And now THEM presents you - the worst scum-sucking, bottom-feeding, rut-dwelling anime we've had the misfortune of watching. Though some may disagree with our opinions (I'm absolutely certain of it!), we feel these are the titles which either got the most heckling or were the biggest waste of time at our THEM Anime Nights, or at any anime showing. Enjoy!

10^th Place: Dragon Ball Z, TV, 1989. (16 points) Highly popular, action-packed ... with an endlessly boring and slow plot, completely wasted (if charming) characters, stupid enemies, and formulaic episodes. Dragon Ball Z has done just as much to deter would-be anime fans as to make new ones. While there are fans of DBZ even within the club, it's obvious to many of us that this is hardly what Toriyama Akira intended when he first came up with his homage to the legend of Saiyuuki (aka Journey to the West).

Tied for 8^th Place: Domain of Murder, OAV, 1993. (16 points, one first-place vote) A failed pilot in the private investigator Hello Hedgehog series, this uninspiring film suffers from bad writing, boring characters, bad plot, and a complete disregard of logic that is dismaying in a "film noir" title. US Manga Corps may have wanted to release "something different", but I don't think that "boring" and "stupid" were what they had in mind.

Tied for 8^th Place: Casshan Robot Hunter, OAV, 1992. (16 points, one first-place vote) Though some viewers swear by this superhero title, they must have watched something else entirely. The dubbed version available in the States is cheesy, badly acted, and probably cut to the point of unrecognizability. Even so, this kitschy OAV, with its hackneyed robots-take-over-the-world plot, needs a bit of fine-tuning to become even mediocre.

7^th Place: X, 1998. (17 points, one first-place vote) Based on the CLAMP manga, this movie is angst-ridden beyond belief. And just when you think the angst is over, someone else loses their head. Dreary and boring, with one-dimensional characters and a whiny theme song, it's the kind of movie that'll land viewers in the hospital under suicide surveillance. In a dubious bit of trivia, this marks director Rin Tarou's first entry into the Bottom 10.

6^th Place: Ninja Resurrection (aka Makai Tenshou, OAV, 1996. (18 votes) This much-maligned series features a horrible plot and a very questionable marketing ploy by ADV (implying that it's a sequel to Ninja Scroll, when in fact it is not). We have yet to see any title based on the 17th century Shimabara Rebellion give the historical event the respect and seriousness it deserves. This necrophiliac, gory odyssey certainly doesn't qualify as respectful or serious.

5^th Place: Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals, OAV, 1995. (22 points, two first-place votes) Based (very loosely) on the Final Fantasy V role-playing game, this series proved devastatingly short of the standards that the Final Fantasy name implies. With weak, stupid characters, and a meandering, inane plot, and a strange fetish for preteen Linaly's undergarments, Legend of the Crystals is a severe letdown for any serious anime fan.

4^th Place: Kite, Movie, 1998. (25 points) Another movie which was spliced from two OAVs, this low-minded, bloody film touted as an "anime La Femme Nikita" is badly edited (on the US side), but the original edit features onscreen sex scenes with an obviously underage schoolgirl which detract from the film because they unwittingly glorify the degrading sex rather than portray it as the corrupting influence it really is. Too much overkill, too much bathos, and all for a horrible, unsatisfying ending. Leave this one on the shelf.

3^rd Place: Dagger of Kamui, Movie, 1985. (27 points, one first-place vote) Rin Tarou is widely considered to be one of anime's finest directors. His track record, however, which includes this over-long, boring film, as well as X and Harmagedon, has led THEM to a far different conclusion. Rin Tarou simply can not edit a movie to save his soul. And Dagger of Kamui, a sedative, mind-numbing film with a chintzy, jarring soundtrack and hordes of inexplicable ninja, completes the image of the director as a complete hack. Somebody save us from the pretentiousness of it all! ARRRGH!

2^nd Place: Ebichu Minds the House, TVSS, 1999. (28 points, two first-place votes) Studio Gainax prides itself on bringing to live stories no other animation studio will attempt. Unfortunately, it chose this story, featuring a hamster, Ebichu, who acts as incompetent housemaid to a woman who often invites her no-good boyfriend for badly-animated onscreen sex. With dirty jokes and sex toys simply littering this series, it does virtually nothing else but shock. In the long run, this series may recede from THEM's collective memory and surrender its second-place title to a more "classic" anime, but for now, it stands here as an example of what NOT to accidentally pick up on the video rack of your local Japanese video store.

And guess what title got the Worst Anime award. You guessed it.

1^st Place: MD Geist, OAV, 1986. (43 points) Unsurprisingly, THEM members universally panned this film, which wins the Worst Anime award by a landslide. This misanthropic opus of death and carnage is often used as the litmus test of a proper anime reviewer. But even the most casual fans hated this ultraviolent, sexist, and ultimately worthless look at a world plagued by sadistic mecha, heartless, psychotic anti-heroes, and brainless redshirts. Ohata Koichi should be ashamed of himself - but the popularity of this and other Ohata titles (Genocyber) among hipsters and fanboys has elevated him to a position of fame he hardly deserves. THEM agrees: take this one out with the burnable trash and find the nearest convenient incinerator. Or, at the very least, just don't watch it. That's the quickest way to prevent there being an MD Geist III!

And that concludes our List of the Worst Anime!

And now, return to the Millennial THEM Anime Awards home page!