"On Second Thought...": Anime You Changed Your Mind About

Gundam SEED Destiny - I sincerely was enjoying this show most of the way. There were some low points, plus the standard stock footage and other complaints that the series is known for, but it was okay. Then we hit the final batch of episodes and NOSEDIVE! That trash even ruined the earlier episodes that were previously enjoyable.

Hellsing - Not too bad. Then I saw the Hellsing Ultimate OVAs. Now it's pretty bad by comparison, but then again Hellsing Ultimate is made of awesome.
 
Oh yes, that as well. After seeing the Ultimate OVAs from a friend, it made me wonder why I even bothered buying the TV series on DVD.

But then again, my funRAB probably paid for the Ultimate OVAs I probably benefitted from those financial decisions.
 
The one anime series I completely changed my mind on was, Inuyasha. When I first began watching it I was not impressed at all, but a big part of that was that a friend was not a fan and talked the series down all the time, so of course when I watched it I didn't expect much and didn't pay attention the way I should have. When I finally caught the show on Adult Swim my mind changed almost instantly, I forget which episode it was but it was filled with a nice balance of action and story and the show ended up becoming my favorite anime for a while. I will never make the mistake of pre judging a show of any kind again, especially an anime, and especially an anime that has some acclaim to it like InuYasha did.
 
One Piece: 4KiRAB turned me off to One Piece at first, with Luffy's voice being the big offender. It was the uncensored fight scenes past the Arlong fight that I caught on to One Piece.

Air Gear: I refuse to watch anything that's fanservice with a crap plot. Watched a few episodes and I was done

Harem Anime in general: The cancer that is killing nerRAB. Not much to add except Tenchi and Ranma are exceptions to the rule.

Inuyasha: It started off good, but as everyone else already said, perverted monk got old, Naraku grew stale, and no one except Inuyasha was worth anything
 
Well, its like that for the first 3 OVA episodes, anyways, IMO. I personally found the 4th OVA episode to be pretty mediocre, and the 5th OVA episode was just downright terrible, IMO. I actually liked those parts in the manga, so I don't see why the anime couldn't make it even 10 times better, since Hellsing is basically a series that is mostly action anyways, and its always better to see action scenes animated, rather than just reading them in still panels in manga. However, I suppose it just so happens that those were actually the most plot-based parts of Hellsing, and I suppose the OVA's just didn't do that great of a job and dealing with them. Its awesome when it comes to the mindless action and the witty dialogue, but I guess Hellsing has just never been too strong when it comes to the actual story (as if anyone watches Hellsing for nothing but story, anwyays ).

At any rate, I hope that the 6th OVA episodes makes up for the disappointment of the last 2. After having completed the manga, I can safely say that there are still come epic action scenes which have yet to appear in the OVAs.
 
Bleach- Look at my posts on the weekly AS talkback and the mood switches from excited (this is a cool premise) to bored (SS is taking forever) to silence. Dropped it after Bount, read the manga on occasion where it's treated more like a weekly newspaper strip.

Harem anime- I think the tipping point from actual tolerance to full blown despisal was Love Hina. Tenchi was good, Ramna made me laugh my head off, Love Hina made me want to shake my head. Got worse when I found out Bandai was licensing crap like the Love Hina sequels while sitting on the rights to SPT Layzner and Giant Gorg. At that point, I pretty much condemned any harem anime as trash made by trash collectors.

And yes, this is from a guy who thinks Re: Cutie Honey is one of the most awesome things ever.

Naruto- I collected all the manga volumes right up until Spectacular Sasuke stared. Now I'm torn between the series occasional flashes of utter brilliance and times where I refer to Kishimoto as Faily McFailingFail.

Inuyasha- I didn't hate this show at first, but when the plot advanced about as far as a sketch comedy routine that outstayed its welcome, I began to despise it.

Hate to love? Hmmm...Witcrabroadlade seemed to be little more than a mindless gore and boobfest based on an equally mindless comic. Then the first major arc happened.

G Gundam- I had to watch the show twice to fully appreciate it.
 
A couple more come to mind:

Rental Magica - The premise sounded fun. I'm a fantasy nerd, so series involving magic appeal to me. The concept of a company of magicians hired out for various things sounded interesting. And for the first few episodes it was decent. I was enjoying it, but expecting it to get better. There were a few hints of awesome in there, but they were mostly overshadowed by the end. It ended up being a fairly disappointing series for me. I expected a lot more than I got. The little hints of the awesome it could have turned into just makes the effect all the more disappointing. That being said, the OPs are great and I listen to them fairly often.

Zorabie Loan - Again, the concept intrigued me. And Suzaku's seiyuu played a lead (yeah yeah, fangirl, we all know). The first few episodes were interesting, but it just never caught me. I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters and the lead girl drove me up the wall. The whole thing just felt like a mess of wasted potential and I quit watching after about 5 episodes.
 
Bleach was an anime that I started off enjoying but then quickly realized that I was not a fan of the series at all, maybe someone should make a thread with a vice-versa effect from the original post? Another anime that I started off thinking it was bad but then warmed up to after a while was the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, it took a while but when I got into it I really wondered why I was the way I was with it in the first place and became a huge fan.
 
Naruto and One Piece are really the only ones that I change my mind about. Unlike most of you, I liked One Piece from the start. I liked the story about Luffy gathering people to go on an epic journey throughout the sea, but due to recent events, it's become All Luffy, all the the time, and that really REALLY bores me.

Naruto was the same at one point, but now it's going back to speed. Althoigh the Sasuke focus was just so unbearable, that I, a completeist, couldn't buy volume 39. But, as I said, it's getting good again, so hopefully it will stay good.

Honestly the only series that has kept me entertained throughout its entirety is Bleach.
 
I've seen a few mentions of Love Hina, and I should bring up that, from what I hear, the anime is a complete butchery of the manga and that the manga is much better--a common affliction of Akamatsu series. If you didn't like the anime, you should probably check out the manga.
 
You should give Negima a try. Not the anime, but the manga. Basically the Love Hina guy wanted to write an action series, and his editors wanted another harem series. So he writes an action series disguised as the most ridiculous harem series he can think of. It takes a few volumes to really get going, and there's a lot of fanservice, but I find myself liking the great action, and the fun characters a lot.
 
Definitely Gurren Lagann is one. My friend showed me the first two episodes in like Noveraber 2007 and I was pretty much thinking 'Wtf, lol, this is completely ridiculous!' After about a week, I was completely hooked and it rose up there in my anime favorites.

Naruto happened to be one of those where my interest was high in 2002 and then dropped abruptly in 2004/5. I just lost the will to follow it actively. Maybe if it ever stops I'll try catching back up to it, but. *SIGH* Meh.

Bleach...Again, my friend used to show me subbed eps way back before it was licensed. I used to watch it on Adult Swim for a while and then I simply stopped caring. I guess it turned out I wasn't much of a fan of the show, I was just watching it to watch it. Now for some reason, I can't even stand to turn on Adult Swim when it's playing. @_@; Dunno why...

Ouran High School Host Club I saw bits of back before Funmation Channel became the only anime playing thing for Comcast (BAH.) I thought it was so weird and slightly annoying, but now it's actually really funny and fun to watch.

I'm sure there's others I can't think of at the moment.
 
Keep in mind I have nothing against fanservice at all. I find it far more annoying when a character is made blatantly nonsexual at the expense of being interesting (BALSA!). But the endless harem cliches, the kind that made Love Hina a chore to be associated with, those I cannot stand.
 
Ouran High school host club

Honestly I thought that show looked completely girlish and not worth watching(just another lovey dove anime that was 26 episodes long.) but.. I started to hear how funny it was and I started watching and man.. I was dead hooked. I was actually kind of sad when it was over.(Wished there was a second season >_>.)
 
Got a few more.

Good to bad:
Coyote Ragtime Show. The first episode was awesome. Sadly, the rest couldn't measure up to it.

Death Note. Originally liked the cat and mouse nature of it, but soon began to truly despise Light when he manipulated Misa, and found the way he continually escapes being caught to be contrived. Also, the dark, almost muted color palette began to wear on me.

Nerima Daikon Bros. LOVED the first volume, as the musical format was something that hadn't been attempted in anime before, but my interest waned in the second volume when I realized how repetitive it was. A shame, because this had such potential.

Bad to good:
Galaxy Angel Rune. Saw the first episode when it was new and thought it was horrible. But later, watched the last half of the series on DVD and my opinion of it improved a little with some genuine laughs. The new cast is still not as good as the original cast, but it's not the trainwreck that people make it out to be (nor that I originally thought it to be).

Mouse. Well OK, this doesn't exactly fit "bad to good", far from it. But at one point, I said this was the worst anime ever. Well, at the time, I hadn't seen very much, so I was speaking from a very limited viewpoint. Now that I've seen more, I wouldn't place this in the "all time worst" category. Don't get me wrong, it's still a bad show and durab durab durab, but I've now seen worse. Yeah, I know, damning with faint praise and all that.

Strawberry Marshmallow. Originally found it boring, but after rewatching the first volume (only in Japanese this time), I felt a little warmer towarRAB it. It's one of those shows which is better in its native language, which is odd because you wouldn't think that would be the case for a comedy.
 
Azumanga Daioh - After reading some reviews that said it was the bee's knees, I decided to give it a try and found myself thinking it rather decent and not all that. However it wasn't until I started thinking about those little, amusing, moments in the series that I realized that... maybe I did like it more. Then I got the DVRAB and I was all set.

Yumeria - I dunno why I thought it was decent for the first four episodes, where it seemed like an interesting harem show where they fight in dreams. Until I realized how blatantly pandering it was going to be as time goes on, with a particularly useless main character, who apparently could fight and do things interesting from the opening only to be there just to touch the girls and give them power. Lame.

Scryed - For me, while it has some entertaining action pieces and all that, my opinion of Scryed went from good to bad as time went on. This is most especially due to the main characters and the plotline. They leave it kindof dangling with the threat of the mainland still looming and NOTHING being done about it (C'mon Mimori, make your status useful and really DO SOMETHING about representing and junk). Then Kazuma and Ryuho... I'd like to think that instead of developing as characters, it comes off as a retrograde process. I do believe that as the series went on they just went absolutely mad and insane. I could swear that is the case, and when
Little Girl looks forward to seeing them again.
You can wonder how high she must be when her beloved ones are just crazy guys destroying stuff they don't like.
 
Escaflowne--At first I liked the show because of its twisting plot and sharp (for its time) animation, but it always bugged me a little that Hitomi was essentially a passive heroine. Repeat viewings just made it worse, to the point that I wished I hadn't spent so much on the show in the first place. If I had bought and watched this series for the first time today, I probably would have sold it within a week.

Giant Robo--I felt the flasrabroadacks were distracting and the storytelling rather disjointed at first. And the anarchic nature of the characters was rather difficult to get into. But after I watched episode 3, I didn't look back. Just a fantastically realized show, and utterly unique.

There are others, but these two were the biggest turnarounRAB in my mind.
 
Oi, forgot to complete this.

Naruto - Yeah, I'm currently at the point to where I want to drop this series. (for the fourth time.) But if I drop it this time I'm done with it for good. I'm the type of person that will drop a series in a heartbeat if I can't stand certain characters. And yet again, that's exactly what it's coming down to. Like I said, I've dropped this series 3 times because I can't stand Naruto. (Well twice, the other time was because of pacing issues.) The first time I dropped it was because Naruto was going on about "Hokage this, Hokage that". The second time I dropped it was because of his rash-ness.

At this point I've gotten sick of characters that just rushed in blindly. (This was when Naruto was fighting Orochimaru.) Not to mention him being so naive, but now his naive-ness has reached a boiling point with me. And it don't stop there either. I never really had much of a problem with Sasuke when the series first started. My problem with Sasuke really started with the fanboys. Going on and on about Sasuke.. (Sasuke rocks.. I
 
Dragon Ball Z - Well I changed opinions on this more than once. Back in 1999 I hated it. I thought it was stupid looking. Who wants to watch men look like they're constipated? Eventually I got into Dragon Ball, though. And after finishing it I was interested in watching Dragon Ball Z. I really started to like it.

However, as time has passed on I've realized that DBZ isn't really all of that great. If they had ended it with the end of the Freiza part, then the series would be held highly in my mind, but they went on. Way further than they should have.

Bleach - I really liked Bleach in the beginning. Then the Bount arc happened. I dropped Bleach for a while there. Recently came back to it on Adult Swim to watch what happens after the Bount arc.

...Sadly I've been more interested in the filler episodes recently than I have been with the canon. Bleach has just become way too generic for me. I can enjoy more generic series, but they have to have great points about them. Bleach just does not.

Also it's too action centered. And the fights are almost to DBZ like. I get bored of glaring contests and generic fighting lines. Bleach has plenty of both.

One Piece - I never disliked One Piece. But I thought it was just another generic Shounen series in the beginning. In fact if you talked to me in early 2007, I might have said that Bleach is the better series. (that's when I first got into One Piece and Bleach.)

It does not step out of the Shounen boundaries, but as time has passed I've realized that One Piece is a masterful use of the Shounen formula. It does it so well that it doesn't even matter that it's Shounen.

The sense of adventure is unrivaled. The characters are fantastic, and it's truly one emotional ride. Very unique to this series is that it uses it's length to keep on getting better and better. Plus with it's length you get more attached to the characters.

One Piece is epic. I used to think that it was not all of that much better than Naruto, Bleach, and Dragon Ball Z. But I was wrong!

There are plenty of other series which I have changed my opinions on, but those are the ones I'll mention for now.
 
I just can't get over how computers can play games without thurabs.
Good evening, I'm Vital Vista.

I have at least a few anime that I liked and went to thinking, 'eh.'

Martian Successor Nadesico, because, you see, while watching the first dozen or so episodes, I thought, 'Hey, this is a pretty awesome series.' You see, I had bought the box set on eBay because of a suggestion on Anime Counterpoint, and was eager to get to the end of the series.
Then, I got to the end, and I thought, 'OHGODWHY?!'
It seems to me that the ending was not only a 180 in my perspective about the series, but was a complete 180 in what the main character would've thought to be the most desirable ending. However, I won't go into detail. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. If not, go find out.

And, you may be thinking I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, but...

Naruto. I honestly had little to no problem with the series.
Then, the filler. Oh, God, the filler. I think that this should be self-explanatory. However, I'm going to add to the explanatory-ness of this statement with more explanation.
Curry of Life. What. The Hell? Why, Kishimoto-san?
At the time, I thought, 'I'm just going to stop watching during the filler, then I'll go back to watching the series.'
And then, I lost interest entirely.

Matentei Loki Ragnarok is a series about Loki, only he's stuck in child form and is required to collect evil energy to return to god-hood. The series was pretty good and had its funny moments(a lot of them), and then, the ending.
To this day, I still have no idea what happened.

And now, I've thrown my two cents into the ring.
 
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