There is no such thing as dropping an anime forever. When I use the term ‘dropped’ that does not mean that’s the last I’ll see of that anime in my life. Dropping a show means that I don’t have the enthusiasm to watch this show currently and at a later date I’ll return to that anime. This later date may be the time when I’m trapped in my house my extreme snowfall with nothing other than a portable dvd player and a ‘Lucky Star’ boxset, but I will one day return and give the anime another shot. With this in mind, combined with the fact that I’m only 4 series away from ‘dropping’ 100 anime, according to my MAL account, I’ve decided that I’m going to take a look back at all those series I’ve dropped, recognise why I dropped them and evaluate when I should give them another go.
K-ON!
Dropped After: 7 episodes
Why I dropped it: K-ON neither deserved the level of praise nor the level of criticism it deserved. It was a bunch of girls doing cute shit and spending far more time eating cake than playing music. In fact, it actually had a good few jokes in its repertoire. My problem with the series was two-fold. First was the cake-eating. There is nothing, and I repeat, nothing more boring than a bunch of girls sitting round being insufferably nice to each other over food-stuffs (Lucky Star is coming up soon…). Those scenes tending to happen bi-episodically which resulted in a one episode good, next episode bad syndrome. But what really killed it was the repetition. The usual 4-koma problem.
Rebirth Chances: Below average. I dropped just before Azu-nyan came into the story and from what I’ve heard it’s basically the first half of the series repeated all over again. Azu-nyan is a loli who puts on cat ears and is cute. This is not relevant to my interests. Mind you, the show wasn’t exactly terrible or anything before I dropped it. I more lost interest than consciously dropped it, but there’s just no real incentive to pick it up again.
Kamen no Maid Guy
Dropped After: 6 episodes
Why I dropped it: KoGARarshi was a buff man with 37 senses, one of which was to see through women’s clothing, who dressed as a maid. I don’t quite remember why he had to dress as a maid nor the reason the girl had a maid in the first place. In fact I’m having a lot of trouble remembering anything about this show. There was terrible animation, I remember that. But beyond that my mind has just gone blank.
Rebirth Chances: Average. Anyone want to tell me what I’m missing out on?
Kemeko DX
Dropped After: 5 episodes
Why I dropped it: It’s embarrassing to look back at this, but after the first episode of Kemeko I genuinely thought that I had found the spiritual successor to Hare+Guu. It had the same director and everything! 4 episodes later and I had dropped that blasted thing. Putting my finger on what went wrong is difficult though. I guess it’s because it became the exact thing it was parodying. It started off as a parody of crappy fanservice harems (remember I had seen a LOT of these with my bloody search for good seinen romance) but then turned right into one of them. Parodies only seem to work if you like the genre they’re based off.
Rebirth Chances: Low. The reviews of it are miserable and I’m pretty sure the plot goes nowhere and delves even deeper into crappy fanservice harem territory, totally forgetting to parody the very thing it started off parodying. Gah, why did I give this an A for it’s first episode. That was probably even worse than the A given to the first episode of 07 Ghost and comparing it to Code Geass.
Kemonozume
Dropped After: 5 episodes
Why I dropped it: I love Kaiba. It’s ranked 14th in my top 30 anime. So yeah, I was pretty darn excited about finally getting around to Kemenozume. But no, it wasn’t to be. Kemenozume was the perfect example of a pretentious anime. Artwork that tries to be unconventional but just looks ugly and stupid. A plot that tries to be ‘LOL MATURE AND DEEP’ but looks more and more like a mess with every episode. So Yuasa went on to make Kaiba? Someone must have hit the guy on the head and told him to stop being such a pretentious faggot. It didn’t entirely work. There’s still a level of pretentiousness in Kaiba but the rest of the show eclipses that problem.
Rebirth Chances: Average. I still have those episodes sitting downloaded, burnt onto CD’s, such was my conviction that I would love this show. Plus I mean come on, this is Yuasa. I’ll have to give Mind Game a shot and his upcoming Youjohan anime as well before I class Kaiba as a one-hit wonder by the guy. If they are good, maybe I’ll return to Kemonozume. But only then.
Kobato
Dropped After: 4 episodes
Why I dropped it: We always look at upcoming anime and try find connections with them to our personal favourites. Kobato connection was pretty obvious. Clamp + pretty Madhouse animation = Chobits? That part of me long since dead suddenly leapt into life and said hopefully “seinen romance?”. It wasn’t seinen romance but it still, it hinted at a certain level of charm I hadn’t seen in a series for a long time. Instead all it did was be insufferably cute and repetitive with lazy and poorly written dialogue. It was a meandering cute anime. Frustration kicked in and I dropped it, although I might have stuck with it longer if the opening was done by Round Table feat. Nino.
Rebirth Chances: Above average. I’ve heard it gets a lot better as it goes on and the real story starts to kick in. I’m not sure how much more I could handle of Kobato mucking about and watching those bunnies at the halfway point always made me feel like an absolute doofus, but the pull of something to mirror the feelings of Chobits is strong. Then again, if I didn’t get that feeling after 4 episodes, will I ever be able to be sucked in by the magic of Kobato?
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15 Comments
I’M FRESH, I’M FLY, I’M SO DAMN HIGH!
GOTCHA GURL WAVIN’ AT ME WHILE I ROLL BY!!!
(one love, x159)
Not that I’ve watched it, but I always thought Kamen no Maid Guy was the same type of wacky WAT-style humor that Seto no Hanayome had.
I’m amused at how K-ON has become the poster child for everything that’s wrong about anime. Oh well, I’d only watch the 2nd season if I really feel like loathing myself. Besides, if people want a “girls do cute stuff,” go for sketchbook, Hidasketch, or even Ichigo Mashimaro.
The only thing pretentious about Kemonozume was the art/animation. It never tries to shove depth down down your throat (or spoon-feed it down your throat in the case of Kaiba). I’ll always remember it as a very fun show with a non-stupid yet non-cliche final fight.
Kobato started to sink in for me somewhere between eps 10 and 12, but it felt like a filler-fest prior to that. I picked it back up when I dropped most of the crap airing now, and don’t regret it. It’s damn slow, but it’s good enough to keep me interested, and only 4 shows this season are managing that.
I SO wanted to like Kobato. I used to be a big CLAMP fan back when they did stuff like X and Chobits (hell, I even like Cardcaptor Sakura, if only for Kero-chan), but their latest series like Xxxholic and Tsubasa have been awful. I was hoping Kobato would have some of their old charm. I liked Ioryogi, but that was about it. I made it about as far as you did and gave up. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, CLAMP?
Maind Guy was fun, but it wasn’t so awesome that I’d go around recommending it. Humor’s a fickle thing, especially something that’s aiming for the absurd like Maid Guy. I like it, but I wouldn’t suggest going back to it.
@Jesus159159159
*standerd confused expression when faced with a J159 comment*
@Aorii
I would counteract that statement but I just can’t remember what Kamen no Maid Guy was like beyond the crappy animation
@zzeroparticle
I never personally called it that because I was too busy spazzing out over how awesome Eden was when K-ON was airing. Plus I had exams so I was quiet during that period of anime fandom and when I came back, Endless Eight had started and there was no more room for K-ON bashing
@Baka-Raptor
Ah different opinions~ I felt Kemonozume was trying to appear MATURE AND STUFF and failing quite badly at doing so where as Kaiba’s storytelling was second to none.
@temperus
10–12? Argh, do I have to wait that long? That’s a rather off-putting figure…
@Landon
With Clamp I’ve seen Chobits, Kobato, XXXHolic and X with Chobits being far and away my favourite. I wanted to like X and there were some very good things it did, most of it being centred around episode 12, the build up and the aftermath. But what really grated me about the series was the characters seemed to have this massive gap in their logical thinking in that they always thought through set parameters. It’s hard to explain but I like to personally think up of possible solutions to characters problems myself before hearing their thoughts. But in X they were incapable of thinking that wide and it got frustrating.
I’m at a loss for words. Please give me your rationale for why Kemonozume is “pretentious” besides its unconventional art style. It’s a romantic action/adventure show with a great, sardonic sense of humor. There is nothing pretentious about it, it doesn’t ever try to shove any sort of symbols or philosophy down your throat, the show wasn’t even made around any sort of theme.
Its more a sense of disappointment that has me slagging off K-ON! at every available opportunity — still going to watch the 2nd season.…I’m a glutton for punishment, but at least this time round I know what I’m in for
Think I made it to ep 10 of Kamen no Maid-guy before coming to my senses and bailing — I was basically watching for the ED
Kobato. has turned into a lovely little show — the start was all a bit filler-y and Kobato being moe, but now its really come into its own since its remembered that theres meant to be a plot. Kobato has really improved as a character too. I’m a CLAMP fangirl, but generally go for their action or seinen series like X,Tsubasa, Legal Drug and xxxHOLiC, but Kobato. has convinced me to give their fluffy stuff a go.
For me, I was kinda on the fence with Kobato till a fair way into it [iirc around episode 10-ish]. It’s a really slow burn, but over time Kobato kinda grows on you as more of a somewhat naive girl than a total ditz. Subplots and recurring characters come and go when they please and the few moments of tension in the show do work quite well. Overall, Kobato’s not the series that you get into to be amazed, but the kind you get into to just cool down and be charmed by the characters. So…cute with a bit of depth? Not too much though.
Yeah, unfortunately. I watched it in “background viewing” mode, but by ep12 it had my attention. Like Miken suggests, Kobato’s the type of show I’d watch to unwind anyway, not because it’s “gripping, edge-of-your-seat” material.
As much as I love K-On, as I’ve said many times before, it’s an anime about the life of girls, and thus, works best for girls. I actually have a hard time figuring out what guys see in it.
Kobato’s become amazing, and I voted for you to watch it. While it has fantasy elements, it goes from a so-so slice of life to a fantastic example of slice of life and how it should be done. Even so, I’m not entirely sure you’d like, but that’s only because I have a hard time figuring out what slice of life you’ll like and you won’t.
I’m weird in that I dropped Kobato after 13 episodes. I think I actually dropped it right as the plot was kicking in. I was falling behind on Kobato even during the first cour. It was so-so and I’d watch it from time to time but when the new season started I pretty much didn’t have time and stopped caring. I usually will finish a series once I’ve breached the halfway point but I found myself falling asleep during a few episodes. So I asked myself “do i really care how this ends” and the answer was no so i dropped it. I only ever really liked it for it’s ending song.
I swear to god, I never want to hear Kobato! Ganbarimasu! again.
The only one on the list I haven’t already finished and am interested in seein is Kemonozume. I dropped Kamen no Maid Guy after a few episodes and finished pretty much everything else.
I’M CALM I’M COOL, EVERYTHING BRAND NEW!
I DON’T HAND CUFF YOU CAN GET THE WHOLE DAMN CREW!!!
I loved Kemeko DX and from what you’ve said, I now must watch Maid Guy.
Right this has pretty much guaranteed that I’m picking up Kobato again. Both the comments and the fact that it’s running away with the poll
@Keaton
You’ve slightly hit on the reason why I didn’t like it. It acted like it had themes when it didn’t. Generally, I think anime should have a theme or a purpose but if it doesn’t then it shouldn’t bloody act like it does. That’s Kemenozume’s major fault. That’s the very definition of pretentious. Acting like you are bigger/deeper/greater than you are. If it hadn’t done that then I’d mark it down as an average anime with annoyingly bad artwork. Although I’ll admit that there might have been an effect from watching Kaiba that led me to look for themes in Kemenozume when there was none, but it still felt like they were acting like there was some.
@Glo
While you’ll probably like Maid Guy, I’d like to reccomend you something else entirely that I think you’ll love: Moyashimon. Just trust me on this one