Last week I gave my top 5 list of suprisingly good shows from 2017. This week I turn it around and share my top 5 disappointments from 2017. Like the last list, this isn’t the list of shows I thought were the worst (those will come out in their own list with the reader’s choices later). This list is for shows that I foolishly held any kind of expectation for and then had my hopes dashed, shattered and basically destroyed as the series progressed. It is a highly subjective list as if you didn’t have expectations for the show it probably won’t be a disappointment so I’d love to know which shows you found a bit disappointing last year. Be sure to leave a comment below.
Please Note: There will be spoilers below.
Honourable mentions go to Clockwork Planet, KADO, and Silver Guardian.
Okay, KADO was actually a major disappointment but I didn’t have any expectations when the show started because I hadn’t even heard of it. It was more the second half of the show could not manage to live up to the expectations built during the first half.
Number 5: Juni Taisen: Zodiac War
This is entirely my own fault. I rarely watch promotional videos prior to viewing an anime but this is one I had seen talked up a lot and the promos looked fantastic. In the show’s defense, the show mostly looks pretty amazing, particularly in action sequences (which are few and far between after the dramatic opening episode that show cases just how pretty the animation could be). But with dull characters that I never connected with and a mostly predictable plot I didn’t care about, this show quickly became a chose to watch and ended up being something I actually put off watching for a day some week’s even knowing that the events of the episode would be ‘spoiled’ after I read the blogs of others. I just didn’t care whether I knew what was about to happen or not because I’d given up expecting anything from the show.
Number 4: Knight’s & Magic
For a show with such a cool concept of combining mecha and magic and placing it in a standard isekai setting this quickly became just a mess of time jumps, dull narration, and very little to invest in. Ernesti could have become an interesting character excpet that the show went out of its way to never challenge him and to never have him second guess himself. Ever. The support cast are mostly forgettable. The final story arc deals with a threat that more or less comes out of nowhere and you don’t actually feel any of the main characters are threatened. Basically it is a mess of a show where it could have so easily been good.
Number 3: Black Clover
I’m aware, it isn’t done yet. But the disappointment this one gave me was palpable. I don’t buy into hype and so despite the Crunchyroll push of this anime everywhere prior to release, I kind of resigned myself to a pretty standard shounen story that would have the usual annoyances of the genre but would probably be a good enough bit of light hearted entertainment. Alas, Black Clover forgot the most imporant part thing is to actually engage your audience and entertain them. See, the point isn’t just to stretch wafer thin content until it crumbles and exposes the absolute rubbish characters and their lack of motives or development. Each episode just compounded the irritation associated with this show and it couldn’t even live up to my expectations that this might be alright for a bit of fun. I feel very bad for people who went in to this show actually expecting the next big shounen title.
Number 2: Tales of Zestiria the X Season 2
After season 1, I wasn’t expecting much of season 2. I was more or less just hoping to find out how Sorey actually got a handle on his powers and defeated the Calamity King. And in fairness, season 2 did get around to delivering that story. We just spent a lot of time kind of meandering around before the henchman of the villain just kind of showed up and said ‘he’s over there, go get him’ and then we watched the characters more or less just go and do that. There are some good moments and some fairly impressive visuals at times, but all and all the narrative is a mess and there are too many characters who seem to exist only because they must have been in the game. It all just detracts from the story and sucks any fun out of the experience.
Number 1: Sword Oratoria
My number one biggest disappointment goes to a show I didn’t actually finish so have never reviewed (and given I am not inclined to return to the show, I will never review). Sword Oratoria. I am such a huge fan of DanMachi and I was actually really excited to see a spin-off (would have preferred a sequel but I’ll take what I can get – or at least I thought so). Then I found out the focus was going to be Ais, one of the least interesting characters from the original. Then the show aired. So boring, so much talking, so many characters I don’t care about… When the only reason to keep watching are the tiny glimpses of Bell you kind of have to realise you may as well just go and rewatch DanMachi. This was incredibly disappointing.
So there is my list, and as I said at the beginning it is incredibly subjective due to the fact that you can only be disappointed when you go in expecting something. Please share your biggest disappointments from 2017 in the comments below and get the conversation going.
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
Since I didn’t really finish or watch many shows my #1 is probably Juni Taisen which I still havent finished. Vanishing Line is still ongoing but so far I’m a bit sad the whole El Dorado hasnt been explored yet
I’m beginning to feel like the only person who really loves Black Clover. My biggest disappointment this year is still Zodiac Wars.
Yeah, that was a massive disappointment. I wanted so much more than it ever delivered.
I will watching it through.
I’ve already talked with you about Juni Taisen (I believe), but I just got around to Zestiria’s second season this past week. As a huge fan of the Tales franchise, the Zestiria game, and of course, the fan base and the characters, I hate to fault Zestiria. But even I can recognize a decent adaptation from a lackluster one—and Zestiria the X’s ending was just that: lackluster. Since it detracted from the game’s story for a long while there, I was really hoping for some kind of neat twist. But no, typical, predictable Zestiria. At least it was pretty.
I don’t think anyone remembers Nanbaka had a season 2…so I’m probably the only one with that answer.
A show that was an absolute chore to watch week-to-week for me was The Reflection (Wave One). I complained about it so hard, I had to jot down a list of pros and cons to see the beauty in the wreckage. I normally would’ve dropped a show like it after a few episodes, but that debut date was extremely late compared to the other shows of its season…
I dropped the Reflection in one episode, I just couldn’t stand it visually and nothing really seemed to be happening. And yeah, I didn’t go for a second season of Nanbaka given I didn’t finish the first.
I’ve actually enjoyed zodiac war but was very disappointed with the ending. Dies Iraes was so bad!
Dies Irae was terrible but it didn’t disappoint. I had no expectations and then the prologue episode was a mess so it kind of consistently lived up to that.
Hahah I should have that kind of thought process with many shows. Then I won’t be so upset. Haha
I began watching Black Clover a few days ago… The disappointment is horribly strong with this one. I find the main character to be absolutely annoying as all hell. But I figured I’d past that and hopefully someone interesting would pop up. So far, as you mentioned, the show has a barely existent storyline, and the characters are all so mundane and unimpressive. And I’m only 6 or 7 episodes in.
There’s a brief moment of hope around episode 10 or 11 and then it gets crushed again. At episode 13 it has now had the length of any other anime series and it still feels like I’m watching the prologue to a really boring movie.
Yeah! I’m waiting for something big to happen. Even Naruto had more plot progression in their first ten episodes than this, which says a lot because oh man, Naruto.
THANK YOU! DanMachi is amazing! It deserves so much better than a spin-off about, of all characters, the one who I’m pretty sure is intentionally written to be boring. ;-;
Can we seriously just get a continuation of Bell’s story already? I want to know what happens next.
Crunchyroll has spammed my fb all fall about Juni Taisen and I was tempted to watch it but I feel like I might as well skip that after reading this post. It’s not as if I don’t have other anime to watch but I was curious about the rabbit.
Stay curious. He’s one of three characters that gets no back story or explanation. So the one character any of us would have liked some explanation on got zero.
Wow! Well, that’s a bummer. Nah, I’ll leave that for someone else to be disappointed in then. Thanks!
There are so my mixed opinions on Black Clover but I am looking forward to watch it.
Really no big surprise here that Black Clover has made an appearance in this list (actually I was tempted to write this comment in capital letters to simulate Asta’s voice lol 😂😂). For me Kado was a big disappointment too: such a great set up, only to end on such a low note 😢😢
WE NEED TO SCREEEEEEEAM ALL THE TIMMMMMMMME IN A PATTERRRRRRRRN. HAHA
Haha lol 😂😂
Ouch.
I still want to know what they were thinking about with that ending. It just doesn’t fit where the rest of the show seemed to be going.
No, it really is such a shame. That series was truly on it’s way to greatness…and then there was that ending….Ugh 😢
Sniff. I’m beginning to feel like the only person who really loves Black Clover.
My biggest disappointments were easily Ousama Game (taught me to not watch things just because they have a great seiyuu attached to them), and Welcome to the Ballroom. The latter I really wanted to love but…I was so bored.
Oh, and Masamune’s Revenge was really disappointing. Total ‘fuck you’ ending.
I didn’t get to see Welcome to the Ballroom, though the reviews haven’t been great since the mid-way point. I think if I ever get to see it my expectations have been suitably lowered so I probably won’t end up disappointed regardless.
And I didn’t expect much from Black Clover other than maybe a bit of fun, but I really haven’t enjoyed watching it at all so far.