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
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I’ll give Angolmois this, it finished the story. I don’t know that I’m overly impressed with the overall result of this anime. It was interesting enough to watch but I’m not exactly lining up to watch it again any time soon. I can barely remember a single characters’ name and while the plot works it is pretty basic. Still, this was better than expected.
Angolmois is going to end up a pretty mixed bag by the time it is done, but I’m not regretting watching it. While there are plenty of points your could raise against it, the main point in its favour is it remains fairly interesting to watch even if only because it at least isn’t another anime set in a modern day high school or an isekai story. Novelty does wonders sometimes.
The getting better in these final episodes continues and with two to go, I’m kind of hopeful for a slightly above average ending from this show that has been decidedly average during most of its run. At the very least, these last two episodes have stepped up a bit and been more engaging. There’s a sense of movement and I’m looking forward to the ending.
Episode 9 is a pretty solid episode. It doesn’t quite wash away the fairly mediocre mid-season but it definitely raises expectations of a reasonably solid finish to the season. The battle at the castle is an interesting watch and I really enjoyed watching it play out as well as seeing how the traitor was acting.
As average as I’ve found this anime, I have to admit as we go into this final stretch of episodes they are definitely getting better. It still isn’t great but there was a sense of tension and forward movement in episode 23 that has been somewhat lacking from the series as a whole. Really hoping it ends on a high note.
Well other than the traitor at least it seems that all the Japanese have finally decided to stop fighting amongst themselves and actually play nice. It only took 7 episodes of them being attacked by Mongols to draw that conclusion. Otherwise this show is kind of just doing what it needs to do. There’s flaws and it isn’t as great as it could be, but it remains reasonable.
I really feel something more motive like would have helped this episode out. Learning that Raiju is being obstinate just because he can be and he is bored isn’t exactly compelling. Then again, Aoi’s desire to help just because isn’t exactly a great motive either. As we approach the end of the season, I can’t say I’m all that hyped for this one.
And we’re still kind of just wandering around with side characters while the plot is just kind of there. The ceremony is coming but don’t expect to feel any sense of urgency from anyone outside of Ranmaru who barely appears and Aoi certainly isn’t all that concerned as she putters about, doing her usual thing.
This was a great episode. Not great because I didn’t expect much from it, or great in comparison to other shows; it was just a good, solid episode. It went in an unexpected direction and had a solid enough execution that it didn’t leave me feeling like the rug had just been pulled out from under me. Very happy with how this show is going right now.
