Worst anime you have ever watched?

[Taleweaver]

Warning: another ad-hominem coming up:

If it wants get you thinking, it definitely needs stronger and more explicit hints like in Kinou's Journey.

In other words: "I didn't understand it, thus it sucks."
Okay, a little interpretation here, spoilers for those who didn't see Haibane Renmei and still want to:

Haibane Renmei is a little unfair to its viewers because you are intentionally kept in the dark about the nature of the Haibane until the final episode. Then you find out that the dreams they have in their cocoons are a reflection of the way they died when they killed themselves. This is revealed when one of the Haibane realizes that her dream in which two eyes approach her from the dark comes from her jumping in front of a train (and seeing the train's headlights as the last things in her life). This makes you suddenly realize that it's the same for ALL the Haibane: The protagonist dreams of falling, so she jumped to her death, another girl dreamt of herself sleeping, because she killed herself with sleeping pills, and so on. All the other motifs of the series suddenly make sense, and you realize that the Haibane probably live in the most tender, most caring Purgatory ever. Their sin (taking their own lives) is considered with so much sympathy that even Purgatory doesn't really punish them. I think that's possibly the most beautiful interpretation of afterlife ever.

I don't think this was too difficult to figure out, it's only that Haibane Renmei doesn't reveal it until the very last episode. And it's good that it doesn't as all the impact would be gone if you knew beforehand what it was about.

BTT: another god-awful anime was M.D. Geist. Ultraviolence with crappy animation and without the hint of a story just doesn't cut it.

[lordcloudx]

Taleweaver: "I didn't understand it. thus it sucks."

Ah yes, this is the kind of subtle ad hominem response I was expecting. In any case, I'm sure you can claim "no offense meant" with that one.

Back to the topic, it's not like that at all. To put it simply, the show simply did not click with me. It's not that I DON'T understand it but rather, I don't want to understand it. In other words, it's the show's fault for being God-awful boring and pretentious. Let's leave it at that. You're not going to convince me that it's a masterpiece.

[DaFool]

I only have one anime Blu-ray disk collection. That honor goes to Haibane Renmei.

I think Haibane clicks more with western audiences. I haven't seen anybody in Asia go gaga over it. It has that Germanic sense of existentialism that you feel if you've grown up in Europe and the US as I did. I didn't really "get" the show but I really loved the bleak atmosphere (crows chirping, overcast skies).

On the other hand, I cannot stomach a lot of wordy Asian writing, since I've gotten used to 'show, don't tell'. Basically any anime that has people facing off and talking too much, like a lot of shounen shows and even Index.

[Taleweaver]

Back to the topic, it's not like that at all. To put it simply, the show simply did not click with me. It's not that I DON'T understand it but rather, I don't want to understand it. In other words, it's the show's fault for being God-awful boring and pretentious. Let's leave it at that. You're not going to convince me that it's a masterpiece.

You're entitled to your own opinion, and while I don't share it, I definitely won't try to convince you of mine, especially because mine is basically mainstream. I only like to argue when I'm defending a minority point of view.

Also, as an English literature major, I read tons of "masterpieces" during my studies, much of which I considered god-awful boring as well. Doris Lessing's works, even her sci-fi books, didn't click with me at all even though the main focus in my studies was a feminist approach to literary theory. I absolutely adored works with an unusual approach to storytelling (James Joyce FTW!), but wordy, pretentious dicks like Philipp Roth and Gore Vidal gave me the shivers. Fortunately, studying literature means you may bash the literary giants with gloves off if you can express it in snippy, scientific terms.

[J. Datie]

Since we're talking about Tomino and Gundam... at least Brain Powerd have a happy end. Not like V Gundam, RAAAAAGE (o__o#)

At least V Gundam had a lower death toll than Ideon.

The "kill 'em all" nickname is somethings literal...

[Data Junkie]

BTT: another god-awful anime was M.D. Geist. Ultraviolence with crappy animation and without the hint of a story just doesn't cut it.

Oh, man. I'd managed to forget that one until you brought it up. Now I wish it'd stayed gone.

[Voight-Kampff]

I had to think about it for a while, because I've seen a lot of crap. And then, eventually, the mental block that my mind had put in place finally lifted, and I was reminded of the absolute worst anime ever created: Strike Witches.

It's the most ridiculous story ever. Not because of the details. No, no. Contrary to my opinion here, I can accept a show based around magic-using girls who sprout nekomimi and inumimi while using magic, and who also happen to wear airplane-pants and fight aliens, while the camera constantly pans past their pre-pubescent crotches.

The problem I have with the show is that, based on my adjective-filled description above, I thought it was going to be a comedy. A tongue-in-cheek lambasting of the sort of pandering crap that anime productions houses have been making recently in order to take advantage of socially maladjusted Japanese otaku. But no. Instead, it's the paragon of the type of pandering, taking-advantage-of-socially-maladjusted-Japanese-otaku crap that is quickly obliterating what little goodness remains in anime.

Seriously. I watched one episode and was violently repulsed by this show. It offends my senses on so many levels.

And yet, all they had to do was make it a comedy - a parody, and I probably would have loved it.

[AxemRed]

...wear airplane-pants and fight aliens, while the camera constantly pans past their pre-pubescent crotches.

You must have been watching Sky Girls instead -- AFAIK the girls in Strike Witches are 13-20 or so.

As for my personal worst, I particularly loathe Cyberteam in Akihabara. It's like every bad 90's kids show rolled into one topped off with an incomprehensible plot, several minutes of stock footage per episode and a terrible, terrible dub.

[Voight-Kampff]

You must have been watching Sky Girls instead

Th—there was more than one of those abominations?! <head asplodes>

[DaFool]

You must have been watching Sky Girls instead

Th—there was more than one of those abominations?! <head asplodes>

I preferred Sky Girls to Strike Witches, mainly because it had jet-fighter like attachments compared to clunky WWII propellers. Also I remember that the pandering wasn't as bad (hence you don't read as many articles about Sky Girls loli skinship which Strike Witches seems to have in abundance).

[Samu-kun]

Strike Witches was pretty bad, but fortunately, the second season was more of a remake of the first than a continuation and made it a watchable series overall. The first season was pretty bad though, but not the absolute worst thing ever made. The plot was pretty flimsy, some of the characters were pretty damned annoying, and the entire set up was pretty much impossible to believe. Nazies, Soviets, and Americans working together to fight aliens in their underwear? Whaaaaaa? I watched for the sound effects and music, to tell the truth...

The Sky Girls OVA was a great thing, but the actual series really wasn't that great. JC Staff doesn't know how to make a good mecha anime and made a lot of genre mess ups... The OVA was pretty much hard real mecha, but it it flied between being super mecha and real between the actual series too much...

[Voight-Kampff]

Strike Witches was pretty bad, but fortunately, the second season was more of a remake of the first than a continuation and made it a watchable series overall. The first season was pretty bad though, but not the absolute worst thing ever made. The plot was pretty flimsy, some of the characters were pretty damned annoying, and the entire set up was pretty much impossible to believe. Nazies, Soviets, and Americans working together to fight aliens in their underwear? Whaaaaaa? I watched for the sound effects and music, to tell the truth...

Honestly, it was the pandering that did me in. I can look past a lot of crap. But seriously. They sprouted nekomimi when using magic because...? Oh, but that wasn't enough. No. I'm sure there was some executive committee that had stacks and stacks of data analysis that showed the top ten gimmicks that otaku love in their anime series'. So one young buck probably looked like a genius in front of all the old stogy executives by suggesting they combine all of these disparate gimmicks into one show.

This kept running through my mind as I was watching that horrid first episode of Strike Witches. If you look closely, you'll notice the irony in the background behind Satou.

[Samu-kun]

Wow, I was thinking of the exact same thing when I saw the first episode of Strike Witches too!

[LVUER]

Well, the only reason I watched every series and episodes of both Strike Witches and Sky Girls is because they have skin-showing moe lolies strapped inside over-sized mechas (>_<) My favorites.

[Blue Lemma]

And thus LVUER lives up to his title again!

Dragon Ball, ugh. I can't stand that guy's art! I like anime girls to be pretty! And I like the male characters' junk to stay covered (did I just get a bad episode/movie sampling?)

*puts on riot gear*