Do you drop shows?

Some common sense for y'all.

This response is rather long, so here is tldr: communities already know which parts of the series are considered good and bad, up to the episode № where sudden plot twists happen, and if you watch something that you don't like, you should google which parts of the series are considered good, and decide for yourself if it is worth your time to suffer through the rest to start them, or if it would be better to watch something else which is good since the very first episode already.


Yes. When I do not like decisions made by its authors, I skip them and watch something else instead. Most of the time, I drop because I find writing to be bad. My second most popular reason to drop something is bad animation (odds are I will not even start watching it). I have almost never dropped something due to poor direction because I have never encountered directing decisions that were that bad, except for probably one comedy show (Another).


3 episode rule is nonsense. It came from a show the screenwriter of which has deliberately made a couple of bad writing decisions to surprise everyone with some shock value in the end of the 3rd episode. There are not many shows that make use of this approach. A presence of tragic twist may be not indicative of writing quality, and if it is ever present, you will already know it even before watching it, because it is already known in the community when these mood changes happen. If I still have to suffer through an entire season of lackluster writing and unfunny jokes just to get to something good (Steins;Gate, Clannad, Haruhi Suzumiya), I'd rather watch something else.

You can understand if something is worth watching or not just by one episode. One. Not three or two. One. It is rare for writing to be of inconsistent quality, such as writing of the second season is suddenly better than the first one, second arc better than the first, and so on. This is true for particular episodes too. It is very unlikely that something absolutely atrocious in the very first episode will become better in the next series, and if it suddenly does, there is already critical consensus whether some parts of the show are better or worse than others (The Promised Neverland season 2, Chimera Ants Arc in Hunter x Hunter, Depressed magician arc in Mushoku Tensei), and you should consult the community instead of exercising palm leaf reading. Again, if you don't like something from the very first chapters, you don't have to suffer through it, simply watch something else.

You can understand if something is worth watching in less than one episode. It is unlikely that an anime studio, an animal the survival of which in the wild market depends on the right calculation of risks and profits, would waste most of its budget on something rather average or even worse than average, just to create a well-animated trash that will flop. You probably won't believe me that everyone knows about exceptions already (such as Demon slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen), but they are what they are - exceptions. It is true that the absolute majority of anime's production value reflects their artistic value rather well, and if something looks, sounds, feels, and, in the worst cases, smells like shit, in 90% of all cases, this will also taste like shit, and you won't need to make sure by consuming it.


I don't watch what's airing, so no. In fact, it is easier to suffer through bad shows when they are airing, because they require just around 20 minutes of your personal time per week than hours you can spend per day, an it is easier to tolerate 20 minutes of trash per week than 120 minutes of trash per day.

- 332 dropped. I did enjoy some anime I dropped the first time after giving them another try, but that's precisely because I dropped them in the first place: if I had forced myself to complete them when it wasn't the right time, now I would just hate them.
- one episode rule: the first episode is quite often better than the rest from a technical standpoint, since it must hook viewers in + less scheduling problems
- I drop about 40% of the seasonals I start watching, but I'm starting to make exceptions for exceptionally bad hyped anime (like Solo Leveling and Kaiju n°8) and complete them.

@PostMahouShoujo I wish you would add the actual amount of shows you've seen to your MAL. But anyways I agree with most of your points beside the 3 episode rule. I believe that's useful for determining if a show can actually get better. Which I have seen often, while not wasting too much of your time. But I can't really respond to you well without knowing what you like and don't like; because it seems to me you just dislike shounen.

@Nirinbo Mainly replying for Solo Leveling and Kaiju no 8. If you don't like action then why do you even try watching airing shows with the genre? I looked at your MAL and it seems like you like SOL and typically prefer the demographic of seinen. I'm assuming its because of hype, but would like to know your thoughts.

I don't drop the show, but I will sometimes put it on the backburner for an extended length of time.

Sometimes I'll circle back years later to finish.