22 Anime That Totally Wasted Their Tremendous Potential

Like when you tell your parents you are going to the academy of clowning arts instead of accepting your full ride to MIT, there are some anime series out there that waste their potential just like people do. Sometimes it can be blamed on the writers, or the time constraints, or the creative decisions, or the directing, or the production committee hoarding funds. Sometimes it is the perfect storm of everyone’s fault. However, every time you run into a series the piques your interest with its plot, it is just heart-breaking when it doesn’t live up in the end.

No anime fan should have to to sit there and think on how they could have done a particular anime so much better because they were left so unsatisfied.

Anime That Totally Wasted Their Tremendous Potential

The Lost Village

The ending of The Lost Village may or may not have (but definitely did) spark the idea for this list. They built a cool concept, one that was able to tempt the viewer into watching in hopes of either a survival-based, possibly village-building anime or a real gorefest. Even when neither of those things happened, you stayed invested to learn about the horrible pasts of all the semi-unique characters. Then you only get half of the back stories, the plot barely wraps up, and the show ends when half the characters leave and half of them stay in the village. It even introduces what you expect is the villain in one of the last episodes, but never goes any further into her motives than “daddy issues”.

Essentially, its twelve-episode run was like climbing the first hill of a rollercoaster, then being told the ride is over before cresting. It is a show that definitely feels like it should have been twice as long, but even then, leaves no hope for a second season. For an anime about how people are supposed to deal with their issues, a lot of people in it sure didn’t.

Sword Art Online

Hating on Sword Art Online is not exactly a hot take among anime fans. The show had a lot of promise. People were intrigued by the first half of the first season, some even stayed when it pivoted in the second half. If you were to catch up with the rest of it today, you would not even recognize it from how it started. It has gotten so “light novel insane” with its plot, and so, so harem-y.

There’s probably a reason why the Progressive movies are so beloved, and that reason is probably because they take place during the point in time when SAO was actually interesting. Or maybe there are just a lot of Asuna simps out there, that’s possible too.

Gantz

Like with many anime series, the point Gantz went wrong was when it turned its face from the sun and stopped following the manga. You’ll know when that happens when the world’s most bland serial killers show up. The most frustrating thing about Gantz is that it stops before the manga’s best arc and instead explores uninspired filler. That is disappointment incarnate, but since they we’re getting another season, they did what they could.

Eden of the East

Eden of the East had the potential to become a real masterpiece. It had interesting and fun characters, a unique premise with just the right amount of mystery to keep things intriguing, and some truly beautiful animation. Then you know what happened? It threw all of that away. By the end, you have barely any idea what is going on and nothing really gets wrapped up. Think the two movies will help clear things up? Nope!

Kokoro Connect

Kokoro Connect is one of those shows that brings something completely new to the genre. However, it doesn’t devolve completely into the perverted situations you would expect from a body-switching concept, but instead used it to fuel the drama and romance. Both of which start off subtle and great. However, when the reason for the body switching comes into play, it never really gets explained. Instead, the series just kind of gets lost in the melodrama that it created before ending.

Deadman Wonderland

Deadman Wonderland got caught in the same trap that many shounen anime series often do. It caught up to its source material and was faced with two choices: Filler or end it. It ended up picking both. End it with filler. Unfortunately, Deadman Wonderland ended the anime in such a way that it left no room open for a second season now that the manga has ended. You either have to like it as it is, and many do, or hope for a Fullmetal Alchemist-style remake.

High School of the Dead

The horror genre of movies may be overcrowded with zombies, but that is certainly not the case in anime. So when there can a series about the zombie apocalypse, it was reason to be a little hyped. Unfortunately, they forgot to make zombies a major threat after the first half and instead focused on showing as much boob and butt as they could. Such a waste. If only they could combine the interesting zombies in High School of the Dead with the fear and survival themes of School Live.

Perhaps we could breed them…

Fractale

Fractale seemed deeply confused about the plot points that it wanted to explore, ultimately settling on the same old moe harem shenanigans no one wanted to see. The Fractale system is essentially people never having to have actual human interaction and just creating people they want to interact with. The whole point of the anime should have been to explore what it was like when characters met real live humans, but it quickly abandons that. I think fans also would have settled for exploring a characters’ psyche through their use of the system, but any interesting character gets left in the dust quickly.

Pupa

On paper, Pupa sounds like it would make an amazing horror anime. It is about a brother and sister abandoned and infected with something that turns one into a ravenous cannibal and the other gets super regenerative powers. So, with that, you get this series about a brother who lets his sister eat him in order to protect her and protect the world from her.

The major issue with it is that it is a short form series, so the episodes are only five minutes long. That isn’t enough time for them to set up the crucial ambiance for a horror story, so mostly it is just sexual moaning and uncomfortable squelching noises with a plot that goes nowhere.

Glasslip

You know how most romance anime series start with boy meeting girl and then someone introduces the other to their friends? That’s how Glasslip starts too. It just doesn’t move after that. It tries to move and makes an effort towards emotion or drama, and then completely undoes all of it after each episode. It is so bad that in the first season, effectively nothing is different at the end. Even at the end of Kimi Ni Todoke they got to do hand holdies, man. That was at least a little progress.

Dammit, Glasslip, even if you had been a typical school setting romance anime full of cliches I could have enjoyed you.

Gangsta

Gangsta does a lot of things right. It had interesting and beautiful characters. Good animation. Even a great OP to hook you. Unfortunately, when it comes to plot, things get a little muddied up. This can actually be attributed to a lot of things, like a waning budget and a source material that hasn’t moved forward in awhile due to the author’s health. Unfortunately, it makes for an anime that starts strong, then ends up milling about until it ends unspectacularly.

Gate

While it was weirdly satisfying to watch medieval armor just get shredded by modern weaponry, Gate ultimately wasted its interesting concept away with pro-military propaganda that makes everyone else seem evil, incompetent, or irrelevant. Except for the members of the harem, of course. They were useful. Unfortunately, it left the most interesting character of the harem (Leilei) undeveloped and her magic underutilized.

The military chest beating, I can look past that. However, what really squanders Gate is that it sets up a story that begs to be continued, and it hasn’t.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash

The isekai genre was already becoming a crowded one when this early progenitor premiered. However, instead of just being another Sword Art Online clone, Grimgar actually did some unique things, like dealing with death and actually having characters start weak and get stronger. For that, it turned out pretty well, but that was about the only interesting thing it did.

It introduced Class Guilds, and it barely did anything with them. It introduced all these party members, and then only developed the main character. It introduced this wide world, and then only showed three places. While the potential for a second season is there, and the light novels may explain some things. If the first season ends up being a standalone, Grimgar ends up being pretty bland.

Wonder Egg Priority

There are a lot of anime series on here which sting to include because I really liked them, but this one is by far the most painful. I was all into Wonder Egg Priority in the beginning. It was unique, interesting, and it had cute characters that felt different than the usual cute moe blobs.

Unfortunately, even I began to recognize the slippery downward slope the last few episodes leap on. I remained hopeful that all the wild newly introduced information in the last few episodes would be cleared up in the forthcoming hour-long special, but like many, I continued to be disappointed after that as well. It will forever remain one of those series that could have benefited from a second cour.

Tokyo Ghoul

Oh, Tokyo Ghoul. You made so many fans with that first season, and then proceeded to hurt them more with every season to follow it. The part where Tokyo Ghoul went wrong is deviating from its source material, for sure. The new stuff they added distinctly detracts from the series, and I say that as a person who only read the source material after the last season of the anime.

Masamune-kun’s Revenge

It’s right there in the title. The plot of the show. He wants revenge against a girl who gave him a petty insult when he was a child. He wants to do this by making her fall in love with him and then dumping her hard. You know what didn’t happen? Anything. He didn’t get his revenge, but nor did he decide not to get his revenge either. Instead you watched side plots go nowhere and a final arc that developed nothing.

Darling in the Franxx

Darling in the Franxx started strong, and it didn’t hurt that we had been in a bit of a mecha drought before it. However, about half way through the series, it seems to forget what it was building the story towards. It gets lost in the weeds for awhile, and comes out in a place that is completely unexpected. Being unexpected isn’t necessarily a flaw, but it is when you forget to built much of anything towards it.

Persona 5: The Animation

To be fair, if you go into any anime based off a video game with any high hopes, you’re going to be disappointed. However, Persona 5 had two things that made people hopeful. The game was already anime as hell and the Persona 4 anime was actually really good! However, Persona 5 failed to capture any of the same magic. It busted on through the palaces and even gave confidant stories only a passing glance. In fact, it chose to spend its time on the most unimpactful moments in the game, and after awhile, it just started to drag on.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Perhaps the biggest problem so many people have with Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is that this is the anime series that the then newly-founded Studio Wit followed up their first season of Attack on Titan with. It is much like Attack on Titan in plot, had a big ol’ fat budget, and looked absolutely fantastic. However, its plot suffered in the end with the introduction of the main antagonist whose only trait was not being as stupid as his enemies. He even had a 360 betrayal of his ideals in the end that saved the main character purely because it was necessary to have any sort of story continuation.

Charlotte

Charlotte was actually a great anime with an interesting story and cute characters. However, it has one fatal flaw that has ruined it for many – pacing. Charlotte, if you never noticed, has a big problem with how it paces its story. So much so, it can be used to teach people what pacing in anime actually means and why it is important.

It is very much as if it remembered it had so much more to tell, but was rapidly running out of episodes. It caused the last arc to be absolutely zipped through, lessening what should have been a more impactful event. It…Uh, also wedged a romance in there that was not necessarily out of nowhere, but nowhere-adjacent because of its pacing problems.

Aldnoah.Zero

It seems like the creators of Aldnoah wanted two things from the audience. To say their show was pretty, and they did that, and to say they told a cool invasion story, which they screwed up. They told the story of both sides of this war, so you think they would at least cover the basics, like just the motivations of the nations, but nope! They skipped World Building 101 and put all their effort into Main Character Gets a Robot for No Reason and Looks Cool 201. However, Aldnoah’s biggest flaw is creating devastating moments, then completely undoing them.

Guilty Crown

Throughout the series, Guilty Crown is saved by its great animation and lovely OST. Its story, well, that is another matter. You see, it started off really good, but like Sword Art Online, about half way through someone somewhere gave up and let things slip.

Many people fault Guilty Crown for using tired cliches, but what isn’t a cliche these days? It ultimately wastes the unique aspects that it had with a “paint-by-numbers” plot and a stupid lack of character development. Essentially, only the main character was developed, and only when Plot-sama demanded it. Everyone else was… Well, screw everyone else, I guess.

Disagree with something on this list? Got your very own series like The Lost Village that makes you rant about its waste potential for a full-on 20 minutes? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.