Most Disappointing Anime of 2013, Animesuki's Choice

[Joyce_Steele]

Ore no Imouto 2 got the second place by 'beating' Maoyuu Maou Yuusha by just one vote. Now that really something.

[SPARTAN 119]

Note that I'm not a person who watches every title that comes out, and to be honest, this season has an unusually large number of series I'm following (three following, plus one may continue watching when less busy).

For now, the one I'd say I was most disappointed with would probably be Outbreak Company. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying it, it's just, I was expecting more stuff related to the political impacts the arrival of the Japanese is having on Eldant, but, instead goes a little too far into comedy territory.

[DarkJak2050]

So far for sure...

Infinite Stratos 2

Especially on Episodes 3-6 and recently, 10.

This basically sums up my reaction.

I'm so glad that I have Log Horizon and Walkure Romanze to watch after how FUBAR Infinite Stratos 2 has been...

[SeijiSensei]

I've thought about this for a while now, and I'd have to give my vote to Kotoura-san because of the high expectations generated by the first episode. After that it quickly devolved into a rather pedestrian high-school romance and hijinks tale. It was amusing enough to watch to its conclusion, but the anime never really confronted the issues raised in the opening episode.

In second place is probably Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi which I dropped after the events of episode three were followed by a second arc that required too great a leap of faith. (See my comment in the show thread for more details.)

[all_flying]

I wonder how those who put KyoKana as the most disappointing show would react after KyoAni's big BAIT episode(s). Also, I hope people would understand what KyoAni implies by "Honorable Mention".

Anyway:
- Photokano: What I expected, Amagami SS; What I got, MadHouse.
- Little Busters!: What I expected, quality; What I got, QUALITY.
- Kill la Kill: What I expected, LWA-grade animation; What I got, budget busted.
- RDG: This is actually have a nice concept, the story of a change, and nice artwork. But P.A. Works successfully ruined the whole thing by crampy adaptation.
- Suisei no Gargantia: What a lame, generic ending.
- Railgun S: Same as above.
- IS:2: HUGE amount of discount from the novel material, too much filler. I should have know this right when they released the S2 poster. But I didn't expect they are ballsy enough to actually throw away almost everything from the LN, and replaced it by fillers. Of course I was being hyperbolic, but you get the idea.

[Miraluka]

Kotoura-san, Oreimo 2, Kyoukai no Kanata being the biggest epic fail of the season, Railgun S because the Cloverfield arc, Galilei Dona, Coppelion, Devil Survivor 2, Attack on Titan.

Last, Futari wa Milky Holmes they couldn't make it work which is sad because the series has potential.

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by all_flying

I wonder how those who put KyoKana as the most disappointing show would react after KyoAni's big BAIT episode(s).

The show failed to impress most people from the first few episodes, which I think is a very bad thing. I don't really care if it gets better later (and from what I hear, it doesn't really get all that much better), first impressions are very important. If you can't sell your show to your audience with the first few episodes, you've failed as a producer.

Also, I hope people would understand what KyoAni implies by "Honorable Mention".

So, what does that mean, then?

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

The show failed to impress most people from the first few episodes, which I think is a very bad thing. I don't really care if it gets better later (and from what I hear, it doesn't really get all that much better), first impressions are very important. If you can't sell your show to your audience with the first few episodes, you've failed as a producer.



So, what does that mean, then?

Spoiler for why it fails:

Because it didn't follow the usual formula: "beginning, middle, end"; crampy arc per 2~4 episodes; A clear exposition... or rather a very long ass repeated chuuni verbal 'explanation' which wasted 60~80% of the show; doesn't need that much patience and observation. Also, most anime watchers are kinda dense or just ignorant... don't argue with me, you know I'm right. When 'Sakura' first encountered Mirai, bunch of people confused 'who is she?' While it was plain as daylight that she was Yui's sister or cousin or whatever blood-related/not related family. Even then they're still asking 'who's Yui?'. The same thing happened in ep 10 when half comments were just expressing 'confusion'. No wonder most studios stopped even trying anymore.

~ snip snip snip ~

[Miraluka]

Originally Posted by all_flying

Spoiler for why it fails:

Because it didn't follow the usual formula: "beginning, middle, end"; crampy arc per 2~4 episodes; A clear exposition... or rather a very long ass repeated chuuni verbal 'explanation' which wasted 60~80% of the show; doesn't need that much patience and observation. Also, most anime watchers are kinda dense or just ignorant... don't argue with me, you know I'm right. When 'Sakura' first encountered Mirai, bunch of people confused 'who is she?' While it was plain as daylight that she was Yui's sister or cousin or whatever blood-related/not related family. Even then they're still asking 'who's Yui?'. The same thing happened in ep 10 when half comments were just expressing 'confusion'. No wonder most studios stopped even trying anymore.

That happened because they spend their time in original stuff instead of trying to show the original contents.

The studio just didn't want to cut their usual formul and this time backfired pretty hard on them.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by all_flying

- Photokano: What I expected, Amagami SS; What I got, MadHouse.

Getting Madhouse is a good thing most of the time

[andyjay729]

Have to add Gargantia myself, mainly because I haven't seen a lot of the other big-name shows this year. The tension was too low, the ending was dull, and the female lead was bland. It seems like the writing team were trying purposely throughout to subvert Gen's normal writing style. In better hands that would've been noteworthy, but in this case seems like they wrote the story around the plot twists rather than vice versa.

It still did have some very good points and heartwarming moments of course, but in the end it leaves me thinking, "Gen, you can do better than this."

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by totoum

Getting Madhouse is a good thing most of the time

I don't know, excessive amount of fanservice and very little 'play-bite', rubs me off in the wrong way.

Originally Posted by Miraluka

That happened because they spend their time in original stuff instead of trying to show the original contents.

The studio just didn't want to cut their usual formul and this time backfired pretty hard on them.

first line: The anime is so much better than the LN actually. It did eliminate the unique-ness of the author's writing, but it also eliminates everything 'generic' with the original source material. Y'know, something goes along with the words: harem, separated arc, girl of the volume, surrealistic 'top-down accident', stupid "gokai-yo!", heck even MC's megane rants were more acceptable in the anime than in the LN (it starts to be funny, but it did gets really annoying later on).

Second line: yes, yes, yes, they didn't want to cut their usual formula alright! [mod edit: Snipped out sarcastic rant.]

[Lyocol]

Let me vote for one last time in this thread. While I have nothing personal against it but I think Log Horizon need to be mentioned here. I know it's good but it got way too much credits than it deserved, in other words it's quite overrated. I don't really see something special about it and I also don't think as good as most people claimed. For me it just an above average anime came at the right time and aimed at the right audiences. "Overrated" and "disappointing" doesn't mean it's bad right?

[Kameruka]

December 13th update:

Kyoukai no Kanata/Beyond the Boundary: 22 Votes

Ore no Imouto S2: 14 Votes

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha: 12 votes

Coppelion: 11 votes

Suisei no Gargantia: 8 Votes

7 Votes:

Devil Survivor 2
Photo Kano

6 Votes:

Free!

5 Votes:

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi
Infinite Stratos 2
Attack on Titan

4 Votes:

Galilei Donna
Red Data Girl

3 Votes:

Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou
Hyperdimension Neptunia
Yuyushiki
Amnesia
Brothers Conflict
Valvrave the Liberator
High School dxd New

2 Votes:

Log Horizon
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
Kotoura-san
DanganRonpa
Gin no Saji
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Megami-hen
Da Capo 3
Diabolik Lovers
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Freezing Vibration
Tamako Market
Day Beak Illusion
Majestic Prince
Utau no Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 2000%
Kill la Kill
Futari wa Milky Holmes

1 Vote:

Little Busters Refrain
Outbreak Company
Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko
Hataraku Maou-sama!
Wanna Be The Strongest in the World
Gatchaman Crowds
Golden Time
Yuushibu
Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties
Rozen Maiden
Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku
Severing Crime Edge
Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova

Note: all_flying voted for "Little Busters" but since only Little Busters Refrain is eligible to be voted here and so I go for that one instead of Little Busters(S1) which was shown in October 2012 which is ineligible.

Due to very few changes, I decided not to make an update next week until Christmas which all movies, OVAs and ONAs shown after that date are no longer eligible.

[Fuyuno]

Kyoukai no Kanata already reached point of no return and so I already expecting it to "win". I'm more interested to see second and third place as this year we also got big titles like Ore no Imouto which may "win" if Kyoukai no Kanata didn't exist.

By the way I think Coppelion need more votes considering on how many bloggers already dropped it and in fact Random Curiosity, one of the oldest anime blog that still active to this day never make a coverage of this show. Technically, Coppelion should have won but instead it got lucky as it was shown as the same season as Kyoukai no Kanata.

[Reckoner]

Coppelion being plain bad is not equivalent to it being a disappointment. You have to expect something to be disappointed. I'm not sure how many people actually expected anything from that show. I was somewhat interested base on the premise, but I had no real expectations, and hence I wasn't all that disappointed in it.

[Joyce_Steele]

^I'm one of the few who actually have high expectation of it, considering its author is female and it was about girls, not pretty boys. Unfortunately it already doomed from the start as it was made by the same people who made K before. It wasn't that bad, it just need to be remake by someone who can actually writes.

[Echoes]

I'm on Reckoner's page when it comes to Coppelion. I ended up not enjoying it at all, and dropped it halfway through, but expectations for it were never high. It had a decent hook with its unique premise, but it turned out to be a dull and lifeless experience. I could definitely understand placing it on this list if you did have your hopes up going in though; I don't think it's a good show at all.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by Joyce_Steele

^I'm one of the few who actually have high expectation of it, considering its author is female and it was about girls, not pretty boys. Unfortunately it already doomed from the start as it was made by the same people who made K before. It wasn't that bad, it just need to be remake by someone who can actually writes.

It looked to me like a lot of the issues I found in Coppelion are present in the source as well, so I'm not sure what GoHands really did to drag it down. Though I'm far more familiar with GoHand's work on Seitokai Yakuindomo than K anyway.

Main reason Coppelion didn't live up to my expectations is because I expected it to tend a bit towards hard sci-fi, and, well... the action scenes:

Spoiler for Coppelion:

a) The heroines and their allies will never finish anyone. Even if that means they'll come after you again after having almost killed you this time. And they want to destroy humanity and may have the means to do so.
b) Nobody except Ibara seems to be able to hit the broad side of a barn. Including trained soldiers.
c) The show portrays the B-2 as being a good close attack aircraft (or maybe not since it can't hit anything worth shit). In real life it's a high attitude stealth bomber - a very different mission profile.
d) How did those guys manage to build/maintain a giant mecha in a post-apocalyptic wasteland?

Mostly I feel they need to take the fights a lot more seriously. Though I will admit getting a laugh out that absurd paddle boat chase scene with Aoi. That was pretty funny.

Still like the show because I enjoy other elements of it a lot, but yeah... that really took the edge off. Still won't vote for it due to OreImo though.

[Sheba]

Coppelion is what happens when you take the S.T.A.L.K.E.R's premise and put in everything that was bad about the science side of the Raildex franchise (only needed unwanted harem hijinks to make it even WORSE) .