Not all anime is good. There's no denying that among the many anime series out there, there's plenty of mediocrity. Other anime is so bad it's cringe-worthy. But sometimes an anime is so abysmally bad, it comes out on the other side of brilliant.
Grab a drink and a friend, and laugh your way through these ten so bad threy're good "comedy" anime.
Mars of Destruction
Ask any MAL user to recommend a terrible anime, and we guarantee this will be one of the first suggestions. Mars of Destruction carries its 2.38 rating as a badge of pride. The short 19 minute OVA is by all accounts a mind-meltingly terrible anime. The animation is horrible, the plot is nonsensical, and the characters might as well all be talking dolls for all the personality and depth they have. Yet there's something incredibly satisfying in watching this train wreck, because when the heads start rolling, they do it in the most low budget way possible.
G Gundam
Among many Gundam fans, G Gundam is the black sheep. It's cheesy and campy, and doesn't take itself too seriously. For some, that makes it a great deviation from the rest of the franchise. But for many others, especially those who have never watched a Gundam show, it's pretty ridiculous fun. Burning… finger!!!
Blue Flames
Blue Flames We couldn't find a clip, so here's a review with screencaps that sums it up pretty well. Mildly nsfw imagery.
Blue Flames is a short anime movie about an uncaring man who uses and dumps various women on his quest to excellence. With better writing and direction, there might have been some lesson to be learned here. But for Blue Flames there is only the blatant indifference of the main character, who we're supposed to see as a great person who uses the resources at his disposal to climb to the top. It doesn't help that the creators of the anime seem to have saved some time and money by simply not animating faces. All this lends itself to a great 45 minutes of wondering how in the world someone thought making this was a good idea.
Byston Well Monogatari: Garzey no Tsubasa (Garzey's Wing)
Garzey's Wing is kind of a terrible anime in itself, but it's brilliance lies in the English dub. The dub contains some of the worst English voice acting in anime, played completely straight. The voice actors read every line as though reading their script for the first time, stumbling over their lines and delivering them in completely monotonous tones. Combined with the poor source material, you have one anime that's painful to watch -- and unintentional comedy gold.
Soujuu Senshi Psychic Wars (Psychic Wars)
Treating cancer is a difficult task, but treating a cancer that turns out to be a messenger from the past? Now that's really tough. Doctor Ukyo Rettsu takes it in stride though, and accepts his quest from a woman's cancerous growth. This sends him back in time, gives him superpowers, and puts the fate of the world in his hands. All in a day's work for a doctor in the anime universe. Ridiculous premise? Check. Bad voice acting? Oh yes, check. Fodder for a late night watch with some friends? Absolutely.
Angel Cop
Many older anime suffer from poor English dubs. Angel Cop, much like Garzey's Wing, is one unintentional comedy anime that achieves brilliance through poor voice acting. Then again, just how well do you expect a voice actor to deliver a line like: "If this is justice, then I'm a banana!"
Gakkou no Kaidan (Ghost Stories)
There's nothing funny about the Japanese version of Ghost Story. It's just plain bad. Luckily, the creators of the anime realized this. So when they sent the anime to be dubbed in English, they gave the voice actors full control over the script, asking only that the names remain unchanged. And boy did the English dubbers go to town on the series. They changed characters into completely different versions of themselves, like a Jewish kid, a born-again Christian, and butch lesbian, threw in some crude language, and rounded it out with some of the funniest ad-libbed lines in anime (like: "So I'm nailing this midget when my mom walks in"). The dub might be intentionally funny, but the original anime wasn't meant to be funny at all.
Blood-C
Blood-C Warning: Some spoilers in the clip above!
Brought to you by the legendary CLAMP, Blood-C should have been excellent. There are cute but badass girls, monster slaying, and the obligatory romance and moments of silliness. But the anime fails to deliver excellence, dragging on without much happening. Which makes the over-the-top monster fighting scenes just silly and out of place. Instead of a great action-filled story-driven anime, Blood-C just goes in for the kill. Over. And over. Fun game to play if you're watching with a friend: take a shot every time someone dies in a hilarious way. Just make sure you have no plans the next day…
Gun-dou Musashi (Gun Samurai)
Gun-dou Musashi is legendary. A great cult classic should have terrible acting and visuals, a ridiculous story, and a director who genuinely thought he was making something good. Gun-dou Musashi has all of these things. Throw in a very low budget and an over-saturated anime market, and you have yourself a winner. The actions sequences are poorly animated, backgrounds are unedited photographs, and the sound effects are completely out of sync with the animation. Sometimes the anime doesn't even bother to animate the scene at all, showing characters having entire conversations with their mouths firmly shut. Every scene is just bound to make you laugh; you just can't make this kind of brilliant comedy intentionally.
Mad★Bull 34
Mad Bull 34 was inspired by American buddy cop action comedies. It's unclear at what point the anime veers off-course and lands in completely insane territory. The anime follows the adventures of a Japanese-American cop and his possibly clinically insane partner Mad Bull, aka Sleepy, aka holy hell how does this guy still have a badge. Armed with his crotch grenades, Mad Bull takes on the town to shoot at petty criminals and steal from prostitutes. This anime is so ridiculous, there's a chance it's being intentionally funny. But who cares: any day when you get to put your grenade jock-strap to use is a good day.
Violence Jack: Jigoku Gai-hen (Violence Jack: Evil Town)
Another over the top anime to make this list is Violence Jack. There's just something about the absurd amount of gore and violence that makes these anime a blast to watch. Combined with the old anime look and monotonous voice acting, and you're left with a great, really bad anime to watch for a laugh.
Pupa
Pupa Warning: Nsfw suggestive flesh eating in the clip above.
No list of terrible anime of any kind would be complete without Pupa. This anime is one of the worst rated anime on MAL, and rightfully so. Its portrayal of gratuitous violence, incestuous themes, and ridiculous premise is meant to be disturbing. But this train wreck takes itself so seriously, that many viewers just can't. If you've ever found yourself laughing at a scene of someone getting eaten alive, well… welcome to anime.
Another
Another Warning! Above video contains spoilers for Another, as it's a compilation of all the death scenes.
Another is, by all accounts, a decent horror anime. It's tense and suspenseful, and strings viewers along for one hell of a ride. Until you get to the death scenes. Another is a pretty bloody anime, but the ridiculously over-the-top deaths scenes are difficult to watch with a straight face. One character falls down the stairs and lands neatly with her neck impaled on her umbrella. Another spends three minutes spurting blood all over a group of shocked spectators. Hey, let's watch that explosive face slam into the floor one more time, in slow motion. Sure, you might feel a little twisted for laughing at these scenes. But they're so played up and ridiculous that it's hard not to giggle.
Kindan no Mokushiroku: Crystal Triangle (Crystal Triangle)
Crystal Triangle It also has the best trailer ever.
Crystal Triangle is anime's take on Indiana Jones, featuring an inept relic hunter who stumbles onto the key to God's lost message. This discovery sends him on a crazy adventure dodging assassination attempts, dealing with lusty women, and aliens. Of course there are aliens. Is it so bad it's good, or just bad? For this particular anime, it's really up in the air. Like God's spaceship and the child-voiced bug thing that powers it. Shh, don't question it.
Bonus! Kakumeiki Valrave (Valvrave the Liberator)
Valvrave falls into its own category because of its ambiguous existence. Is it intentionally hilarious, or an accidental comedy anime? The anime is either trying too hard to be edgy and awesome, or it's a parody. It's hard to tell because just when you reach a serious moment, suddenly, Space Nazis! You can never go wrong with Space Nazis.
