Anime I Thought I'd Like----But Didn't

[GundamWingMan]

Despite having nearly 100 series, movies and OAV's in my anime collection, I'm actually quite picky about what I watch as my tatses are many: mecha, shoujo, humor, horror, girls with guns, sci-fi, magical girls, fantasy, I'm pretty much all over the board. And yet, there have been times I've sat down with the first volume of a new series I was really interested in and thought I'd enjoy and be proud to add to my collection, until I actually watched the show and, for whatever reason, I found that I didn't like it. Sometimes, it took a full volume to decide I didn't like a show, in other instances, I wasn't even that patient as I was turned off on a show after just the first episode. It's hard to explain the reasons I soured on a particular show, it might've been the story, the characters, the animation, or a combination of the three, I can never tell what will entertain me, or bore me silly. In alphabetical order, here's the shows I gave a thumbs down to, some you may agree with, others might surprise you:

Air
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
Arjuna
Burn-Up Scramble
Comic Party
Cowboy Bebop
Cromartie High School
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue
DearS
Death Note
Devil Lady
Divergence Eve
Ergo Proxy
Escaflowne
Eureka Seven
Figure 17
Full Metal Panic!
Fullmetal Alchemist
Galaxy Angel
Geneshaft
Girls High
Girls Bravo
GTO
Happy Lesson
Haré+Guu
His and Her Circumstances
Inu Yasha
Kanon
Magikano
Miami Guns
NaNa 7 of 7
Ninja Nonsense
Paranoia Agent
R.O.D -The TV
Ranma 1/2
Real Bout High School
Shakugan no Shana
Shuffle!
Solty Rei
Starship Operators
Stellvia
Story of Saiunkoku
Stratos 4
Tenjho Tenge
The Twelve Kingdoms
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
UFO Princess Valkyrie
When They Cry - Higurashi

Quite a list, eh? I hate to think how huge my collection would be today if I liked all those titles. Your turn now, what titles did you think you'd like but wound up disliking instead?

[Splitter]

Love Hina - Well, I liked it up until I finished the manga and I discovered the joys of filler-tastic anime.
Witch Hunter Robin - The first Adult Swim anime I ever watched and thought "God that was boring"
Chobits - I try not to talk about this one too much. My favorite manga of all time, reduced to utter otaku pandering. I didn't even bother to finish it. After I got to the halfway mark, I sold it all. First series I never finished.
Sister Princess - I'll never get an anime based on how cute the girls look ever again.
Steel Angel Kurumi 2 - First season was great, and even with an all-girl cast and tons of lesbian innuendo, it's still couldn't be saved.
Negima - Chisame... had... green... hair... GREEN F*CKING HAIR!!! DID XEBEC EVEN GLANCE AT THE SOURCE MATERIAL?!?!?!
Tsubasa Chronicle - Because of this, Bee Train is dead to me. Horrible pacing, horrible character designs, horrible animation... I swear, if it wasn't for the OST and the source material I never would have finished Season 1.
Negima!? - A second chance with one of my favorite current directors for a decent adaptation. Instead I got a second season of Pani Poni Dash!. You do the math.
Pita Ten - One of the best manga I have ever read and the series wallowed in utter filler crap for the entire second half. I WANTED THE SHIMA ARC, DAMNIT!!!
School Rumble - Balk all you want, but man did this get tiresome fast. This wasn't a love polygon, this was a love polyhedron, and too many of the characters I just didn't care about. Harima and Yakumo were worth getting as far as I did, but I could care less about the rest. Not to mention slapstick grows weary for me faster than it does for others.
Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora - Kaishaku's version of Tsubasa Chronicle. Unfortunately, you had to take the Kannazuki with the Taruto, and the result was none too satisfying.

[Critic Chris]

Tsubasa Chronicle - Because of this, Bee Train is dead to me. Horrible pacing, horrible character designs, horrible animation... I swear, if it wasn't for the OST and the source material I never would have finished Season 1.


Good heavens, I agree; they turned a fun, spirited manga (well, I've heard it gets angsty later on *sigh*) into a sluggish, boring mess.
As far as the thread topic goes:
Black Cat-I really enjoyed what I had read of the manga, so the anime was a big disappointment. Oh sure, it looks great, even for a GONZO production, but the decision to start the story the way they did continues to baffle me. Just... WTF?

[something]

Just as a recent example, I thought Mokke was going to be something I'd absolutely fall in love with, but I wound up dropping it two episodes into its run. I don't know what happened, but it just... did not click at all.

[GundamWingMan]

Tsubasa Chronicle - Because of this, Bee Train is dead to me. Horrible pacing, horrible character designs, horrible animation... I swear, if it wasn't for the OST and the source material I never would have finished Season 1.

You went further with that show than I did, I was done with Tsubasa after the first volume as it bored the hell out of me. Everything you said was right on target, and while I was originally intrigued at the notion of seeing teenaged versions of Sakura and Li, that interest quickly died on the vine.

[DiRF]

Full Metal Panic! - It would have been an alright show, but I absolutely despised the villain... he was so evil, and he had no justification for his actions... he was just evil for evil's sake, and he NEVER got his "just desserts". He was able to torture the protagonists to his heart's content to the very end. I just felt morally disgusted watching this series. Thank God Fumoffu didn't have him, 'cause Fumoffu is actually one of my FAVORITES.

I, My, Me Strawberry Eggs - I didn't *hate* it, but I didn't particularly like it. It was just... ok.

Love Hina Again - Really liked the TV series, liked the two movies... than popped the Again DVD into my player... ugh... I hate Nanako. Seriously, just hate her. Even though I later read the manga and realized how superior it was, Love Hina the anime, except LHAgain, still holds a place in my heart. It has its own good points.

Metropolis Osamu Tezuka. Katsuhiro Otomo. Those two names attached to a project... I guess my expecatations were just too high. It feels like it was desperately trying to be epic, but it just wasn't.

Paranoia Agent - Same deal as Strawberry Eggs.

Puni Puni Poemy - It was vile, disgusting, and completely, utterly pointless. Nabeshin can be excellent, but only when he has a limiter to keep himself in check.

Samurai Champloo - Loved Cowboy Bebop. I mean, I really REALLY loved Cowboy Bebop. Samurai Champloo felt like a rehash. Not a particularly good rehash. By the time of the later filler episodes right before the conclusion arc, I was severely disappointed.

Sensei no Ojikan Doki Doki School Hours - Interesting premise. Interesting group of characters. But by the third episode it was just extremely reptitive and cliche-d.

Slayers - The Motion Picture - Love the three Slayers TV series... I didn't *hate* this movie, I just really, really, really, really hate Nagaa.

Spiral - RightStuf sent me the first disc of the series for free... it looked really good. So I bought the whole series and watched it... I should have just stuck with the first disc. The show had a very interesting premise and mystery, but it just... went absolutely nowhere.

...that's all I can think of right now.

[jecca-neko]

JeffB, why didn't you like those shows? I'm just curious. Some I think I can guess the reason, just because I've heard other AoDers complain about some aspects for those shows. I've never heard someone dislike ROD the TV though, so I couldn't think of why you didn't like it. Unless you didn't like the fact that it changed from this detective agency plot to this entirely different plotline. Or maybe you were a fan of the original OVA and didn't like how it continued the series on?

Anyway, here's some of mine:

Infinite Ryvius: It's hard to like a show when I don't like any of the characters. At all. Put simply, I thought the characters were all assholes. I know the arguement here. Maybe it is realistic to how a bunch of teenagers would act if they were stranded in space without adults. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

.hack//SIGN: Too much standing around and talking by the main characters. I found it boring. If I want to stand around and talk in a video game environment, I can go play a real MMO.

Ultra Maniac: I wanted to like this show, and in fact did like some aspects of it. But the witch girl (I've forgotten her name) drove me crazy and I thought that the creators, who were trying to make it creative to have a witch using a little computer for her magic, ended up making it cheesy instead.

anything Sakura Wars: I tried the OVA, the movie, and the TV series. They either require you to know things from the games, which I don't, or (in the case of the TV series) I simply didn't like how the characters acted. The way the other characters treated Sakura for seemingly no reason just made me mad.


That's all I can think of for now.

[DiRF]

Ultra Maniac:
I would highly recommend the manga, though. I've read the manga, but have only seen the first episode of the Anime... from what I know of the differences when it was adapted into an Anime, I can see why someone would not like the Anime... from what I can gather, they took the manga, which is more of a teenage-romance-drama-comedy, and turned it into a strictly Magical Girl anime.

[karen0586]

I have so much of my collection unwatched that I can't actually think of anything. There have been a couple of those that I have watched that I had wished never to have seen again but most were oneshot deals of ovas and such. And then of course there have been series as well but I prefer to give those a second chance later down the line to make sure I wasn't influenced by something else.

[tainteddonut]

Full Metal Panic! - The first episodes were pretty good so I figured it was a safe bet and splurged on the whole series. Big mistake, I've never made it past watching the 3rd DVD =(

Battle Athletes OVA - I absolutely loved the TV series so I was sure to love the OVA right? At least that was my thinking going into it. Looking back I'm happy to have seen the TV series first because I wouldn't have given it a chance if I was introduced with the OVA.

Ai Yori Aoshi - It started out so nicely. And then came the harem...

[Vegard Aune]

Shaman King. I have no idea what I didn't like about it, but I somehow found it extremely boring. I guess that's what I guess for judging a show by its ridicculously awesome opening-themes...

EDIT: Naruto Shippuuden. The first series was pretty good, so now that they were finally done with the fillers, I thought that it would be worth watching... wrong. The pacing is almost as bad as in Dragonball Z, only that DBZ had a good reason to be dragged out, plus the fights in DBZ were actually good, whereas Naruto Shippuuden is just *Five minutes of panning-shots, one attack, five more minutes of panning.*

[CGord]

Cowboy Bebop
Death Note
Ergo Proxy
Eureka Seven
Full Metal Panic!
Fullmetal Alchemist
Geneshaft
GTO
His and Her Circumstances
Inu Yasha
Paranoia Agent
R.O.D -The TV
Ranma 1/2
You are missing out on some really good anime.

Let's see...I thought Air was gorgeous, I loved the op & ed themes, but I found the story lacking. (I still bought the whole thing + artbox, though...go figure...)

I'm losing interest in Kurau Phantom Memory, which I really wanted to like. I'll purchase the last volume to complete the series, but I have no clue when I'll watch it.

Shuffle!, Zipang, Human Crossing, Hell Girl, Utawarerumono, Aquarion, Ruroni Kenshin, D. Gray-Man, & Gintama are a few off the top of my head that I watched a few episodes of but couldn't hold my interest. I'm probably going to make myself watch more Gintama, as I am positive I should like it.

[EmperorBrandon]

Tsubasa Chronicle would probably be one for me too. I had an inkling on the story beforehand, and thought it might be something I enjoy (plus I was a big fan of CCS so seeing some of the characters in a different setting was somewhat intriguing). I watched about six episodes though and never got into it - it just bored me.

Another probably be Tenchi Muyo! OVA 3rd series. I had decent expectations of it, being a fan of all of the Tenchi stuff before it, but it the end, it was not particularly interesting. Not bad, but it is a disappointment compared to what I liked in the Tenchi-verse (particularly since it is supposed to be the sequel to the original OVA)

I can't think of too much off the top of my head. Since I have specific tastes in anime and I've come to recognize it pretty well, I tend to set my expectations reasonably for most titles I come across, so the "thought I would like, but didn't" thing doesn't come up much. I've encountered the opposite much more often.

[Suwako Moriya]

Honestly it's hard to think of examples right now, but there was one series where I think some were surprised I didn't like it. Just can't remember right now. The closest could be Tenchi Muyo GXP. Enjoying Tenchi Muyo convinced me to check out and I still regret it to this. GXP was just bleh. As for others, well I tend to have a good gut feeling when it comes to series. Also it's hard to say how much I expect to like a particular series. More along the lines of being interested or curious.

[parakiss]

Tsubasa Chronicle I though oh this looks neat. But I just could not get into it..

[Lego]

Abenoshi, oh god Abenoshi....

[meganly_chan]

Wedding Peach Because I've enjoyed cutesy and romantic shoujo in the past, I honestly thought I would like this. Before I even saw so much as the opening theme, I was researching all over the web about it. When I finally got ahold of some episodes, I was very disappointed. Dare I even say I hated it? I tried giving it chance - I watched up to episode 20 more than I remember, and I still couldn't get into it. I'm lucky I got to see it before it was licensed, because I know I would've regretted spending money on it :/

[Panko]

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
Arjuna
Cowboy Bebop
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue
Devil Lady
Ergo Proxy
Escaflowne
Figure 17
Full Metal Panic!
Fullmetal Alchemist
GTO
His and Her Circumstances
Miami Guns
Ranma 1/2

wow, that's a shame. i really enjoyed these, sad to hear you couldn't. anyways:

really disappointing / a complete waste:

Argentosoma - was bored stiff the whole way through
Cromartie High School - only got through 1 disc before putting it on hold, barely even managed a smirk from me
Dragon Half
Hakkenden
Hyper Doll: Mew and Mica The Easy Fighters
Knights of Ramune
MAPS
Plastic Little
Weathering Continent

Enjoyed a little bit, but could've done without:

Alien Nine
Comic Party
Galaxy Fraulein Yuna
Happy Lesson
Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek
Legend of Himiko
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
Origin: Spirits of the Past
Power Dolls
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School
Shadow Skill OVA

Didn't live up to expectations:

Howl's Moving Castle
Kite: Liberator
Mezzo TV
Noein
R.O.D. TV
Star Ocean EX

[kamiikazeheart]

Two anime's that I thought I would like, but didn't I would have to say would be both A Wind Named Amnesia and Puni Puni Poemy.


A Wind Named Amnesia sounded like it would be something that I would really enjoy. The execution sucked and their was some unnecessary sex scene's towards the end. \


Puni Puni Poemy was just downright stupid and I didn't laugh once.

I don't feel to bad though cause I bought the Wind Named Amnesia DVD for $9 and I got Poemy as a gift. :]

[Mateo_home]

These are the ones that spring to my mind right now.

Girls Bravo-I dunno, the fanservice felt like an embarrassment for me. Couldn't make it past the first disc.

Tenjo Tenge-Again, couldn't go past the first disc. I guess I'm just not into high school fighting anime.

UltraManiac-This one I thought I would like, but it was a cliche plot and terrible music didn't help. It's sad I sat through the whole thing. May as well add it on my "to sell" list if I ever get around to it.

Ergo Proxy-I usually like an anime with a dark setting and atmosphere, but especially for those with narcolepsy, this will put you to sleep. Well, it did for me.

[Talyn]

1) Mirage of Blaze - Talk about fucking stupid and boring...

2) Inu Yasha - "Gee this looks interesting."

3) Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - no comment

[georox]

Puni Puni Poemy and Devil Lady are the only things I've bought thinking I'd at least enjoy, and then hated.

Having loved Excel Saga, Puni Puni Poemy was the obvious path. Boy I was wrong. I just hated it. I don't know why.

Devil Lady... only anime series I've fallen asleep to. And I'm talking in good health when not tired. I was literally awoken and told the DVD title screen was on loop the 8th time.

I also wanted to point out, I still need to buy Abenobashi :( Loved me that series when I caught it on TV.

Also, shame on you Cromartie haters! :O

[roastedpekingduck]

I thought I'd like Beck, given that I like laid-back coming of age stories. Unfortunately, I absolutely hated Kobayashi's fade/pan style, and the music also sucked, which isn't good, since music was at the heart of Beck.

I did like Zipang. Just not as much as I thought I would. As a Chinese person, I just didn't find Zipang to be as "fair and equal" to the Japanese as many people thought. I still found a decent amount of nationalism beneath the surface, especially during the final portion in which Manchuria plays a role that ENTIRELY does not mention the atrocities committed against the Chinese at all.

Man, I really like Noein. But I could have LOVED the shit out of it. I wasn't too happy at how the last 12 episodes were handled. I thought it'd be a masterpiece...

I thought I would be wowed by Niea_7, given my track record with Lain, Texh, and Haibane, but Niea_7 left me fairly cold due to the sheer amount of genki humor. It's still a proud part of my collection though because I still just really appreciate certain moments. While I dislike the series as a whole, the magical ship disappearance makes the entire series worth keeping, just because of how well written the stretch of episodes leading up to the ending are.

[jaylee]

i'll probably get some hate for this, but a series I thought I might like but only made it halfway through was Neon Genesis Evengelion. The whole world seems to love it, but I thought it sucked.

Others:
Love Hina
Ghost in the Shell S.A.C.
Naruto
Death Note
Battle Athletes (Battle Athletes Victory kicked ass though)

[Rolancehack]

Soo many series I find to be like this:

Jing King of Bandits - The manga is brilliant, absolutely amazing, beautiful, and very well written, yet the TV show just sort forgets that and makes it boring.

Love Hina TV and Again - the OAVs are fine but the TV and Again butcher the story, which is a shame, same thing with Negima's TV series. Actually, has any Akamatsu story based TV show not completely ignored it's source material? I mean really, there's a reason his manga are so popular, and it's not just the rampant nipple-less nudity (which they also semi forget).

Zeta Gundam - Just not as good as Turn A, plus my discs mess up at fairly important parts.

Azumanga Daioh - I love the characters and the manga, and find the anime watchable, I just don't like the way the anime handles itself sometimes.

Eden's Bowy - Manga interesting, Anime terrible. Really can we stop diviating from the story so much in anime adaptations?

.hack//LotT - just wasn't that good

Hellsing - first TV series, good in parts, but the last arc was confusing as hell.

[Panko]

i forgot about Dragon Half, Hakkenden, and MAPS - all were a waste

[Collectonian]

Let's see...only three really come to mind at the moment:

Marmalade Boy - absolutely LOVE the manga, read it every month almost. I had high hopes for the anime, only to find they stretched the story out to rediculous lengths, added far to many extra love triangles/squares/dodecahedrans, and made Namura into an ass. I never could even bring myself to bother watching the last volume.

Kare Kano - another whose manga I loved and who I looked forward to seeing on screen...but instead of the awesome love story with the dark elements of Arima and the events around the main characters, the anime was some hideous pyscho comedy piece with purely stupid episodes of freakin moving cut out figures!

Blood: The Last Vampire - after seeing quite a bit of Blood+, I was curious about the movie and rented it. That was absolutely, without a doubt the most boring anime movie I've ever seen. Usually, when I watch anime, I close the computer since I read the subtitles. With Blood TLV, I finally just hoped on the laptop and kept waiting for something to happen, nothing ever did. I couldn't even tell you what happened for most of it because it never drew my attention at all.

[dragonrider_cody]

I love CLAMP and heard a lot of hype about Tsubasa, so I was hoping it would be good. Unfortunately, I can't stay awake long enough to find out. This show is so slow, boring and dissapointing. Even most of the music was bland and boring. I was really expecting a good show. Now I have a big, empty white box sitting on my shelf. Funimation should really release the boxes with later volumes like ADV and Right Stuf. At least you're not stuck with a large reminder of how bad the show was. (And unfortunately, my boyfriend really likes Tsubasa, so I still have to watch it.)

I also thought I would enjoy:

Higurashi: When They Cry
Saiyuki Reload (Why did Geneon do this to Saiyuki???)
Excel Saga
Happy Lesson
Moon Phase
Melody of Oblivion

Also series I enjoyed some, but could have lived without:

Full Metal Alchemist
UltraManiac
Negima
Afro Samurai
PaniPoni Dash
Dragon Drive
Witch Hunter Robin

The last series were okay at times, but I just couldn't get that into them.

[GundamWingMan]

JeffB, why didn't you like those shows? I'm just curious. Some I think I can guess the reason, just because I've heard other AoDers complain about some aspects for those shows. I've never heard someone dislike ROD the TV though, so I couldn't think of why you didn't like it. Unless you didn't like the fact that it changed from this detective agency plot to this entirely different plotline. Or maybe you were a fan of the original OVA and didn't like how it continued the series on?

At the risk of sounding vague, I can't really explain as there was just a certain "something" about the shows on my list that just turned me off. After reading your post, I went through the dumpster of my memories overnight to come up with some reasons on a few shows, irrational though they might sound to others, starting with:

R.O.D. The TV: Stupid as this sounds, but Nenene Sumiregawa was such an ill-tempered, high strung, unlikable bitch, she actually turned me off on the show after just the first episode, the first time a character soured me on a series.

Arjuna: The premise of this show interested me at first, but the relentless preaching about saving the environment annoyed me, and I believe in protecting the planet, but I hated having that shoved down my throat like it was here.

Ergo Proxy: To echo the opinions of others, this show bored the hell out of me, plain and simple.

Girls Bravo: Speaking as someone crazy enough to try and count the number of time panties were flashed during Agent Aika, I thought I'd like this show, but this did nothing for me as I thought this show was just stupid.

The Twelve Kingdoms: I saw this a rip-off of Fushigi Yugi, one of my all-time favorite shows.

Magikano: I saw this as a rip-off of Maburaho, one of my guilty pleasures

Paranoia Agent: That confused the hell out of me.

Eureka Seven: Sorry, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around the concept of surboard riding mecha, a whiny punk of a male lead who sometimes made Shinji from Evangelion look mature and a heroine who's name was pronounced "Air-u-reka". WTF?

Divergence Eve, Geneshaft, Starship Operators: Too technical for my liking, and I'm a sci-fi fan. By the by, the Dolly Parton sized boobs of all the girls in Divergence Eve was a ridiculous distraction.

Cowboy Bebop: Another show that just didn't do anything for me. Can't explain it.

GTO: Reminded me too much of assholes I had for teachers when I was in high school.

Perhaps down the road I'll dredge up more memories about shows I came to dislike and didn't add to my collection.

[Njr Scrawl]

End of Evangelion. Promising start, great battles & sacrifices, then it descended into psychobabble & had the most infuriating final scene of any anime I've seen to date. Only love for the characters & Japanese voice acting makes me re-watch this movie so much. And maybe hoping to make more of it one day.

X The Movie. An animated video role playing game in plot, where all the characters I would have saved, if possible, died. A good example of how excellent animation can't save a show.

Char's Counter Attack The worst UC Gundam story. UC should have ended with ZZ Gundam, leaving Char MIA (in ZZ Sayla says not even Newtypes can sense him anywhere), & Amauro in retirement. CCA turns Char from a cunning military politician/leader into an autocratic loony like LoGH's Reinhardt became.

Patlabor 2 & 3 movies Not my Patlabor. May be clever & pretty, but both lack the warmth of the OVAs, TV & movie 1.

[Lego]

X The Movie. An animated video role playing game in plot, where all the characters I would have saved, if possible, died. A good example of how excellent animation can't save a show.


This was one of the first titles I watched on VHS back when I was first getting into anime, and it almost caused me to get out of anime. Now I'm familiar with CLAMP's style, but it was just a train wreck for me. It felt like someone took a thousand page novel and crammed it into three paragraphs. I understand theres an X TV series, but after that I have no will to watch it at all, so I agree with you.

[Njr Scrawl]

X The Movie. An animated video role playing game in plot, where all the characters I would have saved, if possible, died. A good example of how excellent animation can't save a show.


This was one of the first titles I watched on VHS back when I was first getting into anime, and it almost caused me to get out of anime. Now I'm familiar with CLAMP's style, but it was just a train wreck for me. It felt like someone took a thousand page novel and crammed it into three paragraphs. I understand theres an X TV series, but after that I have no will to watch it at all, so I agree with you.

The X TV series is way better, but still depressing. No character seems throwaway as in the movie, & some that are killed in the movie survive the TV show, but I can't remember exactly who. I hope X TV is rescued as it was Geneon, & is a great experience. See if you can rent it, it will remove some of the bad taste left by the movie.

[DiRF]

I should probably add Hellsing (TV) to my list... I knew it had been on adult swim and was a hit... so I was probably expecting too much. It was a decent Anime, I love Seras Victoria, Alucard is awesome... but god damn that last plot arc was just one giant, heaping, steaming pile of dung.

That said, a friend of mine loaned me the first four volumes of the manga, and it's excellent. She also has the first three volumes of the OVA on DVD... but she hasn't gotten around to watching them, so I can't borrow them yet :p

[Critic Chris]

For those of you who were disappointed with the Tsubasa Chronicle anime: Go read the manga. I've read the first 13 volumes, and while I've heard the series gets very dark later on, what I read was fun, high-spirited adventure with some very lovable characters.

Anyway, another show I thought I would like was Bleach. The manga is a lot of fun, and I really like Tite Kubo's art style, so imagine my surprise when the anime turns out to be crap. Oh, it's competently made, but they lose a lot of the charm and spunk of the manga, and having Sora (Orihime's brother) turned into a hollow by the Grand Fisher is one of the stupidest plot changes in the history of anime.

[ryverstar]

I am ever so grateful to a couple of rental outfits for sparing me from purchases. However most of the shows I have rented did not drift too far one way or the other from what I expected at the outset. Here are the ones that I just could not get into for varying reasons.

Urusei Yatsura TV -- One of my earliest ventures into pure anime (VHS days), I bought tapes up to Vol. 18. The root canal feeling started around 13 or 14. Repetition got tiresome, but the Ryuunosuke storyline killed the series for me. I later rented the series from 18 to the end, but I skipped or FFWed a lot of the episodes. I do admit I liked the OVAs and the movies.

Macross -- I rented this series over the Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays. I just did not get into it. Minmay was annoying, but I do have a strong stomach. Her cousin was too much. He was the final nail in the coffin.

Sakura Wars -- For me this was a cure for insomnia. Just plain bored.

Tenchi Muyo TV -- Loved the OVAs (okay only tolerated the third since it did eventually answer a few questions). I simply prefer the versions of the characters in the OVAs to the TV series. The TV storyline did not appeal to me.

Gantz -- I thought I would be mildly entertained. The only reason I say that this was not a waste of 11 hours of my life I will never get back is that I watched this series at work (work nights, work alone, no one to be offended). At the risk of going of on a rant, I felt that the point of the show was to see who could be suckered into watching the whole thing to see if there was any point to it at all.

[The Great Bear]

Doki Doki School Hours.

I like school comedies. I loved AzuDai. I like School Rumble a lot.

DDSH was utter crap. The same lame jokes repeated again and again and again and again and again and again and again with no break in sight. Money down the toilet on that one.

Otherwise, I haven't really been disappointed too badly on shows. I tend to pick fairly well. I know there are others that will have no rewatch value, but DDSH is the one that I really disliked when I thought I'd like it.

[Mateo_home]

Sakura Wars -- For me this was a cure for narcolepsy. Just plain bored.

Correct me if I'm not reading this right, but don't you mean a cure for insomnia?

[Keith Palmer]

I think I'd say only "I didn't like these series as much as I thought I would." Still, I'm worried I may be taking swings at a few sacred cows here...

Blue Gender: The animation always seemed to be going off-model in an ugly way, but also in some ways it seemed that when the only way to kill a Blue was to shoot its one vulnerable point, and that could be done with a handgun as well as with a mecha, things just weren't as exciting as I'd first thought they would be... not to mention that it seemed very cheap for the mecha to always be moving on the wheels in their feet.

Dai-Guard: This series started quite entertainingly for me, but somehow as it went on and the characters got more competent and better-equipped, some of the fun seemed to leak away. Still, I found it an interesting change rung on "the expected plot" when the forces they were opposing turned out not to have some secret cabal behind them...

Zeta Gundam: I may have been just plain oversold on this series. When, in the first few episodes, the Titans lost all three of their Gundam Mark IIs and wound up relying on resurrection-of-Zeon mobile suits, they started seeming just like incompetent thugs to me... and as things continued, I had this nagging sense that nothing seemed to have any lasting impact on the plot. In any case, I've watched this series three times in full trying to feel better about it, and it's helped a bit... but it's still not my favourite Gundam series, the way I was told it would be.

Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Here, perhaps, the first episode threw me off. It might have left me with the impression that the series would be "Chirico Cuvie is searching for answers... and for revenge," but over the course of the series he seemed a lot more passive than that, stuck fighting just because he couldn't think of anything better to do. Also, the Armored Troopers themselves might have finally seemed "low-key" enough for me to start appreciating in a new way more extravagant mecha...

Crest/Banner of the Stars: Again, the first episode seemed interesting, but might have thrown me off... I may have been thinking that the series would somehow involve Jinto coming to terms with the society he's now a part of. As nice as his developing relationship with Lafiel was, though, it somehow seemed to leave me with the feeling he was so smitten with her he never really dealt with "big questions..."

[DiRF]

Doki Doki School Hours.

Money down the toilet on that one.
My sentiments exactly. Sold all 5 DVDs the moment I finished the last episode... luckily I had only bought them in one of the RightStuf massive 25/$100 sales... made my money back on them on eBay.

[Lego]

X The Movie. An animated video role playing game in plot, where all the characters I would have saved, if possible, died. A good example of how excellent animation can't save a show.


This was one of the first titles I watched on VHS back when I was first getting into anime, and it almost caused me to get out of anime. Now I'm familiar with CLAMP's style, but it was just a train wreck for me. It felt like someone took a thousand page novel and crammed it into three paragraphs. I understand theres an X TV series, but after that I have no will to watch it at all, so I agree with you.

The X TV series is way better, but still depressing. No character seems throwaway as in the movie, & some that are killed in the movie survive the TV show, but I can't remember exactly who. I hope X TV is rescued as it was Geneon, & is a great experience. See if you can rent it, it will remove some of the bad taste left by the movie.

Yeah, now I know of the series but at the time I had no idea that the X TV series existed. That and its been pretty low on my priority list.

[ryverstar]

Sakura Wars -- For me this was a cure for narcolepsy. Just plain bored.

Correct me if I'm not reading this right, but don't you mean a cure for insomnia?

sigh . . . fixed

[davesimmons]

Heroic Legned of Arslan this was a blind buy after enjoying Record of Lodoss War and to me Arslan was just boring. I tried watching it again this year to see if it improved with a second viewing . . . no, still boring.

I like heroic fantasy and have read piles of it, but there was nothing in Arslan that made me want to keep watching besides my own stubborness.

[Pelianth]

The Twelve Kingdoms: I saw this a rip-off of Fushigi Yugi, one of my all-time favorite shows.
Wait...what?

[Ryos]

Very short complete list here (at least until I get around to finishing my massive currently 8 and soon to be 10+ box backlog, but I haven't run into anything I disliked yet...). There are a couple anime shows I picked up that I didn't end up liking that were mostly a gamble based on the fact they were very cheap that I didn't include in the list because the reviews for them were lackluster at best anyway (to this day Twilight of the Dark Master is still my absolute least favorite anime, for example).

Cowboy Bebop (just the TV series) - Now it's not like I disliked the entire show, but pretty much every single "filler" episode that wasn't part of the overall main story arc struck me as a whole lot of style without substance. Oddly enough I really enjoyed the movie, so I dunno. The main storyline episodes were also pretty nice, with the first storyline episode definitely having one of my most replayed scenes. However, when there were only 5 episodes I consider main storyline episodes, that's a whole lot of the series that just didn't work out for me.

Akira - just couldn't get into it at all. I got the whole Dragon Ball Z vibe from it for some strange reason.

Slayers season 1 - While there were bits and pieces I liked of the following seasons (mostly stemming from the inclusion of a very awesome character), I just did not like most of the first series. I guess it's for much of the opposite reason of DiRF - I really liked the interactions of Lina and Nagaa in the OAVs and movies, a relationship that has no particular parallel in the TV series.

Rurouni Kenshin TV (Kyoto arc primarily) - Again this isn't the whole series, but most of this arc in particular bored the heck out of me. To be more precise, I liked two episodes out of the entire arc; everything else either annoyed me because of silly reasons like with the last episode or again the whole Dragon Ball Z vibe deal. Which is odd because one of the reasons I really loved the original OAVs was because of the fight scenes.

[Fencedude]

The Twelve Kingdoms: I saw this a rip-off of Fushigi Yugi, one of my all-time favorite shows.


Opinions are opinions are opinions, but this one has provoked a major nervous twitch.

How much did you watch? Because its really absolutely nothing like Fushigi Yugi at all.

[leongsh]

The Twelve Kingdoms: I saw this a rip-off of Fushigi Yugi, one of my all-time favorite shows.
Wait...what?
Ditto O_o

That opinion is so different from what I can see of those 2 shows - to call Twelve Kingdoms a rip-off of Fushigi Yugi beggars belief for me. I deleted what I typed out initially comparing the 2 shows as this is not the appropriate thread to do so. Having watched both, Twelve Kingdoms is way ahead of Fushigi Yugi in my books.

[leongsh]

Rurouni Kenshin TV (Kyoto arc primarily) - Again this isn't the whole series, but most of this arc in particular bored the heck out of me. To be more precise, I liked two episodes out of the entire arc; everything else either annoyed me because of silly reasons like with the last episode or again the whole Dragon Ball Z vibe deal. Which is odd because one of the reasons I really loved the original OAVs was because of the fight scenes.
Hmm.. I guess those 2 episodes that you liked are at the very start of the Kyoto arc between Himura Kenshin and Saito Hajime and the one where Kenshin says goodbye to go to Kyoto.

[mike.motaku]

here's the shows I gave a thumbs down to, some you may agree with, others might surprise you:

Air
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
Arjuna
Burn-Up Scramble
Comic Party
Cowboy Bebop
Cromartie High School
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue
DearS
Death Note
Devil Lady
Divergence Eve
Ergo Proxy
Escaflowne
Eureka Seven
Figure 17
Full Metal Panic!
Fullmetal Alchemist
Galaxy Angel
Geneshaft
Girls High
Girls Bravo
GTO
Happy Lesson
Haré+Guu
His and Her Circumstances
Inu Yasha
Kanon
Magikano
Miami Guns
NaNa 7 of 7
Ninja Nonsense
Paranoia Agent
R.O.D -The TV
Ranma 1/2
Real Bout High School
Shakugan no Shana
Shuffle!
Solty Rei
Starship Operators
Stellvia
Story of Saiunkoku
Stratos 4
Tenjho Tenge
The Twelve Kingdoms
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
UFO Princess Valkyrie
When They Cry - Higurashi

Quite a list, eh? I hate to think how huge my collection would be today if I liked all those titles. Your turn now, what titles did you think you'd like but wound up disliking instead?

At first glance the question that springs to mind is "Are you sure anime is the hobby for you?"
I mean Air, Arjuna, Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, Eureka Seven, Figure 17, Full Metal Panic!, Fullmetal Alchemist, Girls High, GTO, Haré+Guu, His and Her Circumstances, Kanon, Ninja Nonsense, Paranoia Agent, R.O.D -The TV, Ranma 1/2, Tenjho Tenge, The Twelve Kingdoms,
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, and When They Cry - Higurashi are some of the jewels of my collection. Not all stellar productions and some uneven storytelling, but I like all of them. Some more than others, but I don't tell them that.

I'll give you Miami Guns. That was just bad. Awful. I love what AN does with their dvds. I just wish they would apply that kind of care to good shows. Gunsmith Cats and You're Under Arrest are just so much better. And I guess avoiding the manga version of, well, everything lets me love Tsubasa and wait impatiently for more.

Hated Rurouni Kenshin. Loved the OVAs, but the TV series? Really didn't like at all. Hated L/R. Even bad Lupin III episodes were better. Noir? Boring! Sleep-inducing. Those are the ones that stand out the most. Others might be on the list but I have blanked them from my memory and my collection. In with the good. Out with the jive.

[maehara]

Air
Cowboy Bebop
Divergence Eve
Ergo Proxy
Escaflowne
Eureka Seven
Fullmetal Alchemist
Geneshaft
Girls Bravo
Haré+Guu
His and Her Circumstances
Kanon
Paranoia Agent
R.O.D -The TV
Shakugan no Shana
Shuffle!
Stellvia
That lot there I would call damn good examples of anime - and there were a lot more on your list that I thoroughly enjoyed, but haven't included as they're just guilty pleasures and/or too derivative of something else.

But personal taste is a strange thing, so I'm not going to nitpick.

Me, I'm an eternal cynic - I go into every show thinking it's going to suck, and then I'm rarely disappointed. :)

[SpaceDebris]

There's not many that I can't finish, and most anime for me have at least somewhat of redeeming quality to them, but there's only a few I just couldn't watch or wish I hadn't.

Lost Universe - Can't remember why I didn't like it, but I watched disc one twice and got nothing out of it either time.

Cromartie High School - I guess the humor just wasn't to my taste. Also watched this one twice, and only got one or two chuckles along the way.

Chobits - Can't remember this too well either, but I had no urge to buy the second box set.

Nadia - I can't remember the last time I dreaded watching something as much as this, and if I hadn't bought the box set I wouldn't have went beyond the first disc.

[Garasharp K7]

Only two come to mind, and those would be Gunparade March and Crest of The stars. Gunparade March sounded like my cup of tea - Earth invaded by monsters, kids fightin' 'em in giant robots - sounds like a must-see right there. Trouble was, I just found the thing to be bland and dull, Characters weren't all that interesting, and the monsters even less so. I got about halfway into the series and just stopped. I may go back to it to see how the thing ends, but probably not for a good while.
I don't know why I couldn't get into Crest of The Stars, but it just didn't click with me for some reason. The show seemed decent enough - story was good, characters were likeable - but I felt less inclined to continue watching. I'd watch one ep, then maybe a few days later I'd watch another one. But eventually I didn't feel like continuing. I just lost interest in the show.

[Gatts]

The Twelve Kingdoms: I saw this a rip-off of Fushigi Yugi, one of my all-time favorite shows.
Wait...what?

School girl gets transported to a land that's sorta like ancient China with a friend who turns really bitchy (but is really a good person), because of a destiny that she holds due to her powers.

Of course I feel that Twelve Kingdoms is better than Fushigi Yuugi, but I've heard enough people complain about the similarities that I just go with the flow. I found the "Kimi ga Aruji de Hitsuji ga Ore de" = "Hayate no Gotoku" comparison from a different thread more confusing. However one thing I've learned is that if any comparison can be made between any two series, someone will make them. No matter how thin the comparison may be.

[zaldar]

Despite having nearly 100 series, movies and OAV's in my anime collection, I'm actually quite picky about what I watch as my tatses are many: mecha, shoujo, humor, horror, girls with guns, sci-fi, magical girls, fantasy, I'm pretty much all over the board. And yet, there have been times I've sat down with the first volume of a new series I was really interested in and thought I'd enjoy and be proud to add to my collection, until I actually watched the show and, for whatever reason, I found that I didn't like it. Sometimes, it took a full volume to decide I didn't like a show, in other instances, I wasn't even that patient as I was turned off on a show after just the first episode. It's hard to explain the reasons I soured on a particular show, it might've been the story, the characters, the animation, or a combination of the three, I can never tell what will entertain me, or bore me silly. In alphabetical order, here's the shows I gave a thumbs down to, some you may agree with, others might surprise you:

Air
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
Arjuna
Burn-Up Scramble
Comic Party
Cowboy Bebop
Cromartie High School
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue
DearS
Death Note
Devil Lady
Divergence Eve
Ergo Proxy
Escaflowne
Eureka Seven
Figure 17
Full Metal Panic!
Fullmetal Alchemist
Galaxy Angel
Geneshaft
Girls High
Girls Bravo
GTO
Happy Lesson
Haré+Guu
His and Her Circumstances
Inu Yasha
Kanon
Magikano
Miami Guns
NaNa 7 of 7
Ninja Nonsense
Paranoia Agent
R.O.D -The TV
Ranma 1/2
Real Bout High School
Shakugan no Shana
Shuffle!
Solty Rei
Starship Operators
Stellvia
Story of Saiunkoku
Stratos 4
Tenjho Tenge
The Twelve Kingdoms
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
UFO Princess Valkyrie
When They Cry - Higurashi

Quite a list, eh? I hate to think how huge my collection would be today if I liked all those titles. Your turn now, what titles did you think you'd like but wound up disliking instead?

Wow how about ones that are on your list that I don't understand...
Cowboy bebop, Death Note (how can you NOT like this show), Paranoia agent....?????? I guess you just don't like the more philosophical stuff?

Blood + and Eureka Seven were the ones for me mainly based on the endings. In both cases the endings just felt like entire copouts to me.