The world of anime overflows with unique experiences and stories. But with the sheer quantity of anime made and aired every day, it’s a given that some will be far from brilliant. When it comes to keeping track of the absolute worst anime, MyAnimeList is the most popular and reliable platform for the job.
In many ways, these anime represent the bottom of the barrel. These series, OVAs, and ONAs were selected with the criteria that they need to have at least one episode to their name. How these anime managed to be greenlit in the first place is the kind of mystery that will confound anime fans for eons.
Updated on April 5, 2023 by Angelo Delos Trinos: Since MyAnimeList gets updated every day, its rankings aren’t exactly set in stone. This is especially true for the all-time worst anime that the website keeps track of. Some bad shows actually get vindicated over time, while others sink further into ridicule. This list was updated to readjust the original entries’ MyAnimeList scores and to include more terrible anime.
25 The Dark Myth
MyAnimeList Score: 4.15
The Dark Myth was the kind of two-part OVA that should’ve worked. The Dark Myth had a generic but serviceable story about a young hero who fought an ancient evil. Instead, the anime’s execution was terrible.
The Dark Myth had more exposition dumps than anything else. The animation simply looked and sounded dreadful. The Dark Myth‘s only redeeming factor was its excessive gore, but even this novelty lost its charm after a few minutes.
24 Garzey’s Wing
MyAnimeList Score: 4.10
Garzey’s Wing is a 3-part OVA that was campy beyond belief and almost nonsensical. It’s exactly for these reasons that the silly isekai Garzey’s Wing became one of the greatest guilty pleasures in anime history.
MyAnimeList users and anime viewers agreed that Garzey’s Wing is one of the best recommendations for a wild guilty pleasure viewing. The fact that Garzey’s Wing didn’t score lower on MyAnimeList is a miracle.
23 KochinPa!
MyAnimeList Score: 4.09
KochinPa! is another lowbrow anime that only exists to advertise something. If its anagram title wasn’t clear enough, KochinPa! was basically a commercial for a pachinko parlor in Akihabara.
All of KochinPa!’s12 episodes were just 15 seconds long. These shorts were filled with corny idol jokes and promotions for the Island pachinko parlor. A simple commercial would’ve been better than KochinPa!
22 Offside Girl
MyAnimeList Score: 3.96
Adult-oriented anime tend to be made on low budgets and effort, but Offside Girl was one of the cheapest-looking OVAs of its kind. The 2-episode OVA was more of a slideshow than an animated adult movie.
Worse, Offside Girl’s story and dialogue had almost no thought put into it. Offside Girl was the kind of lowbrow adult anime that only existed to fulfill fleeting erotic desires and little else.
21 The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (2017)
MyAnimeList Score: 3.88
The original The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor from 1993 was a good, if underrated, anime. However, whatever goodwill The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor may have had was ruined by the 2017 reboot.
This anime revival was lazy in almost every regard. The new The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor was indistinguishable from the generic fantasy anime of the 2010s, the comedy was lackluster, and the animation was bad.
20 Rusted Armors
MyAnimeList Score: 3.84
Digital anime have come a long way, but Rusted Armors was one of the worst yet. Rusted Armors’ mix of 2D and 3D assets was so bad that it literally hurt some MyAnimeList users’ eyes.
Beyond its ugly animation, Rusted Armors was a generic alternate-history tale set in Japan’s feudal past. If not for its lackluster CGI, Rusted Armors would be yet another unremarkably bad and disposable fantasy anime.
19 Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls
MyAnimeList Score: 3.84
The best way to describe Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls was that it seemed as if it were phoned in. The anime’s plot about magical girls was simple and derivative. On top of that, it was executed so poorly that it fell apart.
Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls’ dialogue was so inconsistent and random that MyAnimeList users believed that the voice actors improvised it. Worse, the animation was unoriginal at best and ugly at worst.
18 Gibiate
MyAnimeList Score: 3.81
Gibiate was a mess from start to finish, but it had problems bigger than its bad animation. In Gibiate, a pandemic transformed people into monsters based on their race and ethnicity. This was as tone-deaf as it sounded.
Gibiate was overhyped thanks to the prominent creators attached to its production. Unfortunately, their combined talents created an unfeeling debacle. Even without its uncomfortable subtext, Gibiate was just ugly.
17 Ninja Collection
MyAnimeList Score: 3.75
2020 was a generally good year for anime, but Ninja Collection was the exception. Ninja Collection disappointed viewers with its bad animation and convoluted story. Worst of all, there weren’t any ninja.
Ninja Collection was really more of an action-horror anime about ghost hunters who fought evil smoke. Not helping matters was how every 4-minute episode showcased a fight with no context or story.
16 Generation Of Chaos III: Toki No Fuuin
MyAnimeList Score: 3.63
The Generation of Chaos OVAs are some of the most consistently downvoted anime on MyAnimeList. It’s unsurprising that the third installment, Toki no Fuuin, got a terrible score as well.
Like its predecessors, the 2-part Toki no Fuuin was plagued with sloppy animation, poor writing, and mediocre voice work. For what it’s worth, Toki no Fuuin was the highest-rated Generation of Chaos installment.
15 Hey, President Trap-Kun!
MyAnimeList Score: 3.59
There are many politically-charged commentaries and satires in anime, but Hey, President Trap-Kun! was one of the worst. This 2-episode ONA reimagined then-president Donald Trump as the crass transfer student, Trap-kun.
Hey, President Trap-Kun!’s comedy was nothing more than Trap-kun rapping about his love of toilet humor. Besides how childish its jokes were, Hey, President Trap-Kun!’s novelty also quickly wore out.
14 Spectral Force
MyAnimeList Score: 3.59
The ’90s were flooded with disposable fantasy anime like Spectral Force. What set this 2-episode OVA apart was just how bad it was. Worse, Spectral Force was also a bad adaptation of a JRPG.
Spectral Force was generic at best, but its terrible animation made it stand out for all the wrong reasons. Spectral Force’s sequel, Chronicle Divergence, was better, but it did little to improve the original’s reputation.
13 Wonder Momo
MyAnimeList Score: 3.47
Wonder Momo was ostensibly about an aspiring idol who somehow ended up fighting evil aliens instead. Wonder Momo felt outdated even in 2014 because it was based on an obscure arcade fighting game from 1987.
Even ignoring the game’s age and how formulaic the story was, Wonder Momo was difficult to watch. Wonder Momo’s animation was cheap and lifeless. The anime was slightly redeemed by its sheer randomness.
12 Forest Fairy Five
MyAnimeList Score: 3.36
Experienced anime viewers often have low expectations for children’s anime, or kodomomuke anime. However, Forest Fairy Five was so bad that it gave all children’s anime a bad name among MyAnimeList users.
Forest Fairy Five‘s plot was too saccharine to matter. Meanwhile, the animation was atrocious. Forest Fairy Five‘s art direction and overall look were so garish that MyAnimeList users agreed that its only redeeming factor was the opening song.
11 Hanoka
MyAnimeList Score: 3.35
Releasing a 12-episode anime made in Adobe Flash was a novel and brave idea in 2006. Hanoka, unfortunately, failed and fell short even by the standards of digital anime from the early 2000s.
Hanoka emphasized its fights, but Adobe Flash’s inherent restrictions made these scenes look more amateurish than intended. Hanako aged poorly even in 2006, and its reputation only worsened with time.
10 Pupa
MyAnimeList Score: 3.29
Pupa is one of the most legendarily bad anime ever made. The anime focused on a disturbing but otherwise predictable sibling romance. To top it all off, Pupa was a gross-out horror anime with body horror.
Pupa was too bizarre, disgusting, and horrible for even MyAnimeList’s experienced viewers to believe. Even Pupa‘s decent art and surprisingly catchy opening couldn’t save it from an abysmal legacy.
9 Vampire Holmes
MyAnimeList Score: 3.29
Vampire Holmes went down in history as one of the worst comedy anime ever made. What made Vampire Holmes notable was that it was also one of the worst reinterpretations of Sherlock Holmes ever seen.
As is the case with most terrible anime adaptations, Vampire Holmes was based on a shallow mobile game. None of Vampire Holmes’ jokes landed, the vampire mythos was poorly executed, and the animation was horrible.
8 Ladyspo
MyAnimeList Score: 3.10
Ladyspo was the rare anime that seemed as if no effort was put into its animation. The entire series felt like a surreal slideshow. Characters barely moved, and the “animation” was mostly composed of still frames.
Ladyspo was a generic sports anime with a comedic and intergalactic twist. However, whatever redeeming qualities Ladyspo could’ve had was overshadowed by some of the worst sports animations in anime history.
7 EX-ARM
MyAnimeList Score: 2.91
Although many viewers came to love EX-ARM in an ironic way, it’s still one of the worst anime ever made. Despite its terrible quality, EX-ARM was shamelessly promoted by Crunchyroll. Viewers mocked EX-ARM the moment its first trailer debuted.
EX-ARM gained infamy for its hideous fights, truncated movements, and actual glitches. The unoriginal story about a boy becoming an AI-powered superweapon was so transparently ripped off from the best sci-fi anime of all time that it only exacerbated EX-ARM’s unintentional humor.
6 Abunai Sisters: Koko & Mika
MyAnimeList Score: 2.52
Abunai Sisters: Koko and Mika was a 10-episode OVA made to promote the Kano Sisters, who are reality stars in Japan. The OVA was so bad that only 2 of its 10 episodes aired on TV, with the rest being dumped on DVD.
Abunai Sisters had a threadbare plot about reality stars moonlighting as secret agents, unlikeable characters, and ugly animation. Even calling the anime a cheap excuse for fanservice would be overstating its accomplishments.
Leave a Reply