After a few episodes, many anime often lose their appeal. What is the reason for this? Is it just a feeling? Or do anime often get worse towards the end?
It is a prejudice, sometimes also a meme, and yet often there is a kernel of truth behind it. While the first episodes of a new anime often captivate the audience, the quality seems to decline over the course of the season. But is this really just a feeling? Or is there also a kernel of objective truth behind it?
Many anime captivate from beginning to end. Especially acclaimed series in recent times like Demon Slayer, Heavenly Delusion, or Violet Evergarden maintain consistently high quality throughout all episodes.
However, one undeniable fact is that the quality of certain series decreases towards the end. This is not just “felt,” but can often be substantiated with examples.
Reasons for a Poorer End
The artists and animators are often under massive time pressure and simply cannot deliver the episodes in the targeted quality by the air date. In such cases, a “recap” episode is hastily inserted or other tricks are used:
Long flashback scenes where characters reminisce. Especially when these scenes are “unnecessarily” long and not just 1-2 sentences, it is often an indication.
Backgrounds are greatly simplified or lack details. This is particularly noticeable when it was not the case beforehand.
It can be particularly clumsy when characters are simply not shown during a dialogue. In the last spring season of 2023, this was the case in “I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World” in episode 12. During a long, heated dialogue, the camera simply panned slowly over backgrounds. Actual characters were absent, even though the dialogues made it clear that things were getting heated.
Such deficient
scenes are often still corrected afterwards, but in the originally aired version, it is initially present negatively.
Another reason can be that the anime deviates from the manga. It is, of course, very subjective whether that is truly “better” or “worse.” This especially occurs when the anime has “overtaken” the manga, which can lead to scenes that are seen as unworthy or poorly thought out. Anyone who has watched the final season of “Game of Thrones” will recognize this phenomenon – it is the same with anime. The original Bleach had to deviate from the manga significantly because the manga wasn’t even finished yet.
There are many reasons why an anime becomes worse towards the end – often, it is indeed more than just a feeling.
If you’re looking for a few anime that are simply good from start to finish, dive into these fantasy worlds.
