Controversial anime that don't deserve their bad reputation.

Controversial but not regarded as "bad anime" would be Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds. Yes, an anime about a children's card game.
The controversy comes from the VA of Carly, which is in a/part of a cult. They limit her appearance after discovering about the VA's affiliation, they also made a major changes on the story moving forward, If I remember correctly, .

Agree with Dragon Maid to the max. Using the word "patriarchy" is perhaps the biggest nothingburger of a manufactured controversy I've ever heard. You can throw in Prison School for similar reason with the "gamergate line"

Jojo's part 1 and 2, they are literally so over hated and i dont get why, after part 2, i stopped liking jojo, i dont get how people prefer the episodic monster of the week style of part 3 over part 1 and 2 where the plot is always moving foward without this monster of the week style

For some reason Frieren is controversial because snowflakes lefties think killing every demon is facist propaganda. Wut?...
There should be 0 controversy about it.

Mushoku Tensie is controversial for sure but way overblown. Some of the reasons for controversy is just dumb-
"Like MT promotes Pedophila"
"Rudues groomed her wifes"
-No having sex with legal age girls doesn't count pEdOphiLiA as previously was just peeping at best.


Also lots of incest romances like Oshi No Ko, Yosuaga no Sora etc...etc.. is overblown controversy because people are mad two fictional character love each other and they are mad about it due to their personal moral standards.

Midori: Shoujo Tsubaki deserves to be seen as more than just hollow schlock, though that seems to be the online consensus around it.

@spectre699 This was proven to be incorrect, see: https://old.reddit.com/r/yugioh/comments/1aequ3a/carlys_original_va_being_in_a_cult_had_nothing_to/
Carly's first seiyuu wasn't discovered to be in a cult until the series was close to being completed.

Back on topic, most ecchi hate is just weird. Like, people hate it because the girls are depicted as attractive and framed through the "male gaze"? What? I could go on but roughly 90% of ecchi hate boils down to some weird petulance while the remaining 10% is overblown genuine concern.

@DarkFirefly72 I'll try it again someday, but when I watched part 3, it made me drop part 4, because Im just not into the monster of the week style as someone who likes to watch anime fast, its tiring and repetitive. But now that I know what to expect, I'll change my approach and perspective.

@_ohara worst take of all time award. jojo part 1 and 2 are monster of the week and they include shitty training arcs and 2 even has generic ahh shounen rematches. you only assume they aren't because the parts were too shitty for araki to make them full length ergo they are nothing beyond a quick kenshiro ripoff.

In the sense that most of this thread seems to be interpreting the question, I would say "All of them, no anime deserved that type of controversy".
Granted, I'm the guy who unironically defends that thinking that incest should be illegal is fascism, so I'll defend Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou for having the balls to say that, yes, incestuous relationships are like homosexual relationships.

Using other interpretations:
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS:
People saying that the largest selling Nanoha anime "killed the franchise" is laughable. Yes, it has an extremely unorthodox structure and the first 7 episodes are a slog, but it's a good anime overall.

Wonder Egg Priority:
Just because the ending sucked, it doesn't mean that the rest of the anime wasn't good.

Domestic na Kanojo:
I have no idea why people hate this one.

Darling in the FranXX:
People are absolute crybabies for this one.
"Oh, but muh first half-" THE FIRST HALF FUCKING SUCKED, PLOTLESS MONSTER OF THE WEEK GARBAGE, episode 12 and beyond it's where it got good, but your worme-riddled brains couldn't accept this because "WHERE'S MUH AKSHUN SCENES", I guess all the losers who said that at the time must be watching Solo Leveling right now. Yes, episodes 22 and 23 sucked, but episode 24 was very good.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi:
"LE NTR XDXDXDXD", grow up.

Mirai Nikki (TV):
I don't understand why people hate this one either.

Sword Art Online:
Most criticism against the original one is CinemaSins-level slop and misinformation.

I think even saying the ending sucks is misleading, because the show doesn't have an ending.

@Lucifrost

Vacuous truth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In mathematics and logic, a vacuous truth is a conditional or universal statement (a universal statement that can be converted to a conditional statement) that is true because the antecedent cannot be satisfied.[1] It is sometimes said that a statement is vacuously true because it does not really say anything.[2] For example, the statement "all cell phones in the room are turned off" will be true when no cell phones are present in the room. In this case, the statement "all cell phones in the room are turned on" would also be vacuously true, as would the conjunction of the two: "all cell phones in the room are turned on and turned off", which would otherwise be incoherent and false.

@thewiru
I said it was misleading, not false.

@TheMechaManiac

I don't know how representative my views are compared to most people who aren't fans of the genre, but the majority of my personal distaste for ecchi has to do with how a lot of it plays into non-consensual tropes. A lot of it doesn't really portray healthy sexuality and actively does creepy things that feel exploitative of the characters instead of being more tasteful and respectful of their boundaries. The "male gaze" lens of analysis is just one way of explaining people's distaste in the genre but there's a lot more nuance in people's views than you'd think.

@LoveLikeBlood

I remember first watching the movie when I was 15 and I was just utterly shocked. Like, I saw it as the worst anime ever. But now looking back while it definitely is disturbing, maybe it's not as bad as people say it is?

Though I don't remember much, it's been years since I watched that movie.

BTW: Sorry if I say the same response twice, tried posting this earlier but there was an error.

Lazarus definitely has its flaws and is somewhat disappointing, but not as bad as people make it out to be.

Phantom Blood is overhated. Sure, may not be the best part but it's arguably the most important one since it sets up all the other parts.

For some reason Frieren is controversial because snowflakes lefties think killing every demon is facist propaganda. Wut?...
There should be 0 controversy about it.

Mushoku Tensie is controversial for sure but way overblown. Some of the reasons for controversy is just dumb-
"Like MT promotes Pedophila"
"Rudues groomed her wifes"
-No having sex with legal age girls doesn't count pEdOphiLiA as previously was just peeping at best.


Also lots of incest romances like Oshi No Ko, Yosuaga no Sora etc...etc.. is overblown controversy because people are mad two fictional character love each other and they are mad about it due to their personal moral standards.

Sword Art Online has always been one of those anime people love to hate, and honestly, I never really understood why.
For me, it was one of the first shows that got me thinking deeply about virtual identity, trauma, and how real emotions can exist in a digital space.
Sure, Kirito is overpowered, and some arcs felt rushed, but the emotional core—especially in arcs like Mother’s Rosario—really hit me.
I think it deserves more credit for what it tried to explore, even if it wasn’t perfect.

@YuriYilzlize SAO was simply hated it because it was the cool and hip thing to do for people to look cool to others (in their belief) and everyone band wagoned to the hate train to get recognition.

@Fukoku Lazarus just got overhyped and was treated like the second coming of Cowboy Bebop. And then peoplle got pissed since it does not appear to meet Bebops's quality.

I'm gonna get myself killed for this, but people that hates Kanojo, Okarishimasu/Rent-A-Girlfriend are really fucking stupid and petty when it comes to fanservice.

I personally think the anime's good. Yeah, the first season had an rocky start with Kazuya being an dick at times, but atleast the story progresses further and i do get to understand Kazuya's good intentions.

There's so many overhated anime, but this one and the hate people have for this one anime is exaggerated and i think it doesn't deserve the hate it gets.

@KittenCuddler It really hurts the visually impaired who want to see what anime is like in its original form when voice actors add in stupid jokes like that. Many visually impaired people can't read subtitles, so they are forced to watch English dubs, and want to hear something accurate to the original script. It's clear that the people, like yourself, who defend these localizers adding in their Western influence only care about culture wars, and not at all about helping marginalized communities. You only like these localizers because the other side of the culture wars hates them.

Localizers also cut out many LGBTQ+ characters from anime throughout history, like in Sailor Moon. Is that "progressive" now?

@LSSJ_Gaming i mean I personally don't like it because I just am not in the mood for that when I watch anime yk

anyways, have ta'ang propaganda since this thread's getting heated

For some reason Frieren is controversial because snowflakes lefties think killing every demon is facist propaganda. Wut?...
There should be 0 controversy about it.

Mushoku Tensie is controversial for sure but way overblown. Some of the reasons for controversy is just dumb-
"Like MT promotes Pedophila"
"Rudues groomed her wifes"
-No having sex with legal age girls doesn't count pEdOphiLiA as previously was just peeping at best.


Also lots of incest romances like Oshi No Ko, Yosuaga no Sora etc...etc.. is overblown controversy because people are mad two fictional character love each other and they are mad about it due to their personal moral standards.

@ForgotEyeWasHere It never was that serious though, and you are overreaching the intent of the translators there. The word "patriarchy" may be more naturalized in Western than Eastern societies -highly doubt it, though- but just because you feel it's so politically charged it can't be handled in a casual conversation doesn't mean it can't.

Also, localizers commit mistakes or make weird decisions sometimes. Just adding a word you feel is "too woke" is on the lower end compared to changing the entire script to insert local pop culture references like some series I watched dubbed as a child. Not to mention that, when fansubs were more prevalent, translations could be far more creative than they are now and we all swallowed them anyway. I think it's definitely not the big controversy it's made up to be.

As for the Sailor Moon issue, I see it less as a controversy and more as a sad sign of the times it was in.

When did I say anything about "woke"? I oppose all inaccurate translations and censorship, like removing LGBTQ+ characters. I also am opposed to Americanizing every anime, like 4kids did in the past, and like Crunchyroll, HiDive, and localizers like Katrina Leonoudakis all do now. Katrina also cheered about a feminine man in a manga being turned into a trans woman, which is erasure and promotes gender conformity.

I also noticed how you wrote two paragraphs about the "patriarchy" line, and only one sentence about cutting out LGBTQ+ characters. I hope you know that literally nobody in the world was helped by that line. Maybe they should go and do something that actually helps women?

@JoeChip it has incest romance elements you like it or not.

Mr. Pretend know all

When did I say anything about "woke"? I oppose all inaccurate translations and censorship, like removing LGBTQ+ characters. I also am opposed to Americanizing every anime, like 4kids did in the past, and like Crunchyroll, HiDive, and localizers like Katrina Leonoudakis all do now. Katrina also cheered about a feminine man in a manga being turned into a trans woman, which is erasure and promotes gender conformity.

I also noticed how you wrote two paragraphs about the "patriarchy" line, and only one sentence about cutting out LGBTQ+ characters. I hope you know that literally nobody in the world was helped by that line. Maybe they should go and do something that actually helps women?

@WaterMage Which might those be? I watched the show twice and saw no such inclinations.

I don't there there should be a controversy, and to be honest I didn't see much outrage. But it definitely deserves to be singled out for garbage writing. the way it handled demons was crap, and it started the slow descent of Frieren from the heights of wholesome and contemplative fantasy tale to the depths of generic fantasy battle shonen.

@Deathko why a fantasy anime based on medival europe with demons will be wholesome. Humans have practically no defence against them except recently when magic is now studied heavily.

Showing stark reality of the harsh world isn't generic.

@WaterMage I don't think I agree with it being "stark reality", but this controversy felt quite weird. There are many stories out there that explore demons as characters of complicated morality. Frieren doesn't owe us that, demons are an amoral threat in that anime. They just imitate human emotions for their surviving purposes.

I am inclined to side with Deathko on that it turned a bit too much toward a generic battle shonen scenario. But I thought the last arc was a lot of fun anyway, so no complaints from me.

@jal90 why it matters if it's generic for one arc. Even if it is Aura battle was still unique on its own. Every good anime would still have some generic part.