For me, I think Infinite Stratos isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It’s not good, and I have my issues with it, but I’ve seen worse
Jujitsu kaisen.
Overlord.
Dare I say it? Dandadan.
These are too tier “meh” anime. I liked what I watch, but I’m not going out of my way to watch more. There a dozen series where I watched the whole thing, and couldn’t tell you what I liked.
Series that move the anime needle for me? Frieren and Delicious in Dungeon.
The 3-4 boiler plate isekais of <current season>.
Nah, people tend to use ‘mid’ as an insult, but describing these shows that way is too generous. They’re so damn generic you didn’t even feel the need to name specific titles.
I’ve got a pretty high tolerance for trash and don’t mind the overall premise too much (as long it’s not the VR variants) but “outright stupid” is a problem and half of them are too dumb to believe.
“My unique power is underappreciated even though it’s obviously broken so now I’m going to tell the nice girl not to come to school tomorrow” type shit can get buried.
Really it’s all about execution; for example Konosuba isn’t all that different in terms of its premise but the quality of the writing is a million times better.
Same. Not as good as many others, but definitely not as bad as many many others.
Demon Slayer. Gorgeous animation, with a middle-of-the-road story and middle-of-the road writing, that occasionally has some really great moments.
There’s a fight in the first season where the MC starts swinging his sword to perform air dodges that really, really irritated me with everything else they said about his “breathing techniques” at the start that basically meant it couldn’t do that.
Plus it always just makes me laugh when Japanese writers pretend that’s a totally different mystical tradition than Qi.
I really wish everything else about it wasn’t so silly because the animation is undeniably gorgeous.
Don’t forget the banger music.
I should probably post this to unpopular opinion but, uh, here we go: Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was so god damn boring even when the big scenes were playing out. I tried to rewatch it when it released on Netflix again but without Frank waiting for me at the credits I just didnt care. I know its like one of the most influential but god damn it kinda sucks with the pacing and the story getting up off the ground.
God, I fucking despise NGE and how people won’t shut up about it
This is why I can’t stand it. It was merely forgettable until everyone wouldn’t stop sucking it’s dick all the time.
i actually never heard of NGE before, until i saw clips of it randomly while watching other anime on yt.
Forgettable is disingenuous and hating something because people like it is cringe.
No, we hate because it’s garbage. It’s annoying garbage because people won’t shut the fuck up about it
Life is too short. There is so much good media out there that you cannot watch it all in your lifetime. If it’s not creatively groundbreaking and/or gripping entertainment, it has better be at least educational. Who’s going to lay in their deathbed and wish they watched more mid TV shows?
Another counterpoint on my end : good/popular shows tend to converge creatively. Mid content can have great ideas that you wouldn’t find elsewhere.
It’s great nourishment for the creative mind. For example I keep a bunch of old sci fi short story magazines cause they are full of ideas and characters that are thought provoking but not mature or polished enough for the mass market. Keeps my brain on its toes.
Fair enough! Quality itself isn’t the be-all end-all.
I’ve found I’m a lot happier when I just take things as they come. It’s not so much that I want to watch mid shows as it is that I don’t want the stress that comes from trying to avoid them. I’m much happier just quickly picking something good enough than spending a bunch of time researching the best thing and then still wondering if I could’ve found something better.
I enjoyed watching shows most when I had 10 local TV channels to pick from and just watched whatever seemed good enough out of those options, so now I just purposefully limit my options to emulate that, and it’s been pretty nice.
I get what you’re saying, but I’m not always fully dedicating time to a show. I’ve watched plenty of mid shows while doing other things: cleaning, playing games, working, sending emails, etc. Don’t really even want to watch anything that good when I’m doing those things. Else I’ll be too distracted.
The problem with that is that Netflix and other platforms notice this. And they start prioritising “background content”. Blah!
Most of my watching isn’t on streaming platforms so that’s not something I’m contributing to.
Good! Then I have no bones left to pick
Counterpoint: there’s also an ocean of garbage out there.
Maybe this’ll get me some flack, but rn this post makes me think of Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s fine. Some of the characters are fleshed out well, some of them are at least entertaining, but overall the plot is incredibly simple and the worldbuilding is surprisingly shallow. However, MAPPA is an undeniably talented studio and crucially, it’s actively in the process of airing.
Not everything you watch has to be groundbreaking. Sometimes just being “on” and “good enough” is all you want.
No! That’s the depression talking, complacency is on the loose. KOTOR taught me well, apathy is death.
JJK is more or less your standard shounen show, but the action scenes keep me interested.
Everything is polarizing nowadays and people like to talk in hyperbole. If something isn’t the best, it’s the worst. Mid = bad.
Basically anything thats commercial and popular. Like Re: Zero, Demon Slayer, One Piss, Naruto.
Not because i’m trying to be clever, but because they all follow the same shitty formula.
I’ve gotta be honest I don’t understand how you can think Re:Zero follows the same formula as those lol. The other three are fairly similar in story structure but Re:Zero? Like you named three typical shounen and then Re:Zero a story where the main character can’t accomplish anything on his own, is quite pathetic for the first couple arcs and who’s power is to get killed gruesomely and try and lead others with knowledge he cannot share and should not know.
Naruto literally right from the start is shown to be a kid with incredible potential who manages to beat a Chunin. Narutos structure is about a kid who isn’t innately powerful (which is imo a retcon due to being Ninja Jesus) but who trains with dedication. IE you can do anything if you put effort into it.
Demon slayer is similar insofar that Tanjiro isn’t actually uniquely special though Demon Slayers story structure kind of just sucks all around. The author cared way more about cool looking fights or scenes than making things logically make sense most famously all the Sword effects being completely made up, and not something that exist in cannon, a cannon that has actual demon blood magic.
I’ve been seeing more people hate on things just cause it’s popular and I’ve gotta admit it’s so goofy. You can just not enjoy something that’s fine nobody is forcing you to watch Re:Zero if you don’t like it. Sometimes fans of a property go really overboard, to name names Full Metal Alchemist fans but Full Metal Alchemist is actually good there’s just a lot of people who make it their personality
While it’s not formulaic compared to the other anime, it is pretty formulaic to itself. Each season is watching to see what horror the MC has to face and what he does to eventually overcome it all while dying and/or watching his friends die in brutal and creative ways.
Having said that, I do enjoy the anime, the characters feel pretty unique compared to other anime and the dialogue is very different. Those writers are very good at doing batshit insane monologues
Yes. It’s a story about putting Subaru into situations where the only path forward is self improvement. Subaru can fight and struggle to stay the same but to move forward he must improve. In the Sanctuary arc Subaru repeatedly failed to solve all the problems himself. There’s a what if story where he goes through with the contract with Echidna and we’re shown what would have happened if Subaru gave into his Greed, essentially ruining his relationships with all his friends, while still “saving” them. He got everything he wanted while losing what was most important.
Well, I seen every season up till season 3 and I got bored. It was repetitive.
Honestly I don’t feel like I usually see bland shows getting that kind of hate. It mostly seems to be that a lot of people will ignore the show, and then if it has some merits it’ll also have a dedicated glazing squad. Even with Demon Slayer I mostly see people saying it’s overrated, not that it’s actually bad.
Flying Witch. Its fine. Calm. Slice of life. Nothing special. I like it.
