I put the challenge out to you Anime Vice maniacs to give me some topics and you did not disappoint . How could I have expect anything less? I’m going to start with that early bird AjayRaz who responded the fastest.
AjayRaz: What's the worst anime that you have ever seen and in what creative way would you dispose everything related to it?
I’ll qualify this by saying my viewing sample probably isn’t adequately wide enough to name a “worst” choice that’s really that awful in the scheme of things. I've never sought anything out without recommendations, so I haven’t plumbed the depths, so to speak. I’m also not a hater and I don’t like to dwell. I’d rather move on to something I do like than gripe about something I don't. That being said, the first anime that pops into mind as being notably bad is RECORD OF LODOSS WAR. It was the first long form series I tried to watch after VISION OF ESCAFLOWNE (this was back in the days of VHS) and I gave up after only a few episodes.
The big descriptor I got for the show before watching it was that its world strictly adhered to rules of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, which sounded cool at first until I realized what that really meant. That is, it combined the worst tropes of bad fantasy and bad science fiction. To explain that, I find a lot of “hard science fiction” frustrating because it often feels like a slightly-dramatized physics or math problem, and this felt similarly… confined, except the rules that confined it were actually meaningless. The bad fantasy elements lay in the settings, concepts and characters being cobbled from D&D, which, in turn was cobbled from Tolkien - - a homage to a homage, without consideration to the real source. More the point, the thing was just boring, It played like a lot of online fanfiction, having the double whammy of sluggish pacing and stilted cliches while still being bound by the confines of whatever it was drawing from. It didn't feel free or alive.
But I’m not a hater, like I said. I don’t wish any ill will on LODOSS WAR, its fans or anything related to it. If I were to think some creative way to rag on it, I’d devise some D&D-style stat system to tally my problems with it. Like I'd put together a scorecard saying it had -5 pacing and -10 originality, and so on.
Anyway, watch out for the next column where I'll flip this coin and discuss the best anime I've ever seen.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here.
The fact that the series sort-of followed the D&D rules is partially what hooked me in - that and the rather nice fight with a Dragon at the start of the series.
The other things that hooked me, by the way, were the film Demon City Shinjuku, which has an even weaker plot than Lodoss did, and Akira, both of which I caught bits and pieces of on The Sci-Fi Channel's "Saturday Morning Japanimation*" slot - which they ran until they got Mystery Science Theater 3000, which took its place.
*Yeah, I remember when Anime was called "Japanimation" here in the states. Git Offa Mah Lawn!
However I suppose if the worst you've seen was the original Lodoss you should consider yourself blessed, as there've been many terrible series come out over the years, you just haven't seen them.. yet.
I guess that's our new project for our Almost Otaku, find the bottom of the barrel. No more of this reviewing series that are actually good and worth commenting on. We will break you yet. :)
The problem is where to start. You don't want to toss him in with, say, the Manga Video Trilogy Of Suck right away, as it could break him.
Many of the worst animes, for me, have to of been from the hentai genre. Sometimes, the quality in the animation is sub-par, the anatomy is unrealistic, or themes in the anime just isn't to my liking.
There was the hentai anime Foxy Nudes. While I can say that much of the animation was well done. I'm still trying to get much of the story wiped from my mind. That got seriously messed up.
I don't have anything really against the sex themed manga and anime in general. Hell, I wrote a review on Anime Vice for a hentai manga. I just don't see why so many hentai animes have to involve rape. What is arousing about a woman being attacked, forced and hurt?
What I liked about the hentai manga I wrote a review for. It was about consensual sex acts. It was more like a romantic comedy story that had graphic sex scenes in it.
I've never seen Lodos War. I couldn't really speak to the quality.
I do look forward to your next article discussing your favorite anime, Tom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_of_Lodoss_War
heh agreed...compare it to real life porn and you will see it as not so bad. Still...if we are going to include hentai in the worst shows ever that we get him to watch (which I think would be an interesting thing for us to have him do...) then we have to include night shift nurses...Chris's reaction to a certain scene in one of those is legendarly hillarious...(and quite accurate as it freaked even me out and well I own princess 69)
Now, if you will look to your left. You will be just in time to see the point passing you both by.
My comment was about the topic at hand, "The Worst Anime I've Seen". I merely was explaining what I felt was the worst anime I had ever seen. They do still count as anime. Those kind of animes were the worst for me. It had absolutely nothing to do with my expectations of them.
I was just stating my opinion on the genre, and I elaborated on what made them the worst for me.
I can judge it on any criteria I wish. Seeing how I'm just stating an opinion on them. Trying to tell me that my opinion is wrong or flawed in some manner is just silly.
Speaking of Kanako, she's the real main character of the show. She's a lesbian(or at least one would be led to believe she is) whose immense fear of men has led her to develop an allergy towards them. Her whole shtick in the show is to have comical nose bleeds whenever she misunderstands girls' approaches toward her or fantasizes about girls. It gets old fast with an alarming rate of at least 5 nosebleeds per episode.
There's also Mariya's maid. She's like Mariya, except a girl. She, along with Mariya, try to make Kanako's life a living hell. She adds another layer of obnoxiousness and repulsiveness to the show.
And then there's the dorm leader. She's a little cat girl who makes references to the virtual boy and dreamcast. You know, to target that demographic.
I just found the show all around awful and boring. The "humor" is weak, with Kanako's nosebleeds constantly asking me if they're funny yet, and oftentimes tasteless thanks to future-wife-beater Mariya's shenanigans and his reluctant-but-more-than-willing accomplice maid. Plenty of anime shows involve the hilarious punishing of overly perverted characters, but with Maria Holic I just kept wondering when I was supposed to stop gritting my teeth and start laughing.
nuff said.
I walked out on Green Green beacuse the anime wasn't that amusing to me. There was even a character that I really thought deserved to be on the "worst characters list", but I won't make that happen because I want to forget her name as much as the whole series and everyone elese on said list. As for Lodoss, I wasn't interested in it.
Why are you setting the parameters for the question? I already gave my answer.