There’s a lot of work that goes into anime production and so many factors beyond the story and source material help determine a series’ success, including the anime studio and production staff that help bring it to life. There are unfortunately too many instances where a mismatch between studio, staff, and property ruins what could have otherwise been a successful anime series.
What can be even more frustrating is when the staff of an anime change mid-production and the series suffers for these changes. There are lots of anime that begin with exceptional starts, only to fumble what follows because of the people involved in the production.
10 One-Punch Man
One-Punch Man is a sly takedown of both shonen and superhero stereotypes that exists in a heightened universe where superpowered crime fighters and apocalyptic demons are commonplace. The titular One-Punch Man, Saitama, is a hero who’s too strong for his own good and has become frustrated that he can eliminate any enemy in a single blow.
One-Punch Man’s first season is animated by Madhouse and directed by Shinjo Natsume, but season two switches over to J.C. Staff and direction by Chikara Sakurai. J.C. Staff have created some exceptional anime, but they fail to deliver the same heightened and abstract visuals that gave Saitama’s strength such personality in season one.
9 Gunslinger Girl
Gunslinger Girl combines female cyborgs with assassination and espionage in this entertaining political thriller and action hybrid. The government uses young female cyborgs as top tier assassins who carry out the organization’s dirty work. Madhouse animates the first season of Gunslinger Girl and they bring their consistent level of high quality to the series.
However, Gunslinger Girl’s second season comes from the less-established Artland, who push the character designs and art style in a different direction than what followed. Artland’s take strives to replicate the original manga, but it’s a jarring pivot from Madhouse’s work that feels like a downgrade.
8 The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins has found success as a fun shonen take on the fantasy genre as Meliodas helps his team of diverse warriors redeem their disgraced reputations and find personal fulfillments. Meliodas’ quest doesn’t stray far from shonen genre staples, but there’s considerable whiplash between seasons once production shifts over from A-1 Pictures to Studio Deen during the Wrath of Gods season.
Studio Deen feels like they’re spread too thin and the anime’s later seasons have visually suffered as a result and become the mockery of many memes. To make matters even more complicated, the latest Grudge of Edinburgh films are animated by Marvy Jack and Alfred Imageworks.
7 Hayate The Combat Butler
Hayate the Combat Butler is a shonen series that doesn’t always get its due despite how it seamlessly blends action, adventure, and ridiculous gags. There are four seasons to Hayate the Combat Butler, as well as an OVA extension, which feature three separate animation studios and contrasting creative teams each team.
The original Hayate the Combat Butler comes from SynergySP before J.C. Staff takes over for the OVAs and the anime’s subsequent season. There’s a different energy to these middle episodes even if they don’t look awful. Hayate the Combat Butler’s final two seasons are produced by Manglobe, which concludes the wild buddy action-comedy on a meager note.
6 Psycho-Pass 2
Psycho-Pass is a tight crime thriller that leans into the terrifyingly oppressive idea that people can be judged for crimes that they’ve yet to commit. Psycho-Pass raises excellent questions about control and fate in its first season, which ends on a satisfying note.
A second season of Psycho-Pass is made by Tatsunoko Production instead of Production I.G., but the biggest dip in quality in Psycho-Pass 2 is the switch in writers from Gen Urobuchi to Tow Ubukata, who crafts a weaker story. Psycho-Pass 3, while still inferior to the original season, does properly course-correct by returning to Production I.G. and putting more writers alongside Ubukata.
5 Log Horizon
MMORPG fantasy isekai anime are now so plentiful that audiences are basically conditioned to expect a protagonist to get whisked away to a virtual world the moment they start playing a video game. Log Horizon tells a fairly safe story about displaced heroes that must fight fantastical monsters while they figure out if they can return home.
Satelight is an animation studio that’s done some of their best work in mecha series, but they really create a fun, lively world in Log Horizon. There’s at least some consistency between Log Horizon’s second and third seasons with Studio Deen staying on board instead of another new team getting involved, though the first season was obviously much better.
4 Dragon Ball GT
Akira Toriyama’s various Dragon Ball series have routinely been brought to life by Toei Animation, but they assert authority in unprecedented ways when it comes to the sequel series, Dragon Ball GT. Akira Toriyama helps design some of the characters and concepts, but he doesn’t craft the larger story and there’s no source material to adapt.
Instead, Toei’s Aya Matsui handles scripting duties for the first 50 episodes and Atsushi Maekawa takes over for the final 14 entries. These writers face a tall task, which many consider to be a failure due to how long it takes the anime to find its footing.
3 Spice & Wolf
Spice and Wolf is a thoughtful coming of age adventure anime between an aimless traveling salesman and a 600-year-old wolf deity who masquerades as a teenage girl. Kraft Lawrence, the merchant, helps the disgraced deity, Holo, travel the world as they help broaden the other’s horizon.
Animation duties between Spice and Wolf’s two seasons switch from the tiny Imagin to the more-established Brain’s Base and Marvy Jack. Wolf and Spice maintains the same writer and direction between seasons, which is crucial, but the revised character and art designs don’t work for everyone and feel less personable.
2 Attack On Titan
Attack on Titan is a totemic title that brilliantly parallels a cutthroat world of gargantuan monsters against the real horrors that cause society to stumble and regress. The first three seasons of Attack on Titan are pristinely animated by Wit Studio. Wit Studio’s growing reputation caused them to part ways with Titan and MAPPA has taken over since the start of The Final Season.
MAPPA isn’t necessarily worse than Wit, but some fans prefer their slight nuances. The other truth of the matter is that MAPPA is spread too thin and many feel like they can’t give Titan’s final episodes the respect that they deserve
1 Fairy Tail
There are more than 300 episodes of Fairy Tail and any anime that runs for this long benefits from a consistent style from start to finish. The courageous quests that Natsu Dragneel and company embark upon have their highs and lows and Fairy Tail does suffer from pacing issues.
Changes in animation studios, particularly after episode 175, become obvious and compromise what used to work in the anime. A-1 Pictures are producers throughout the bulk of Fairy Tail’s run, but Bridge, CloverWorks, and Satelight also play important roles, all of which can create dissonance in this fantasy adventure.