Highly acclaimed anime you dropped.

[FPLOON]

Baccano!: I watched the first episode and swore it off. I like disjointed, non-linear stories; I really do, but this is just beyond the pale in terms of confusing. I watched the first episode twice, by the way, rewinding over and over while trying to figure out character names and motivations but eventually just gave up. I don't want to have to take notes on something that I'm supposed to be watching for fun.

Have you tried binging from episode to episode without looking back and/or re-watching scenes? That's how I went through that particular series... Too bad I couldn't do that with Durarara!!...

FMA brotherhood: Because while i liked the original FMA, i was satisfied with what i got, and the first few episodes of brotherhood felt way too much like a retread.

Try starting from either Episode 13, 14, or especially 15 with the introduction of a few new characters... Then, see if Brotherhood's worth watching through in general...

OT: I remember when I stopped watching Romeo X Juliet, Ninja Nonsense, s-CRY-ed, Boogiepop Phantom, and Poni Poni Dash! after just their first episode... Then again, just like with Sankarea: Undying Love a couple of years ago, I just forgot about watching the other episodes until I remembered and I did after all...

Other than that, I tend to lose track of episodes that I have seen from certain anime series especially for the long-running ones...

 

[theSovietConnection]

Dragon ball z

Oh man, Namek!I really liked the original Dragon Ball and thought the saiyan arc of DBZ was pretty good, but Namek was soooo boring! I don't think they could have made that planet any more dull if they tried. The fake Namek that they go to on the way to real Namek was much more interesting. At least fake Namek had more than 1 biome. Also, I think that fight with Frieza was as long as the entire saiyan arc.

The most highly acclaimed anime I "dropped" would have to be this. I guess I never actually dropped it, I watched it all the way through, but only because of a friend making me watch it (and this likely ties in to why I got sick of it and stopped caring).

Namek wasn't what killed it for me, though. I was ready for a break after the end of Namek, but I was still willing to eventually watch the rest of it. I never got that break, though, and my friend kept motoring right along into the Cell Saga. That was what killed it for me. Just got finished the neverending Namek Saga, only to go right in to another villain that was basically just Frieza after his testicles dropped. That killed DBZ for me.

Naruto could be put in a similar place for the same reason, I guess. I actually liked Shippuden, but was forced to watch all of it's filler.

All of it.

 

[JemothSkarii]

Baccano!: I watched the first episode and swore it off. I like disjointed, non-linear stories; I really do, but this is just beyond the pale in terms of confusing. I watched the first episode twice, by the way, rewinding over and over while trying to figure out character names and motivations but eventually just gave up. I don't want to have to take notes on something that I'm supposed to be watching for fun.

Baccano is an anime that explains itself better as it goes along. It starts to focus on certain characters for episodes and you'll see scenes again from different angles. I found myself going 'Ohhh, so that's how' during it. But then I've been a big lover of mobsters and alchemy so it was an anime which seemed almost made for me.

 

[Michel Henzel]

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica - No other reason then that the abstract style just turned me off, just not my cup of tea.

Gurren Lagann - Cause Simon is a twat, even as a adult he was still a twat and continued to remain a twat. I just cannot bring myself to finish any show if the main protagonist just keeps getting on my nerves. No matter how amazing the story might be.

Little Busters - Watched to about the point that I realized, that the guy that I thought was the main protagonist, wasn't actually the main protagonist.

Bakuman - Again, a main character started to piss me off. Well him and his fiance. I might have continued watching it if it wasn't for those two and their stupid romance bs. Just get a room and get it over with already, so we can all move on and get back to the interesting bits.

Yeah you can probably see a trend there. If characters annoy me or just don't do anything for me, then it's pretty much a lost cause for me. I can sit through the most bare bones or non existent story so long as the characters entertain me.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Well I'll give the short version of my list:

Death Note:

Pretty neat concept, totally buggered up by prime characters being unlikable jerks, with the actual sympathetic characters being just evil. The whole plot was just something I couldn't suspend disbelief for either.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan:

The art style was an initial turn off, then the plot twist hit and I just couldn't watch it after that point.

New Mobile Report: Gundam Wing:

By far the very worst of all the Gundam Franchise. The Gundams are super weapons, which I could handle, if they weren't being made by underdog, oppressed colonists with no resources. Then there were the characters, one note, one dimensional characters who stole the show, leaving the actually interesting characters to languish and then loose, or get killed off. Just awful all the way around.

One Piece:

The art style is a bit too silly for me, but I got over that initially. My problem is with the plot, the plot basically stopped and refused to progress in any meaningful fashion.

Naruto and Bleach:

Both started out really good, had great combat, good narrative, then the DBZ style power creep hit, the stories metastasized into confusing messes, and they started to overstay their welcome.

InuYasha:

The first few seasons really held me, then the story tripped, introduced new antagonists allowing others to flat drop off the map. This one really outstayed it's welcome with me. It lasted long enough that the main cast all became horrifically annoying, now to the point when a promo for it comes on anywhere I have to change the channel.

Attack on Titan:

Great concept, totally wasted with a cast that's either unlikable, or gets killed off. Then they took the human titan concept and took the entire story completely off the rails, which is the sort of thing I can get behind, if I like the characters. Still likable characters wouldn't have salvaged it in this case, because the twist was just too predictable and stupid for me.

Sailor Moon(The Original, with the original English dub especially.):

Too many of the episodes that were produced between manga releases come off as terribly stupid and the last time I saw them they were in the orignal dub, which made them even worse. The story episodes might have worked if the filler hadn't been obnoxious. Also the original english dub voice team made me want to wretch.

 

[infohippie]

Okay, get your pitchforks and chainsaws ready.

Death Note

Watched around 3 episodes I think. By the last one I watched I thought "This would be better as a book. Why am I watching an anime about people sitting around and explaining things instead of, you know, animating?" Never went back.

This was the same one I dropped, except I got around twelve or more episodes in before I realised it just wasn't going to get any better or more interesting so I stopped. Ryuk was amusing, but not enough to save the show.

 

[EbonBehelit]

Bleach
A promising concept and relatively solid first 50 episodes, that rapidly turned into a churning cycle of filler and canon-that-was-no-better-than-filler that not even Kenpachi could redeem. Dropped near the end of the Hueco Mundo arc - a decision I do not regret.

Naruto
The original 135-episode run was pretty damn good, but then 80+ episodes of filler happened and the series never recovered. Even Shippuden couldn't hold my interest for long, as the series' sense of adventure and humor had long since been forgotten by then.

Death Note
Dropped the series just over halfway through. Anyone who's seen the series knows why.

FMA: Brotherhood
I've tried so many times to like Brotherhood, to make it further than 20-odd episodes in, to no avail. I just keep comparing this version to the original and find Brotherhood seriously lacking. The animation is worse. Alphonse's new VA (yes, I know why the original was replaced) is worse. The art-style shift for gags is unbelievably jarring. Worst of all though, the new series utterly lacks the heart that permeated almost every part of the original.

 

[Tony2077]

Bleach
A promising concept and relatively solid first 50 episodes, that rapidly turned into a churning cycle of filler and canon-that-was-no-better-than-filler that not even Kenpachi could redeem. Dropped near the end of the Hueco Mundo arc - a decision I do not regret.

Naruto
The original 135-episode run was pretty damn good, but then 80+ episodes of filler happened and the series never recovered. Even Shippuden couldn't hold my interest for long, as the series' sense of adventure and humor had long since been forgotten by then.

Death Note
Dropped the series just over halfway through. Anyone who's seen the series knows why.

FMA: Brotherhood
I've tried so many times to like Brotherhood, to make it further than 20-odd episodes in, to no avail. I just keep comparing this version to the original and find Brotherhood seriously lacking. The animation is worse. Alphonse's new VA (yes, I know why the original was replaced) is worse. The art-style shift for gags is unbelievably jarring. Worst of all though, the new series utterly lacks the heart that permeated almost every part of the original.

i only ever watched one episode of death note
i like brotherhood. i wonder how many people who don't like it what they would think of the manga

 

[Gatx]

I've always heard great things about Steins;Gate, and it's relatively highly reviewed on myanimelist. The premise is descent enough, but once the set up is done and the meat of the show starts, I decided it was a relatively clever tying in of story and medium (time travel with the typical visual novel setup of multiple endings and different story routes), I decided it was just alright and kind of gave up on it.

 

[Coruptin]

Haven't completely dropped it, but I haven't kept up with Iron Blooded Orphans.
All the Gundam fans seem to be in love with it, but I have some serious issues with how it glorifies child soldiers. Also, all the obligatory UGGUUUUU moe moments with the food twins, Relena 2.0, and puppy girl really grate on my nerves.

Hopefully I'm just an idiot and the writers are obviously setting up to turn militant ideologies on it's head and I'm just too dense to see it... but the fact that other Japanese cartoons, Attack on Titan and GATE for instance, are becoming more sympathetic towards militaristic nationalism is getting quite worrisome.

 

[happyninja42]

Not sure if these are examples of "acclaimed" anime, as I'm not a huge anime fan, but these are ones that are at least popular with fans that I dropped.

FMA. Just, got meh with it. Didn't hold interest.

Bleach. This one had the start of something I would REALLY like. A Japanese version of Ghostbusters, but grimdark as fuck. Hell yeah I can get behind that. A story of a small force of people, gifted to see the realm of the dead, and the only ones able to defend the world against an unseen threat. I'll eat that shit up with a fork! And then they went all "escalating power level fight competition" bullshit with it, and I just stopped giving a fuck.

 

[william1657]

Gundam Seed.

It just didn't seem as good to me as Wing, 0079, Zeta, or G Gundam.

It had an interesting setting, but the characters just seemed flat and uninteresting.

 

[thewatergamer]

Sword Art Online, I'm not sure what "highly acclaimed" means but I do know this show is somewhat popular, I watched the first few episodes and it was...ok I guess, thought it might get better and then things got...creepy and weird, and then things got even more creepy and weird, and halfway through the first season all the rules that were established got thrown out the window apparently and I just said "Fuck this, I am not wasting any more time" I mean if you like the show I guess I can understand why...the animation is pretty good...but...yeesh I just couldn't take it anymore

 

[spartan231490]

So many. Elfen lied just took too long to get to the point. Cowboy beepop didn't even have a point. Gurran Lagan was mediocre at the best of times, and predictable tripe riding on sensationalism the rest of the time. Haruhi Suzumiya was trying way too hard to be mysterious but just ended up wasting a lot of time for no reason. Angel beats was boring, and a waste of a good premise.

Those are the ones that spring to mind, but I'm sure there are at least a couple others.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

While everyone was losing their shit over Serial Experiments Lane I instead opted to watch Boogiepop Phantom. I don't dislike SEL but I remember not being as into that as I was with Boogiepop. When it comes to anime that people absolutely love though, Sengeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) is something that I couldn't get into at all...which is the nicest possible way I can come up with to say that I hated it. I hated every second of the episode I tried watching. I didn't like the abridged series. I thought the live action movie looked promising but the more I saw of that the more I lost interest. Sengeki no Kyojin is an anime that I absolutely disliked.

I liked Gundam Wing Endless Waltz but I couldn't sit through the series. I liked 0080, Mobile Suit and G a whole lot more. G Gundam is actually my favorite series when it comes to Gundam.

I liked the first several episodes of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya...then things started getting oddly existential and I lost interest.

I stopped watching Full Metal Alchemist but I'd go back and watch that if I was given the chance. Same with Food Wars and Monster Musume or whatever it's called...and It's Your Fault I'm Unpopular (or whatever that one is called). I don't know if those last three are very highly acclaimed though.

 

[ecoho]

Before I give my choices I'll tell about the 2 variants of mary sue in anime, the first is the regular mary sue, incredibly powerful, pouplar and flawless, generally what the author (and most readers) wish themselves to be, the second one is somehow worse, it's the underapreicated yet "TOTALLY AWESOME" (usually has an ability or skill that people don't respect) guy, it's worse because that's what the author (and most readers) see themselves as.

So my picks, there are more, but usually it's lack of interest:
1) SAO, Kirito is pure type 1, post first arc, he manages to get most of his muscles in 3 months, actually gained skill with a sword (plus impractical fighting style) from a vidja game, his sister (who's not related by blood is told in HER FIRST (real) SCENE and the villain of the new arc says his gonna rape Asuka, fuck that shit.

2) No game No life-type 2, after the incredibly stupid chess game, mainly because I found the idea of the plot disgusting, the twins are unappreciated in real life due to not having social skills.... so they prefer to be in a magical kingdom where their skills put them in the alpha position, that's fucking messed up if you think about the moral.

3) A Certain Scientific Railgun-Mikasa is a straight type 1 (Toma is a type 2), in general by the time I watched it, the LN tropes became incredibly overused, but even without it I find Mikoto incredibly generic tsundere and a huge creator's pet (though her clones are pretty great), but the absolute worst is Kuroko, hands down one of the most obnoxious character and her main jokes is that she tries to rape Mikasa.

to be fair the whole gain skill with a sword thing could really have worked. I mean most of that is repetition and memory which remember he had spending I think a year in a full dive game. also if you already had the muscle before its pretty easy to rebuild it with proper diet and exercise.

OT:

Monster- sorry but just couldn't give a shit about the characters.

akamie ga kill- or as I like to call it, why you don't make an anime till the mangas done.......

I think 3 years in hospital will destroy any muscles you have and gaining them back will take FAR more than 3 months, though I guess MGS5 did the same (though it's MGS so it's the least stupid thing there), I still call bullshit on the weapon skill, even if the moves aren't pre-made you still have basically no weight to weapons in-game (if I recall there were some BFS there).

but they did have weight.... the device they were using told their brain that things were heavy or light hot or cold.

as to the whole regain muscle thing the human body is an amazing thing if kept hydrated and fed the return of muscle mass is fairly quick. more importantly this is a time when we would have full VR tech for common use so one can surmise that medical care has advanced accordantly, meaning there's a good chance they treated him in order to get his muscle mass back faster.

 

[Weaver]

Steins;Gate.

I'm cheating as I didn't drop - I begrudgingly watched the whole thing - each episode hoping the show would actually get good. But that time never came.

I was completely and totally flabbergasted as to how popular and highly rated (number 2 on MAL) it was for something so mindbogglingly shit.

 

[Dalrien]

Try starting from either Episode 13, 14, or especially 15 with the introduction of a few new characters... Then, see if Brotherhood's worth watching through in general...

Though the FMAB adaption of the manga goes through the same motions as the original does with it's first 25 or so episodes, outright skipping the introduction isn't a good idea. That's because while they are very similiar, there's quite a few details which weren't present at all In FMA03 adaption.

One key difference the character of Shou Tucker.

 

[Deathmageddon]

Crosse Ange: I don't care for yuri. Or rape scenes. Or shows about sex in general. Or pretentious acronyms for naming things that look like dragons, "D.r.a.g.o.n.s." Or edgy shit where the only likable characters die immediately.

Elfen Lied: Do I need a reason not to watch gore and torture porn?

Freezing: Seriously, who watches this sadistic shit?

Fate: See above, I'm clearly too much of a prude to get into anything adapted from actual porn. ("Oh, but there's only 15 minutes worth..." Shut up. The proportions are irrelevant. If you have a bowl of M&Ms and only five of them are poisoned, would you eat any?) Interesting premise, but wasted on an eroge with boring as shit main characters (and that includes Saber), hyperbolically detestable supporting characters, and worms shaped like dicks. Seriously, someone build a museum of worthless, postmodern "art" and put the entire Fate franchise right between "Petra" and "Piss Christ."

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Fun Times.

One Piece - This is at best what I'd call... a poor series. The art style and action and everything about the show points towards slapstick and comedy. Which is fine, and when it sticks to being silly, it's fine. Great even. But the further it goes the more stupidly dramatic it gets. With character deaths of people who did nothing supposed to be big and momentous... Until you realize they're just pirates and all that means is a pirate is dead. Who cares. I sure don't!

It doesn't help the big battle thing that happens before the time skip is with a bunch of characters you barely know anything about, and so means nothing. Ace has no story to him at this point, and all the develop we do get of him is, "Onii-san I love you. Whitebeard Sensei I love you. Blackbeard I dislike you for pirate justice." Or. Something. And we're supposed to care about him, which is unfortunate, but he comes back with blond hair and a swanky hat and is at least cooler looking.

Bleach - Unfortunately it's boring. I was okay with it up until we saved the princess in the tower arc. (Rukia) I could never watch the series or read the manga for very long.

Death Note - Mary-Sue the baddish good guy. I actually liked this series until I saw Code Geass. Which having a similar protagonist, Lelouch suffers a lot for what he's doing.

Gurren Lagann - Mn. I didn't like the changes from OVER THE TOP WACKY TO let's look at this creepy underground complex where everything just slows down, THEN WE FIGHT A GIANT BATHTUB AFTER THAT. Also the series kinda burnt out for me on that. Not bad, but, it couldn't keep my attention.

Neon Genesis Evangelion, or whatever the thing is called. - Thanks fan-base. I couldn't get very far because of that. Also someone showed me a later movie before fully getting into the series and bllehuughghhdh.

Code Geass R2 - Yeah, went off the deep end and got too over the top.

Sword Art Online - It's like Twilight, WITH VIDEO GAMES. Bad characters, bad romance, and a whole lotta stupid. Honestly it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't know about .Hack, particularly the GU games. (Though that third one got kinda weak with making Haseo so... bland.)

Naruto - Kyuubi dad to completely undermine all the work that Naruto did to get to that state. Fucking lame. I dropped it there, and kinda just checked in again for the ending, so there's that. It has more problems then that, but, I could hang out with it until that point where I could just not care for it any more.

Darker Then Black - Like. Episode 22-25 or something were so boring I dropped it, and I couldn't go back to finish it for the last episode. So. There's that.