As anime moved from a subculture nurtured by fans at underground anime clubs to mainstream entertainment we can watch in 4K on digital streaming platforms, a lot more anime exists each season than could conceivably be watched by all fans. This means that some of us will end up dropping a new anime after a few episodes. What anime have you dropped, and why?
Inevitably, I find I have to drop a series I’ve been watching, perhaps because it didn’t work for me on some level, or because I don’t think it’s generating enough buzz in the anime community to be worth writing about on the J-List blog, or for some other reason. I asked Twitter and Facebook what anime have you dropped? and here are some of the responses we got!
What anime have you dropped quickly, and why? Like some fans, I was turned off by the shockingly dark episode of Kotoura-san and didn’t continue with the show.
Give us your top dropped anime! pic.twitter.com/bf7QFituDo
— J-LIST (@jlist) September 13, 2020
In the case of Kotoura-san, I was shocked by the first episode. Kotoura-san has psychic powers that allow her to read minds, and because she’s so KY about it, unable to understand what’s appropriate to say in social settings, she ends up destroying her parents’ marriage and making everyone unhappy, to the point that her mother wishes she’d never given birth to her. The turn to a bouncy school comedy from episode 2 left me feeling unbalanced, even though many fans insist the series is great.
What Anime Have You Dropped? Let’s Ask J-List Customers!
Catch and release!
Anime is the surprisingly not terrible Kill Me Baby! pic.twitter.com/Q4W4EzhU6t
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) September 14, 2020
Another show I was turned off by at first was Kill Me Baby!, about J-List mascot Megumi a girl named Yasuna who goes to school with a trained assassin named Sonya. The jokes fell flat with me at first, but when I approached it again with a more open mind, I realized what a genius the show was.
Sometimes a single annoying character can make us drop a show. One responder dropped Happiness Charge Precure due to the urusai character Hime.
Often a bad main character can encourage fans to drop a show, as happened for one fan who dropped Heaven’s Lost Property.
Another character with a bad MC and cheesy sexy situations was Val x Love, basically Date A Live but organized around the daughters of Thor. The girls had to act out various ecchi situations with the highly unlikable main character in order to unlock their goddess powers. A lot of people weren’t fans, though I found the sexy settings they came up with creative enough to finish. You know, the series.
I really wanted to like Accel World, but the main character who turned into a pig was just not doing it for me.
Sometimes fans can’t accept the death of a character, as happened after with Gurren Lagann for one respondent.
Sometimes shows that have hundreds of episodes can be hard to get into. Being told, “One Piece starts out slow, but it gets better after 100 episodes or so,” would certainly give me pause. At least we can appreciate Nami’s bikini body while we wait.
Another show a respondent dropped was one of my favorites, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out. While it’s true Hana can be annoying, it’s not really an anime about a short, busty girl with a loud voice, but two young people slowly getting closer emotionally. I’m personally loving how they’re actually advancing the story far more than Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san or Kaguya-sama: Love is War have in both of their seasons.
“In Another World with My Smartphone. The protagonist was just so LAME always trying to please everyone. He was so nice and selfless that it was boring.”
One show several fans reported they dropped is the violent (while at other times cute) Elfin Lied. Here’s the scene in which the annoying Kisaragi, who we’re sure will annoy us throughout the show, gets taken out.
WARNING: extreme violence, blood, nudity & English dubbed voices pic.twitter.com/2h28IpMTVz
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) September 14, 2020
Elfen- Lied is an influential sci-fi/horror/moe series, it’s another show that some fans reported they dropped. Like KNJ, this series is definitely not for the faint of heart. Don’t watch the above-embedded clip if you’re not used to horror anime.
“I dropped Misfit of the Demon Lord Academy halfway through the first episode.”
“Ishuzoku Reviewers. Wait, I didn’t drop that one. I’m not Funimation.”
Thanks for reading this blog posting asking what anime did you drop? Did your favorite anime end up on the list, and you want to tell us why we were wrong to drop it? Tell us below, or tell us on Twitter!
The site has worked hard to post dozens of new and restocked products for you. Visit the site and browse them all!
One of the best things about anime is all the wonderful anime magazines that are printed, filled with gorgeous visuals and information on upcoming series, plus free posters and other goodies for fans. Browse the new anime magazines here!
