If you missed it, earlier today the best of the season came out so if you would rather celebrate the successes of the season than wallow in, or jeer at, the misfires I recommend you check it out. In the meantime, a reminder that worst anime of the season is still an anime good enough to be watched through. Voters are asked not to vote for shows they haven’t watched. So while the anime in the list below and as the voters choice are problematic, there are most definitely worse anime out there.
Without any further ado, let’s get into the list.
Worst Story – 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams
I almost gave this to The Master of Ragnarok, but then I realised there was a show that did even worse with its premise. Despite the set up being that the Princess has to wake up the princes, other than the very first prince, none of the princes are actually sleeping. Couple this with the fact that I got to the end of this and still have no idea what the overall goal is given the characters just seem to wander around and react to stuff, and basically the story is all but missing in action. A thin excuse to encounter various ‘prince’ types so that fans of the game can get all excited to see their favourite character for the two seconds of screen time they get before the main characters move on.
Worst Visuals – Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion
The filter is hideous. There’s no way to sugar coat it. When you have ugly character designs, a bland colour palette and then over the top of the lot you put that filter that just makes everything look like we’re watching it through smudged glasses that keep moving, this anime well and truly deserves the label of worst visuals for the season. While there are some good moments in the story, you do have to accept it is just going to be truly disgusting to look at.
Worst Opening – 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams
Seriously, this one is a thin excuse to pan over the cast of various princes we’ll encounter. The music is dull and borderline put me to sleep and the slow pan with almost zero animation over various characters, most of which we’ll encounter once at best throughout the season and then never hear from again, and to be honest I skipped this opening more often than I watched it.
Worst Character – The Cast of the Master of Ragnarok tied with Mineta (My Hero Academia)
Mineta had to be here. Seriously, if someone could just go through every episode of My Hero Academia and erase the bug from existence, I’d be really, really happy. There isn’t one scene he is in that is actually necessary and he contributes nothing. However, he does eat screen time on what I’m guessing someone thought were comedic moments but mostly I’m just left disgusted with his presence and he’s becoming increasingly annoying as the franchise continues. That said, it would be a mistake not to mention the incredibly bland and undeveloped cast from The Master of Ragnarok. And yes, I know that is two seasons in a row where I’ve given the title of worst character to an entire cast, but trust me, they earned it.
And now…
Worst Anime of the Spring 2018 Season – The Master of Ragnarok
Yep, there were plenty of shows I liked less than this one, however I dropped them and didn’t finish watching. That just left this one on my list to leave as the worst of the season. Angels of Death got an early drop, Holmes of Kyoto hung in a bit longer but bored me to tears and so I gave up. Other early drops include Island and Lord of Vermillion (which definitely deserves a mention). Still, Ragnarok set up what could have been an interesting enough story, did absolutely nothing with it, and then totally flubbed its ending. It really deserves this placement.
Finally, Reader’s Choice
With 103 votes, making it the most votes ever for a worst of the season, the competition was pretty much won early on, but a last minute rally behind a show that really stuffed its ending brought us to a tie (won’t they be so proud). Anyway, the results of the readers poll:
And so we have a tie between Angels of Death and The Master of Ragnarok.
Angels of Death took a very early lead in the poll. I think the disappointment factor may have played a role given how hyped up the show was before it began airing. Then, after the final episode of Master of Ragnarok, its votes took off and it caught up. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that I’d held out hoping the show would get better only for the final episode to kick me in the teeth.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.
Summer 2018 was definitely not the highlight of the anime year, but we still had some fun titles to watch. As we move into Autumn, let’s keep our fingers crossed for something amazing, and if not, we can always vote for it being the worst of the season.
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
Consider supporting the blog by:
Or use one of my affiliate product links:
I didn’t watch any of those shows so I’m lucky there. I do agree that Mineta needs to go. He has become a nuisance really and it’s no longer funny.
There seems to be a lot of dislike for Mineta out there.
With the way his character is, I can imagine so.
Great list as always Karandi, I just threw up my own list of the best of the year (so far) and we seem to share some of our favs! Master of Rag deserves to burn.
Master of Ragnarok certainly could have done a bit more with its material and that ending is a complete mess no matter how generous I’m wanting to be to the show.
Awww I liked angels of death. It made no sense but it was entertaining hahah
Well, I’m glad to see that from the poll results there are some other people who hated FLCL Prog as much as I did. I haven’t seen many of the shows on this list, but the one I have seen I disagree with its placing. Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion, is I think a pretty okay looking show, certainly not the worst of the season (I would give that to the aforementioned FLCL Prog, which has worst backgrounds of the season for sure).
While, yes the filter can be annoying, and is indeed ugly, I strongly disagree that the character designs are bad. Unconventional perhaps, but I’d prefer these more creative, less standard designs to the same basic template you see in the vast majority of other anime. Plus, it’s got some pretty nice animation cuts (e.g. https://sakugabooru.com/data/b0010e20238f23c8ad71d3956af7e576.mp4 )
But I didn’t watch FLCL Prog and the worst looking show I was watching was Angolmois. My choices are from what I’ve watched and I ask readers to only vote for shows they’ve actually watched. Sure I could go and watch an episode of FLCL Progressive and maybe I’ll agree that it looks worse, but that wouldn’t really serve a lot of purpose.
I stopped reading the MHA manga a while ago, only got up the Hero Killer bit and even then I hated Mineta. Disappointed but not surprised by 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams, since it was based on a mobile game I can’t imagine it’d have much substance to sustain over 12 episodes!
What I want to know is why the writers didn’t look at the source (100 Sleeping Princes), think about which parts would work as an anime, think about what they might need to add in, and then actually write a competent story. Of course, I’d ask that about a lot of adaptations. I just don’t see the point of meandering along and showing off characters and settings from a game but not providing a compelling viewing experience.
I find it funny how How Not to Summon a Demon Lord got a decent number of votes for Best AND Worst of the season. A truly divisive show—like many Isekai titles.
Yes, it was an interesting show to follow and to discuss each week as different reviewers had very different impressions on each episode.
Well, not a real surprise that Angels of Death ended up here (even though it was a tie), though admittedly the series was getting better. Sadly though it seems that the rumors were true, as there was no new episode for the series this week. I’m not going to be paying for a home video release for this one, so this has just been a collossal waste of time sadly. Oh well, it can’t be helped I guess 😢
It is a shame because I was kind of looking forward to it and then just found it dull. I was thinking of binging it once it was done but seems that is out too.
Yeah, it picked up again though in the later episodes, but true, binging is now out. Hopefully in some way the other episodes will be brought out and I can at least find out the end of the storyline, else this really was quite pointless 😔
You cannot weather the mineta storm. Bow before that storm, it is your god now! JK but seriously I havn’t seen MHA, but Mineta looks and seems insufferable. And I agree on the Mongol visuals, it looks like I spilled tea over my moniter with every screenshot. Good list here Karandi 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it. Angolmois really needs a do over. It is actually reasonably good but that filter is incredibly distracting early on.
yea, I get the artistry behind it, it kinda reminds me of Princess Kaguya, but all the time it just looks gross.