You've already seen the editorial team's picks for the best of the season, so now it's time for the opposite. From the painful to watch to the largely forgettable, here are our picks for the worst anime of spring 2024.
Note: The commentaries below might contain spoilers
Rebecca Silverman
Unnamed Memory
I'm just flat-out calling this "worst" this time. Normally, that feels too mean, and I try to see how someone else might not hate the show or acknowledge that it has its good points that are overshadowed by the bad. Not this time. Unnamed Memory became the anchor around my neck this season, going from something I didn't mind because I enjoyed the novels to an absolute travesty of an adaptation. Oscar and Tinasha are mere outlines of themselves, barely characterized at all, and their romance is a mere shell, a brittle one that cracks and shatters with the barest tap. We should be rooting for their seemingly star-crossed relationship, be torn to pieces by Tinasha's horrible past as the crown princess of a lost kingdom, and be concerned for Oscar's future with the curse upon him. Instead? It's hard to dredge up a drop of emotion about them as the plot hops languidly from one point to the next, not caring about things like "background information" or "development." It's a gutting of the novels and the laziest form of storytelling, and I want the Tuesdays I spent watching this show back.
Christopher Farris
Not Being Able to Watch Girls Band Cry
Toei, Toei, Toei. You thought you were slick, thought you could pull a fast one? I understand you must have been ashamed of Girls Band Cry. That's the only logical reason, after all, that you would deign not to license the show for simulcast over here in these United States. I get it, the anime obviously couldn't measure up to the prestige licenses that normally fill out our streaming dockets—such demanded series as…*checks notes*...Re:Monster. We all saw the trailers for Girls Band Cry (that you streamed worldwide…with English subtitles…), and that CGI animation was pretty odd-looking. It's not like seeing the show properly ordered in action, under the seasoned direction of Kazuo Sakai, would reveal it to be some of the most lively, distinctive character animations in ages! I'll bet the concert scenes aren't even incredible presentational feats. How could I confirm if they were or not? Just go on your YouTube channel and watch the clipped versions of those scenes you uploaded to hundreds of thousands of millions of views. Fat chance. That's about as likely as the writing for Girls Band Cry being any better than its animation. I watched BanG Dream! It's MyGo!!!!! okay? I know impactful girls' band drama when I see it, and I can tell just from glancing at your show that it doesn't even come close to measuring up. Are you seriously going to try to convince me that this story could manage prickly, messy characters in compelling clashes that drag them into raw, crying catharsis? Would the grinning con artist clad under the mask of Puss' n Boots truly try to make me believe a snippy hedgehog-like lead character Nina could be capable of any affecting emotional breakthroughs? Well, I'm not buying it. Perhaps places like Indonesia and the uncultured hovel of France are accepting of your sub-par selection, Toei, but clearly, you knew our standards here were too high for it, and we'd rightfully recognize Girls Band Cry as the worst anime of the season, nay, the year.
What are you going to do? Prove me wrong by actually releasing it over here? I know you won't. I dare you.
MrAJCosplay
A Condition Called Love
I'm sorry, guys, I tried. I really tried to like A Condition Called Love, and while there were some episodes and character arcs that I genuinely enjoyed, as a whole, I just felt like this was one of the messier shoujo romances that I've watched in a while. While other bad shows this season bored me, like Demon Slayer, this show just frustrated me. I feel bad for fans of the original manga because they were done dirty with this anime adaptation. At best, some scenes look alright with nice setpieces, but at worst, this presentation is pretty bad. Shot composition is all over the place, character models appear warped, and perspectives are inconsistent. This is all happening in a show that visually doesn't ask a lot in the first place; it's failing to meet the bare minimum, and that's a shame.
I could push past that if the writing enthralled me or was particularly strong, but it was a steep uphill battle from the beginning. Portraying our male lead, Hananoi, as clingy and emotionally codependent with a bit of a martyr complex was a bold choice. I will admit that I was on the bandwagon thinking that this was originally going to be a show that maybe glorified problematic male leads like so many other shoujo series. I can confidently say that it is not that type of show, but I also don't think it does a good enough job of addressing our main lead's behavior. There's a reason why he acts the way that he does, and honestly, my favorite episode of the show was when we just focused on that, but it feels like A Condition Called Love wants to be an insightful and dark character piece and a light, fluffy shoujo romance at the same time. The problem is that the way the story is told takes away from both these stories, and conflict happens in almost every episode.
I cannot tell you how often the show will highlight Hananoi's behavior as something worth paying attention to and addressing (oh, and it's almost always conveniently out of sight of his girlfriend). Then the show will immediately make a sharp right turn into doing the light and fluffy stuff with Hotaru, but because she doesn't see or question his actions as much, these cute moments don't feel earned. I feel like the audience has too much information about Hananoi and not enough at the same time. This creates such a strong disconnect between me and the couple because aside from his appearance as the perfect boyfriend, I don't see why they like each other that much. It gets close, but I need to explicitly ignore things that the show itself doesn't want me to forget to enjoy it. I'm all for darker stories that incorporate romance or stories about broken characters trying to get over their insecurities due to childhood trauma, but A Condition Called Love does not tell either of those stories well.
Kevin Cormack
Worst: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime — Season 3
You know, once upon a time, I enjoyed the whimsical, colorful tale of cheerful and upbeat Rimuru, a former Japanese salaryman reincarnated into a fantasy world as a diminutive slime creature, the weakest of all JRPG-style monsters. Watching him slowly gain new skills and powers felt fun in a JRPG-progression-like way. Along the road, Rimuru met new friends, built a town, and even became a teacher for a while. Then something started to go wrong.
As Rimuru's town grew, so did the author's ambition – instead of a simple JRPG power fantasy, Slime metamorphosed into a complex political tale, an unwieldy Civilization-like transformation that necessitated the introduction of enemy countries, demon lords, gods, and religious factions, and secret puppet masters. Now, watching episodes hoping for the funny slime or his funny friends to do something amusing became an unendurable slog of talking heads. The author, having created an impassable narrative quagmire, caused Slime to degenerate into that most dreaded of genres: Boardroom Meetings: The Anime.
I don't know about you, but I get more than enough of my share of boring meetings in my day job. Outside of work, the last thing I want to do is watch a bunch of formerly fun animated characters sit around a table and talk about other characters, many of whom have not been properly introduced. Slime season three starts by wasting six entire episodes on boardroom meeting after boardroom meeting. Once one meeting scene ends, it switches to another group of characters talking about yet more characters. The cast is now so unfeasibly huge that I have no idea who most of these beings even are.
We got a break for a couple of episodes where some action occurred. They were fun. I liked those episodes. I felt ready to forgive Slime for its crimes against pacing and entertainment. But the meetings returned. I have rarely felt such despair. Most episodes this season were meetings that could have been an email. I wish they had been an email. If this continues, the rest of Slime Season 3 will go straight into my junk folder.
Runner-up: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
I rarely persist with two anime shows in a season that maliciously squanders my precious leisure time. Unfortunately, the sunk cost fallacy of having endured through the previous hopelessly padded Swordsmith Village arc has damned me to persist with Demon Slayer until – please God – something (perhaps some demon slaying?) actually happens.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Demon Slayer. I thoroughly enjoyed the first season and the Mugen Train movie, but almost everything since has been an exercise in squeezing out every last drop of thin gruel from the wafer-thin premise and basic characters. Miracle-producing studio ufotable continues to churn out gorgeous visuals, full of spectacular animation and vibrant color, but when enslaved to such ephemerally inconsequential content, even exceptionally talented artists can only compensate so much.
The Hashira Training Arc pads out a handful of manga chapters to the obscene length of almost a full anime season once its three inexplicably extended episodes are factored in. This material does not deserve such pathologically intense love and attention. If Slime season three's interminable meetings should have been an email, Demon Slayer's endless wheel-spinning training scenes should have been a montage.
Despite this, each episode at least barely passes the bar of "adequately mindless entertainment", with pleasing eye candy and occasionally vaguely satisfying emotional beats, so the season hasn't been a complete washout. It is the most furiously-polished-until-it's-gleaming turd I've watched in a long time, however.
Steve Jones
Highspeed Étoile
I want it on the record that I gave Highspeed Étoile a fair shake. Last year's Overtake! proved that I could unabashedly love an anime about racing, and I'm not allergic to 3D animation. Heck, one of my favorite anime from this season (which cruelly remains in licensing limbo) is Girls Band Cry. I'm not even averse to janky 3D, as the lo-fi stylings of Kemono Friends and Kemurikusa didn't stop me from enjoying either of those series. I could imagine a version of Highspeed Étoile that charmed me.
Sadly, that's not the Highspeed Étoile version we got. Its worst sins are not those of content or style but of story and character. The storytelling is actually fascinatingly bad. Rather than focus on basic stuff like our protagonist's journey, the show's early episodes thrust its commentators front and center, soaking up gobs of valuable time with their brain-numbingly boring narration. I'm not a motorsports guy—maybe this is true to life, and maybe this is what the fans look for. But I do know a thing or two about writing, and it blows my mind that the premiere waits a full twenty minutes to introduce our heroine, and the series idles even longer before telling us she's a former ballerina. That's your hook! That's the thing you lead with! But nope, it's more concerned with letting the audience know the temperature of the asphalt every five minutes.
Maybe there's something here if you're a true grease monkey and/or know literally anything about racecars. I don't. I hit the brakes at the halfway mark. Still, if that describes you, you can do better than Highspeed Étoile's woodenness. I can't believe I'm saying this, but even MF Ghost had more juice to its squeeze. Or better yet, just watch Overtake!. More people need to watch Overtake!.
James Beckett
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
Is anyone even watching this new season of Demon Slayer? If they are, does anyone have any feelings about it besides being generally bored? Usually, whenever I have anything negative to say about Demon Slayer, I can expect all sorts of reactionary fans to fill up the comments and my Twitter mentions with their rage, but I've hardly heard a peep from anyone all season! This isn't exactly surprising, however, because what has made this agonizingly overlong season of Demon Slayer so frustrating isn't even that it's doing anything especially terrible; The Swordsmith Village Arc remains the series' low point, for my money. No, instead, the Hashira Training Arc has sinned being unapologetically forgettable and bland, substituting endless fight scenes with lame villains for endless scenes of Tanjiro wandering around and killing time with a bunch of side characters we barely know or care about.
We have entire episodes devoted to Tanjiro doing random training workouts, building paper planes, doing yoga, and pestering guys into sharing their vaguely depressing backstories before insisting on challenging them to noodle-eating contests. Nezuko has had literally seven words of spoken dialogue all season, even though her evolution into a speaking, suntanning creature of the midday is supposed to be the whole reason any of this training is happening. I really hate using the term "filler" because plenty of shows have spun gold out of stories that "don't move the story forward." I don't know how else to describe the Hashira Training Arc, though. I would bet dollars to donuts that, when this show is all wrapped up, you could cut out almost every single episode of this entire season without anyone noticing or giving a damn. If that isn't a textbook example of crappy filler content, then I don't know what is.
Richard Eisenbeis
The New Gate
As always, I want to clarify that this is almost certainly not "the worst" anime of the season, only "the worst I have watched." In fact, The New Gate was one of my picks for the most anticipated of the season. After all, I absolutely love the hook: What if after beating the VR death game Sword Art Online, the world of Aincrad had become real, and Kirito awoke in this fantasy world a few hundred years later?
What we get is a story filled with adventure and mystery. Why did the game world become real? What happened to the NPC characters? Why has Shin (our legally distinct Kirito clone) basically been isekai'ed to this world? It's a fun story—and your enjoyment will only increase if you're a fan of Sword Art Online. That said, I'm self-aware enough to enjoy every second of this show and accept that it's not very good.
Having read both the light novels and the manga, I can conclusively say the anime is the most inferior version of the story. Numerous characters and subplots are left on the cutting room floor, and the whole adventure feels a bit too rushed from a pacing standpoint. It doesn't help that the animation quality varies between bog-standard and low—both inside action scenes and outside of them. That said, the voice acting is perfectly cast and is easily the most praiseworthy aspect of the show.
And to be extra clear, The New Gate is not outright terrible. Rather, it is one of the numerous light novel anime each season destined to be forgotten about the moment they stop airing. This is a show for fans of the source material and no one else—a way for fans to see their favorite scenes and characters in action and nothing more.
Lucas DeRuyter
Re:Monster
I started contributing to Anime News Network's This Week In Anime column around the top of this year! This means I was due for a trial by fire and had to watch each isekai to premiere in the Spring 2024 season for that column's regular isekai round-up. You can read more about how that conversation shook out here, but (spoiler alert) none of them are good, and the worst of the lot, and therefore season, was Re:Monster.
This is one of those pieces where seemingly every creative decision at every production level either annoyed me or made me indifferent to the project. The edgier tone makes it clear that this anime is supposed to be a power fantasy for a young, male, and straight audience, and I'm so tired of anime studios chasing that demographic's money. The monster designs are also uninspired, with the various kinds of goblins quickly transforming into conventionally hot people with meaningless tattoos and who look a little green behind the gills. We can also add Re:Monster to the list of isekai that, inexplicably, have weird politics around slavery.
I almost don't want to make Re:Monster my worst of the season, as it's so wholly pandering and banal that even casting negative attention to it is more of a spotlight than the show deserves. The one kind thing I can say about Re:Monster is that it helped me crystalize my tastes and how I engage with media, but being the complete opposite of what I look for and enjoy in a show. So thank you for that, Re:Monster! You've made me a better critic! But only in theory, as it's super easy to write about why this anime doesn't work.
Nicholas Dupree
Whoever Fumbled the Bag on Girls Band Cry
I admit, part of this entry being what it is comes from me not watching anything genuinely awful. Sure, there were some mild letdowns, but nothing I could call "bad" with any conviction. So to spare y'all a few hundred words amounting to "Demon Slayer training arc season as boring as expected," I decided to go with the biggest buzz kill of the season: whatever behind-the-scenes screw-up left Girls Band Cry locked out of most of the English-speaking market. While it might not be the biggest blunder in the simulcast era, it's the most obvious unforced error I've seen in quite a while.
Just from a business perspective, it doesn't make sense. GBC certainly wouldn't have been a massive, Kaiju No. 8-sized hit, but Bocchi the Rock!'s success and acclaim demonstrated there's a healthy audience for music-driven dramedies about girl bands. If anything, Western audiences will likely be more receptive to CG productions. Even knowing how notoriously controlling Toei can be with their properties, they are interested in releasing this show outside of Japan, with a French simulcast and late-arriving streaming in Indonesia that even features official English subtitles. At the time of writing, the official YouTube page had multiple music videos with over one million views apiece, including one with a whopping 11 million – and all of them had translated lyrics. There is an audience worth pursuing, and somebody has the resources to make it available. I can't imagine a good reason to leave money on the table like this besides sheer incompetence.
Outside of the world of business, it just plain sucks for fans who are left to crack open their French-to-English dictionaries, fire up VPNs, or rely on non-official means to engage with the show. There was honest-to-god fansubbing drama in 2024 because of this! Even as the show went viral through social media clips or climbed the charts on sites like AniTrendz, it was forever stuck in this awkward limbo that made accessing it in any capacity harder than it should be. That friction partially inspired a fiercely loyal fanbase who let it nestle into their brains like a musically proficient parasite, but it doubtlessly pushed more people away because there was no convenient way to watch it on their TV or find it on one of the streaming services they pay for.
This was a show that had the lead producer at Studio Orange praising its animation from episode one! Yet if you wanted to see what got him so excited or wanted to show your support in a way that would matter to the people up top, you were stuck looping videos on YouTube or moving to France. That is a massive bummer and easily the worst thing about this season.
