume if one could understand more about a 24-minute episode by just watching a 4-minute Niconico music video.

1. Psycho-Pass II

Main reason: Deux ex machina.

The first season of Psycho-Pass tells us that the Sibyl System is flawed, much like any system/regime in any dystopian literature. So with Kogami on the run and Shogo Makishima dead, what could the second season give us? We have Kirito Kamui who, like Makishima from the first season, is someone that the Sibyl System cannot detect. But unlike Makishima who is an exceptional case by birth, Kamui’s reason for having a clean psychopass is…bizarre, to say the least. Why in the world does one need an operation that requires the whole flight’s 184 passengers? It sounds too convenient of a development for the scriptwriter to have done so, a recurring trend throughout the season where things happen out of the blue for no particular reason. Also, unlike Makishima who engages in some real physical and psychological battles with Kogami, Kamui doesn’t have a strong enough rival to show his character better as Akane is too busy controlling her own team, and he does not have the wit or charisma of Makishima to keep people focused on the screen.

"What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here..."
“What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here…”

Since the Sibyl System is the core of the series, it simply cannot fail. We see how Akane and others try desperately hard to defend it despite knowing well that it is not a perfect system as it claims to be. Yet again, it is something we already know from the first season, so what is new, really? Throughout season two, there are a lot of times that the Sibyl System, for the sake of protecting its own reputation, steps aside and watches Kamui’s team kills its hostages. An example can be seen in the last episode, when “the system” tries to strip Akane of its duty yet it could have done the same thing to Mizue Shisui, the inspector who becomes Kamui’s partner in crime, so as to avoid having several dominators being identified with Mizue as the user, which does not make sense in the first place. The system presents the same kind of philosophical questions that we have already encountered briefly in season one, and also ones that do not get resolved in season two still.

Perhaps another disappointing aspect, generated by the production team, is that the movie trailer was released in the middle of the season. Hence, we basically already know who will die and who will survive in season two. That does not mean this season was thoroughly horrible; Akane’s personality growth is done pretty nicely, and the new inspector Mika Shimotsuki looks to be an interesting character despite acting and thinking like an ideal citizen of the Sibyl System. However, throughout the season one could not help but ask, “Where is Kogami?” And we know that the answer will be in the movie, which seems to indicate that this season is created as the bridge to the movie instead of something that can stand on its own.

Notable mentions

Terror in Resonance: it has a very strong start but then it fails to have an actually intelligent antagonist whose action makes sense;

Nisekoi: while it has a decent story (following the manga quite attentively), at the same time it proves that Shinbou Akiyaki’s trademark 45-degree could be obsessively annoying in a non-drama, non-Monogatari context;

M3: the Dark Metal: much like Glasslip, the plot is confusing throughout the whole series and shows that, like WIXOSS, Mari Okada is better suit for writing teenage romance than drama;

Girlfriend (Beta): this is the proof that having a fabulous cast of seiyuu doesn’t mean anything without an actual storyline. Although, to be fair, the producers probably aren’t thinking that they need an anime to raise the popularity of the original smartphone game.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

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Edited by Mary Awad.

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74 Comments

  1. Captain Earth was my least favorite of the year, just complete trash from start to finish. 

  2. I was excited for Glasslip. I thought the first episode was nice, the music and the still shots of the festival worked well. I always had this feeling that the next episode was going to be good. It just never happened.

    Psycho Pass 2, oh how disappointing that was, that also goes for Aldnoah Zero.

    Sora no Method and Akame ga Kill were pretty bad.

    • I was tempted to put down Aldnoah.Zero on the list, but to be fair it still has a second season going on so I’ll see if it changes my mind. If not, 1st season alone might be on 2nd or 3rd here

      • Alexandre Martins
        0

        Good article, as usual.
        And, well, by now you probably saw the second season of Adnoah. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

        I give it a thumbs up for FINISHING the story, something oh so many anime don’t do (I really hate the read-the-manga to see how the story ends thing, even though I know that often that’s not the anime’s fault; no fan of loose ends, either). And for the Princess not ending with Inaho, but instead doing what any important political figure in a monarchy does: arranging a political marriage. Hurray for common sense!
        Glasslip left me with the same “what the heck feeling”. Just eyecandy for me.
        And speaking of common sense, are you watching Gate? Seldom have I seen such examples of real-life political cunning and common sense in anime.

  3. Stephine
    0

    When it comes to dissapointing stuff of the year I would have to add Tokyo ESP and Rail wars. They were both shows that I hyped up for myself and I really liked the first episode of both but in the end I didn’t manage finish either.

    • Alexandre Martins
      0

      Agreed about Tokyo ESP. Didn’t feel inclined to watch Rail Wars, am even less so now.

  4. Nelia Armstead
    0

    Well I make my own top 5 disappointment anime list:
    1. Mekakucity Actors
    2. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
    3. Rail Wars (it had potential but seriously…)
    4. Tokyo Ghoul
    5. Akame ga Kill (and by means the anime episodes from 20-23 were just ugh, but 24 was entertaining if you ask me but I think its just a mess up stuff here)

    • For #2 and #3 I didn’t really have much expectations for them in the first place haha. Tokyo Ghoul is alright – 2nd half is a bit dull, but the last episode is really good in my opinion, and since it clearly aims at having a 2nd season I’ll let the “non-ending ending” pass.

  5. kefhalek
    0

    psycho pass 2 was the biggest disappointment ever! so agree with this list.

    • Alexandre Martins
      0

      Yes, totally agree! Especially since I see no other meaning to a new season if we’re not going to have Akane fighting to overcome the Sybila system in a way that would not be destructive to her society. The cop-out of having Sybila destroy the trouble brains and so become clean did not convince me. I’ve always felt that Sybila is just a bunch of sociopaths enjoying ruling over Japan, as well as a symbol for people’s conformism and dependency on technology (even though this latter is a rather simplistic – albeit common – view that considers as technology only industrialized artifacts, when in fact when the first hominid started brandishing a bone as a club or using a stone to crack a cocoanut we became dependent on technology.

  6. I think my most disappointing anime of 2014 was Wizard Barristers. It had a decent premise as basically Magical Ace Attorney and they ruined it progressively with worse animation and the last couple episodes having entire scenes that were offscreen. Not to mention a pretty generic plot that basically ignores the Barrister part of the title after the first couple episodes 

  7. Thank you for giving actual, legitimate reasons as to why you didn’t enjoy these anime or why you don’t recommend them. Too many people just say “shitty, bad, terrible, worst ever” without explaining why.

  8. In my personal opinion the Fate/stay night 2014 anime has to be the worst anime of both 2013 and will be again the worst of 2014.

    • I never watch any of the Fate series, so I approach UBW with zero background. I think it probably has the best graphics of any anime in recent years. The plot is a bit slow, and I really don’t like Shirou, but I was told that he is purposefully made to act that way in the game UBW version in order to develop the rest of the route, so I’ll keep an eye on it.

      • Alexandre Martins
        0

        Well, I think the original Fate and Fate 0 are pretty good series. Shirou is idiotic to the point of lunacy in his misguided kindness to others, but then so is Vash and many others. And it’s a visual feast. the third Fate series was also good, though not so good as the others. But none of them are really deep or anything. When they try to be, they are so obvious that it spoils the effect.

        • Having watched Fate Zero now, i can say that it’s probably one of the best shows I’ve seen. Graphics, bgm, seiyuu, story…everything is well packed despite a few episodes with more obvious flaws. What matters most to me is that FZ has a strong plot and is actually about something, and the discussion of justice by different kings is very memorable and echoes the classic Chinese story of “on heroes, over wine”, or whatever the proper translation of it should be. For UBW itself, i still dun like Shirou, but I also recognise that this is based on one game route, which he is purposefully characterised that way, so I can only say I look forward to the Heaven’s Feel movie.

    • And in my opinion, your opinion is shit.

  9. my top 5 dissapointing anime,
    and plz dont take it to offended, its my own list, somehow. :p :p :p

    5. Akage Ga Kill
    i wasnt much of a manga reader, but the anime is very f*ck up. and they have skip an arc. the animation was okey, they couldnt have done more than 25 ep.

    4. Sailor Moon Crystal
    As much as I love Sailor Moon and cant wait for the 2014 crystal to come by, i would say same thing what fightningfornippon had said in the video, the style and design were quite disturbing, the cgi transformation was pretty embarassing(love mars transform though) though atleast they have followed what da actual manga than the old Sailor Moon, i wasnt very much hype at all when I start watching it.. and 2 weeks every episode!? i kinda feel bad for kids that watch the new sailor moon. dammit Toei

    3. glasslip
    the first few episode were good enough..but it was a whole pile a piece of junk in the end. i watch da whole thing for nothing. da animation and the style was good enough though.. its just the ending and the plot… there wasnt any plot and they made that gurl and tat David guy pretty much a boring couple..therez not much to say. i love p.a. works, wish they could have done better job at it.

    2. Fairy Tail (2014)
    now i dont wanna complain to much… i miss fairy tail after episode 176, where they took a break before they came back in 2014. when it came, I was soo hype, i love fairy tail i dont mind the fan service or da crappy character but ill remember those times they had made me smile watching the series. when the trailer came, i didnt expect the animation was a lil different. looks similar from the fairy tail movie though, it was good enough, its like a body with moving mouth. im starting to miss the old series. it was becoming slower and look as similar to one piece sometimes. i wasnt very interest and it would took an episode to freakin open the portal. now they had made an arc filler which just ruins a lot of character (the gray dance though) and i love Virgo, but the rest just ruins it so much. id rather rewatch the early fairy tail(even in dub) than continuing the new crap episode. i just hope it’ll turn out good someday.

    1. Mekaku City Actors
    sigh now i dunno wanna get it into it. i have been a big fan of Jin’s work of music vocaloid video called KagePro. i had been putting a lot of posters drew fan art and listen to the amazing songs everyday. i was so looking forward for the 2014 anime. i heard its gonna be adaption by Shaft aka. they also work for Monogatari. i wasnt quite sure if its gonna turn out good. the style and the animation was quite decent, i love those character preview trailer. the first few episode were great, the voice was good choice enough. but get to the point, people that havent seen the music video and etc.. may have lost their mind to what da f*ck is going on. the animation was interest but same time it doesnt suited that much at all. the music video parts were okay. and what is happening in the Ayano’s Theory flashback music video.. have they lost their mind? people were so hype to see that part and some may wish to work for shaft now, cause it was more than dissapointment. theres a lut of disturbing Cgi face..wtf. reminded me of one of those 90’s creepy disturbig shows ive seen back then. the angles and headtilt, oh shaft. the pacing was pretty mixed up. their lot of talking moments but somehow they skip and make the pace kinda quick, would been better if they were 2 sets of timeline or 24 above episode overal. but yeah Shaft sometimes like to kept episode for 13 overal only. the op and ending were great, the lost time memory was pretty good though theyd put parts on the manga and da original mv. kuroha seem like an asshole in this series LoL, BRUHHHH his my favorite and my bae..WTFF. He was AWESOME AND F*CKING SEXY, AS A YANDERE PSYCHO. Anyway, i didnt get the ending, atleast it was a good one. but overal its more confusing than evangalion. mind f*ck. WHAT IS THIS ANIME ADAPTION!? *sigh but atleast the Anime was made. TwT
    =====================
    thats my top 5 Dissapointing anime for the year.

    • I agree that Mekakucity would have been much better if it’s a 2-season anime. I read that Jin was also part of the production team so he should have known how things were progressing…which makes it even more confusing when the original author knowingly approves of this kind of adaptation.

      • Alexandre Martins
        0

        That is assuming he had a choice. The original author of Madoka also said he was pressured into writing that horrible, nonsensical and character-raping Rebellion ending.

  10. I was really disappointed in Tokyo ESP. It really shot itself in the leg by doing the first episode as it did.

  11. Jacki Dallas
    0

    Super Sonico was the worst thing I ever sat through this year. Except episode 7. That was great. Followed by SAO2 and Akame ga Kill.

  12. My list:

    1.Glasslip
    2.Glasslip
    3.Glasslip
    4.Glasslip
    5.Glasslip

  13. I can’t make a “disappointed list”, but here’re shows I really didn’t like:
    -Nanatsu no Taizai.
    -Fairy Tail.
    -Abarenbou Rikishi.
    -No Game No Life
    -Yugioh Arc-V
    I’m not saying they totally sucked, I just was disappointed and couldn’t enjoy them.

  14. delagarza
    0

    your right these suck

  15. Dont hate me for this. Fairytail used to be my absolute number one anime. But that was BEFORE the break… Fairytail 2014 was just all crap. If u plan to watch fairy tail. Only watch season 1, it was full of laughs, tears, romance and fantasy. I just really thought fairytail had a chance to become a legendary anime along with dragon ball Z, Naruto, and u know all those classics. Fairytail let me down. But the first season of fairytail will still be my legendary anime…

  16. micbone
    0

    None of the anime from 2014 was interesting to me. I’m just finding hard to watch all the modern day anime. Here’s hoping 2015 brings better anime for me.

  17. I think out of the shows I’ve watched, I only really had 2 shows that were so disspointing that it hurt, and those were Glasslip and Zankyou no Terror.

    PA Works dropped the ball so hard on Glasslip. Admittedly, having just come off Hanasaku Iroha at the time (which is my favourite show from them), I had extremely high expectations for Glasslip. What I got though was cheesy writing that sounded like it was done by a grade schooler and so much forced melodrama between 1 dimensional characters who had 0 chemistry with one another. I couldn’t stomach more than 4 episodes.

    Zankyou no Terror was dissapointing to me because, once again, I thought the script was terrible. Most of the conversations felt so bland and repetitive during the show. Lisa turned out to be absolutely useless, and there was just nothing interesting about any of the characters, aside from Shibazaki, who turned out to be criminally underused and undermined by the introduction of 5. The whole mystery of the show, being the motive of 9 and 12, was the only thing that the show relied on to keep the viewers’ interest. As more and more episodes went on and we didn’t get any more information about why these bombs were being planted, I found myself losing interest and simply not caring about what was going on in the moment. Even looking back, most of the story could be figured out by the information given in the 2nd to 3rd episode and it was so anticlimactic for me. Zankyou no Terror was carried by its gorgeous visuals and the brilliant soundtrack. 

    • P.A.Works definitely hits its lowest point with Glasslip, no matter you look at the sales figure or people’s feedback on it…but it comes back, rather strongly, with SHIROBAKO, which I personally think is the most interesting original anime (not a manga/novel/game adaptation) since Mawaru Penguindrum from 2011, especially considering “the anime industry” itself is a topic that few dare to touch on.

  18. Aaron Hatch

    The Anime I found the most disappointing this year was Ping Pong.

    • Why would you say so? I haven’t watched it yet, but so far I’ve heard overwhelmingly positive things about it so I’m curious

  19. In all my years of watching anime, I’ve seen great and some bad and even the messed up and in the end it was all good but after marathoning pupa ep 1-12 my life will never be the same so if you ever get the idea to watch that series good fucking luck i salute you

  20. rhusman
    0

    Too many anime in 2014 sucked. So much I didn’t watch as much anime in 2014.

  21. Oh god, Glasslip was freaking cancer fuel.

  22. Shows that didn’t live up to my expectations were Aldnoah.Zero, and Psycho Pass Season 2. Both of these weren’t bad, they just were huge disappointments from what I was expecting. I can’t blame Gen Urobuchi though for Psycho Pass 2 though, because if I recall correctly he didn’t write it.

  23. Glasslip was definitely my most disappointing just because I had followed it for so long. :'( 

  24. my most disappointing Anime was Black Bullet.
    Why?
    First of all , this anime is rly overrated on my Anime Streaming Site it gets an Rating of 8.33
    Animation : it was ok but not good as an anime of 2014 should be.Aliens looked like shit.
    Music : I noticed that the background music had something from Star Wars in the fight scenes.
    Op and Ending was ok but nothing new.
    Story : Story isnt new but the that End. one of the worst Ends ive ever seen.

    my personal no-go was that loli Harem rly annoying.
    overall Rating 5-6/10.
    Just an overrated Anime.
    DONT WATCH IT!.

    • Tina is very cute, so I’ll let it pass haha. I didn’t have much high expectations on Black Bullet, so I consider it an okay show. Not bad, not that good. The year overall is quite dull compared to past years.

  25. Interesting list! At least I know what to stay away from.

  26. Actually, now that I think about it, 2014 was kinda shit. That winter season really will be infamous for being rubbish…

  27. My top 6 would be the five you said with the addition of mahouka no rettousei.

  28. lefebvre
    0

    There’s 2 types of reboot: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Sailor Moon Crystal.

    I think that says everything.

  29. Hmm top 5 disappointing anime of 2014, haven’t done that one before. But here I go:
    5. Re: Hamatora
    4. Zankyou no Terror
    3. Pupa
    2. Akuma no Riddle
    1. Glasslip

  30. Mo Sadek

    I was really excited for Psycho Pass II after watching both Psycho Pass and THEN taking the time to watch the RE-EDIT. After the Sybil system became a character and started interfering in the actual show, I started to become disappointed.

    In my opinion Akame ga Kill was a little disappointing too. Definitely gets an honorable mention on my list.

  31. Siothrún
    BethanyS
    0

    Good article. I enjoy it when someone can look at an industry and mention both the positive and negative things about it. I received knowledge about some unusual-sounding anime that come with a warning label should I attempt to check them out.

  32. Asuncion
    0

    The show that disappointed me the most this year was “Glasslip” from the Summer Season.

    Personally, I was extremely excited for and was actually looking forward to this show initially because P.A. Works produced the amazing fantasy drama “Nagi no Asukara” that finished earlier in the Winter Season, which happens to be one of my favourites from this year.

    I had my hopes up and they were crushed, as in the end, it became nothing more than a series of unimportant events, forgettable characters, and dragged-out misunderstandings. It’s almost as if nobody thought of planning out a story to couple along with the animation.

    In all seriousness, there was barely a decent story to string along the events of the anime and the ending was extremely inconclusive as well as lacklustre.

  33. Kimmie Kruge
    0

    My Top 5 disappointments were:

    5. Gokukoku no Brynhildr
    4. Akuma no Riddle
    3. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
    2. Akame ga Kill!
    1. Glasslip

    I was pretty hyped for World Trigger, but it just didn’t catch me. I’d like to give it another chance someday, but it’s stalled for now.

  34. Lindgren
    0

    Akame ga kill is probably my most disappointing anime of 2014. I was honestly disappointed at everything after the first character death. The first episode was probably my favorite first episode of an anime ever, it got me so hyped I marathoned the manga in less than 2 days but when the first character in the anime died and I realized I didn’t care like the manga made me care. The anime was too rushed even during is slow bits to allow enough character and world development and to me the some of the fights were worse than that of the manga. Then the show started going into anime only territory which I never minded to much about as long as it was good, spoiler alert it wasn’t. The anime stepped on the gas even more with the pacing and doubled the cheese factor to type two diabetes level of ridiculousness. The only episode that I really, really liked since episode one of that show was the last one, because the animation direction and choreography was sublime so much so it overshadowed the lack luster conclusion of the show. 

  35. Rands-Down
    0

    I’ve had to drop a lot of shows (Tokyo Ghoul, Brynhildr) due to the terrible censoring.

    • Unfortunately there’s nothing we could do about that. After all, these are shows that are broadcasted on TV, so I can understand why some scenes have to be censored (don’t ask me why ecchi scenes from other anime aren’t though – I don’t have an answer for that).

  36. The premise of some of these anime made me hurl.

  37. Most disappointing anime for me last year was Grisaia no Kajitsu. I was so excited for it since I love the visual novel but I couldn’t even finish the show it was so bad they could have given it to literally anyone other than 8bit and it would have been better than the shit show we got. You can’t take a 50+ hour visual novel and shove it into 13 24 minute episodes it’s just not gonna work. Reminds me of the JC Staff and Little Busters incident in 2012 but at least they sort of redeemed themselves with Refrain I doubt 8bit could even do that.

  38. Jordan

    I agree that Tokyo ESP was pretty blah after the first, maybe second episode…. sad.
    I dropped Sailor Moon Crystal at episode 11 because I was tired of getting pissed off at its wasted potential (in terms of the animation blergh)

  39. Nice Information.

  40. amdeit88

    Honestly, I feel like in order for me to comment fairly on these, I would have had to watch them. I believe it’s the whole ‘seeing is believing’ mechanism. My policy for all anime is ‘don’t knock it before you try it’. Now, I know I’m using a ton of cliches here, but I believe that I need to see these (and I have never even heard of them) in order to let you know what my opinion is.

    • I definitely agree with you amdeit88. I’ll need to see these animes myself in order to get a sense as to how “bad” they really are. Personally, by the looks of the description, I don’t see any of these animes as bad a “School Days”, which by the way is only good when it finally ends.

      Anyway, like I said, in order to understand why certain shows/movies/books get the reputation that they deserve, it’s best to try them out first. In all honesty, I don’t know if I really want to read “Fifty Shades of Grey” just to see how poorly written and cliche it is, but I’m just only saying what I generally believe in(three cheers for being a hypocrite! Hip, hip, HOORAY!).

      P.S. For those of you who don’t know what “School Days” is, it’s a pointless, melodramatic, romance anime about a guy who falls in love with a girl, followed by his friend who tries to help him get the girl of his dreams, but ends up lusting after other girls attending school, including the girl of his dreams and his friends. Eventually all of that ends with…I’m not gonna spoil it. Let’s just say that the only thing worth watching about it is its ending.

  41. Jill

    Honestly, I was scared reading this, because I love Psycho Pass. It has been years since I actually sat myself down to watch anime (I prefer mangas nowadays), and Psycho Pass was a good enough experience to get me back to watching anime and actually giving anime directors pacing some of their chops back. However, reading your article, I found myself agreeing to most of what you said. I am a fan of Psycho Pass, but primarily of the first one. I am not as disappointed as most of the fandom and actually found “Where is Kogami?” echoes throughout Season II mildly annoying. I did, however, found Kirito unsatisfying as a follow up to Makishima… I was really big on Makishima. I am interested though, in what you think of Psycho Pass… I think I remember being unsatisfied with the ending… though I don’t remember why? Oh. I think I wanted Kogami to decide to let Makishima bleed out instead of proactively killing him. Kogama giving him the fatal shot was unnecessary. He could have just let him suffer… and keep his job. 🙂 Interesting post though. Did you watch the movie? Is it any good?

  42. Have to agree with this list. Psycho-Pass S2 in particular was one I was sure couldn’t fail since the first season was so excellent. Unfortunately it was so good it could only go downhill…

  43. While I agree with this list, I almost think Kill la Kill also deserves an honourable mention. While put together beautifully with great characters and awesome music, it had the most disappointing conclusion of anything I’ve ever watched. The entire series ramps up to a battle that never happens and should be listed in the dictionary as an example of deus ex machina.

    • I have not watched Kill La Kill so I can’t comment on that. It’s odd though since I’ve read a massive amount of positive reviews of KLK and some claim it to be the best anime of 2014. I’d say that after getting the time to catch up with some series, I’d have added Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha De Aru to the list. Decent start, strong process, wtf ending.

      • Don’t get me wrong, KLK was fantastic – right up until the last episode. I suppose it would depend on what you want to get out of the show, but it spends 25(ish) episodes amping you up for the boss battle to end all boss battles and deus ex machina’s right out of there. For me, personally, getting robbed like that kind of spoiled the anime and makes it difficult to rewatch.

  44. I’ve watched done awful anime in 2014 psycho pass 2 was defiantly in that category. The lead this tone is just not good enough to cast the show. Though the villain wad actually better. Great villain and a hero who can’t work with then. Sad state for what could have been anime perfection.

  45. CoffeeHipster

    I’ll have to agree with most of these picks. Mekaku City Actors lacked a consistency, while Glasslip lack a plot.

    Psycho-Pass is certainly the most disappointing, hands down, especially when we compare it to its predecessor. I was under the impression that it completely lacked anything that made the first season so successful. However, the difficulty in making sequels is that they often do not live up to their initial iterations and hype.

  46. Daziigirl

    I totally agree with Glasslip – that was one of the only animes I discontinued watching because I had no clue what was going on.
    However, I don’t agree that Mekakucity Actors was a disappointment – sure, 13 episodes was a little short for the huge plot, but in my opinion it was still interesting enough to make me finish it. And if you’re not satisfied with it, like I was, there are always the songs and the manga chapters.

  47. I completely agree with Psyco Pass II. That was a big disappointment for a lot of us.

  48. Should have watched Parasyte – The Maxim, now that was a good 2014 anime.

  49. I wasn’t impressed by the titles of 2014 and I only watched a few. Although I thought I had carefully chosen the series, I ended up dropping Pupa (iîh, what’s that?), Soul Eater Not which seemed completed garbage and Yamishibai. I know, some don’t even count it as a proper anime, but I really enjoyed the first season.

  50. I just watched Mekakucity Actors this summer, after catching up on the manga. I don’t agree that certain episodes should’ve been merged, because a lot more would’ve been left out rather than added. Instead, the main issue seemed to be exactly as you’re saying – there’s just too much information to cram into 13 episodes. The only solution to this would’ve been to extend the series into at least 22-26.
    The world of Kagepro is honestly just really intricate, there are so many details winding together to create the story, and everyone’s backstory is not only relevant, but vital to understanding what’s happening. It’s not plot-based, but rather character-based, and so it had to develop every single character thoroughly, which it failed to do.
    I remember thinking about how disappointed I was that we didn’t get more of an explanation for Black Konoha in the anime, though the manga does a wonderful job in introducing him and then thrusting us back in time almost immediately afterwards. That was only one character who ended up being pretty underdeveloped, but it’s the best example of information that would’ve been useful in the anime that I only knew about from reading the manga, because Black Konoha’s appearance helps to hint at the time-jumps and explain the triggers to why time reverses itself.
    While Kagerou Project is extremely fantastic, you’re completely right that Mekakucity Actors just wasn’t up to par. The series had so much potential and they botched it.

  51. YsabelGo

    Hmm, I never seen these animes. Maybe I’m just lucky that I started watching anime this year!

  52. I definitely agree with Psycho-Pass II. The first few episodes definitely felt like they reused the first episodes for season 1. I think I only got to episode 4 or 5 before quitting.

  53. Interesting to comment on this years after the publication of this piece and six years after these anime came out. Some time distance from these anime can give some perspective. In this case, I have only heard of Nisekoi prior to reading the article. Given this and the information in the article, I feel that Nisekoi doesn’t deserve to be mentioned here as it is half-way decent and has held up with the passage of time. Everything else probably belongs here.

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