This post is an entry to the 30 Week Anime Challenge series of posts.
Ugh. I wanted to evade this question, but then it wouldn’t be a challenge anymore.
Since I’ve already explained myself in my previous 30-week anime challenge post the method by which I came up with my answer for the question “Most Underrated Anime”, I’ll just take the opposite of that to answer this week’s question.
Basically, it’s asking which anime is highly rated (8.00 is high enough a rating) but I didn’t really enjoy. To be honest, I’ve seen most of the anime series I liked are rated quite high in MAL, so I tried to look for anime that really brings back feelings of disappointment and/or abhorrence. Then I remembered SAO and how much I loathed the series (SAO II proved to be somehow entertaining and watchable enough for me to finish it). Back then, SAO was rated 8.60+ (that’s very high). But now, it’s somewhere between 8.20 and 8.30. Then, I saw something else that is rated higher.
It’s Toradora, rated 8.54 in MAL as of November 1, 2014. It was one of the first anime I watched. Back then, I watch my anime in DVDs. Anyway, I don’t even want to post a picture of that anime, but if you want to, you always have MAL. The series is not only highly rated, but it’s the 12th most popular. Its viewership still continues to grow in large numbers.
When I watched it, I already had an idea of tsundere characters. But in my honest opinion, I don’t think of Taiga simply as a tsundere. She was very violent, and even though others (ehem, Ryuuji) expressed their kindness towards her, she paid them (ehem, Ryuuji) back with ingratitude and savagery. That bad impression I initially had on the character relations didn’t fade away as Taiga’s unbearable behavior (I know, it was for the drama, which felt forced and unnatural, by the way) is still onscreen. I sympathized with Ryuuji’s initial difficulties of dealing with Taiga, but that concern eventually changed into disbelief as Ryuuji continues to act as the very-good-guy-next-door, unable to leave Taiga alone. It was an unbearable anime, not to mention the ending, for me to watch. I didn’t drop it or didn’t have the guts to drop it, because at that time I never dropped any anime. The good thing is, I learned my lesson through years of pain (well, not really).
Anime Vios 
I am in the fanbase of lovers of Toradora. The show was one of my first purely romance animes and I enjoy it… though I understand why you don’t like it.
I enjoyed it at the first couple of episodes, but then I started questioning on Taiga’s and Ryuuji’s behaviors. But lately, I feel like a rewatch might change that bad impression. Though it won’t likely emerge as a new favorite, especially since it left a bad taste the first time.
Yeah, there are some anime I need to rewatch again as well, like samurai flamenco to give it a second chance.
One just needs to be really open-minded to enjoy Samumen. It can be a really fun show, and I enjoyed it.
Yeah when I watched it I was just watching it as a reviewer not a fan. I was just not liking the way it progressed.
It’s an oddball of an anime, so I really understand that impression. I was greatly puzzled and somewhat disappointed at first, but eventually gave way to its weirdness and rawness.
Has being a reviewer hampered your anime viewing enjoyment, say other than when watching Samumen?
I guess in some circumstances I will turn on reviewer mode when watching a movie or television show. I will start thinking about weird or unnecessary aspects and pick at them with my friends. Though I feel in general it hasn’t effected me.
Though I just found the ridiculousness of Samurai Flamenco to be to out of the ball park for me and it began to annoy me after a while. I think I need to rewatch it to see if my opinion on it will change, though it probably would.
That’s a relief (the reviewer part). I also hope you’ll find it more enjoyable the second time around.
I do to
My thoughts exactly! I was quite excited about watching this anime. A lot of fellow anime fans highly recommended this. But when I began watching it, I just didn’t feel excited. Try as I might, I couldn’t bear to finish the series. Oh well. Better to watch other anime titles that I’ll enjoy, than endure something that I don’t really like.
Sometimes, though, I want to think that I need to stick with a series that I am not enjoying because I have hopes for it to eventually get better. It’s actually a 50-50 risk for me to do that, as I really want to enjoy whatever I am watching. The sad thing is not everything I try to bear watching even get to a level that is suitable to my taste. Hahaha.
That’s true. I tend to do that before, too, but not anymore. If I don’t like it, then I’ll stop watching. However, there are times that I stopped watching a series because of a bad first impression. Then some years after, I’ll start watching it again and end up liking it. Weird, huh? But I think that’s understandable because our tastes change as time goes by.
I can totally relate. I’ve actually dropped a good number of series after they left me a bad first impression. This has been my way of checking out anime every season. I’ll give the first episodes of the new anime, but only choose to continue watching whichever left a good impression on me. Of course, the question thereon would be if the anime I choose to continue would still remain something I enjoy until its last episode. 🙂
Yes, it’s inevitable that our anime preference would change over time, as we watch more. The anime we really liked when we were still new to anime would probably be not so acceptable if we were to watch it today, when we are exposed to the medium. The opposite *might* also hold true sometimes.
I’m actually thinking of watching the series I dropped long ago. 🙂
Oh well. There are many great anime titles out there. I think that it’s wiser to watch those that suit our palates than trying to stomach those that we feel bored watching. Besides, as we both said, our preferences change over time, so it’s not like we’re not going to watch an anime forever. There might be a time that we’re going to enjoy something that we passed over, right?
And what series are you thinking of watching again?
Yes, you’re right. 🙂
When I have extra free time, I wanna try finishing Free! Eternal Summer, Black Bullet, High School DxD, and Chaika. XD
Me, too! Especially Free! Soon, soon. . . . 😀
I’m not a fan of Toradora, but I seem to be in the minority. The anime has a strong fanbase that rate it highly.