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Worst Anime Adaptations


Which adaptations of manga/light novels disappointed you the most?

Anything by Studio Pierrot after 'Yu Yu Hakusho' Ended: "Naruto" started off good until the fillers happened. The first problem was that Jiraiya told Naruto he'd only leave in two-to-three months, but combining the amount of filler arcs and the time in-between them for Naruto to heal and have downtime, that'd be more than that. The action based fillers would have generic villains and a Ninja village that was never mentioned before and would never be mentioned again. There would also be the comedy episodes, where Naruto ends up in goofy hijinks like chasing a Ninja mailman, fighting Ninja Ramen Chefs, and getting a mole stuck on his back. This is something I'd like to call "Persona 4 Syndrome," where the characters would keep screwing around despite something very important going on. Yes, I'm sure these are hilarious, but wasn't Naruto supposed to be looking for Sasuke? However, at least with the first "Naruto," they picked a logical point to insert filler. As "Shippuden" and "Bleach" progressed, Pierrot eventually stopped giving a crap about when and where the fillers fit into continuity, so they would have filler arcs that flat-out interrupt canon ones. It wasn't like the Virtual World arc in "Yu-Gi-Oh!" where it at least happened during a break in the Battle City Tournament. One episode would have Naruto fighting in the Ninja War, and the next would be a flashback to part one or a new arc at random. What's really annoying is that the "Naruto" manga ended a year and a half ago, and yet 2015 only had eight canon episodes. "Tokyo Ghoul" is another example of how they royally *beep* up. After only one season, they stopped following the manga altogether. Now, if TG were a monthly series like "Fullmetal Alchemist" and "Soul Eater," that'd be understandable, but TG is a weekly series, the anime was nowhere near close to catching up to the manga, and there was a gap between seasons 1 and 2. There is no excuse for this at all. "Twin Star Exorcists" is next on their chopping block, and that anime is already DOA. They couldn't even get a weekly series right. A monthly series is *beep* Before the anime even aired, they already revealed an anime exclusive character voiced by Jun Fukuyama.

Blue Exorcist: BE is one of the better shonen manga out there, but you wouldn't know that if you watched the anime. The parts the anime adapted from the manga were before the series really started to get good with the Impure King Arc. Once they cut from the manga, it got really stupid. We learn that Satan, who was shown to be a total sadist when he possessed Father Fujimoto, got romanced by Rin's mother. We also learn that Rin's mother believed humans and demons could co-exist, so she naturally thought Satan, the epitome of evil, was a nice guy and thought she could reason with him. Then Yukio develops demon powers, even though Fujimoto told Rin that Yukio couldn't have demon powers because he wasn't genetically incapable. While the manga is implying that Yukio nay develop powers of his own, they are nowhere near as powerful as Rin's. All of the side characters were completely bastardized. Shiemi, who became a bit of a badass in the manga, was reduced to a moeblob love interest. Izumo, who had a tragic backstory, was just a generic tsundere. The worst part was that the anime hinted at Izumo's backstory, but did nothing with it, not even anything anime exclusive. Ryuji never grows past his arrogance. Shima became really important during the Illuminati Arc, but was reduced to just the comic relief in the anime. Finally, Konekomaru and Takara were pretty much just there. Say what you will about FMA 2003, but at least that adaptation had some good ideas and characters. A-1 took a really good manga and turned it into a generic shonen anime. We can only hope that BE will get the "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" treatment.

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Pretty much why I stopped watching or reading shonen shows.

Elfen Lied - Both are pretty bad, but I found the original manga worse.

Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece - Everything you said, nothing further.

Shaman King - This last example is inverted. The anime adaption is better than the original manga by miles. The manga expects us to be sympathetic to the main villain who killed over 1000 people, wants to destroy humanity, and "save nature" all because he lost his wittle mommy. Worse of all, he became a Karma Houdini. A 5 year hiatus for a crappy, misanthropic ending. To the author, writing team, or whoever wrote the script, I am giving you the biggest middle fingering imaginable.





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The main ones that come to mind?

Beelzebub- This is honestly Studio Pierrot's worst sin in my book. No question. It completely fails to capture what readers love about the manga. They play Baby Beel up to be some sort of mascot character. Granted he is that, but they absolutely ruined his character by overkilling the naked baby schtick...which had nothing to do with how he's depicted in the manga. Then they all but 4kids it by turning guns into water guns to make it more kid-friendly and removing blood when half of what made it awesome was its raw violence. They tried to pull in a larger demographic. Not only did they fail to do that, but they alienated all of the manga's fans. So no one watched it in the end. It's just bad. Terribad.

Ichigo 100%- Cheap and poorly handled. But that's not all too surprising for this genre. Played up the ecchiness of the series to the point of repulsion when the heart of the show revolved around film and romance. It has a strong enough story to compete with everything else in its genre a la Love Hina, Toradora, Clannad, etc. But good gravy the opening sequence for the show is enough to make one question their life choices.

Everything else is pretty chill in my book by comparison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMxQXyvotWE

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Here are a few more I forgot.

Both "Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero" and "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters:" They both have their issues, but I'll start with the latter. I personally found the first seven volumes of the YGO manga to be the best stories for the series. I honestly felt like it started to go downhill once it became focused on the trading card game. I liked the premise of the series changing games every story. They also never explain Yami Yugi's change in character. In the first few volumes, he was violent towards his foes to the point of being downright sadistic. That would have made for an interesting story, with Yugi finding out someone has been possessing him to either kill people or destroy their minds and would challenge Yami to a Shadow Game for his freedom. Instead, after the Death-T Arc, Yami is suddenly not psychotic anymore. The Duel Monsters anime skips everything about the first seven volumes of the manga, save for Yugi and Kaiba's duel during the Death-T Arc. It also either cuts out or glosses over the development of Yugi's friends. Season Zero retained the darker elements of the original manga, but it suffered from crappy animation, weak voice acting, and watering down the Shadow Games. The only thing I thought Season Zero did better was that Megumi Ogata was a better voice for Yugi and Yami than Shunske Kazama. She really captured Yugi's shy and timid demeanor and Yami's creepiness.

Negima: Seriously, this series has been rebooted more times than Spider-Man. The first anime started off good, but then stopped following the manga. "Negima!?" started over and didn't even bother following the manga. Then there was the live drama, which had a bit of weirdness to it. Then there were the OVAs which just randomly started at the Magical World Arc. Why can't they just redo the series from the beginning and do the manga justice? It's only going to start problems if "UQ Holder" ever gets adapted.

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Tales from Earthsea-- I'm not too familiar with the books, but this movie seems to smoosh together interesting moments from the whole book series into a new story that doesn't fit within the books' story line. It has some good parts, but a lot of it is just characters talking about stuff on a farm while they do chores.

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Most Shonen Jump shows these days.
Ever since Japan switched over to digital animation, it's gotten to where it takes nothing for an anime to overtake its manga counterpart. So the studio either has to come up with a crap-ton of filler episodes (like Naruto, One Piece, and ESPECIALLY Bleach), or diverge from the source material to become a different story all together (like Blue Exorcist, the first FMA, Soul Eater, and Akame ka Kill).
Either way, the situation sucks (though I can tolerate the different story/ending thing better)

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The problem with long-running series (like the Shonen Jump series) is that the manga volumes are often published much more slowly. They come out with a companion anime, and they end up ahead of the manga production. That's where the filler comes in, and the changes start, for better or for worse (mostly the latter).

--
Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

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Hellsing - starts off real good and I like the more focus it has on the British setting and *beep* that soundtrack is so fitting and made for some awesome scenes but then right after the two vampire brothers attack the mansion it all turns to *beep* There's a whole artificially made vampire plot that seems to be the main plot but then just goes absolutely no where and then suddenly it ends with a big scary vampire appearing that alucard has to fight who has no connection to the plot at all. He just shows up in like the last 2 episodes and suddenly he's the main villain. God the manga and Hellsing ultimate are so much better.

Berserk: the golden age trilogy - It cuts out so much stuff, it ends up making all the characters feel shallow and their motivations for doing things unjustified and under developed. Like the romance between Casca and Guts is so watered down. In the movies it makes them seem like they just had a one night stand but in the manga their relationship is so much deeper. And Griffith's real motivations and back story aren't even touched on at all. The movies just make him seem like a heartless douche and the big twist at the end becomes less shocking because of this. Also it's a shame that the amazing art of the manga had to become really crappy cgi. I have no problem with cgi in anime but in berserk it's just bad cgi.

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Well, my wish for "Blue Exorcist" to get redone has come true with the announcement of a season adapting the Impure King Arc. It kind of sucks that they're doing just the Impure King Arc since the Illuminati Arc is my favorite in the manga.

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