Anime, like any other medium, has major highs and egregious lows. While there are several anime that are beloved, there are just as many that have their quality disputed. Likewise, some of the worst anime ever made are so bad that no one questions how terrible they are.

The worst anime ever made are infamous and offer next to no redeeming qualities, especially if the visuals or the plot are both horrendous. Some are so terrible that fans would rather forget that they even exist. Unfortunately, their infamy precedes, keeping these dumpster fires well-known in the annals of awful anime.

10

Garzey’s Wing Ruined the Legacy of an Isekai Mecha Classic

Streaming on YouTube

Aura Battler Dunbine was a classic 1980s anime that combined fantasy isekai anime with mecha, and it was one of the first examples of such a combination. This made it a fairly beloved gem in the industry, especially compared to modern isekai anime. It helped that it was created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was also the mind behind Mobile Suit Gundam. Sadly, the follow-up wasn’t nearly as well-received and is still largely reviled.

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Garzey’s Wing was despised by many when it came out and is still seen as one of the worst anime ever made. The issues stemmed mainly from the nonsensical plot and characterizations, with the OVA having at least three seasons’ worth of material. The only times it escapes this awful nature is when it’s just dull, though the English dub makes the story even worse.

Garzey’s Wing

Release Date

September 21, 1996

9

Berserk’s 2016 CGI Anime Adaptation Is Beyond Redemption

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Berserk is one of the most iconic manga of all time, with its gritty story brought to life by breathtaking artwork by manga creator Kentaro Miura. Sadly, it’s yet to receive a complete adaptation of most of the story. Likewise, the most recent take on the source material was easily the worst adaptation, and this was for several reasons that ended up making it an emphasis anime.

Berserk 2016 had horrendous animation that was notoriously wounding on the eyes, with these cancerous visuals being the moldy cherry on top of the garbage sundae. Thus, the gritty story was impossible to take seriously, and it detracted quite a bit from the experience. Worst of all, the story of Berserk 2016 was rushed through even beyond this aesthetic, making for a terrible adaptation.

8

Everything About Gibiate Is Laughably Bad

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Gibiate was a rather infamous anime from 2020, with the story itself being a litany of wasted concepts. It featured a rather timely premise involving a global pandemic, with this turning people into monsters depending on their nationality. Fending off these creatures was a group of warriors pulled into the present from different time periods, and this amalgamation of half-hearted ideas was only part of the problem.

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Gibiate had horrendous animation and CGI to complement its meandering story, the latter of which was far too ambitious for such an ultimately dumb anime. The only character development was for characters who quickly ended up being killed off, and the entire affair felt like a stupid rendition of an over-the-top action movie. At other times, it was just boring, and the result was a miasma of badness.

Gibiate

Release Date

July 15, 2020

7

Hand Shakers Cemented a Studio’s Deservedly Bad Reputation

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Hand Shakers was one of the anime “beautifully” brought to life by GoHands, a studio that’s now synonymous with more garbage than a local landfill. The story involves a plot that takes too long to make sense, and it isn’t worth the wait, either. Likewise, the name is derived from the characters using their powers by holding hands, but these were only secondary problems.

Hand Shakers had all the nauseating animation and camera angles that anime fans now associate with GoHands, where watching its fight scenes is an exercise in taxing one’s gag reflex. The action tries to be epic and unique, but in the end, it’s confusing at best and downright sickening at worst. It really cemented GoHands being known for this kind of animation. Even a generic slice-of-life anime like The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses also has this trademark element.

Hand Shakers

Release Date

2017 – 2016

Network

Tokyo MX

Directors

Katsumasa Yokomine

Writers

Tamazo Yanagi

Cast

• 

  Jun Fukuyama

  Break (voice)

• 

  Saori Hayami

  Shigure (voice)

• 

  Mikako Komatsu

  Kodama (voice)

• 

  Sumire Morohoshi

  Koyori (voice)

6

Ex-Arm Is One of the Biggest Jokes In Modern Anime

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Based on a manga from a decade beforehand that had otherwise been forgotten, Ex-Arm was notorious for how much of a blunder it became. The general story is an uninteresting entry in the cyberpunk anime genre, making it essentially a bad, trite rendition of concepts seen in classics such as Ghost in the Shell. Adding insult to injury were the visuals, which took a mediocre at best anime and turned it into one of the worst ever made.

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Many anime fans compared the animation for Ex-Arm to a low-budget video game from the early Nintendo Gamecube era, and that may have been harsh on Gamecube titles. Looking more like an amateur student project than a professional anime, the lighting, camera angles and slow movement made eyesore into something even more blindingly bad. It’s now mostly forgotten itself, but those who haven’t seen it should refrain from making new memories by watching it.

Ex-Arm

Release Date

2021 – 2020

Network

Tokyo MX

Writers

Tommy Morton

Cast

• 

  Soma Saito

  Akira Natsume (voice)

• 

  Mikako Komatsu

  Minami Uezono (voice)

• 
• 

  Daisuke Namikawa

  Soushi Shiga (voice)

5

King’s Game is One of the Worst Anime Adaptations in the Medium’s History

Streaming on Crunchyroll

King’s Game was rather unique among anime adaptations, as it didn’t adapt a manga or a light novel. Instead, it brought the story of Osama Game to life, with this source material being a cell phone novel. Unfortunately, these types of novels are usually written by the most amateurish amateurs, and it shows just how bad the anime version of the story is.

King’s Game has horrendous writing that goes perfectly with its cheap animation, the latter of which is explained because it was made by a hentai studio. Dialogue was an issue, and for trying to be such a “smart” death game anime, it was especially dumb. The characters were uninteresting at worst or annoying at worst, namely the self-righteous protagonist. It also crammed too much into one season, making what was already a bad story even worse.

King’s Game

Release Date

October 5, 2017

Network

AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11

• 

  Mamoru Miyano

  Nobuaki Kanazawa (voice)

• 

  Mao Ichimichi

  Chiemi Honda (voice)

• 

  Sasaki Yusuke

  Akamatsu Kenta

• 

4

Green Green Was an Infamous Not-Hentai

Not Currently Streaming

A rather generic anime from 2002, Green Green was actually based on an adult video game. Only the non-canon 13th episode hinted at this, with this episode not even included in the English release. Of course, this aspect of its storytelling perfectly explains why it’s so bad and boring for the length of its 12–13 episodes.

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Green Green was essentially just an anime that included explicit nudity, so the quality of its actual storytelling and characterizations makes sense. All viewers are left with is a boring harem anime, with that genre having already run itself into the ground by then. Thus, there was nothing to entice people, especially since the characters were so annoying and lifeless.

3

My Sister, My Writer Makes Forbidden Love Even More Forbidden

Streaming on Crunchyroll

My Sister, My Writer would be bad enough without its “taboo” subject, but it adds extra weight to how bad the anime is. Based on a light novel, it features a young woman who credits her brother as the author of her award-winning new book. Unfortunately for him, the growing popularity of the material is matched only by her growing feelings for her own kin.

My Sister, My Writer outright uses incest as a plot point for the main characters, which is only one example of its amateurish storytelling. It’s mostly a “bait” anime full of ecchi, with the credits having the staff listed as pseudonyms. There’s also the fact that it looked as if it was animated over the course of two weeks, so the “brotherly love” looked just as bad as it sounded.

2

Abunai Sisters Is Visual Vomit In the Worst Kind of Way

Not Currently Streaming

Released in 2009, Abunai Sisters: Koko and Mika is an anime so visually bad that it’s almost unbelievable. Based around two Japanese tabloid celebrities, the 10-episode anime was made by Production I.G., a studio which has actually made several legit anime, like recent hit Kaiju No. 8. That talent and quality wasn’t on display with this CGI monstrosity, however, explaining why its TV run was canceled after only two episodes.

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Abunai Sisters was an absolute mess that had to have been made as a joke, and it seemed to exist only to make fun of the celebrities’ busty figures. The story was supposed to feature them as spies, but there really wasn’t much of a narrative. Instead, it’s just a sickening display of CGI that would make even amateurs blush from secondhand embarrassment, and Production I.G. should be ashamed to have made it.

Abunai Sisters: Koko & Mika

Release Date

January 15, 2009

Cast

• 
• 

1

Pupa Is the Biggest Disaster-piece of a Letdown

Not Currently Streaming

Written from 2011 to 2013 by Sayaka Mogi, the manga Pupa was a rather well-received body horror story. The manga was rather dark, as it dealt with two veritable orphans who escaped abuse, only to become victims of a mutating virus. This horrifying tragedy wasn’t done justice in the anime, however, which ran through the material with especially poor production values.

Pupa was both one of the most hyped and the most disappointing anime adaptations, with the short length of the episodes not being enough to tell the story. It tried to use 30 minutes to tell the story, doing so with animation that was shabby. Adding to its terribly-told story was more incest and even cannibalism, making it seem dark for the sake of it.

Pupa

Release Date

2014 – 2013

Network

Sun TV

• 

  Nobunaga Shimazaki

  Utsutsu Hasegawa (voice)

• 

  Ibuki Kido

  Yume Hasegawa (voice)

• 

  Kōji Yusa

  Utsutsu and Yume’s Father (voice)

• 

  Kyoko Narumi

  Maria (voice)