Unpopular Anime Opinions

Gens said:
It's kind of crazy to think about the controversy years ago for me, because if they had just simply done a better job of tracing with the character designs I really honestly doubt there would have nearly been as many people shitting on it even with the choppy animation:

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Not very difficult here.
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Indeed they should have; it's not like the rotoscoping in End of Evangelion or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya raised a lot of ire (but those probably had WAAAAY higher a budget to begin with).
 
g3data said:
I can't help but feel that having The Flowers of Evil be the introduction to the idea of rotoscoping in anime really poisoned that well.
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Tbh, its the fact that bad rotoscoping stands out too versus more subtle stuff. Kind of like how a lot of the negative associations with CGI are when its bad, its REALLY bad. Even though there's a lot of subtle CGI

Like, probably tons of people had watched shows with rotoscoping before Flowers of Evil, but because it does a bad job, and is really obvious unlike other examples, it becomes 'the bad rotoscoping anime' = rotoscoping is like this = rotoscoping is bad.
 
Claptrap said:
Tbh, its the fact that bad rotoscoping stands out too versus more subtle stuff. Kind of like how a lot of the negative associations with CGI are when its bad, its REALLY bad. Even though there's a lot of subtle CGI

Like, probably tons of people had watched shows with rotoscoping before Flowers of Evil, but because it does a bad job, and is really obvious unlike other examples, it becomes 'the bad rotoscoping anime' = rotoscoping is like this = rotoscoping is bad.
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I feel like this is a dig at Hand Shitters, which I wholly agree with.
 
Death Note.

-Spoilers ahead-


​
Death Note is not that good, but everyone saw it while they were young and think it was amazing. Watching it now would make most of us cringe out of the corniness and edginess. It tends to imitate depth and we all know that the ending is super wack. Neer is stupid and so is the way they achieve the defeat of Light. L and Light are the main reason people watched the anime and when L gets killed, the show ceases to bring anything to the table. Nostalgia is the only thing keeping this anime at the height that it is.
 
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hamletsmage said:
Sword Art Online II can suck lemons.

I was ok with the first half of the first season, then i ground my way through the second half because I'm into MMRPGs and fairies. The plot line started to go sideways, though.
Let there be incest and catgitls
Then, I tried, I really tried to get past episode 4 of the second season. I can't, I just can't. The new characters are crap, his genderbent character is him in a wig, and what the fuck is with the light saber. Really, SAO, you're going to rip off Star Wars in order to let him use a sword in a gun game?
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All people which I know, despise SAO 2nd season. First one was cool and new, but every season went downhill after the 1st one. I think that the gun spinoff is suprisingly not bad though.
 
UAO:

The best season of Kuroko no Basket is season 3, basketball sharingan and all.
Between
A) The Teiko backstory mini arc finally delivering on the hints spread throughout the show about the GoM's falling out
B) The fun yet competitive revenge match against Kise, that also developed his and Kuroko's relationship in an unexpected but cool way
C) The catharsis of Aomine finally realizing what was missing from his basketball, what he'd let go in his arrogance, and tearing up on the sidelines
D) The crazy intense final match against Rakuzan (shoutout to Rakuzan for being the only opponent whose entire team is distinct characters). Plus that final winning move? When Akashi goes to block Kuroko but Kuroko reminds him that he's just the shadow and passes the ball to Kagami to secure the winning points instead of taking the shot himself? The show could've wimped out on its themes a little and had Kuroko take the final shot for the protag hype points, but it didn't and it was great (and arguably even more hype).

In terms of payoff, excitement, and emotional climax, season 3 just doesn't miss

I haven't even rewatched KnB in at least 2-3 years, but I can still remember all these moments from season 3 so vividly even now
 
Cherstal said:
UAO:

The best season of Kuroko no Basket is season 3, basketball sharingan and all.
Between
A) The Teiko backstory mini arc finally delivering on the hints spread throughout the show about the GoM's falling out
B) The fun yet competitive revenge match against Kise, that also developed his and Kuroko's relationship in an unexpected but cool way
C) The catharsis of Aomine finally realizing what was missing from his basketball, what he'd let go in his arrogance, and tearing up on the sidelines
D) The crazy intense final match against Rakuzan (shoutout to Rakuzan for being the only opponent whose entire team is distinct characters). Plus that final winning move? When Akashi goes to block Kuroko but Kuroko reminds him that he's just the shadow and passes the ball to Kagami to secure the winning points instead of taking the shot himself? The show could've wimped out on its themes a little and had Kuroko take the final shot for the protag hype points, but it didn't and it was great (and arguably even more hype).

In terms of payoff, excitement, and emotional climax, season 3 just doesn't miss

I haven't even rewatched KnB in at least 2-3 years, but I can still remember all these moments from season 3 so vividly even now
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I can't believe this is an unpopular opinion! I thought S3 was the best too.
 
Rascal said:
I don't know if it's unpopular outside of this website, but I definitely didn't like S3 as much as S2
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I've seen "S3 is where it goes downhill" be the popular opinion in other places as well. Although surprisingly enough, these days just the act of watching and enjoying KnB as a sports anime is a bit of an unpopular opinion on reddit/youtube (or at least a contested one). 3/4 times I've heard KnB get brought up in the past couple years outside of AP, it's usually a Haikyuu fan saying how much more they preferred Haikyuu over it. And if you bring KnB up yourself, there's almost always at least a few "but it's not realistic, sports anime are better when they're grounded and realistic like Haikyuu--" comments that roll in like clockwork. (Nothing against Haikyuu but can you tell that I'm salty--).
 
Cherstal said:
I've seen "S3 is where it goes downhill" be the popular opinion in other places as well. Although surprisingly enough, these days just the act of watching and enjoying KnB as a sports anime is a bit of an unpopular opinion on reddit/youtube (or at least a contested one). 3/4 times I've heard KnB get brought up in the past couple years outside of AP, it's usually a Haikyuu fan saying how much more they preferred Haikyuu over it. And if you bring KnB up yourself, there's almost always at least a few "but it's not realistic, sports anime are better when they're grounded and realistic like Haikyuu--" comments that roll in like clockwork. (Nothing against Haikyuu but can you tell that I'm salty--).
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Even after going over Haikyuu again and appreciating it more the second time, I still greatly prefer Kuroko no Basket because when it comes down to it, it's a fun, wacky, intense show and that's all it needs to be. Haikyuu goes too hard on the realism when it really shouldn't have. It really isn't a realistic show when you start looking at the individual elements, it just pretends to be. Nothing is realistic about how the characters act or how obsessive they all are.

Granted, kuroko also needed to have its own rules and actually follow them. Which for me is one of the areas in which Season 3 falls flat.
I can buy "the zone" even with how ridiculous it gets. I can buy copying people's moves. I can even buy kuroko's "invisibility" at least a little bit. But I'll never buy akashi's eye thing. Like, he has geass or something? Escalation is ok, but i'm not a fan of hard left turns into wtf-ville after we've been on an uphill drive in crazy bizarre town for 2 and a half seasons.
 
Rascal said:
Even after going over Haikyuu again and appreciating it more the second time, I still greatly prefer Kuroko no Basket because when it comes down to it, it's a fun, wacky, intense show and that's all it needs to be. Haikyuu goes too hard on the realism when it really shouldn't have. It really isn't a realistic show when you start looking at the individual elements, it just pretends to be. Nothing is realistic about how the characters act or how obsessive they all are.
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Yeah honestly, if we're talking about Actual Realism™ in sports anime, you should be watching something like Ookiku Furikabutte, or Mix, or even Megalo Box for realism with a twist. Heck, you could probably throw Yuri on Ice into there as well

Rascal said:
I can buy "the zone" even with how ridiculous it gets. I can buy copying people's moves. I can even buy kuroko's "invisibility" at least a little bit. But I'll never buy akashi's eye thing. Like, he has geass or something? Escalation is ok, but i'm not a fan of hard left turns into wtf-ville after we've been on an uphill drive in crazy bizarre town for 2 and a half seasons.
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The man's got good eyes, what can I say? xD

Nah but for real, that's fair. I think it really is a personal test of how much you're willing to let slide for the sake of rule of cool and still buy into the emotional stakes. And there definitely is a limit (let's not talk about the Last Game movie where they somehow made Akashi's Emperor Eye even more OP, that shit was wild). For me I just rolled with it like, yeah sure, he's got good vision and can use that to track the movement of the player in front of him and figure out when to move so that it'll throw off the other guy's timing and make em fall over. Why not.

It probably didn't help that they went all-in on the dramatic presentation though. I thought it looked incredibly cool and it personally worked wonders for me, but between the animation and the intimidating music they'd always blast, it does admittedly come across like a scene straight out of Code Geass.

I happen to like that stuff, and my investment in the character/story development in S3 was enough to just ride with it 'cause man there was so much great stuff in that season, but I get that it won't be like that for everyone
 
Cherstal said:
Yeah honestly, if we're talking about Actual Realism™ in sports anime, you should be watching something like Ookiku Furikabutte, or Mix, or even Megalo Box for realism with a twist. Heck, you could probably throw Yuri on Ice into there as well

The man's got good eyes, what can I say? xD

Nah but for real, that's fair. I think it really is a personal test of how much you're willing to let slide for the sake of rule of cool and still buy into the emotional stakes. And there definitely is a limit (let's not talk about the Last Game movie where they somehow made Akashi's Emperor Eye even more OP, that shit was wild). For me I just rolled with it like, yeah sure, he's got good vision and can use that to track the movement of the player in front of him and figure out when to move so that it'll throw off the other guy's timing and make em fall over. Why not.

It probably didn't help that they went all-in on the dramatic presentation though. I thought it looked incredibly cool and it personally worked wonders for me, but between the animation and the intimidating music they'd always blast, it does admittedly come across like a scene straight out of Code Geass.

I happen to like that stuff, and my investment in the character/story development in S3 was enough to just ride with it 'cause man there was so much great stuff in that season, but I get that it won't be like that for everyone
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The excitement of it is still definitely there and more exciting than ever in season three as is the character development so I completely get that point of view. But for me it just can't hope to top the end of season two, where actual thematic depth is brought to the table with murafakisasdfkjballa-kun or whatever the fuck his name is. Get rid of a few of those extra consonants pal.
He doesn't just provide a wall for the whole team to hit skill-wise or a symbol for just one character's progression, he poses a much more existential threat. He questions the merits of basketball as a sport, and overcoming him really felt like pushing past a spirit-killing monster and really shed a light on the reason why the game matters to all these characters. It hit hard. And it made the game and the payoff that much more satisfying, because it brought new meaning to what the show is all about.

Compared to that, akashi coming along in season 3 just feels like some wanker who has as many personalities as he has eyeballs. The only character he feels significant to imo is kuroko, rather than the whole cast. It doesn't really change anything about the show, and it doesn't carry the same weight for me. Sure it's more intense in tone than season two, but there's no reason for it to be more intense.
I guess you could say my reasoning for not liking season three as much as season two boils down to the fact that season two set the bar too high for me. That's more the reason than Akashi's eye.
 
@Cherstal
Oofuri is my favourite, because I prefer more grounded sports drama that focuses on character growth / development and well, the character archetypes really appeal to me.

But I think there's a bit of an issue overall with sports series discussions and referencing Haikyuu. I like Haikyuu, but I see everyone treat it as this untouchable godtier sports anime when imo, it's... much like all sports anime?

and even if I prefer realistic sports anime, I think there's an issue with treating unrealistic sports anime as a flaw. I think what people have to realize is that it's a preference. If Kuroko no Basuke doesn't appeal to someone (which I'll be honest, it didn't for me), it's okay to not like it. But it's another thing for people to criticize it for its lack of realism - KnB never, ever pretends it's going to be realistic. I see similar criticisms of a lot of 'out there' sports anime, and a lot of it comes off like criticizing a fantasy show for magic. It's one thing if a show acts like it's going to be realistic and then there's magic powers, but these criticisms almost always come for shows that have never ever pretended it's not going to be magic esque sports

Btw, I do love super silly out there sports anime like Sk8 and Inazuma Eleven, KnB just didn't click with me for whatever reason. I think it's partially a bit of a shallow reason though, as the character designs aren't really in my ballpark.
 
Claptrap said:
@Cherstal
Oofuri is my favourite, because I prefer more grounded sports drama that focuses on character growth / development and well, the character archetypes really appeal to me.

But I think there's a bit of an issue overall with sports series discussions and referencing Haikyuu. I like Haikyuu, but I see everyone treat it as this untouchable godtier sports anime when imo, it's... much like all sports anime?

and even if I prefer realistic sports anime, I think there's an issue with treating unrealistic sports anime as a flaw. I think what people have to realize is that it's a preference. If Kuroko no Basuke doesn't appeal to someone (which I'll be honest, it didn't for me), it's okay to not like it. But it's another thing for people to criticize it for its lack of realism - KnB never, ever pretends it's going to be realistic. I see similar criticisms of a lot of 'out there' sports anime, and a lot of it comes off like criticizing a fantasy show for magic. It's one thing if a show acts like it's going to be realistic and then there's magic powers, but these criticisms almost always come for shows that have never ever pretended it's not going to be magic esque sports

Btw, I do love super silly out there sports anime like Sk8 and Inazuma Eleven, KnB just didn't click with me for whatever reason. I think it's partially a bit of a shallow reason though, as the character designs aren't really in my ballpark.
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Yeah sk8 really screams so loudly and in your face, that it's a dumb as fuck over the top show that defies the laws of physics. If someone didn't understand that from watching the preview trailer and premise, I don't know wtf they were watching honestly lol

I think degree of realism can sometimes depends on how actively involved the person is as well in the sport. Because when you're deeply invested in a particular sport as an actual active participant, I think you can't help but notice the flaws a lot more than the average joe and for some people that can bother them to a certain extent that it subconsciously affects their ability to enjoy it for them. I can still really enjoy the hell out of my silly shounen sports anime and I don't think being unrealistic is really a flaw, but when it comes to a sport I'm intimately familiar with. It's hard not to nitpick at least a little bit in my mind unintentionally and that's more out of passion than anything else, not actually looking for reasons to hate it.
 
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@Gens
I think it often depends HOW wrong things get, and also on how many examples there are of a sport - like, if something is more niche, you might be more annoyed/frustrated when something portrays it inaccurately. But, at the same time, I guess that's why it's hard for me to understand critcism of KnB and Ina11/Tsubasa or Prince of Tennis - basketball, soccer and tennis are all super popular, I think

Like if it's SLIGHTLY unrealistic, I think that opens it up more to nitpicks - like, I know how soccer is played but when the superpowers come out in Inazuma Eleven and then they fight aliens with soccer it really gets hard to criticize at all because they're so clearly not going for realism. I kinda feel that way about Sk8 and KnB too, actually what surprised me more about Sk8 was things that did exist irl - like Adam's longboard dancing (though not to the same frantic anime extent)

But I agree, a bit, I think that's why baseball series tend to be more grounded and realistic than other type of sports in anime - because most people in Japan have experience with baseball, and thus it's a little harder to suspend belief about epic magical baseball. Similarly, baseball is a centerpiece for nostalgia and memories and highschool drama because so many people can relate to the concept in Japan, whereas other sports don't quite have the same feeling

Maybe I'll be able to relate to people's griping about inaccuracies when we finally get a hockey anime since that has all the perfect notes for people to get really upset about its portrayal
 
Rascal said:
The excitement of it is still definitely there and more exciting than ever in season three as is the character development so I completely get that point of view. But for me it just can't hope to top the end of season two, where actual thematic depth is brought to the table with murafakisasdfkjballa-kun or whatever the fuck his name is. Get rid of a few of those extra consonants pal.
He doesn't just provide a wall for the whole team to hit skill-wise or a symbol for just one character's progression, he poses a much more existential threat. He questions the merits of basketball as a sport, and overcoming him really felt like pushing past a spirit-killing monster and really shed a light on the reason why the game matters to all these characters. It hit hard. And it made the game and the payoff that much more satisfying, because it brought new meaning to what the show is all about.

Compared to that, akashi coming along in season 3 just feels like some wanker who has as many personalities as he has eyeballs. The only character he feels significant to imo is kuroko, rather than the whole cast. It doesn't really change anything about the show, and it doesn't carry the same weight for me. Sure it's more intense in tone than season two, but there's no reason for it to be more intense.
I guess you could say my reasoning for not liking season three as much as season two boils down to the fact that season two set the bar too high for me. That's more the reason than Akashi's eye.
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Y'know what.. you make some good points.
I'm glad we got both seasons, I don't think the show would be complete without the cast-wide thematic development of S2 and the focused, character development + payoff for Kuroko and the GoM in S3, but honestly I think I see what you're saying about S3 lacking some of the punch of S2 with how it grappled with the purpose of basketball itself.

I still think that Kuroko no Basket as a whole is better with season 3 than without it. But you know, maybe I should do a rewatch soon.. I think I need to see S2 again :D
Claptrap said:
@Cherstal
Oofuri is my favourite, because I prefer more grounded sports drama that focuses on character growth / development and well, the character archetypes really appeal to me.

But I think there's a bit of an issue overall with sports series discussions and referencing Haikyuu. I like Haikyuu, but I see everyone treat it as this untouchable godtier sports anime when imo, it's... much like all sports anime?

and even if I prefer realistic sports anime, I think there's an issue with treating unrealistic sports anime as a flaw. I think what people have to realize is that it's a preference. If Kuroko no Basuke doesn't appeal to someone (which I'll be honest, it didn't for me), it's okay to not like it. But it's another thing for people to criticize it for its lack of realism - KnB never, ever pretends it's going to be realistic. I see similar criticisms of a lot of 'out there' sports anime, and a lot of it comes off like criticizing a fantasy show for magic. It's one thing if a show acts like it's going to be realistic and then there's magic powers, but these criticisms almost always come for shows that have never ever pretended it's not going to be magic esque sports

Btw, I do love super silly out there sports anime like Sk8 and Inazuma Eleven, KnB just didn't click with me for whatever reason. I think it's partially a bit of a shallow reason though, as the character designs aren't really in my ballpark.
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Couldn't agree more! I can't help but wonder how it got to this point. There were other huge sports anime franchises that arose in the 2010's, like KnB, Yowapeda, Free, Diamond no Ace, but in the end it's Haikyuu that's become the gold standard that every new sports anime should aim to achieve (yet inevitably fail to).

People are free to not watch fantasy shows 'cause they don't like magic, but when you go ahead and use that preference to say that Star Trek is the best TV show ever made because it's sci-fi, not fantasy, and all TV shows should be sci-fi and just like Star Trek... It doesn't really make any sense.
 
Claptrap said:
@Gens
I think it often depends HOW wrong things get, and also on how many examples there are of a sport - like, if something is more niche, you might be more annoyed/frustrated when something portrays it inaccurately. But, at the same time, I guess that's why it's hard for me to understand critcism of KnB and Ina11/Tsubasa or Prince of Tennis - basketball, soccer and tennis are all super popular, I think
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All the sports I enjoy playing are extremely niche so yeah, I think in my particular case I'd just personally prefer a more accurate portrayal at the moment lol

Claptrap said:
Maybe I'll be able to relate to people's griping about inaccuracies when we finally get a hockey anime since that has all the perfect notes for people to get really upset about its portrayal
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Speaking of hockey, I know Noda, the author of Golden Kamuy interestingly actually did a hockey manga called Supinamarada! Even if it's a bit short, been meaning to check that out randomly.
 
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