Forum - View topicThe Worst Anime of Spring 2026
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tintor2
 Posts: 2713 |
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I actually consider Fist of the North Star a guily pleasure like Mortal Kombat Anihilation. It is awful but it's still incredibly entertaining. The English dub also helps to make it a guilty pleasure with Clayton Alexander often sounding like Hank Hill or Johnny Bravo rather than Kenshiro. You could call it the Deer Friend Nokotan of 2026. Even the violence the series has often feels inconsistent like Kenshiro's sidekick becoming the victim of an uppercut but the protagonist doesn't care at all. The sexist fighter was probably one of the parts that didn't age well considering he is also treated like a good honorable man.
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Dop.L
Posts: 749 Location: London |
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I read the Drops of God manga back in the day (on Kindle Unlimited), and it is completely absurd. Like the part where (and I'm assuming nobody reading this article is watching) one of the main characters decides the only way they can possibly decipher this cryptic clue left by a dead man who had quite clearly done it to mess with them, was to climb Mount Everest!
So the manga was bonkers, and the anime is equally bonkers. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 3022 |
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You know, this list just highlights how strong the Spring season was. The seasonal “worst” list is always filled with dumpster fires, but most of the anime in this list were mainly mediocre or relatively disappointing.
Or maybe people just didn’t watch the actual awful stuff, RAG notwithstanding. |
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IronWish
 Posts: 245 Location: Ukraine |
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Due to lack of decent seasonal fillers I ended up sticking with stuff I'd otherwise drop like three-four episodes in.
Liar game. Damn, so weird, with its dated character designs, low production values and its story aging into what feels like bundle of uninspired cliches, I do feel like I'm watching some long forgotten mid-2000s anime. While Nao is insufferably stupid, I kinda get what the overarching story tries to achieve with her. But whyyyyy, for the love of god, everyone else in nearly as dumb as her? Only person allowed to think more than one step ahead is our co-lead Akiyama, a.k.a. temu Usogui (wait, what do you mean Liar Game predates Usogui by more than a year??!!). For Snowball Earth people were focusing on 3D CG way to much, while its 2D and 3D animation are both on the same level I'd describe as "serviceable". Where things get dire though, is that seemingly zero effort went to make them look organically together. Come on, it's not 2015 anymore, seamless 2D/3D compositing has been a solved problem for quite a while. Story-wise it's an inoffensive nothingburger, I kinda dig its tonal whiplash, but pacing is not great. Ok, I Want to End This Love Game, I don't want to be mean to you cause I adore Itou Miku's voice, but I'll have to. It could've been a semi-decent romcom if watched at x2 speed (metaphorically, not literally). Each and every scene just grasps for air trying to find things to fill its runtime with but miserably fails in the process, it was so tiresome to watch because of this. Entries above were more of "I'm not mad, I'm disappointed" block, now let's scrap the bottom of that barrel. Petals of Reincarnation is the most boring kind of bad: a poorly made adaptation of a poorly crafted story. Its only redeeming quality is that now I've added "anime with shota Hitler" to my Rolodex Of Weird Anime Shit. Ghost Concert: Missing Songs. Now that's a fuuun kind of bad, Overly Ambitious Glorious Trainwreck kind of bad, Even Our Writers Have No Idea What Happens In The Plot kind of bad. Let me check my notes on what was in the show. It starts (and somehow loops back to it in the epilogue) as a topical sci-fi about rogue AI hijacking All The Rights to All The Music, then installing police state where murder drones will shoot you on sight if you as much as hum any song for 5 seconds. Then it pivots to pokemon-catching ghosts of great historical figures. That catching happens through singing duets with these ghosts in elaborate music videos. Then our main heroine, Seria, can get possessed by these spirits to battle with, emmm, Bad Guys in a Spirit Realm to contest Real Estate Rights. Oh, there are also two different spirit realms for some reason. Then it has low tier mediums who are used by Evil Corporation as a cannon fodder for battles in the spirit realm. One such medium is part of main cast, who betrays them, then unbetrays them, then betrays them again, then dies, then she sticks around as a ghost. Oh, remember that AI? It was made by a guy (who's now monk-caretaker of the main cast) and his wife (who's now super dead) to remove All The Malice from All The Music. It is also their daughter. Oh, and that wife gets reincarnated into heroine's body for a few episodes, but then peaces out. There is a village of witches, who are somehow different from mediums, in one of the spirit realms, and to become a witch you have to kiss Baphomet's snake-dick at an orgy. Betrayer girl from above does this. Prolific VA and vocalist Taniyama Kishou was cast into role of mid-season villain Ghost Nero for the sole joke of Nero being Very Bad At Singing. I liked this joke very much. Half the time there is an unspecified timeskip between episodes which changes status quo and introduces new cast members, but show never tells us when it occurs. And of course, it is a mixed media projects, but if you think engaging with non-anime stuff will help you to understand things better, then suck it looser, anime is a completely different timeline, lmao. God, it's so stupid, what even is the process of making something like this, I love it so much and I hate it equally so. I just wish there were more songs, it's an Elements Garden joint after all. And finally, Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring is the saddest kind of bad: one where people making it were sure they are crafting something truly great, real prestige anime drama. Last one of that kind we've got was Lazarus, I think. You can feel that unearned confidence oozing through every bit of it, every note of Very Sad Music playing over every frame of lovingly animated crying faces of our Traumatized Heroines. It would be nice if all that effort went into making something that doesn't suck ass. P.S. Who the heck started calling missile used on Nadeshiko an ICBM and why is everyone keeps repeating that, this makes no sense? I was sure it started as a joke, but more and more it looks like people actually mean this. |
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jmckenna15
Posts: 184 |
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I love the manga personally -- and yes it is bonkers. But at least in between the bonkers moments and the shonen-ification of wine, you also had those lead into some compelling and complex characters that have their motivations for wanting to win this contest, or why they went into wine, or what wine means to them. Throw in a lot of cool facts about the winemaking process and wine's role in social life and fine cuisine, and it's honestly one of my all-time favorite manga. I feel like I learn something every time I read it. Which is why the anime is such an absolute disappointment. It bobsleds past so much of that seemingly for the sake of speeding to each of the Apostle tests. Every character -- including Honma, my favorite -- feels like a wooden knockoff without any of the humor. Kanzaki doesn't have that idiot savant quality to him that he has in the manga, and Tomine just comes across as lifeless. Also it looks terrible. And the fact that they turned the French restaurant arc (my favorite of the early arcs because it broke down WHY they got a poor review from Tomine, went through how to fix it using wine knowledge and how it pairs with food, and how the dead mom still resonated with the family) into a half episode hackjob was enough for me to sadly drop it. First time i ever rage quit at an anime -- and i still watch Rent a Girlfriend! (and to Lucas' last point about wine as a vehicle for fraud -- that actually comes up in the middle of the manga on a trip to France. Genuinely intense arc, well worth a read). |
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#97710-8
Posts: 8 |
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I do wish someone from ANN would take another look at Liar Game once the season is finished. Perhaps a full review for the two cours. I think most of Liar Game reviews in ANN are a bit unfair. Sure, the critique on the animation quality is very understandable. But the reason why the manga has a cult following is the game designs, which is one of the best of the genre. The reviewers rarely mention about this aspect in the article. Admittedly, the first game is predictable. But the Minority Rule, Downsizing Game, and the current Contraband Game are all brilliant. Though reading the review, it did seem like the reviewer probably would not enjoy these type of series, where it is all about strategies and lots of rules. I do agree that the anime could put a little bit more flair to make it more entertaining, but nonetheless, the strategies and mind games are still top tier. This show even inspired the korean reality game show called Devil's Plan in netflix, so I don't agree with some of the comments that mention that the writing is lazy, since it couldn't be more opposite from the truth. To design the games, the authors have to calculate lots of maths and make sure all the strategies make sense. The current Contraband arc is a prime example of this. It is not easy to come up with this type of game.
A few more points regarding the characters. It is obvious that when writing the review, the reviewer probably only watched the first couple of episodes, since Nao did get a crucial character development in the latest arc in the anime. Sure, she was still naive, but she would continue to improve in this series. After all, even in shonen battle action anime, it is common to have weak mc who grow later on. So I don't get why people are very harsh on Nao. Calling her simply 'stupid' is also false, since she did very fast mental calculations throughout the series, better than the average person. She is only lacking in life experience and social skills. Also, Nao is essential to the theme of the story, which the latest arc has shown. Regarding Fukunaga, even though he might be portrayed negatively at first, he did eventually become one of the fan favorite character in the series. "Only person allowed to think more than one step ahead is our co-lead Akiyama, a.k.a. temu Usogui" is also false, there are a couple characters who could rival Akiyama in the series. TLDR, I hope there is a complete review once the series is over, probably with reviewer who have interest in game designs and rules. |
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Glordit
 Posts: 1197 |
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Aside from RAG S5, which is apparently getting a 6th season and Hokuto no Ken reboot, every other show on the list isn't as bad they made them out to be. Snowball Earth CGI isn't even that bad compared to what we have gotten in recent years.
I personally found these shows to be subjectively worse: Mata Korosarete Shimatta no desu ne, Tantei-sama Yowa Yowa Sensei Ghost Concert: missing Songs AKA Ghost Writing: Missing Context I almost put Kamiina Botan, Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana on the list but it's not bad per se, I just found it incredibly boring. |
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A Non
Posts: 41 |
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Someone PLEASE explain to me how people keep thinking Reincarnated as a Slime is one of the worst? "It's bad because people sit around a table and have meetings"
Really?? IT'S A POLITICAL SERIES. THAT'S WHAT POLITICS IS" If there is a legitimate critique then great, but you can't say a political series is bad for having politics in it. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 5079 |
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I agree that the season did not have that many horrible anime, some very flawed ones but not much garbage to dig through. That said, Agents of the Four Seasons did manage to bum me out. I have no issue with some tragedy but pushing the same flashback in my face several times while screaming about how I should feel sad does not do it for me. The setting is interesting but every time I get somewhat invested it is time to repeat or introduce more tragedy.
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1516 Location: Nova Scotia, Canada |
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Damn, best burn in the entire article 
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pi8you
 Posts: 284 Location: Minneapolis |
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Liar Game was easily the worst show that I stuck through, yeah there's some clever game gimmicks and all, but the direction is entirely sauceless, surprised pikachu faces everywhere and not one that hits with any impact. I'll see the current game out but it'd have to offer a really outstanding cliffhanger to keep me around for another cour.
The Most Heretical Last Boss was fine for its first season, but boy did I lose whatever enjoyment I had gotten out of it this time around. About the only entertaining aspect was the random appearances of advanced magitech like the motorcycle(!)-drawn carriages. Ghost Concert was objectively terrible, but in a way that looped just enough back to be enjoyable trash. In the not really worst category: Eren the Southpaw provided some interesting drama, but you can't give me a title character parkouring around the best OP of the season spraying graffiti and then mostly leave her to be a spectre haunting everyone while you spend most of your runtime following a different guy's miserable life in the ad industry. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ Wistora was already mostly spectacle over substance in its first season, and the spectacle really suffered outside of a couple episodes this time around, and adding a new round of sword spite isn't helping. |
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FanGamer24
Posts: 312 |
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I believe the problem has more to do with the fact that nothing ever poses a real threat to Rimuru and Tempest. It’s hard to get excited when every conflict features our main characters easily conquering every potential threat they face. |
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ATastySub
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 845 |
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It’s a power fantasy series. None of the politicking matters because we all know how it’s going to go every time. It’s backpatting wheel spinning to further show how impressive and powerful Rimiru is, not a consideration of exploring political action. Go watch something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Spice and Wolf, or hell, even the tiddyfest of Maoyu to see different levels of at least trying to present politics and economics as something that matter. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 489 |
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Absolutely. It's also just extremely unsophisticated in it's politics outside the lack of impact; this season is the first time we've had a suggestion of a factional/ideological motivation beyond "because I think my sides big boss is stronger and cooler". I enjoy Slime well enough for what it is, but serious politics? Even amongst power fantasy shows there's far better efforts (say, Ascendance or Log Horizon), never mind political shows. |
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igiari21
Posts: 65 |
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I want to preface this by saying I like the Drops of God manga, and you don’t have to vibe with either it or its anime adaptation. I also think the adaptation looks pretty bad and is way too compressed relative to the source material. But I think this writeup is very weak and barely discusses the actual merits, or lack thereof, of the title. Instead, it leans heavily on unfamiliarity with the subject matter while presenting that unfamiliarity as expertise.
Being born in Wisconsin and having familiarity with beer production does not give you any significant expertise on wine production and tasting. They are both alcohol, but they have vastly different cultures and histories, largely due to where they were possible to make and their costs. They are not one-to-one transferable. It’s a stereotype that wine is hoity-toity, wine tasting is esoteric, and truly good wine is expensive. I’m not saying any of these are true, but these ideas have persisted for decades and continue to persist. So yeah, characters will think wine is something more special than it may be. Moreover, wine and art have been strongly correlated for millennia. It’s not odd for someone who’s really, really, REALLY well versed in and even obsessed with wine to observe a painting, listen to music, or take in nature and associate it with wine. You are not tasting the painting, song, or grass; it’s not that absurd a reaction in real life. This is especially true considering how Shizuku, Tomine, and Yutaka have all been greatly educated in technique, wine culture, food pairings, and history. Why wouldn't they make these associations? Real world critics do too. https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/the-aesthetics-of-wine And this isn’t real life! This is a manga that’s always been a bit over the top. Tomine practically orgasms when he tastes wine. He thinks it’s a good idea to die of thirst in the desert or climb Mount Everest to find the right wine that’s an Apostle. Granted, if you think that’s silly and a demerit, I can’t stop you, but it’s not that far-fetched for characters to place extra importance on simple techniques like decanting in such a world. I think the lack of curiosity about why it’s popular is a bit startling when you write on the leading English anime website. You don’t even need to look far; you can just go to its Wikipedia page, which is step zero in basic research. The manga really covered many different wines and vintages from several different countries and regions, showcasing many different varietals and price points. The series clearly respects wine, even if the anime makes the wine look like sludge. It doesn’t take a lot of thought to understand why a manga that places a lot of importance on a cultural staple of French cuisine would be popular in the country that has manga consumption second only to Japan itself. With a manga of such popularity, it’s not that bizarre for Crunchyroll to think about giving it a dub. Of course, I personally feel any non-shonen, non-isekai Crunchyroll simuldub is just a random choice by an exec, but that’s a different conversation. This is the least important part, but worse than CGI Fist of the North Star? Really? |
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