Every season has that one anime that gets everyone excited, even when it’s not actually that good. Sometimes it’s the vibes, sometimes it’s the marketing, and sometimes fans just latch on for reasons nobody can fully explain.
These are anime that had every excuse to fade into forgettable territory but instead blew up into full-blown phenomena, and sometimes they stuck, sometimes they did not. We’re not saying these anime are unwatchable. Some genuinely started strong. Here are 10 anime that stayed mid while their fanbases kept growing anyway.
10. Ninja Kamui Fell Faster Than Anything
Ninja Kamui had the potential to become one of the best ninja anime with a grounded, modern-day ninja story set in the U.S., and with some of the sharpest animation of its year. As per E&H Production’s own company page, the studio’s director, Sunghoo Park, is credited as the director behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, and Ninja Kamui itself, which is exactly the pedigree that got fans excited going in.
But the moment the show gave its ninjas sci-fi suits, the entire identity of the anime fell apart. What started as a John Wick-style story suddenly became full of robot suits and horrible CGI that ruined the immersion. It ranks at the bottom because it showed real promise at first.
9. Tower of God Couldn’t Live up to the Expectations
The Tower of God webtoon had a massive, dedicated fanbase, and that fanbase is exactly why the anime adaptation blew up the way it did. Every single fan yearned for the anime adaptation, and they were all happy to see that the studio behind Lupin and Orange was working on it.
However, the anime was horrible. Pacing all over the place made it hard for new viewers to actually connect with the story or characters. Scenes that needed room to breathe got rushed, and arcs that should’ve hit hard ended up feeling flat. It rode in on built-in hype it didn’t fully earn on its own.
8. Horimiya Was a Charming but Thin Anime
Horimiya gets credit for being a genuinely sweet, likable romance, and a lot of that praise is deserved. But look closely at Miyamura, the actual protagonist, and there isn’t much there. He starts the show as an isolated outcast living a double life, and one day he changes his haircut and boom – he is popular now with a girlfriend.
His backstory gets brought up and then dropped. For a romance this popular, the male lead is surprisingly one of the weaker parts of the whole story. However, this anime still ranks low in this list because the others had stronger writing overall, and despite Miyamura’s flaws, it’s still a great romance anime.
7. Kakegurui Is the Same Gimmick Again and Again
Kakegurui built its whole identity around unhinged gambling games and over-the-top facial expressions, and that worked for exactly one season’s worth of shock value. After that, it’s the same formula on repeat: a new gambling game, a new over-dramatic reaction, rinse and repeat.
There’s no real growth in the stakes or the characters, just the same trick dressed up in a different outfit every episode. In fact, this anime had a really bad reputation for forgetting the protagonist entirely.
6. Domestic Girlfriend Had One of the Worst Endings
Domestic Girlfriend leaned into one of the most divisive premises in modern romance anime, and that alone got people talking; hence, people got curious, and the anime got popular. But the ending is widely considered one of the worst in the genre.
Despite that, the show remains a constant point of discussion online, proof that controversy can carry a series just as far as actual quality can.
5. High School of the Dead Was Carried by Fan Service
Strip away the fan service, and there isn’t much holding High School of the Dead together. The zombie survival premise had potential, but the story rarely goes anywhere meaningful with it. It was less zombies and more romance drama, and even that didn’t go anywhere.
What kept this anime in the conversation for over a decade wasn’t its writing or character work; it was everything else the anime chose to focus the camera on instead.
4. Seven Deadly Sins Is One of the Worst and Most Popular Fantasy Anime
The Seven Deadly Sins started as a fun, easygoing fantasy anime, but it didn’t take long for things to go downhill. Meliodas, the actual lead, becomes one of the most disliked protagonists in the genre once the show piles on dark backstory and questionable behavior toward Elizabeth.
Add in animation quality that noticeably dropped and power scaling that stopped making sense, and you get a show that fans criticize constantly while still keeping it near the top of every most popular fantasy anime list.
3. Solo Leveling Is Only About Aura Farming and Hype
-
Credit: A-1 Pictures -
Credit: A-1 Pictures -
Credit: A-1 Pictures
-
Credit: A-1 Pictures -
Credit: A-1 Pictures -
Credit: A-1 Pictures
This is where the list might get controversial. Ask a Solo Leveling fan to name a character who isn’t Sung Jinwoo, and watch the conversation stall out fast. Of course, that doesn’t apply to every fan, but it’s a long-running meme for a reason.
Everything in this show runs through one guy: his power-ups, his fights, his aura. This writing failure stands in stark contrast with the global phenomenon this anime has become, making it rank this high.
2. Rent-A-Girlfriend Is Popular 5-Season Slop
Somehow, Rent-a-Girlfriend made it to five seasons, and Kazuya still hasn’t grown as a character. Fans kept waiting for him to stop lying, stop being perverted, stop overspending, and actually be honest about his feelings.
However, he’s still stuttering around Mizuhara, still avoiding real communication, and still making the same mistakes from episode one. Despite that, this anime keeps getting renewed, which says a lot more about its popularity than its writing.
1. Tokyo Revengers Did Everything Wrong but Remained Mainstream
Tokyo Revengers takes the top spot because it didn’t just stay mid; it actively got worse. Takemichi’s plan to fix his past by joining a biker gang barely makes sense for a grown adult, and his go-to strategy for solving problems is getting beaten up and hoping things work out. These traits make this protagonist easily one of the worst.
The time-travel structure gets more repetitive and harder to follow with each arc, and the decision-making rarely improves. Yet somehow, this is one of the biggest mainstream anime of the last few years, proof that a show can do almost everything wrong and still dominate the conversation.
Which of these anime do you think will be forgotten first? Let us know in the comments.
