Animehas truly taken off in recent years, and with that, new fans are always looking for good places to start. Shows likeDragon Ball,One Piece,My Hero Academia, andFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhoodare often easy recommendations because of their fun stories and great animation, and more often than not, they do a great job of turning newcomers into diehard fans.
There are plenty ofgreat anime for beginners, but unfortunately, the opposite is also true. As is always the case, plenty of anime simply aren’t worth watching because of bad writing, poor visuals, or some combination of the two, and it’s to the point thatsome anime are so bad that they could turn newcomers off of anime entirely if they’re the first ones someone watches. A few anime of that scale are particularly worth highlighting, and with any luck, no one will be so unfortunate as to make them their first anime.
Digimon Frontier
Cast
Digimon Frontier (2002) is the fourth series in the Digimon franchise, focusing on a group of children who possess special spirits allowing them to transform into Digimon warriors. These children embark on a journey to save the Digital World from an evil force. The series introduces a fresh perspective within the Digimon universe, diverging from previous storylines to explore themes of courage and friendship in a new format.
Toei Animation’sDigimon Frontieris the fourth series in the long-runningDigimonfranchise. Like otherDigimonanime,Digimon Frontiersees a group of kids summoned to the Digital World to protect it from a mysterious evil, but rather than form teams with Digimon to fight, the kids take on the power of Digimon to fight, themselves, making it an odd mashup ofDigimonand thetokusatsugenre.
Digimon Frontieris the weakest of theDigimonanime thanks to its flat characters and repetitive storylines, but quality aside,Digimon Frontieris a terrible anime for newcomers because it gives a false impression of whatDigimonis like. Anyone new toDigimonand anime, in general, should start with one of the more conventional stories, and when they have a better understanding of howDigimonworks, something so far removed from the formula likeFrontierwill be much better to watch.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night revolves around four young women in Shibuya who form JELEE, an anonymous artist group. Through their collaboration, an artist, a retired idol, a V-tuber, and a composer explore self-expression and embark on a journey of self-discovery.
Doga Kobo’sJellyfish Can’t Swim in the Nightstars Mahiru Kozuki, a former artist who’s inspired by former star idol Kano Yamanouchi to get back into art. From there, Mahiru and Kano meet a talented pianist and a popular VTuber, and they all come together to form the anonymous artist group JELEE and show the world what they can do.
While the show starts strong with its flashy visuals and strong character writing,Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Nightfalls apart in its final act thanks to forced drama, little to no closure for its stories, and overall having nothing to say about its themes of success and self-worthbeyond a surface level. Anime likeBocchi the Rock!,Ya Boy Kongming!, andKeep Your Hands Off Eizouken!all do whatJellyfishdoes with far more competence, so a person is far better off just watching one of those anime, instead.
8Day Break Illusion
Anime Series By AIC; Directed By Keizo Kusakawa
AIC’sDay Break Illusiontakes place in a world plagued by Daemonia, powerful creatures who use negative emotions to turn people into monsters. The only ones who can stop them are the magical girls of Sefiro Fiore who fight with the power of the Elemental Tarot, and the newest member, Akari Taiyo of the Sun, is quick to learn how dark her new world can really be.
Day Break Illusionis serviceable enough with its animation and writing, but that’s the problem with it;Day Break Illusionnever does anything to stand out from other dark magical girl anime, so it comes off as a waste of time more than anything. The series was created to cash in onPuella Magi Madoka Magica’s success, and overall, there’s no reason why anyone shouldn’t just watchMadokaor any of the other dark magical girl anime with far more to offer.
Beyond the Boundary
The dark fantasy series Beyond the Boundary follows high schooler Akihito Kanbara, a half-youmu with quick healing abilities. He befriends Mirai Kuriyama, a spirit world outcast with the power to manipulate blood. Their meeting triggers a series of unsettling events within their supernatural surroundings.
Kyoto Animation’sBeyond the Boundaryis set in a world where people with supernatural powers called Spirit World Warriors protect the innocent from monsters called Yomu. One such Spirit World Warrior, Mirai Kuriyama, is the last of her clan, and to get stronger, she teams up with the immortal half-Yomu Akihito Kanbara, as his immortality makes him the perfect practice dummy.
Kyoto Animation is famous for anime with either great comedy, great drama, or a combination of the two, and because of that,Beyond the Boundarybeing a standard action fantasy makes it stand out in the worst of ways among Kyoto Animation’s more clever anime, especially with how lackluster the writing is. The visuals are as great as any of thebest Kyoto Animation anime, but overall, any other Kyoto Animation anime is more worth a person’s time thanBeyond the Boundary.
6The Lost Village
Anime Series By Diomedéa; Written By Mari Okada
Diomedéa’sThe Lost Villagesees 30 people from an online group meeting up IRL to move to the mysterious Nanaki Village. Nanaki Village is supposed to be a utopia and the perfect escape from their problems, but it soon becomes clear that there’s far more going on than anyone could have predicted.
Between the often lazy visuals, the nonsensical plot twists, and how increasingly unlikable the cast gets,The Lost Villagefails at being a dark mystery in every regard and even fails to enter the territory of being bad to the point of being funny. Series creator Mari Okada has written many iconic anime likeLupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine,O Maidens in Your Savage Season, andAnohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, but unfortunately,The Lost Villagedoes a poor job of showing what’s she’s capable of as a writer.
5Rent-A-Girlfriend
Anime Series By TMS Entertainment; Based On The Manga By Reiji Miyajima
TMS Entertainment’sRent-A-Girlfriendstars Kazuya Kinoshita, a college student who, after getting dumped by his girlfriend, hires a girl from an escort service named Chizuru Mizuhara to make himself feel better. Kazuya and Chizuru have a horrible time on their first few dates, but due to various circumstances, they have to pretend to be a couple in front of their friends and family.
Harem anime are always contentious with fans and critics alike, and with how bad the pacing tends to be, combined with its predictable story beats and largely unlikable protagonist,Rent-A-Girlfriendis one of the worst harem anime to watch for how much it plays into the worst tropes of the genre.Great harem animelikeNisekoi,Girls Bravo, andGirlfriend, Girlfriendshow how fun a harem anime can be with the right execution, but unfortunately, very little of that charm can be seen inRent-A-Girlfriend.
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror is an adaptation of Junji Ito’s acclaimed manga, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama. The series unfolds in the town of Kurôzu-cho where inexplicable events related to spirals plague the inhabitants, leading to terror and madness. Highlighting the psychological and supernatural, the show follows high school student Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, as they confront the spiraling horrors that engulf their town.
Production I.G USA’sUzumakifollows Kirie Goshima, her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, and their lives in the small town of Kurouzu. Once a quiet town, Kurouzu and its inhabitants find themselves continually plagued by supernatural occurrences revolving around spiral patterns, and their repeated failures to break away from them slowly lead to a gruesome and unavoidable fate for everyone involved.
While promotional material painted a promising picture ofUzumaki’s success, when the anime finally premiered,Uzumaki’s terrible art and animation, combined with its awkward pacing that ruined the tension of the manga, made it one of the worst horror anime in recent years, by far. Junji Ito is one of the greatest horror writers in manga, but anime adaptations of his works always fail to properly translate things into animation, andUzumakiis the worst attempt at doing so yet.
Anime Series By GEMBA, Millepensee, & Liden Films; Based On The Manga By Kentaro Miura
Berserk
In his quest for revenge, Guts confronts sinister forces, including violent criminals, evil spirits, and a devout adversary. Despite the immense personal cost, he fights relentlessly, relying solely on his human strength and swordsmanship to face enemies with unnatural powers.
GEMBA, Millepensee, and Liden Films’Berserkis the second TV adaptation of the legendary dark fantasy manga by Kentaro Miura. First released in 2016, the anime was the first adaptation to move past the Golden Age arc of the manga, the anime instead focusing on Guts’ adventures in the present hunting down Griffith in his quest for vengeance.
It’s one thing for the 2016Berserkanime to have some of the worst CGI of any anime, but when combined with its short runtime and lackluster direction,the 2016Berserkanime does a terrible job of bringing Kentaro Miura’s work to life due to a combination of poor pacing and terrible visuals. There will never be aBerserkanime that fully captures the manga’s strengths, but anyone unfamiliar with the series is far better off watching the original anime from the 90s.
Anime Series By Lerche; Based On The Video Game By Spike Chunsoft
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School is an animated series serving as the finale to the Hope’s Peak Academy arc of the Danganronpa franchise. The series is divided into three parts: Future Arc, which focuses on Makoto Naegi and his friends and their involvement in a killing game with the Future Foundation, Despair Arc, which focuses on Hajime Hinata and his involvement in experiments on humans, and Hope Arc, which served as a finale to both stories.
Lerche’sDanganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High Schoolis the grand finale of the Hope’s Peak Academy arc of theDanganronpavideo game franchise. The series is split into two different, alternating stories:Future Arc, which saw Naegi and the Future Foundation thrown into another death game by Monokuma as they debated the fates of the Remnants of Despair, andDespair Arc, which served as an origin story for the Remnants of Despair and the plot, as a whole.
Naturally, the anime doesn’t work for anyone who hasn’t played the games, but even for longtime fans,Danganronpa 3is a terrible anime for its messy retcons, an overabundance of new characters, and its overall terrible plotting for the sake of delivering a forced happy ending. It’s a terrible finale to an iconic series of games, and old and new fans alike would be better off skipping it, entirely.
Guilty Crown
In a post-apocalyptic Japan, high school student Shu Ouma acquires a unique power that thrusts him into the conflict between a resistance group and a governing entity. As he navigates this turbulent world, Shu confronts the demands of his newfound abilities and the hidden truths of his past.
In Production I.G’sGuilty Crown, Japan has become a police state under the thumb of the GHQ in their alleged attempt at containing the outbreak of the Apocalypse Virus. The GHQ is opposed by the terrorist organization Funeral Parlor, and after a chance encounter with the popular singer Inori Yuzuriha, ordinary high schooler Shu Ouma gets wrapped up in their conflict when he accidentally inherits a powerful genetic weapon called the Void Genome.
Guilty Crown’s art, animation, and music are some of the best of any anime from Production I.G, but unfortunately,Guilty Crown’s bad pacing, boring characters, and all-around terrible writing make it one of the worst anime a person can watch.Guilty Crowntries and fails to capture the same aesthetic that madeCode Geassa success, and with just how terribly it fails,Guilty Crownis easily theworst anime to introduce to newcomers.
