Most disappointing anime of 2011 (in your opinion)

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Tempester

Yumekui Merry
How could an anime that started off so good end so abysmally? Manga adaptations like this are why I prefer straight-to-the-source manga adaptations with cut off endings over attempts to close off with an anime-original ending.

This nothing for me is even worth comparing how much of a disappointment this show was in terms of endings, the last few episodes utterly ruined the series especially the building up to such a pathetic 'final' battle.

[TJR]

I tend to keep expectations in check, so nothing really let me down. However, the spotty quality of Persona 4 (from a production standpoint) probably surprised me the most given the stature of the title.

[Sheba]

So far, and unless its problems are adressed in later episodes, Persona 4 The Animation. I wanted the MC to stand out much more than what I am seeing in those episodes. The first episodes repeated the "meeting Shadow and "You are myself, I am yourself" routine ad nauseam" and the fights had been lacking.

Then, "it had potential it blew it", Dog Days, hands down. I would like to say more but going more about it would likely get me called out as troll.

[fertygo]

Easily Nichijou.

[tezu]

When speaking of disappointing series, Fractale (a series that obviously couldn't decide what it wanted to be), C (a series that felt like Yu-Gi-Oh only with some money talk) and Persona 4 come into my mind. I can't tell whether Persona 4 will eventually get better, but the episodes so far ("Meet a new persona every week and watch the protagonists being emo/in denial") were a pain to watch...

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by Sheba

So far, and unless its problems are adressed in later episodes, Persona 4 The Animation. I wanted the MC to stand out much more than what I am seeing in those episodes. The first episodes repeated the "meeting Shadow and "You are myself, I am yourself" routine ad nauseam" and the fights had been lacking.

Then, "it had potential it blew it", Dog Days, hands down. I would like to say more but going more about it would likely get me called out as troll.

Oh yea! Dog Days. Though I guess I wasn't really expecting enough of anything to be disappointed in that. Unless you count you expected "mediocre and generic" which actually came off to be unwatchable.

The fact I can't remember it though...

[webkid94]

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Season 2: OMG where did this show go so wrong? Like, really spending half the series devoted to abusing the male characters in a COMEDY series isn't very funny at all (though if you're a female..who knows?). It was just so disappointing how a series that made me laugh each episode in season 1, made me cringe for most of season 2.

Anything from noitaminA (C, Fractale, No.6, Guilty Crown): Seriously why do people love this programming block? It kills any good show that has a chance of being great (IMO, only AnoHana was pretty good.) No.6 was way better than any noitaminA show until that horrible last episode. Though i haven't seen UN-GO yet...

Ao no Exorcist - First half was great, hell the first two episodes i was thinking "This is shounen?", then of course the staff runs out of manga material so they switch it to some corny "Satan is a good guy!" crap, Yukio acting like a nutjob for no real good reason and a really dumb "Happy ever after/life goes on" crap.

[Guardian Enzo]

Blood-C for me. I had fairly high expectations and it was an atrocity from the very beginning. Also Baka-Test 2, for the reasons stated above. That one hurt me a lot more as I loved the first season.

[Kaioshin Sama]

So far this season it's Guilty Crown for me. Boy could I have not been more wrong about how this show was going to turn out in it's first month, but there's still time.

No. 6 is the current runaway leader for the overall year for me in that it started so promising (I even said to one person that I expected it to be the show that stayed consistently well-written throughout it's season) and yet had about the worst middle portion and ending a show could possibly get saddled with. I still blame most of the shows problems on that terrible Dog-Keeper character. The show almost immediately started tanking the moment she started getting screen time and Shion just never went anywhere as a character beyond the first arc in the actual city. Also just WAY too short for what they were trying to do. An overall miserable production that seems to have done lasting damage to BONES reputation and deservedly so.

I would say C like some others, but that one arguably started off on the wrong foot and just never got back on track so it's hard for me to call it disappointing, when I was expecting disaster by the second episode.

Also I like dawnstorms idea of balancing the thread with pleasant surprises cause I've got one. It's fairly new, but I went into Chihayafuru expecting to be rolling my eyes at cloying melodrama and slow paced "slice of life" fare and ended up with one of the most sincere dramas with some of the most believably human characters/relationships I've seen in a while along with a great soundtrack.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Also I like dawnstorms idea of balancing the thread with pleasant surprises cause I've got one. It's fairly new, but I went into Chihayafuru expecting to be rolling my eyes at cloying melodrama and slow paced "slice of life" fare and ended up with one of the most sincere dramas with some of the most believably human characters/relationships I've seen in a while along with a great soundtrack.

We already have a thread for that.

Anyway, I'll chime in with the others and say that a lot of NnoitaminA have been very disappointing. Blood C, Fractale, C, No. 6 (Guilty Crown looks to be heading this way too).

I'll also have to add in Yumekui Merry, Dantalian no Shoka and Tegami Bachi Reverse, but I'm also slightly disappointed with Natsume Yujincho San which I hoped would offer more development but ended up mostly treading the same ground (I still liked it though)

[Random32]

Originally Posted by webkid94

Anything from noitaminA (C, Fractale, No.6, Guilty Crown): Seriously why do people love this programming block? It kills any good show that has a chance of being great (IMO, only AnoHana was pretty good.) No.6 was way better than any noitaminA show until that horrible last episode. Though i haven't seen UN-GO yet...

People like NoitaminA because it used to be guaranteed awesome. Usagi Drop and AnoHana were still better than everything else in their respective season though imho.

How about balancing this thread with a "Positive surprises of 2011".

Nichijou.
"KyoAni is seriously overestimating their ability to make things moe" > "This is really awesome even if it wasn't what it was advertised to be"

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Tempester

Hey, I liked Kamisama Dolls and Seto no Hanayome (despite how terribly the latter started off). He certainly has problems, but he can do quite a good job if given appropriate source material.

Seto no Hanayome was just another slapstick/harem comedy along the same lines of Baka Test... which to me just give eyerolls . Kamisama Dolls just seemed really boring from its first 2 episodes so I didn't follow it, so based on those not findings, I'm kinda eyerolling at the director too.

Originally Posted by Random32

People like NoitaminA because it used to be guaranteed awesome. Usagi Drop and AnoHana were still better than everything else in their respective season though imho.

Steins;Gate and Mawaru Penguindrum would like to have a word with you . But yeh, noitamnia is changing but don't think we can do anything about it. As long as we get a "traditional" noitamina every few seasons or so, I wont be too upset.

[Zeroryoko1974]

Originally Posted by Fuyuno

Winter: Fractale and Madoka Magica
Spring: A-Channel, Deadman Wonderland, and C
Summer: No. 6, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée and R-15
Autumn: Horizon and Persona 4

Man I didn't watch lots of anime this year but at least I still can complete the list.

What?!? Madoka was one of the best anime of the year. Deadman Wonderland was fun to. I would say my biggest disappointment was with Blood-C. Blood+ was great, Clamp is usally great. Together it completely sucked. I guess we learned that Clamp+Gundam=cool, Clamp+Vampires (that aren't psuedo gay)=fail

[sa547]

@Fuyuno and @Ichuki: whether for better or worse, PMMM had considerable impact on the 'magical girl' genre and made the whole industry -- and the fandom (not just the midnight variety) -- to stand up and take notice, not just for the singular shock factor presented in Episode 3. It was then also a giant, insane gamble for SHAFT, as it wasn't based on any existing property (i.e. books, manga, etc) whatsoever, with an author of a horror VN as its prime scriptwriter.

Personally, it ends up on my list because it's different, it's unforgiving, and knowing how best to decide with a contract that seems to be very irresistible at first, but not without witnessing first-hand the consequences of not reading the fine print.

Ontopic: Having dropped it much earlier due to the possibility it was going to be predictable, I agree with the general assertion of the whole thread that Blood-C was a trainwreck in the end; that single final episode was good only to thrill an exploitation B-movie guro fan.

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by sa547

@Fuyuno and @Ichuki: whether for better or worse, PMMM had considerable impact on the 'magical girl' genre and made the whole industry stand up and take notice, not just for the singular shock factor presented in Episode 3. It was then also a giant, insane gamble for SHAFT, as it wasn't based on any existing property (i.e. books, manga, etc) whatsoever, with an author of a horror VN as its prime scriptwriter.

I don't judge anime by their influence on the industry and future anime. I just them on how much I enjoyed them. SDF Macross supposedly had a huge influence on the industry, but that's beside the fact that I thoroughly liked it as an anime, whether it was made 30 years ago or today.

[0utf0xZer0]

Yumekui Merry: Managed to recover from a mediocre start and become one of my favourites of the season... and then completely and utterly fucked it up with a god awful ending.

Fractale: It never got as interesting as I hoped, the ending was awful, several bits felt jarringly out of place and uninspired, generic attempts at moe - from a guy who kept suggesting the industry was too moe-centric (well, okay, Clain was kind of cute when dolled up as a trap)

I suspect that a few others such as Dog Days might make the cut if I could ever work up the urge to watch beyond the first couple episodes..

[sa547]

Originally Posted by Tempester

I don't judge anime by their influence on the industry and future anime. I just them on how much I enjoyed them. SDF Macross supposedly had a huge influence on the industry, but that's beside the fact that I thoroughly liked it as an anime, whether it was made 30 years ago or today.

Added a few more for my reasons for keeping it.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

Yumekui Merry: Managed to recover from a mediocre start and become one of my favourites of the season... and then completely and utterly fucked it up with a god awful ending.

Ditto... I actually have a rather long list of anime that seemed good ideas and then faceplanted out of the starting gate. Its almost easier to list the ones that didn't disappoint me... only two. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy some of the others - they just failed to hit bullseyes or in a couple of cases, the bowstring broke.

[Kunagisa]

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi ..........................................

I will never, ever, EVER forgive ZEXCS (3rd strike for me).

[ahelo]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

Yumekui Merry: Managed to recover from a mediocre start and become one of my favourites of the season... and then completely and utterly fucked it up with a god awful ending.

Same for me. I hated Yumekui Merry when it began since everything about it was so generic then it started becoming better and better. . . yeah until DEAD END.