When it comes to sequels they really can be hit or miss. Sometimes a sequel gives a fan everything they want and properly continues the adventures of the characters and helps to enrich the plot of the world they exist in. Other times, it’s an absolute train wreck and it makes a fan not only hate the sequel but also takes a bit of enjoyment away from the original installment as well.
Anime is not immune to having bad sequels. Some of them have been so bad they have actually been the last installment in franchise or worse the series keeps going even after it. These are anime’s worst sequels.
10. Samurai Troopers OVAs
This one is a bit more obscure which is why it’s lower on the list. Remember Ronin Warriors? Well it had OVA sequels. One of them had the team fighting a generic villain, the other had them lose their armor in a battle with a Black Inferno armor, which didn’t properly explained they lost them. Finally, a third last OVA series gave the team a new set of armor entirely but ends before they can even have their first fight. This thing went downhill fast and made fans wish they had never asked for a sequel in the first place.
9. Metabots Damashii
How do you do a follow up to a season where the main character went to the world championship? Just reduce the cast, add a stupid gimmick, and take away everything which made the show fun. This was the part of the anime where Metabee got a transformation mode but most of the designs simply looked like bots from the previous seasons. Also a lot of the cast didn’t make it back in this season such as Koji, Karen, and Rintaro, which were fan favorite characters. Even the devout fans of the franchise have a hard time defending this sequel.
8. WXIII: Patlabor the movie 3
Have you ever thought “Let’s have as little of what made the other films and the TV series enjoyable as possible” then you’d have the thought pattern of the creators of the third Patlabor movie. Focusing on a pair of detectives in the Patlabor world the main cast from the TV series gets about ten whole minutes of screen time which is just about how much time the giant robots get as well. Because less giant robots is exactly what people want when they watch anime.
7. Ninja Scroll: The series
Though the Ninja Scroll sequel movies could have easily fit on this list, they are actually disqualified for not being direct sequels and only used the Ninja Scroll name. The TV series on the other hand was a director sequel and goes downhill fast. It posses one of the best first episodes ever, filled with the action, violence, and art quality much like the movie. It sadly never reaches this level of quality again and limps to the finish line with an unsatisfying defeat of the demonic army and Jubei walking off as if nothing happened.
6. Eureka Seven AO
The basic description for this series makes its sounds like it should be a winner. Ao, Eureka and Renton’s son has to pilot a redesigned Nirvash and help to stop incidents involving Scub Coral which can result in massive destruction. How could such a concept not succeed? Unfortunately, Ao, isn’t nearly as endearing a character as his father was and viewers just forced themselves to wait for members of the original cast to show up. Sadly by the time they decided to finally show up it was too late and most had given up before seeing this show through to the end.
5. Gundam Seed: Destiny
The original Gundam Seed was a great series. It introduced a bunch of great characters and some very powerful Mobile Suits to the franchise. Unfortunately the follow up, Destiny repeatedly used a lot of the same story elements of the first and overused flashbacks to the point series director Mitsuo Fukuda who was given the nickname “Flashback em’ all” by fans. The series ended on such a bad note a movie was announced to give the series a proper ending. Unfortunately there will be no movie. There have been eight series since then. It’s not coming out people so let it go.
4. Dragonball GT
Filler is any episode of an anime which has no connection to the original manga it was based on. Dragonball GT was based on no manga and the original creator of Dragonball, Akira Toriyama had absolutely no involvement in it. Even the most hardcore and devoted Dragonball fan has dismissed this series entirely, especially since the introduction of Dragonball Z: Battle of the Gods, Dragonball Z: Resurrection of F, and the new series, Dragonball Super. Of course, it did have the Super Android 17 saga, which was a pretty cool idea but this arc only went on for six episodes. The other 58 of them you can forget about.
3. Macross II
Some series are so bad fans wish they didn’t exist. Then there are the shows which are so bad, they are never referenced again, and are erased from the franchise’s canon. In this well forgotten sequel to the original Macross, a new group of aliens appear with their own singers which they use to control their warriors. A reporter helps one of the alien singers escape and shows her the joys of earth. Unfortunately their efforts result in the destruction of the original Macross in the final battle. Way to go guys, destroy a battleship which helped to bring peace to the entire galaxy.
2. Tenchi Muyo: Ryo Ohki
Why is this series on this list and not the more infamous entry in the franchise, Tenchi in Tokyo? Because Tenchi in Tokyo is bad but can be easily dismissed as a bad show. This series on the other hand wrecked the OVA series, the original introduction of the Tenchi Muyo characters which after all the different spin offs had been looked at as being the proper storyline. Then this series came around and answered everything fans had spent years speculating on as poorly as possible. The mysteries of Ryoko jewels was solved crudely, the evil goddess Tokimi was not only defeated but also starts hanging around Tenchi’s house, and entire series only served to set things up for Tenchi Muyo: GXP, which was the final nail in the coffin.
1. MD Geist 2: Deathforce
How do you follow up the worst anime OVA ever made? Simple, you give it a sequel. MD Geist, a terrible OVA about a genetically engineered soldier who at the end of the first series decided to destroy the world, because he’s only programmed for fighting. The sequel is far from a redemption story as Geist continues to kill but this time goes up against Krauser, another Most Dangerous (Yes, this is what the MD in the title stands for) soldier who is helping to rebuild society. The violence is over the top and not in a good way and the plot makes no sense. This OVA should just be avoided as it offers nothing but poor plot, bad art, and unnecessary violence.
Was there a sequel which you feel is the worst in the history of anime which isn’t on this list? Leave your opinion in the comment section below.
