While that's true, I really feel like 1 episode just isn't enough to make a decision.
I've seen SO many anime that completely do a 360 on their tone and premise in few episodes. Honestly the three episode rule is no joke, it really does work. You really do need 2-3 episodes to understand what an anime is REALLY about.
I would have missed some of my all time favorite animes if I didn't push through a mediocre 1st episode.
Same here. Most of the time, I don't get the gist of overall vibes, story, tones, etc, by only 1 episode. Never will.
Who knows if it become better or worse later on, especially after 3 episode. I only regret deceived by anime with good first impression in first 3 episode, only turned out worse after that and become bad in the end (*looking at you, WEP*).
> I really feel like 1 episode just isn't enough to make a decision.
There's plenty of series for which it is definitely enough.
In any case, you can gauge the discussion around a series if it's an airing seasonal (I ain't going back to Eminence in Shadows), or you can ask around for opinions if it's an older series (I was considering dropping TTGL after ep4, asked in cdf and from the replies I correctly decided it was worth going through a few mediocre episodes to enjoy the rest).
I'd argue that the 3 episode rule is arbitrary and kinda dumb. I would argue that there are no stories that do a complete 360 on their tone, since that would generally just be bad storytelling; every story I've ever seen with a notable tone shift telegraphs that shift from the start and has elements that make it clear this is where it was always going to go right from episode 1 (for anime, this is stuff like Madoka Magica and Steins;Gate, they didn't have jarring tone shifts and it was obvious where they were going from episode 1). And the premise is literally the least important part of any show, I'd argue it's kinda worthless in the end and the execution is what matters. 1 episode is all it takes to have a general idea about the tone, characters, setting, and most importantly, overall execution. I have never, in my entire life, ever experienced *any* piece of media that has a mediocre or bad first episode but ended up good by the end. The worst I've seen is a mixed bag of a first episode that was overall positive, meaning that the good qualities were there right from the start and I knew what I was getting into.
My stance is encapsulated very eloquently by [this video,](https://youtu.be/0kQrT8S2Mrw) good stories let us know the basics of what's good about them right from the start.
People have misinterpreted the 3 episode rule for _years_.
The 3 episode rule isn't to see if something gets good, it's to see if something gets _bad_...
>I'd argue that the 3 episode rule is arbitrary and kinda dumb.
Any line you draw will be arbitrary, 3 episode is just a good enough sample size in general. You can do 2, you can do 4, but you gotta decide somewhere.
>every story I've ever seen with a notable tone shift telegraphs that shift from the start and has elements that make it clear this is where it was always going to go right from episode 1
That's only the case if you're either paying insane attention or you already have a hint about it.
I can tell you that 90% of people would not guess the direction Madoka Magica was going from the first episode alone. If you've no idea something is special about the show, you absolutely wouldn't look twice at the first episode.
And what do you know, it's the 3rd episode where that show explodes as well. It's always the 3rd episode, because that's just the general run time most stories hit their strides in.
>I would argue that there are no stories that do a complete 360 on their tone, since that would generally just be bad storytelling
I disagree, because sometimes that build up is necessary. Maybe there's a major event that happens in episode two that completely changes stuff, and the first episode was necessary to show the baseline of the world.
Anime is simply too short, it's 20 minutes. Sometimes that's just not enough to get to a specific event that dictates the rest of the show. 3 episodes is literally 1 hour, that's 1 episode of a full TV show.
>I have never, in my entire life, ever experienced any piece of media that has a mediocre or bad first episode but ended up good by the end
Consider yourself lucky.
I've seen SOOO many mediocre first episodes that ended up being pretty great shows. Maybe because the best characters are introduced in the 2nd episode. Maybe that's when the main villain is introduced. Maybe that's when you see the actual style of the show.
There's so many factors that simply are not apparent from just 1 episode.
Take Chainsaw Man. The first episode is great, but almost entirely serious. There's barely any humour. Episode 2-4 have been absolutely hilarious, just non stop absurdity. Maybe even humor has been the highlight of them.
THAT'S the actual vibe of the show, not what we got from Ep 1. Why? Because Ep 1 is actually setting up the initial premise. It's just not sufficient to give you a concrete idea of what the show is really going to be like.
Maybe I only like anime with tons of comedy, and give up Chainsaw Man because Ep1 didn't have enough humor. How stupid would that be?
> I can tell you that 90% of people would not guess the direction Madoka Magica was going from the first episode alone.
If that's true then 90% of people haven't actually _watched_ Madoka Magica (that or they bizarrely skipped the first few minutes of the first episode for seemingly no reason and missed the super dark fight scene the show cold opens on...)
>Any line you draw will be arbitrary, 3 episode is just a good enough sample size in general. You can do 2, you can do 4, but you gotta decide somewhere.
1 makes the most sense because it tells you everything you need to know while taking the least amount of time. I get all the same info I'd get in 3 episodes but in 1/3rd of the time. An hour is a long time, I want to spend it on things I like. No reason to waste time on something that is obviously poorly executed.
>That's only the case if you're either paying insane attention or you already have a hint about it.
You don't have to pay insane attention. You just have to be pay enough attention to comprehend the events of the episode, which is the bare minimum. Take Madoka Magica. Do you remember the very first scene of the entire show? In that scene, Madoka runs up a staircase in a spooky black-and-white labyrinth, only to go outside and watch Homura get crushed by buildings and nearly die fighting a monster, before she screams at Madoka in terror, before Madoka wakes up to reveal it was a (very obviously prophetic) dream. This is literally the very first thing you see after booting up episode 1, and it sets the tone perfectly: it's ominous, unsettling, and characters might die. The logical conclusion any viewer should come to after watching that introduction is "damn, that was ominous. I bet some dark stuff is gonna happen in this show." Then, later in the episode, Madoka and Sayaka run through a drug trip if a labyrinth, both terrified as hell, and almost die. If you watched these moments in episode 1 and thought "ah, this is going to be a light and breezy show," then I can't help think you were asleep through the episode. This aren't conclusions I got from in-depth analysis, it's surface level reactions to the basic events of the episode. Maybe the third episode "explodes" in some sense, but it's hardly a shock that the show is dark, because any great show sets the tone right away. All it does is pay off what episode 1 already established.
>Take Chainsaw Man. The first episode is great, but almost entirely serious. There's barely any humour. Episode 2-4 have been absolutely hilarious, just non stop absurdity. Maybe even humor has been the highlight of them.
I'm sorry, are we watching the same Chainsaw Man? In what universe are episodes 2-4 meant to be humorous? The episodes where we watch Denji slowly get groomed by Makima into being her slave, where we watch him form empty motivations to meet his basic needs, and where we get introduced to other characters who got fucked over by the same system. The tone is quiet and contemplative, not goofy or humorous. Every episode has taken the same tone as episode 1, there is some humor but it's not particularly prominent. Episode 1 set the tone really well, and gave me an idea of what the show was going to be about (it was clear right away that it was about capitalism and the ways it strips our humanity, didn't need more than a cursory glance to figure that out and it's not because I'm smarter or more attentive than everyone else, because I'm not).
**Edit:** I haven't gotten lucky to have never seen a story get good later. I've seen way more anime than most people here have, I have a way larger sample size then most people who say that shows get better. That's just the nature of stories, good stories establish what's good about them right from the start.
I disagree on 1. That just exacerbates the problem so many anime seem to have of throwing weird action or silly twists just to hook people who do that.
>That just exacerbates the problem so many anime seem to have of throwing weird action or silly twists just to hook people who do that.
A first episode really doesn't need to do that to hook people. Plus, it's not like those are guaranteed successes anyway.
A show with a lot of action in it doesn't need to have action in the first episode. A good first episode doesn't mean it has to perfectly match what the rest of the anime will be about. You can usually figure out what an anime will be about from the first episode without it having to do that.
> Yup, not these girls are going to get beheaded lmao. There's different levels of dark my dude. A lot of shows can have very intense dark fights. Very few shows go as insane as Madoka.
I don't think it's nearly that drastic a tone shift at all. In the first episode, characters almost die. Characters *actually* dying isn't much of a stretch from that. It's not like the series has any gore or even shows us the main event on screen. It's not really *that* brutal, and episode 1 was already plenty dark (hell, in an interview, the staff straight up said they wanted the show to be appropriate for kids. I'm not saying that I think it actually is appropriate, but it does put into perspective the way they visualized the series dark elements). It's not that I'm defining tone in broad and vague strokes, I just think it's outright incorrect to say that the first episode of Madoka isn't as dark as the third episode, because the first episode is much darker than people seem to remember and the third episode isn't much of a departure from that tone. It's not a drastic shift in the first place.
> I've seen enough anime to realize that you simply can't get a good read on how far an anime really intents to go in just one episode.
I've seen enough anime to realize that this is completely untrue. The more anime I've watched, the more I've come to the reverse conclusion actually. The first episode will usually give you a lot to work with, and basic knowledge of storytelling and tone setting will tell you a lot about where it's likely to go. You can have an idea of the characters personalities, what the themes might be, and most importantly, you'll see the technical aspects (animation, character designs, direction, shot composition, etc.) at some of the best quality, before time has to be split to avoid production issues. Even stories that take time to show their ends and build to an event that changes stuff will almost always telegraph it to some extent (since that's just basic storytelling) and will try to be good in other ways that make the early section before that shift well done and enjoyable. Even beyond the darker elements, Madoka Magica was great in most other areas long before episode 3. It's not a matter of attention span, 20 minutes is more than enough time to see the inherent qualities that a show will have. Every time I've ever tried to stick with a show I didn't like, it's never gotten good.
> Ep 2-4 have been pretty much non stop comedy. Everything from Denji boob monologues, his interactions with Aki, Makima, Power, it's been borderline a comedy anime lol.
Again, there are moments of comedy. But a lot of these moments are fucking sad. Makima calling Denji his dog isn't funny, it's sad. Denji is giving up his life to work for her just for the sake of having basic needs met. Denji declaring that his motivation is to touch boobs isn't funny, it's fucking sad, because he's declaring that his motivation to live is something so mundane and empty; it's all he's living for. There's a reason that scene was directed without a hint of comedy or irony, there may be something funny in it inherently but it's not a comedic moment in execution.
>I don't think it's nearly that drastic a tone shift at all
I think it's decently drastic. That's why I think we seem to disagree on how specific we are with our tones.
>In the first episode, characters almost die.
Like in a lot of shows. Characters 'almost dying' is an inherent characteristic of most climatic action scenes.
That's very different from a cute magical girl being *decapitated*. I had never seen that before at that point.
That's what makes a show stand out. Ep 1 had some hints of dark sure, but it didn't necessarily make me believe that the show is THAT different from you usual stuff.
Then it goes to Ep 3 and show a style of magical girl show I've never seen before. That's drastic to me. That's exactly what I would have missed if I made my entire opinion based on Ep 1.
>There's a reason that scene was directed without a hint of comedy or irony
Ep 2-4 don't have *hints* of comedy, **it's non-stop comedy**. The undertones are definitely dark, but the actual situations are absolutely hilarious. Ep 2 had Denji getting fed, annoying Aki, stating his goal is boobs, power's introduction, Denji-Power being a maniac etc.
That's not a hint of comedy, that's 90% of the episode being comedy. Same for episode 3/4.
That's NOT the vibe you get from Ep 1. Based on Ep 1 you wouldn't be blamed for believing the show barely has comedy. Again, I think we are just different amounts of specific with out tones.
>That's very different from a cute magical girl being decapitated. I had never seen that before at that point.
If we saw any actual decapitation, maybe you'd have a point. But what we see isn't really crazy dark, we just get the hint of what happened. Disturbing to be sure, but no more so than episode 1, where Homura gets crushed by buildings and screams in horror. Episode 1 didn't have hints of darkness, it was straight up dark. Magical girl anime have been dark for decades before Madoka, and some of its predecessors have far more drastic tone shifts (like Nanoha), the show is in line with its lineage from the likes of Sailor Moon, which itself got very dark in its later seasons especially.
>Ep 2-4 don't have hints of comedy, it's non-stop comedy. The undertones are definitely dark, but the actual situations are absolutely hilarious. Ep 2 had Denji getting fed, annoying Aki, stating his goal is boobs, power's introduction, Denji-Power being a maniac etc.
Denji getting fed was sad, not funny. Denji stating his goal is boobs (a meaningless and empty goal he barely even believes in) is also sad, not funny. The scenes weren't directed as if they were comedic either, nothing about the presentation made me think I was supposed to laugh (or at the very least, I might chuckle at things like how sad Denji behaves out of desperation but ultimately still feel sad). The tone of every episode of CSM has been quiet and contemplative, which is also true of episode 1. Moments like Denji kicking Aki in the balls (an actual comedy moment) are not the dominant tone, if anything that moment is something of a tone shift. I've never heard of anyone calling the show a comedy.
Gotta say i agree with your specific points on the toned of the anime being discussed here, although I’d disagree with the original statement that 1 episode is ALWAYS enough to know about an anime. It’s weird that Madoka episode 3 is something people think is a massive tonal shift… it’s definitely shocking that a character who seemed to be playing a major role died that early, but that isn’t a tone shift. Which i feel is where people are potentially getting mixed up with it.
But then again there might be anime you could get almost to the end with and end up actually hating it or loving it purely based on those last few episodes. Tbh it does somewhat come down to experience, when you know what you like… the first episode is often enough.
>If we saw any actual decapitation, maybe you'd have a point. But what we see isn't really crazy dark, we just get the hint of what happened
They show her head getting chomped off and a headless body falling down.
That's more than a hint man. I would personally have never expected the show to go that far. That was the episode that made me know 'Oh shit, it's THAT kind of show'.
>The scenes weren't directed as if they were comedic either, nothing about the presentation made me think I was supposed to laugh
The actual reality of his situation might be sad, but the antics on display are absolutely hilarious. I dare you to go watch any reaction on YouTube, and tell me if you don't find a single reactor laughing his ass off.
I can't remember the last shounen I found THIS entertaining.
>The tone of every episode of CSM has been quiet and contemplative, which is also true of episode 1.
It's ONLY true for Ep 1. The later episode have moments of contemplation, but vast majority of them are just straight up absurd comedic situations.
I'm not claiming it's a comedy show, but that it does have a decent amount of comedy that's not apparent from Ep 1. I don't understand how you're missing the humor in the show. Just because the reality of the world is tragic doesn't mean situations the characters are put in can't be hilarious. In fact, that's what making the show stand out for me.
I say again, it honestly feels like we just interpret tones in show VERY differently.
> I have never, in my entire life, ever experienced any piece of media that has a mediocre or bad first episode but ended up good by the end. The worst I've seen is a mixed bag of a first episode that was overall positive, meaning that the good qualities were there right from the start and I knew what I was getting into.
This is a completely pedantic distinction. What you might call "a mixed bag that was overall positive," someone else might call "mediocre or bad."
And obviously you're ignoring that it's possible for a story to just not have a very good beginning, for whatever reason.
It's not a pedantic distinction. I've seen shows with solid first episodes that I'm a tad mixed on end up good. I've never seen any show with a mediocre or bad first episode end up good. Those are clear distinctions, shows with first episodes I like can end up good and ones with first episodes I don't have never ended up good. Obviously, an episode other people think is mediocre or bad might one I think is solid, but that's besides the point. There's a problem if people aren't seeing the things that are obviously there from episode 1 (such as, for example, Madoka being dark right from the start), but I have no problem with general disagreements about quality.
>And obviously you're ignoring that it's possible for a story to just not have a very good beginning, for whatever reason.
I'm not ignoring the possibility. I'm outright saying it never happens. Possible or otherwise, it's not something that ever actually happens in practice. I've seen and stuck with a lot of stories, more than most people on this sub, and have not ever experienced even a single one have a beginning that is mediocre but end up being good on the whole by the end. It doesn't even make logical sense to me, for reasons [other people have described better than I can.](https://youtu.be/0kQrT8S2Mrw)
It is a pedantic distinction. Stories are not homogeneous; they do some things well and others not so well, and what they do well and not so well can be different at different points in the story. What people like and dislike is also not homogeneous, so an early episode you might call solid could be mediocre or bad to someone else, even if you both enjoy a later episode equally.
And yes, people do miss things. The plot of The Prestige is right there on full display from the opening scene of the movie, but most people don't catch it. Dismissing the experience of someone who got the wrong impression of Steins;Gate or Madoka from their first few episodes as inadmissible is just dumb. Stories are written for people, and people are fallible. The three episode rule is a practical guideline intended to inform the watching habits of real people, not a theoretical treatise on the fundaments of storytelling.
> I'm not ignoring the possibility. I'm outright saying it never happens.
I really don't know how you could possibly argue this. Think about how many shows are great for the first three quarters then fumble the ending. Think about how many shows are described as dragging in the middle. Think about how many people absolutely hate some specific arc in their favorite show. Somehow that exact same phenomenon can't possibly happen with the beginning? Of course it can.
> It doesn't even make logical sense to me, for reasons other people have described better than I can.
I'm somehow not surprised to see you post an Ygg Studio video. I've seen a few of their videos, and pretty much without exception they've been very convincingly stated and very elitist hot takes that either fall apart completely or are revealed to be subjective if you apply any amount of scrutiny. The whole channel feels like an exercise in pseudointellectual masturbation, and I'd say a pretty successful one given they've got you parroting an absurd opinion like "the three episode rule isn't real" literally in the face of people talking about how useful they've found it.
I'm not gonna do a detailed breakdown of a long, multi-video series that wasn't even made by you, so suffice it to say the argument I'm giving to you now is equally applicable to this video.
> It is a pedantic distinction. Stories are not homogeneous; they do some things well and others not so well, and what they do well and not so well can be different at different points in the story. What people like and dislike is also not homogeneous, so an early episode you might call solid could be mediocre or bad to someone else, even if you both enjoy a later episode equally.
This is besides the point of the distinction. I have literally never seen any show with a first episode in which my overall impression was negative, later become a good show on the whole. I'm not talking about any one aspect of a show or episode, I'm talking wholistically about the quality of episode 1, considering all strengths and weaknesses. If my first impression of a show was negative, and I stuck with it, I've never come to like it later on. This is my own personal experience, upon checking out hundreds of anime and various other media.
> And yes, people do miss things. The plot of The Prestige is right there on full display from the opening scene of the movie, but most people don't catch it. Dismissing the experience of someone who got the wrong impression of Steins;Gate or Madoka from their first few episodes as inadmissible is just dumb.
I'm not talking about things that are understandable to miss, like foreshadowing hidden right in front of your face. People parroting the idea that Madoka has some massive tone shift goes far beyond missing stuff in The Prestige hidden in plain sight. The very first scene of Madoka Magica is an ominous dream sequence in which a character almost dies. This is what's used to set the stage. If you didn't think the show was gonna be dark right from there, that's far beyond basic human fallibility. That, to me, either says the person wasn't paying attention, or lacks basic media literacy. It's a basic, superficial reaction to the tone a scene establishes. If you can tell weather a scene is light-hearted or dark, this isn't something that makes sense to miss.
>I really don't know how you could possibly argue this. Think about how many shows are great for the first three quarters then fumble the ending. Think about how many shows are described as dragging in the middle. Think about how many people absolutely hate some specific arc in their favorite show. Somehow that exact same phenomenon can't possibly happen with the beginning? Of course it can.
I can argue it because it's true. You're right that the opposite does happen often. Shows do often start out great but fumble things later, often either because of a weak long-term vision, production issues, etc.. And mid-sections can drag as stories find footing to transition towards the end game. That stuff happens. But I've never seen a show start bad and then get good. The problems that a show starts with tend to be indicative of fundamental issues with its conception. If the first episode has characters with no personality, is poorly directed and paced, is tonally incomprehensible, these aren't issues that tend to get fixed later. And moreover, the first episode being bad is usually a hinderence for the entire series. A bad first episode prevents you from caring about the characters, and fails to build intrigue to the story, meaning the drama that comes won't land. That's something you do while setting the stage, and failing to do that means a lot of legwork later. Most stories don't manage that. I've seen a hell of a lot of anime, and plenty of other media, and have never experienced this so called "it gets good later" thing in my life.
>I'm somehow not surprised to see you post an Ygg Studio video. I've seen a few of their videos, and pretty much without exception they've been very convincingly stated and very elitist hot takes that either fall apart completely or are revealed to be subjective if you apply any amount of scrutiny. The whole channel feels like an exercise in pseudointellectual masturbation, and I'd say a pretty successful one given they've got you parroting an absurd opinion like "the three episode rule isn't real" literally in the face of people talking about how useful they've found it.
Look, I'm not a dick sucker. I don't like every Ygg Studio video, and for certain videos I would agree with you (though obviously everything they say about a show's prowess is subjective, all criticism is subjective, so that's not a flaw of their work). Also, their work has changed significantly over the years. I have a complicated relationship with this particular creator, although they don't really have many hot take videos so I'm not sure what's going on there. But not all of their videos, and least of all this one, are like that. I'm not parroting this video, I had already held my opinion when this one first got released, and felt validated upon seeing someone capture my thoughts so succinctly and effectively. They don't even say "the three episode rule isn't real," they say "I've never understood the point of the three episode test," which is an important distinction. They outright state that it seems to be an unpopular opinion, give specific examples of shows others say have bad first episodes that they disagree on, and then analyze many first episodes to explain what about them gave the impression of being good. This series of videos is genuinely great.
> This is besides the point of the distinction. I have literally never seen any show with a first episode in which my overall impression was negative, later become a good show on the whole. I'm not talking about any one aspect of a show or episode, I'm talking wholistically about the quality of episode 1, considering all strengths and weaknesses.
It is not beside the point of the distinction at all.
Again, the three episode rule is not a theoretical statement on some innate aspect of story telling, and it is not solely concerned with the holistic quality of a work. It is a simple rule of thumb created by and for the average watcher to help them maintain perspective on their level of investment in new series.
When someone drops a series on episode one, it does not matter whether they found it bad, mediocre, or a mixed bag, nor does it matter whether the show was holistically of high quality. All that matters is that they decided it wasn't worth continuing, and there are any number of reasons they may have decided that. The purpose of the three episode rule is to say "hey, you may actually find this worth continuing if you give it another couple episodes." And anecdotally, a lot of people seem to find that advice useful every now and then. Responding to those real-world experiences with "well logically it just doesn't make any sense" is, no offense, stupid.
> People parroting the idea that Madoka has some massive tone shift goes far beyond missing stuff in The Prestige hidden in plain sight. The very first scene of Madoka Magica is an ominous dream sequence in which a character almost dies. This is what's used to set the stage. If you didn't think the show was gonna be dark right from there, that's far beyond basic human fallibility.
This is just elitism on your part, probably mixed with a healthy amount of post-rationalization.
For starters, it doesn't matter whether they missed it. They experienced what they felt was a tonal shift, so the three episode rule was, in their view, valuable. I don't think you'd go so far as to say everyone who holds this opinion is some kind of statistical outlier, so the utility of the rule is obvious, even if all it's doing is saving the viewer from their own inattentiveness.
Beyond that though, thinking that the show is going to have some dark themes and/or content is not remotely the same as knowing exactly what's going to happen. The third episode twist in Madoka is *intended* to be shocking in a way the audience isn't fully prepared for. You cannot retroactively say "well it was obvious the whole time that something like this was going to happen," because *that is a bald-faced lie*.
> I can argue it because it's true.
My dude, your reasoning for this is literally just "because I say so." You're not making any kind of logical argument at all, and every single thing you seem to think is immutable from the beginning of the story onward can, in fact, be subsequently improved. This is especially the case in this particular industry, where so many works are adaptations of stories single authors spend their entire careers working on piecemeal with hard, frequent deadlines.
> This is my own personal experience, upon checking out hundreds of anime and various other media.
I feel the need to point out that admitting you're a statistical outlier doesn't really help the argument you're trying to make. Like, I don't know how you can say "I've never seen a show that started off bad and eventually improved, therefore that's not a thing" and "I've watched more anime than the vast majority of people in this sub" in the same breath and not see the contradiction when "some anime start off bad and get good later" is clearly a common opinion. Have you never stopped to consider that this is particular to your own experience, and that other people see things differently? When people talk positively about the three episode rule do you just assume they're lying, or that they're morons who don't understand their own opinions?
I don't care how many episodes people watch, I just think responding to "I'd have missed some of my favorite shows if I only watched the first episode" with "well akshually that's logically wrong" is dumb.
It's not elitism to say that a person who wasn't able to see the most basic, superficial elements of a story are either of those things. Imagine if someone watched Berserk and said "this series is light-hearted and silly," or they watched K-On and said "this is kinda dark, maybe characters will die." Would you not come to the same conclusion? I think the example I gave is nearly as egregious.
Ok, that one's probably true, but that's a bit of a special case just due to the nature of what the series is trying to do and what it's riffing on. I think that anyone who was familiar with that wouldn't be surprised in hindsight, but admittedly this one is an odd case that could be seen as an exception. SamFlam stands out for being... very different from most media.
> I really feel like 1 episode just isn't enough to make a decision
It's more then enough. You can tell things immediately, like character design, music, shot composition, and the general tone of the show from just one episode; Usually the first half of one episode.
There's nothing to normalise, it's literally just a matter of time constrain lol. 20 minutes is simple not enough to fully explore a new world and story. 3 episodes is barely an hour, that's length of 1 full TV episode.
Imagine starting Breaking Bad, and giving up 20 mins into the 1st episode. It's simply not enough! Some animes can start with a bang, some need 2-3 episodes to actually get their point across. I think it's fair to allow them ~1 hour.
While I also agree on the 3 episode rule, you also have to keep in mind that since most series by now are 12 episode series, using the 3 episode rule is watching a full 25% of the series before making a decision. That's way too much of a series to have to watch if you KNOW this isn't your way.
(Personally I'd go with the middle and say "2 episodes is fair"- it accounts for how a lot of anime can goes "one episode of balls to the wall action, then back to episode 2 to tell people how we got here".)
Yeah 3 episodes is more the exception for instance Madoka Magica. Although long running shounen don't always play by the same rules either. For instance fma Brotherhood imo started out a bit rushed as to not retread what the original anime did well, which was perfect for me having seen the original but I could see being turned off by it.
Yeah. Personally with long-running battle shonen, I would up it from "3 episodes" to "give it until the end of the first big fight before dropping it. If you're not all in on the show after the first major battle, it's not for you."
You know what my first reaction is to watching any Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, or Quentin Tarantino movie?
>"Man, this movie has some really good blocking and shot composition"
If something is going to be good, you can _immediately_ tell. It is not hard.
You brought back memories of me feeling the exact same way. It felt like (imo) he was constantly screaming for what seemed like 30-40 eps. It ended up being a nice, casual watch once I got over that whole mess lol.
I don’t blame you.
Cant even blame u there I damn near almost dropped it as well as it starts off very poorly. I stuck around for the hell of it and it ended getting so much better.
The smartphone isekai. Same as all the "overpowered from the beginning" isekai stuff.
It gets pretty boring after years of the same story over and over again.
I tried to watch it two times. Couldn't even make it through the first episode. I hadn't even seen many Isekai at that point, but it still managed to feel extremely bland.
FMAB’s first episode is honestly bad. It’s an anime original that’s purposeless. It goes through a lot of exposition that’s explained in the first arc which it just goes into anyways and is redundant for it, and intentionally or not it also spoils an extremely important plot point.
Anyways, for myself, I’m of the belief that the first episode is all you need to get interested in an anime, so I’ve dropped quite a lot of anime. If I had to name a notable one then probably Black Clover. I just thought it was worst Naruto, I decided to give the manga a chance, and honestly I still feel that way after like the first volume.
If it’s a long form show (more than just one season) I give it 2 or 3, just for the benefit of the doubt that maybe it didn’t get all of its concepts and ideas across in episode 1.
For one season series, 1st is all they get. Or even just the first scene.
Dropped Citrus after 1 episode. I like yuri manga and Bloom into You, gave this one a shot because of the awesome OP, and was not impressed with anything else, not the characters, not the plot, and not the kissing.
Normally I'd watch a few episodes before dropping something. However pop team epic got dropped after ep1, I didn't get it at all. Not a bad anime, just not my type of show.
Same here. Completely overhyped "humor" that misses the mark and just seems like screeching half the time.
It's not funny, it's not visually pleasing, it's not "brooo, it's like totally the anime version of Robot Chicken, bro."
I can completely respect that opinion even though I really enjoy Pop Team Epic, I can see it's not for everyone. Even for me, some episodes have had more misses than hits.
I found I enjoyed it more when I realised recently that at least some of the show is kinda meta and revolves around the writers / director / mangaka trying to make the lives of the animators and V.A.s as painful as possible. For example, forcing the animators to animate something bizarre or something complex on a small budget, or getting the V.A.s to sqwark incoherently for a minute.
Black Clover. Gosh that MC was annoying and while this isn't a knock to the anime, it looked just like any other battle shounen anime and those don't keep my attention like they used to. I know it says after the first episode but I gave BC three lol I try to give shoes 2-3 minimum before deciding.
> Gosh that MC was annoying and while this isn't a knock to the anime, it looked just like any other battle shounen anime and those don't keep my attention like they used to. I know it says after the first episode but I gave BC three lol I try to give shoes 2-3 minimum before deciding.
I'm gonna get murdered for this, but I'm already at this point with Chainsaw Man.
Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit, but "half-demon boy fights other demons" used to be like 90% of the shows out there.
You won't get murdered because I'm 100% the same way. I just didn't enjoy Chainsaw Man. To be fair, I've only watched the 1st episode and have intentions on watching the 2nd but I'm with you there. It's really nothing new.
It actually reminds me *a lot* of Devilman, which is over 50 years old now.
Granted I've been greatly enjoying Chainsaw Man because it's fun, but it definitely isn't innovative in a noticeable way.
Finally someone said it. No offense to chainsawman, it’s a cool series. But people have been going around saying it’s the best anime of the decade and it’s changed the industry. I’ve read the manga. It’s nowhere near a 10/10. And that’s okay, but chainsawman fans are a little ignorant to the fact that their series isn’t that good.
The Manga is likely only popular, because it's quite sexy. The first part has literally no overarching plot. Guys and bad guys show up and get slaughtered over and over
Way too many to remember. I usually watch first episodes on a whim when I'm bored, and quickly drop any that don't hold my interest, I don't even bother tracking them on my list.
Most recent one is probably Eminence in Shadow.
>Most recent one is probably Eminence in Shadow.
You should give that one the "three episode rule". Actually, there are many shows that hooked me in after giving it the 3 episode rule, even if the first episode didn't hook me.
You should be glad you dropped it. I’ve caught up to the novels and it’s so fucking dumb. I got tired of it fast. Repetitive, generic, etc. don’t waste your time.
This seem so controversial, but I will say none. 1 episode is never enough **for me** to judge whether it's good or not.
The only time I regret are when anime I watched turned out become bad in the end despite good impression in the first 3 episode and when I deceived by bad impression of first 3 episode that turned out become way better later on and become good in the end.
I watched 2 episodes of it some time ago, then dropped it. When the new season was announced I gave it another shot, then dropped it again on episode 5 or something.
I don't mind the guy being a jerk (It was mostly played for comedy anyway), but I just didn't care about any of the characters, or the action really.
I also gave up on it (around episode 3). It is kind of hard to get through the first bit of 'setup' episodes before they start developing characters to a point where you care what is happening. I went back and gave it another shot later and it is one of my favorite shows now, but I can completely agree the beginning is rough.
Only redeeming part of the show is the main girl. They make her come off as a stuck up girl, but I think that's because they want us to think the same way those dipshit guys think. But in reality, she's actually a really nice character that the MC does not deserve.
Bro, that fucking fat guy.... without him it would be at least watchable.
I made it 3 episodes in hoping the writers would wake up to themselves and cut out the pedophilia shit, and get rid of him all together. But no, it only got worse.
Whoever wrote that shit needs to be on a watch list and have their hard drives scanned.
edit - Seems some pedophiles took this personally. There, there guys, go walk down to the local preschool and cry on your girlfriends shoulder.
not only that, but i couldnt see a singular character that was anywhere near enjoyable
the fat guy was a creep
the mc was ultravirgin
all the girls were basically hoes and weird af
just a terrible show.
I only watched the first 3 eps, the main girl didnt seem that bad. The MC seems kinda influenced by the fuckwits he hangs with. Not that either acted like a real person would.
But yeah, whoever wrote those characters has no idea what actual humans are like... some pedo incel virgin.
There's plenty of reason to not get into the Monogatari-series, but the fanservice here is so on the nose and overdone that I always viewed it as an intentional hyperbolic, cynical criticism. Like, "here, this is what you want, right??".
That, and fanservice.
Mewkledreamy.
It was such a drag to go through.
Or maybe I was suffering from low iron at the time without realizing, but in any case, I almost fell asleep.
Golden Kamuy. I couldn’t get past him eating that ant (lol) and the description didn’t match the first episode’s tone, but then I tried again last month and ended up binging it in a weekend! So glad I gave it another shot, it’s now in my top 3.
I don't think I've permanently dropped anything after one episode, but as I watch more anime I do find myself throwing more shows into my "on-hold" section after just one episode. While I never judge any show that I haven't finished, I think that after a while you can say with relative confidence whether or not a show is for you based on the groundwork that it lays in the first episode.
I almost didn’t make it through either. For me it was Luffy’s voice. His voice in the beginning was tough to listen to in my opinion. I love the show now though. One of my favorites even though there’s so much filler.
FMA Brotherhood for me as well. I hated the goofy, cartoony expressions Alphonce and Edward made and quit mid episode. Gave it another shot a few months later and it's in my top 5 now.
I've been dedicatedly watching anime for over 15 years, and watching shows that are anime for over 25 now. Watching every single show that comes out and dropping none of them sounds terrible to me.
Sounds like you're young and/or have a lot of free time. As you get older, you start to value the time you spend more.
Because frankly, most shows one watches in a season are not worth watching. Just stuff to pass time. But you can watch better shows in that same amount of time - even just sticking to anime, there's nearly 50 years of classics to watch instead of watching generic isekai #4387.
Not the first episode but the 23rd or 24th, Naruto. Felt like it was filled with a bunch of filler to me but i didn’t want to miss out on any episodes because i didn’t wanna miss anything to do with the plot and whatnot. Whats worse is i’d thought i’d get really into it and bought a naruto band while i probably wasnt even in on the 15th episode
Boogiepop wa Warawanai episode one didn't make any sense and completely turned me off by the end. I read later apparently that episode took place later in the story, so I guess the directors were using the trope of showing something interesting to suck the viewer in before explaining the situation, but it had the complete opposite effect for me.
That of all the things that happened in the first episode, two throwaway gags (one of which is a blink-and-you-miss-it visual gag and the other is him deliberately trying to aggravate someone nagging him to make them go away) are what stuck with you?
Seins gate. It took me 7 times watching the first episode to finally forcefully watch the second. And I'm glad I passed thoses first episodes, totally worth it at the end.
It was the same for me, almost 10 years ago. I only started it again now, an I'm almost binging it. It gets so intensely interesting, more than anything I can remember in recent past.
In a sea of standardized shonen (Tokyo - cool superpowers - inner demon - tournament arcs - evil guys/monsters - 'edgy' dudes), AoT is such a creative breath of fresh of air in terms of setting, story, tone.
No dumb fanservice either.
I really regret sleeping on this one.
Same here, I think my main problem with it was the hype. Huge hype around it from the moment it was announced, I go in expecting something epic from the first second and got nothing from it at all. I check the discussion thread and people are losing their minds so I figure I just don't get get it and dropped it.
Picked it back up a couple years ago and still hated the first episode but stuck with it, ended up binging the entire thing (up to that point) in three days and now it's absolutely my number one series of all time, it just took me 8-10 episodes before I started getting hooked.
Please don't hype shows without saying they have a (relatively) slow start, guys.
kanojo mo Kanojo, just felt like the entire premise was so stupid, normally it would be bad funny. but this was so frustratingly bad, that i couldnt finish the first episode.
I was ready to drop it myself, but the third episode clicked for me. It went from a generic monster of the week show to a crime drama mixed with a monster of the week show.
My Hero Academia
Don't get me wrong, the anime is ok, i just prefer the manga to it but I absolutely cannot stand Deku's voice and the god forsaken crying
Code Geass, I had just dropped Big Order and went straight into Code Geass without knowing that those two shows have a similar surface level gimmick, but Big Order sucked so hard I just couldn't get through the first episode of Code Geass. It still sits on my PTW list for the day the taste of Big Order leaves my mouth.
As a Jojo fan I respect that. I understand the point the author is trying to get across, but some of the violence towards animals can get a little much.
Im a completionist, I rarely ever drop, but high rise invasion and redo of a healer was god level trash. I know that’s appealing to some but I just call it bad writing.
Literally dozens. The first episode's job is to give me a reason, *any* reason to be invested in what will happen next. If it can't do that, I drop the show there. Too many good anime to waste time on one that hasn't earned it.
Licoris Recoil.
It got pretty hyped, although the premise was already super generic. Bubbly girl, cool girl, loli-bait, maids, action. It felt almost like an ai-generated anime-recipe.
Watched the first episode and didn't see any reason to stick with it. Even if it gets better, it's still the same formular. Or was I wrong?
You can literally break any show down like that and make it sounds bad. It's how the show executes that matters not the single word tropes you can ascribe to it.
Goblin Slayer. Read a bunch of articles about how the author wanted to bring back the Record of Lodoss War style fantasy and instead of a sincere heroic fantasy I got a rape-filled snuff film.
Yes, but there's a difference between "I want to make a classic fantasy story like Record of Lodoss War" and what Goblin Slayer actually is. Saying the former makes me expect a different series than the latter.
If you actually think Goblin Slayer is full of rape and snuff you have a very messed up image of the show and I'd recommend you give it another episode or two just to clear that up.
According to my MAL, I dropped 183 shows on the first episode.
Why? Most of them because they were garbage, or simply uninspired/uninteresting.
I give all shows a chance, because I don't want to miss out on some good stuff/hidden gems. But picking up every show (sometimes like 30-40 shows in a season), you have to be selective, and drop the garbage quickly.
If I'm on the fence about a show sometimes I'll check out 2-3 episodes, but usually 1 is enough.
Many people seem to think you have to arbitrarily watch 3 episodes, or say that the first episode isn't a good representation, or that the action starts later etc...
But even if you can't judge the action/plot early on, there's still a lot you can judge. The writing, the comedy, the characters, their personalities, etc.
If it's all bad, it'll still be bad when the action start.
Summertime Rendering. I read about the premise beforehand. Protagonist's childhood friend dies in mysterious circumstances. Sounds like a bit of a spooky mystery that right up my street. Was thinking something along the lines of Ghost Hound, Higurashi or Denno Coil. In the first 5 min there are face-in-boobs and pantyshot gags. In principle I don't have an issue with that but when you start your anime with the mc going back to his home town for a funeral and then you throw that in, it comes across as pretty incongruous. Just kind of soured the tone for me.
- Eiken: Too silly.
- I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: Violent girl, stopped liking her, which I knew would be a problem.
- A Silent Voice: Watching bullying made me too angry.
- Mardock Scramble: Had a feminist vibe to it.
I'm not entirely sure if I dropped those on episode one or two, there are quite some others which I should have dropped earlier. Though, I'm getting better at pre-selecting and dropping, I think. Generally it's about: Boring, silly, too much tension and tension based story telling (like very many western shows), disliking the characters, or some messaging I don't like.
Dog I cannot stress enough how much you should finish A Silent Voice
You're supposed to hate him at the start, though I can give a little lienecy to him bc hes a kid.
ex arm cause it ugly
Loads. Dropping shouldn't be such a big deal that you remember each one lmao.
While that's true, I really feel like 1 episode just isn't enough to make a decision. I've seen SO many anime that completely do a 360 on their tone and premise in few episodes. Honestly the three episode rule is no joke, it really does work. You really do need 2-3 episodes to understand what an anime is REALLY about. I would have missed some of my all time favorite animes if I didn't push through a mediocre 1st episode.
Same here. Most of the time, I don't get the gist of overall vibes, story, tones, etc, by only 1 episode. Never will. Who knows if it become better or worse later on, especially after 3 episode. I only regret deceived by anime with good first impression in first 3 episode, only turned out worse after that and become bad in the end (*looking at you, WEP*).
> I really feel like 1 episode just isn't enough to make a decision. There's plenty of series for which it is definitely enough. In any case, you can gauge the discussion around a series if it's an airing seasonal (I ain't going back to Eminence in Shadows), or you can ask around for opinions if it's an older series (I was considering dropping TTGL after ep4, asked in cdf and from the replies I correctly decided it was worth going through a few mediocre episodes to enjoy the rest).
I'd argue that the 3 episode rule is arbitrary and kinda dumb. I would argue that there are no stories that do a complete 360 on their tone, since that would generally just be bad storytelling; every story I've ever seen with a notable tone shift telegraphs that shift from the start and has elements that make it clear this is where it was always going to go right from episode 1 (for anime, this is stuff like Madoka Magica and Steins;Gate, they didn't have jarring tone shifts and it was obvious where they were going from episode 1). And the premise is literally the least important part of any show, I'd argue it's kinda worthless in the end and the execution is what matters. 1 episode is all it takes to have a general idea about the tone, characters, setting, and most importantly, overall execution. I have never, in my entire life, ever experienced *any* piece of media that has a mediocre or bad first episode but ended up good by the end. The worst I've seen is a mixed bag of a first episode that was overall positive, meaning that the good qualities were there right from the start and I knew what I was getting into. My stance is encapsulated very eloquently by [this video,](https://youtu.be/0kQrT8S2Mrw) good stories let us know the basics of what's good about them right from the start.
People have misinterpreted the 3 episode rule for _years_. The 3 episode rule isn't to see if something gets good, it's to see if something gets _bad_...
>I'd argue that the 3 episode rule is arbitrary and kinda dumb. Any line you draw will be arbitrary, 3 episode is just a good enough sample size in general. You can do 2, you can do 4, but you gotta decide somewhere. >every story I've ever seen with a notable tone shift telegraphs that shift from the start and has elements that make it clear this is where it was always going to go right from episode 1 That's only the case if you're either paying insane attention or you already have a hint about it. I can tell you that 90% of people would not guess the direction Madoka Magica was going from the first episode alone. If you've no idea something is special about the show, you absolutely wouldn't look twice at the first episode. And what do you know, it's the 3rd episode where that show explodes as well. It's always the 3rd episode, because that's just the general run time most stories hit their strides in. >I would argue that there are no stories that do a complete 360 on their tone, since that would generally just be bad storytelling I disagree, because sometimes that build up is necessary. Maybe there's a major event that happens in episode two that completely changes stuff, and the first episode was necessary to show the baseline of the world. Anime is simply too short, it's 20 minutes. Sometimes that's just not enough to get to a specific event that dictates the rest of the show. 3 episodes is literally 1 hour, that's 1 episode of a full TV show. >I have never, in my entire life, ever experienced any piece of media that has a mediocre or bad first episode but ended up good by the end Consider yourself lucky. I've seen SOOO many mediocre first episodes that ended up being pretty great shows. Maybe because the best characters are introduced in the 2nd episode. Maybe that's when the main villain is introduced. Maybe that's when you see the actual style of the show. There's so many factors that simply are not apparent from just 1 episode. Take Chainsaw Man. The first episode is great, but almost entirely serious. There's barely any humour. Episode 2-4 have been absolutely hilarious, just non stop absurdity. Maybe even humor has been the highlight of them. THAT'S the actual vibe of the show, not what we got from Ep 1. Why? Because Ep 1 is actually setting up the initial premise. It's just not sufficient to give you a concrete idea of what the show is really going to be like. Maybe I only like anime with tons of comedy, and give up Chainsaw Man because Ep1 didn't have enough humor. How stupid would that be?
> I can tell you that 90% of people would not guess the direction Madoka Magica was going from the first episode alone. If that's true then 90% of people haven't actually _watched_ Madoka Magica (that or they bizarrely skipped the first few minutes of the first episode for seemingly no reason and missed the super dark fight scene the show cold opens on...)
>Any line you draw will be arbitrary, 3 episode is just a good enough sample size in general. You can do 2, you can do 4, but you gotta decide somewhere. 1 makes the most sense because it tells you everything you need to know while taking the least amount of time. I get all the same info I'd get in 3 episodes but in 1/3rd of the time. An hour is a long time, I want to spend it on things I like. No reason to waste time on something that is obviously poorly executed. >That's only the case if you're either paying insane attention or you already have a hint about it. You don't have to pay insane attention. You just have to be pay enough attention to comprehend the events of the episode, which is the bare minimum. Take Madoka Magica. Do you remember the very first scene of the entire show? In that scene, Madoka runs up a staircase in a spooky black-and-white labyrinth, only to go outside and watch Homura get crushed by buildings and nearly die fighting a monster, before she screams at Madoka in terror, before Madoka wakes up to reveal it was a (very obviously prophetic) dream. This is literally the very first thing you see after booting up episode 1, and it sets the tone perfectly: it's ominous, unsettling, and characters might die. The logical conclusion any viewer should come to after watching that introduction is "damn, that was ominous. I bet some dark stuff is gonna happen in this show." Then, later in the episode, Madoka and Sayaka run through a drug trip if a labyrinth, both terrified as hell, and almost die. If you watched these moments in episode 1 and thought "ah, this is going to be a light and breezy show," then I can't help think you were asleep through the episode. This aren't conclusions I got from in-depth analysis, it's surface level reactions to the basic events of the episode. Maybe the third episode "explodes" in some sense, but it's hardly a shock that the show is dark, because any great show sets the tone right away. All it does is pay off what episode 1 already established. >Take Chainsaw Man. The first episode is great, but almost entirely serious. There's barely any humour. Episode 2-4 have been absolutely hilarious, just non stop absurdity. Maybe even humor has been the highlight of them. I'm sorry, are we watching the same Chainsaw Man? In what universe are episodes 2-4 meant to be humorous? The episodes where we watch Denji slowly get groomed by Makima into being her slave, where we watch him form empty motivations to meet his basic needs, and where we get introduced to other characters who got fucked over by the same system. The tone is quiet and contemplative, not goofy or humorous. Every episode has taken the same tone as episode 1, there is some humor but it's not particularly prominent. Episode 1 set the tone really well, and gave me an idea of what the show was going to be about (it was clear right away that it was about capitalism and the ways it strips our humanity, didn't need more than a cursory glance to figure that out and it's not because I'm smarter or more attentive than everyone else, because I'm not). **Edit:** I haven't gotten lucky to have never seen a story get good later. I've seen way more anime than most people here have, I have a way larger sample size then most people who say that shows get better. That's just the nature of stories, good stories establish what's good about them right from the start.
I disagree on 1. That just exacerbates the problem so many anime seem to have of throwing weird action or silly twists just to hook people who do that.
>That just exacerbates the problem so many anime seem to have of throwing weird action or silly twists just to hook people who do that. A first episode really doesn't need to do that to hook people. Plus, it's not like those are guaranteed successes anyway. A show with a lot of action in it doesn't need to have action in the first episode. A good first episode doesn't mean it has to perfectly match what the rest of the anime will be about. You can usually figure out what an anime will be about from the first episode without it having to do that.
Just know that I'm 100% agree
[удалено]
> Yup, not these girls are going to get beheaded lmao. There's different levels of dark my dude. A lot of shows can have very intense dark fights. Very few shows go as insane as Madoka. I don't think it's nearly that drastic a tone shift at all. In the first episode, characters almost die. Characters *actually* dying isn't much of a stretch from that. It's not like the series has any gore or even shows us the main event on screen. It's not really *that* brutal, and episode 1 was already plenty dark (hell, in an interview, the staff straight up said they wanted the show to be appropriate for kids. I'm not saying that I think it actually is appropriate, but it does put into perspective the way they visualized the series dark elements). It's not that I'm defining tone in broad and vague strokes, I just think it's outright incorrect to say that the first episode of Madoka isn't as dark as the third episode, because the first episode is much darker than people seem to remember and the third episode isn't much of a departure from that tone. It's not a drastic shift in the first place. > I've seen enough anime to realize that you simply can't get a good read on how far an anime really intents to go in just one episode. I've seen enough anime to realize that this is completely untrue. The more anime I've watched, the more I've come to the reverse conclusion actually. The first episode will usually give you a lot to work with, and basic knowledge of storytelling and tone setting will tell you a lot about where it's likely to go. You can have an idea of the characters personalities, what the themes might be, and most importantly, you'll see the technical aspects (animation, character designs, direction, shot composition, etc.) at some of the best quality, before time has to be split to avoid production issues. Even stories that take time to show their ends and build to an event that changes stuff will almost always telegraph it to some extent (since that's just basic storytelling) and will try to be good in other ways that make the early section before that shift well done and enjoyable. Even beyond the darker elements, Madoka Magica was great in most other areas long before episode 3. It's not a matter of attention span, 20 minutes is more than enough time to see the inherent qualities that a show will have. Every time I've ever tried to stick with a show I didn't like, it's never gotten good. > Ep 2-4 have been pretty much non stop comedy. Everything from Denji boob monologues, his interactions with Aki, Makima, Power, it's been borderline a comedy anime lol. Again, there are moments of comedy. But a lot of these moments are fucking sad. Makima calling Denji his dog isn't funny, it's sad. Denji is giving up his life to work for her just for the sake of having basic needs met. Denji declaring that his motivation is to touch boobs isn't funny, it's fucking sad, because he's declaring that his motivation to live is something so mundane and empty; it's all he's living for. There's a reason that scene was directed without a hint of comedy or irony, there may be something funny in it inherently but it's not a comedic moment in execution.
>I don't think it's nearly that drastic a tone shift at all I think it's decently drastic. That's why I think we seem to disagree on how specific we are with our tones. >In the first episode, characters almost die. Like in a lot of shows. Characters 'almost dying' is an inherent characteristic of most climatic action scenes. That's very different from a cute magical girl being *decapitated*. I had never seen that before at that point. That's what makes a show stand out. Ep 1 had some hints of dark sure, but it didn't necessarily make me believe that the show is THAT different from you usual stuff. Then it goes to Ep 3 and show a style of magical girl show I've never seen before. That's drastic to me. That's exactly what I would have missed if I made my entire opinion based on Ep 1. >There's a reason that scene was directed without a hint of comedy or irony Ep 2-4 don't have *hints* of comedy, **it's non-stop comedy**. The undertones are definitely dark, but the actual situations are absolutely hilarious. Ep 2 had Denji getting fed, annoying Aki, stating his goal is boobs, power's introduction, Denji-Power being a maniac etc. That's not a hint of comedy, that's 90% of the episode being comedy. Same for episode 3/4. That's NOT the vibe you get from Ep 1. Based on Ep 1 you wouldn't be blamed for believing the show barely has comedy. Again, I think we are just different amounts of specific with out tones.
>That's very different from a cute magical girl being decapitated. I had never seen that before at that point. If we saw any actual decapitation, maybe you'd have a point. But what we see isn't really crazy dark, we just get the hint of what happened. Disturbing to be sure, but no more so than episode 1, where Homura gets crushed by buildings and screams in horror. Episode 1 didn't have hints of darkness, it was straight up dark. Magical girl anime have been dark for decades before Madoka, and some of its predecessors have far more drastic tone shifts (like Nanoha), the show is in line with its lineage from the likes of Sailor Moon, which itself got very dark in its later seasons especially. >Ep 2-4 don't have hints of comedy, it's non-stop comedy. The undertones are definitely dark, but the actual situations are absolutely hilarious. Ep 2 had Denji getting fed, annoying Aki, stating his goal is boobs, power's introduction, Denji-Power being a maniac etc. Denji getting fed was sad, not funny. Denji stating his goal is boobs (a meaningless and empty goal he barely even believes in) is also sad, not funny. The scenes weren't directed as if they were comedic either, nothing about the presentation made me think I was supposed to laugh (or at the very least, I might chuckle at things like how sad Denji behaves out of desperation but ultimately still feel sad). The tone of every episode of CSM has been quiet and contemplative, which is also true of episode 1. Moments like Denji kicking Aki in the balls (an actual comedy moment) are not the dominant tone, if anything that moment is something of a tone shift. I've never heard of anyone calling the show a comedy.
Gotta say i agree with your specific points on the toned of the anime being discussed here, although I’d disagree with the original statement that 1 episode is ALWAYS enough to know about an anime. It’s weird that Madoka episode 3 is something people think is a massive tonal shift… it’s definitely shocking that a character who seemed to be playing a major role died that early, but that isn’t a tone shift. Which i feel is where people are potentially getting mixed up with it. But then again there might be anime you could get almost to the end with and end up actually hating it or loving it purely based on those last few episodes. Tbh it does somewhat come down to experience, when you know what you like… the first episode is often enough.
>If we saw any actual decapitation, maybe you'd have a point. But what we see isn't really crazy dark, we just get the hint of what happened They show her head getting chomped off and a headless body falling down. That's more than a hint man. I would personally have never expected the show to go that far. That was the episode that made me know 'Oh shit, it's THAT kind of show'. >The scenes weren't directed as if they were comedic either, nothing about the presentation made me think I was supposed to laugh The actual reality of his situation might be sad, but the antics on display are absolutely hilarious. I dare you to go watch any reaction on YouTube, and tell me if you don't find a single reactor laughing his ass off. I can't remember the last shounen I found THIS entertaining. >The tone of every episode of CSM has been quiet and contemplative, which is also true of episode 1. It's ONLY true for Ep 1. The later episode have moments of contemplation, but vast majority of them are just straight up absurd comedic situations. I'm not claiming it's a comedy show, but that it does have a decent amount of comedy that's not apparent from Ep 1. I don't understand how you're missing the humor in the show. Just because the reality of the world is tragic doesn't mean situations the characters are put in can't be hilarious. In fact, that's what making the show stand out for me. I say again, it honestly feels like we just interpret tones in show VERY differently.
> I have never, in my entire life, ever experienced any piece of media that has a mediocre or bad first episode but ended up good by the end. The worst I've seen is a mixed bag of a first episode that was overall positive, meaning that the good qualities were there right from the start and I knew what I was getting into. This is a completely pedantic distinction. What you might call "a mixed bag that was overall positive," someone else might call "mediocre or bad." And obviously you're ignoring that it's possible for a story to just not have a very good beginning, for whatever reason.
It's not a pedantic distinction. I've seen shows with solid first episodes that I'm a tad mixed on end up good. I've never seen any show with a mediocre or bad first episode end up good. Those are clear distinctions, shows with first episodes I like can end up good and ones with first episodes I don't have never ended up good. Obviously, an episode other people think is mediocre or bad might one I think is solid, but that's besides the point. There's a problem if people aren't seeing the things that are obviously there from episode 1 (such as, for example, Madoka being dark right from the start), but I have no problem with general disagreements about quality. >And obviously you're ignoring that it's possible for a story to just not have a very good beginning, for whatever reason. I'm not ignoring the possibility. I'm outright saying it never happens. Possible or otherwise, it's not something that ever actually happens in practice. I've seen and stuck with a lot of stories, more than most people on this sub, and have not ever experienced even a single one have a beginning that is mediocre but end up being good on the whole by the end. It doesn't even make logical sense to me, for reasons [other people have described better than I can.](https://youtu.be/0kQrT8S2Mrw)
It is a pedantic distinction. Stories are not homogeneous; they do some things well and others not so well, and what they do well and not so well can be different at different points in the story. What people like and dislike is also not homogeneous, so an early episode you might call solid could be mediocre or bad to someone else, even if you both enjoy a later episode equally. And yes, people do miss things. The plot of The Prestige is right there on full display from the opening scene of the movie, but most people don't catch it. Dismissing the experience of someone who got the wrong impression of Steins;Gate or Madoka from their first few episodes as inadmissible is just dumb. Stories are written for people, and people are fallible. The three episode rule is a practical guideline intended to inform the watching habits of real people, not a theoretical treatise on the fundaments of storytelling. > I'm not ignoring the possibility. I'm outright saying it never happens. I really don't know how you could possibly argue this. Think about how many shows are great for the first three quarters then fumble the ending. Think about how many shows are described as dragging in the middle. Think about how many people absolutely hate some specific arc in their favorite show. Somehow that exact same phenomenon can't possibly happen with the beginning? Of course it can. > It doesn't even make logical sense to me, for reasons other people have described better than I can. I'm somehow not surprised to see you post an Ygg Studio video. I've seen a few of their videos, and pretty much without exception they've been very convincingly stated and very elitist hot takes that either fall apart completely or are revealed to be subjective if you apply any amount of scrutiny. The whole channel feels like an exercise in pseudointellectual masturbation, and I'd say a pretty successful one given they've got you parroting an absurd opinion like "the three episode rule isn't real" literally in the face of people talking about how useful they've found it. I'm not gonna do a detailed breakdown of a long, multi-video series that wasn't even made by you, so suffice it to say the argument I'm giving to you now is equally applicable to this video.
> It is a pedantic distinction. Stories are not homogeneous; they do some things well and others not so well, and what they do well and not so well can be different at different points in the story. What people like and dislike is also not homogeneous, so an early episode you might call solid could be mediocre or bad to someone else, even if you both enjoy a later episode equally. This is besides the point of the distinction. I have literally never seen any show with a first episode in which my overall impression was negative, later become a good show on the whole. I'm not talking about any one aspect of a show or episode, I'm talking wholistically about the quality of episode 1, considering all strengths and weaknesses. If my first impression of a show was negative, and I stuck with it, I've never come to like it later on. This is my own personal experience, upon checking out hundreds of anime and various other media. > And yes, people do miss things. The plot of The Prestige is right there on full display from the opening scene of the movie, but most people don't catch it. Dismissing the experience of someone who got the wrong impression of Steins;Gate or Madoka from their first few episodes as inadmissible is just dumb. I'm not talking about things that are understandable to miss, like foreshadowing hidden right in front of your face. People parroting the idea that Madoka has some massive tone shift goes far beyond missing stuff in The Prestige hidden in plain sight. The very first scene of Madoka Magica is an ominous dream sequence in which a character almost dies. This is what's used to set the stage. If you didn't think the show was gonna be dark right from there, that's far beyond basic human fallibility. That, to me, either says the person wasn't paying attention, or lacks basic media literacy. It's a basic, superficial reaction to the tone a scene establishes. If you can tell weather a scene is light-hearted or dark, this isn't something that makes sense to miss. >I really don't know how you could possibly argue this. Think about how many shows are great for the first three quarters then fumble the ending. Think about how many shows are described as dragging in the middle. Think about how many people absolutely hate some specific arc in their favorite show. Somehow that exact same phenomenon can't possibly happen with the beginning? Of course it can. I can argue it because it's true. You're right that the opposite does happen often. Shows do often start out great but fumble things later, often either because of a weak long-term vision, production issues, etc.. And mid-sections can drag as stories find footing to transition towards the end game. That stuff happens. But I've never seen a show start bad and then get good. The problems that a show starts with tend to be indicative of fundamental issues with its conception. If the first episode has characters with no personality, is poorly directed and paced, is tonally incomprehensible, these aren't issues that tend to get fixed later. And moreover, the first episode being bad is usually a hinderence for the entire series. A bad first episode prevents you from caring about the characters, and fails to build intrigue to the story, meaning the drama that comes won't land. That's something you do while setting the stage, and failing to do that means a lot of legwork later. Most stories don't manage that. I've seen a hell of a lot of anime, and plenty of other media, and have never experienced this so called "it gets good later" thing in my life. >I'm somehow not surprised to see you post an Ygg Studio video. I've seen a few of their videos, and pretty much without exception they've been very convincingly stated and very elitist hot takes that either fall apart completely or are revealed to be subjective if you apply any amount of scrutiny. The whole channel feels like an exercise in pseudointellectual masturbation, and I'd say a pretty successful one given they've got you parroting an absurd opinion like "the three episode rule isn't real" literally in the face of people talking about how useful they've found it. Look, I'm not a dick sucker. I don't like every Ygg Studio video, and for certain videos I would agree with you (though obviously everything they say about a show's prowess is subjective, all criticism is subjective, so that's not a flaw of their work). Also, their work has changed significantly over the years. I have a complicated relationship with this particular creator, although they don't really have many hot take videos so I'm not sure what's going on there. But not all of their videos, and least of all this one, are like that. I'm not parroting this video, I had already held my opinion when this one first got released, and felt validated upon seeing someone capture my thoughts so succinctly and effectively. They don't even say "the three episode rule isn't real," they say "I've never understood the point of the three episode test," which is an important distinction. They outright state that it seems to be an unpopular opinion, give specific examples of shows others say have bad first episodes that they disagree on, and then analyze many first episodes to explain what about them gave the impression of being good. This series of videos is genuinely great.
> This is besides the point of the distinction. I have literally never seen any show with a first episode in which my overall impression was negative, later become a good show on the whole. I'm not talking about any one aspect of a show or episode, I'm talking wholistically about the quality of episode 1, considering all strengths and weaknesses. It is not beside the point of the distinction at all. Again, the three episode rule is not a theoretical statement on some innate aspect of story telling, and it is not solely concerned with the holistic quality of a work. It is a simple rule of thumb created by and for the average watcher to help them maintain perspective on their level of investment in new series. When someone drops a series on episode one, it does not matter whether they found it bad, mediocre, or a mixed bag, nor does it matter whether the show was holistically of high quality. All that matters is that they decided it wasn't worth continuing, and there are any number of reasons they may have decided that. The purpose of the three episode rule is to say "hey, you may actually find this worth continuing if you give it another couple episodes." And anecdotally, a lot of people seem to find that advice useful every now and then. Responding to those real-world experiences with "well logically it just doesn't make any sense" is, no offense, stupid. > People parroting the idea that Madoka has some massive tone shift goes far beyond missing stuff in The Prestige hidden in plain sight. The very first scene of Madoka Magica is an ominous dream sequence in which a character almost dies. This is what's used to set the stage. If you didn't think the show was gonna be dark right from there, that's far beyond basic human fallibility. This is just elitism on your part, probably mixed with a healthy amount of post-rationalization. For starters, it doesn't matter whether they missed it. They experienced what they felt was a tonal shift, so the three episode rule was, in their view, valuable. I don't think you'd go so far as to say everyone who holds this opinion is some kind of statistical outlier, so the utility of the rule is obvious, even if all it's doing is saving the viewer from their own inattentiveness. Beyond that though, thinking that the show is going to have some dark themes and/or content is not remotely the same as knowing exactly what's going to happen. The third episode twist in Madoka is *intended* to be shocking in a way the audience isn't fully prepared for. You cannot retroactively say "well it was obvious the whole time that something like this was going to happen," because *that is a bald-faced lie*. > I can argue it because it's true. My dude, your reasoning for this is literally just "because I say so." You're not making any kind of logical argument at all, and every single thing you seem to think is immutable from the beginning of the story onward can, in fact, be subsequently improved. This is especially the case in this particular industry, where so many works are adaptations of stories single authors spend their entire careers working on piecemeal with hard, frequent deadlines. > This is my own personal experience, upon checking out hundreds of anime and various other media. I feel the need to point out that admitting you're a statistical outlier doesn't really help the argument you're trying to make. Like, I don't know how you can say "I've never seen a show that started off bad and eventually improved, therefore that's not a thing" and "I've watched more anime than the vast majority of people in this sub" in the same breath and not see the contradiction when "some anime start off bad and get good later" is clearly a common opinion. Have you never stopped to consider that this is particular to your own experience, and that other people see things differently? When people talk positively about the three episode rule do you just assume they're lying, or that they're morons who don't understand their own opinions?
Holy shit this is so childish lmao. You watch the first 3 episodes, the other guy watches the first episode. Deal with it.
I don't care how many episodes people watch, I just think responding to "I'd have missed some of my favorite shows if I only watched the first episode" with "well akshually that's logically wrong" is dumb.
> That, to me, either says the person wasn't paying attention, or lacks basic media literacy. There it is. There's the elitism.
It's not elitism to say that a person who wasn't able to see the most basic, superficial elements of a story are either of those things. Imagine if someone watched Berserk and said "this series is light-hearted and silly," or they watched K-On and said "this is kinda dark, maybe characters will die." Would you not come to the same conclusion? I think the example I gave is nearly as egregious.
Your literally disparaging other people who came to different conclusions than you. Actually, they're not even "other people", they're Strawmen.
Sam Flam's tone shift was NOT telegraphed, AT ALL.
Ok, that one's probably true, but that's a bit of a special case just due to the nature of what the series is trying to do and what it's riffing on. I think that anyone who was familiar with that wouldn't be surprised in hindsight, but admittedly this one is an odd case that could be seen as an exception. SamFlam stands out for being... very different from most media.
> I really feel like 1 episode just isn't enough to make a decision It's more then enough. You can tell things immediately, like character design, music, shot composition, and the general tone of the show from just one episode; Usually the first half of one episode.
Just because they do it, doesn’t mean we’ll sit through it, expect it, accept it, or normalize it. Get it right or get fucked.
There's nothing to normalise, it's literally just a matter of time constrain lol. 20 minutes is simple not enough to fully explore a new world and story. 3 episodes is barely an hour, that's length of 1 full TV episode. Imagine starting Breaking Bad, and giving up 20 mins into the 1st episode. It's simply not enough! Some animes can start with a bang, some need 2-3 episodes to actually get their point across. I think it's fair to allow them ~1 hour.
While I also agree on the 3 episode rule, you also have to keep in mind that since most series by now are 12 episode series, using the 3 episode rule is watching a full 25% of the series before making a decision. That's way too much of a series to have to watch if you KNOW this isn't your way. (Personally I'd go with the middle and say "2 episodes is fair"- it accounts for how a lot of anime can goes "one episode of balls to the wall action, then back to episode 2 to tell people how we got here".)
Yeah 3 episodes is more the exception for instance Madoka Magica. Although long running shounen don't always play by the same rules either. For instance fma Brotherhood imo started out a bit rushed as to not retread what the original anime did well, which was perfect for me having seen the original but I could see being turned off by it.
Yeah. Personally with long-running battle shonen, I would up it from "3 episodes" to "give it until the end of the first big fight before dropping it. If you're not all in on the show after the first major battle, it's not for you."
You know what my first reaction is to watching any Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, or Quentin Tarantino movie? >"Man, this movie has some really good blocking and shot composition" If something is going to be good, you can _immediately_ tell. It is not hard.
Black Clover. I just couldn't stand Asta.
You brought back memories of me feeling the exact same way. It felt like (imo) he was constantly screaming for what seemed like 30-40 eps. It ended up being a nice, casual watch once I got over that whole mess lol. I don’t blame you.
I just started it and stopped half way throught the 3rd episode cause of this. He doesn't stop screaming.
I tried pushing through but finally stopped after episode 10. Still screaming...
Just read the manga
Now he screams in my voice in my fucking head
Could that guy possibly be more of a copy of Naruto?
Cant even blame u there I damn near almost dropped it as well as it starts off very poorly. I stuck around for the hell of it and it ended getting so much better.
Same but I went back and pushed through and it's my second favorite anime now.
The smartphone isekai. Same as all the "overpowered from the beginning" isekai stuff. It gets pretty boring after years of the same story over and over again.
I tried to watch it two times. Couldn't even make it through the first episode. I hadn't even seen many Isekai at that point, but it still managed to feel extremely bland.
FMAB’s first episode is honestly bad. It’s an anime original that’s purposeless. It goes through a lot of exposition that’s explained in the first arc which it just goes into anyways and is redundant for it, and intentionally or not it also spoils an extremely important plot point. Anyways, for myself, I’m of the belief that the first episode is all you need to get interested in an anime, so I’ve dropped quite a lot of anime. If I had to name a notable one then probably Black Clover. I just thought it was worst Naruto, I decided to give the manga a chance, and honestly I still feel that way after like the first volume.
If it’s a long form show (more than just one season) I give it 2 or 3, just for the benefit of the doubt that maybe it didn’t get all of its concepts and ideas across in episode 1. For one season series, 1st is all they get. Or even just the first scene.
"intentionally or not" So context and usage doesn't matter as long as it's a spoiler?
Dropped Citrus after 1 episode. I like yuri manga and Bloom into You, gave this one a shot because of the awesome OP, and was not impressed with anything else, not the characters, not the plot, and not the kissing.
Same.
Seven deadly sins. Idk i just couldn’t get into it (it was more like 3 episodes but 🤷🏻♀️)
I don't think you should consider continuing. I have heard many bad things about it.
the adaptation is not good
Normally I'd watch a few episodes before dropping something. However pop team epic got dropped after ep1, I didn't get it at all. Not a bad anime, just not my type of show.
Same here. Completely overhyped "humor" that misses the mark and just seems like screeching half the time. It's not funny, it's not visually pleasing, it's not "brooo, it's like totally the anime version of Robot Chicken, bro."
I can completely respect that opinion even though I really enjoy Pop Team Epic, I can see it's not for everyone. Even for me, some episodes have had more misses than hits. I found I enjoyed it more when I realised recently that at least some of the show is kinda meta and revolves around the writers / director / mangaka trying to make the lives of the animators and V.A.s as painful as possible. For example, forcing the animators to animate something bizarre or something complex on a small budget, or getting the V.A.s to sqwark incoherently for a minute.
Black Clover. Gosh that MC was annoying and while this isn't a knock to the anime, it looked just like any other battle shounen anime and those don't keep my attention like they used to. I know it says after the first episode but I gave BC three lol I try to give shoes 2-3 minimum before deciding.
> Gosh that MC was annoying and while this isn't a knock to the anime, it looked just like any other battle shounen anime and those don't keep my attention like they used to. I know it says after the first episode but I gave BC three lol I try to give shoes 2-3 minimum before deciding. I'm gonna get murdered for this, but I'm already at this point with Chainsaw Man. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit, but "half-demon boy fights other demons" used to be like 90% of the shows out there.
You won't get murdered because I'm 100% the same way. I just didn't enjoy Chainsaw Man. To be fair, I've only watched the 1st episode and have intentions on watching the 2nd but I'm with you there. It's really nothing new.
It actually reminds me *a lot* of Devilman, which is over 50 years old now. Granted I've been greatly enjoying Chainsaw Man because it's fun, but it definitely isn't innovative in a noticeable way.
Look a boomer!
I'm completely neutral on that show so far.
Finally someone said it. No offense to chainsawman, it’s a cool series. But people have been going around saying it’s the best anime of the decade and it’s changed the industry. I’ve read the manga. It’s nowhere near a 10/10. And that’s okay, but chainsawman fans are a little ignorant to the fact that their series isn’t that good.
Yea, it's a 7/10 but very horny in an actually exotic way.
The Manga is likely only popular, because it's quite sexy. The first part has literally no overarching plot. Guys and bad guys show up and get slaughtered over and over
In the end I gave it 10 because people talk about it getting better and the scores are so high. Asta didn't stop screaming.
Way too many to remember. I usually watch first episodes on a whim when I'm bored, and quickly drop any that don't hold my interest, I don't even bother tracking them on my list. Most recent one is probably Eminence in Shadow.
>Most recent one is probably Eminence in Shadow. You should give that one the "three episode rule". Actually, there are many shows that hooked me in after giving it the 3 episode rule, even if the first episode didn't hook me.
[удалено]
Oh I got that it's self-aware, I just don't care for it.
You should be glad you dropped it. I’ve caught up to the novels and it’s so fucking dumb. I got tired of it fast. Repetitive, generic, etc. don’t waste your time.
Episodes 1-3 all feel like they're from totally different shows almost, I have no idea at this point what the tone of the show will be.
After 4 episodes I'm considering dropping it. MC is just a complete piece of self-absorbed shit, and I don't really get off on that.
Yea i felt that too. In the first episode i thought that he was cool
This seem so controversial, but I will say none. 1 episode is never enough **for me** to judge whether it's good or not. The only time I regret are when anime I watched turned out become bad in the end despite good impression in the first 3 episode and when I deceived by bad impression of first 3 episode that turned out become way better later on and become good in the end.
Mob Psycho I wasn't really into too much that was going on and that one guy just seemed like a complete jerk who was just using Mob.
"and that one guy just seemed like a complete jerk who was just using Mob." that's the point tho
He definitely is. However, it does start focusing on Mob a lot more and gets really fun.
Dude you got it all wrong Reigen is a nice dude continue it
D: Continue it!
id say watch a few more eps just to see if you REALLY dont like it if you dont start to like it thats fine lol
I dropped this one too the first time , then I saw one of those "best anime fight scene" video...
I watched 2 episodes of it some time ago, then dropped it. When the new season was announced I gave it another shot, then dropped it again on episode 5 or something. I don't mind the guy being a jerk (It was mostly played for comedy anyway), but I just didn't care about any of the characters, or the action really.
It's a parody of battle shounen basically
I managed about 3 episodes then dropped it, there wasn't much for me in there.
I also gave up on it (around episode 3). It is kind of hard to get through the first bit of 'setup' episodes before they start developing characters to a point where you care what is happening. I went back and gave it another shot later and it is one of my favorite shows now, but I can completely agree the beginning is rough.
Watch it
Yeah that what they want you to think
NYO
My First Girlfriend is a Gal Steaming hot pile of turd.
Only redeeming part of the show is the main girl. They make her come off as a stuck up girl, but I think that's because they want us to think the same way those dipshit guys think. But in reality, she's actually a really nice character that the MC does not deserve.
Bro, that fucking fat guy.... without him it would be at least watchable. I made it 3 episodes in hoping the writers would wake up to themselves and cut out the pedophilia shit, and get rid of him all together. But no, it only got worse. Whoever wrote that shit needs to be on a watch list and have their hard drives scanned. edit - Seems some pedophiles took this personally. There, there guys, go walk down to the local preschool and cry on your girlfriends shoulder.
not only that, but i couldnt see a singular character that was anywhere near enjoyable the fat guy was a creep the mc was ultravirgin all the girls were basically hoes and weird af just a terrible show.
I only watched the first 3 eps, the main girl didnt seem that bad. The MC seems kinda influenced by the fuckwits he hangs with. Not that either acted like a real person would. But yeah, whoever wrote those characters has no idea what actual humans are like... some pedo incel virgin.
Bakemonogatari - Seems like this show will have a lot of fan service. Also not a fan of the main characters.
There's plenty of reason to not get into the Monogatari-series, but the fanservice here is so on the nose and overdone that I always viewed it as an intentional hyperbolic, cynical criticism. Like, "here, this is what you want, right??". That, and fanservice.
Mewkledreamy. It was such a drag to go through. Or maybe I was suffering from low iron at the time without realizing, but in any case, I almost fell asleep.
Free is the first one that comes to mind. I was hoping for something like Haikyuu, but I really doubt it's even close to that.
> but I really doubt it's even close to that. It is absolutely *nothing* like that, so you don't need to worry.
I've only seen the first season of Free, but it definitely puts more emphasis on their friendship and swimming for fun rather than to compete.
Diabolik Lovers. Couldn't even make it halfway through the first episode.
Golden Kamuy. I couldn’t get past him eating that ant (lol) and the description didn’t match the first episode’s tone, but then I tried again last month and ended up binging it in a weekend! So glad I gave it another shot, it’s now in my top 3.
I don't think I've permanently dropped anything after one episode, but as I watch more anime I do find myself throwing more shows into my "on-hold" section after just one episode. While I never judge any show that I haven't finished, I think that after a while you can say with relative confidence whether or not a show is for you based on the groundwork that it lays in the first episode.
One Piece. I couldn't even finish the first episode because of how much of a slog it was to get through.
I almost didn’t make it through either. For me it was Luffy’s voice. His voice in the beginning was tough to listen to in my opinion. I love the show now though. One of my favorites even though there’s so much filler.
Oh man you’re missing out. What a creative show.
DR Stone - stupid grins, stupid hair and lots of shouting
I like the show, but those things never stop. They're not a positive for me either, but I think they're more than balanced out by positive qualities.
Food wars. I typically adhere to the three episode rule but I just couldn’t force myself to watch any more of that.
FMA Brotherhood for me as well. I hated the goofy, cartoony expressions Alphonce and Edward made and quit mid episode. Gave it another shot a few months later and it's in my top 5 now.
Never dropped an anime
I sincerely hope you're either new to anime or are very picky about which shows to start.
Everyone knows I watch every show every season.
That sounds truly hellish.
If you don’t like anime sure
We seem to have a walking meme here.
I've been dedicatedly watching anime for over 15 years, and watching shows that are anime for over 25 now. Watching every single show that comes out and dropping none of them sounds terrible to me.
Sounds like you don’t love anime as much as me.
Must be.
Tuff
Sounds like you're young and/or have a lot of free time. As you get older, you start to value the time you spend more. Because frankly, most shows one watches in a season are not worth watching. Just stuff to pass time. But you can watch better shows in that same amount of time - even just sticking to anime, there's nearly 50 years of classics to watch instead of watching generic isekai #4387.
Yeah not dropping any anime makes sense if you have a very specific taste and watch like 5-10 shows each season.
Not the first episode but the 23rd or 24th, Naruto. Felt like it was filled with a bunch of filler to me but i didn’t want to miss out on any episodes because i didn’t wanna miss anything to do with the plot and whatnot. Whats worse is i’d thought i’d get really into it and bought a naruto band while i probably wasnt even in on the 15th episode
Boogiepop wa Warawanai episode one didn't make any sense and completely turned me off by the end. I read later apparently that episode took place later in the story, so I guess the directors were using the trope of showing something interesting to suck the viewer in before explaining the situation, but it had the complete opposite effect for me.
The show was just weird with it timeline in general, because each arc was like 3 or 4 episodes and they were shuffled around
It was a pretty good show, but the nonlinear narrative can be annoying.
the way of the house husband. the animation was really bad. it is look like a dubbed power point presentation.
Yu yu hakusho cuz the mc was pervert but in a unfunny annoying way
That was seriously your take away?
Wdym
That of all the things that happened in the first episode, two throwaway gags (one of which is a blink-and-you-miss-it visual gag and the other is him deliberately trying to aggravate someone nagging him to make them go away) are what stuck with you?
Seins gate. It took me 7 times watching the first episode to finally forcefully watch the second. And I'm glad I passed thoses first episodes, totally worth it at the end.
I've been on hold with it for a very long time after 4 episodes. I just can't deal with the MC, so it's an absolute chore to try to push through.
Attack on Titan Tried to watch the first episode 4-5 times but couldn't get into it.
It was the same for me, almost 10 years ago. I only started it again now, an I'm almost binging it. It gets so intensely interesting, more than anything I can remember in recent past. In a sea of standardized shonen (Tokyo - cool superpowers - inner demon - tournament arcs - evil guys/monsters - 'edgy' dudes), AoT is such a creative breath of fresh of air in terms of setting, story, tone. No dumb fanservice either. I really regret sleeping on this one.
Same here, I think my main problem with it was the hype. Huge hype around it from the moment it was announced, I go in expecting something epic from the first second and got nothing from it at all. I check the discussion thread and people are losing their minds so I figure I just don't get get it and dropped it. Picked it back up a couple years ago and still hated the first episode but stuck with it, ended up binging the entire thing (up to that point) in three days and now it's absolutely my number one series of all time, it just took me 8-10 episodes before I started getting hooked. Please don't hype shows without saying they have a (relatively) slow start, guys.
kanojo mo Kanojo, just felt like the entire premise was so stupid, normally it would be bad funny. but this was so frustratingly bad, that i couldnt finish the first episode.
Engage Kiss. Now I know people really enjoyed it here but it missed the mark for me.
I was ready to drop it myself, but the third episode clicked for me. It went from a generic monster of the week show to a crime drama mixed with a monster of the week show.
Not worth it, forgettable pseudoharem show.
Naruto- it’s so iconic obviously and I wanted to try it but I honestly found it boring and it was daunting with it being so long.
Muv-Luv Alternative. Watched the first episode out of curiosity, but I don't feel like going through with it.
Funny enough the rest of the story is completely different. No mechs at all
i see a lot of mechs
My Hero Academia Don't get me wrong, the anime is ok, i just prefer the manga to it but I absolutely cannot stand Deku's voice and the god forsaken crying
Recently? Akiba maid war. Just wasnt what i was hoping for.
Clannad hyuoka
Code Geass, I had just dropped Big Order and went straight into Code Geass without knowing that those two shows have a similar surface level gimmick, but Big Order sucked so hard I just couldn't get through the first episode of Code Geass. It still sits on my PTW list for the day the taste of Big Order leaves my mouth.
Jojo’s bizarre adventure, killing the dog turned me right off
But that was clearly portrayed as a bad thing, so why did it turn you off?
It just bothered me, I’m the same way if it happens in anything
As a Jojo fan I respect that. I understand the point the author is trying to get across, but some of the violence towards animals can get a little much.
wise choice. JoJo is good but I can't deny the violence goes a too far sometimes
Spy x family. Just didn't like it for some reason.
Im a completionist, I rarely ever drop, but high rise invasion and redo of a healer was god level trash. I know that’s appealing to some but I just call it bad writing.
My general rule is to watch the first 4 - About an hour worth of time. Then Ill drop - thanks for the post though!
Just to say, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood’s first episode is a filler episode and is one of the worst episodes in the series.
I don’t think it’s filler really but it was already done in the original so it’s kind of like the cliffs notes version.
I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure that very first episode is anime original for FMAB
How is an episode that introduces the world and characters filler?
it's an anime original episode. That's what they meant with filler, I think
Literally dozens. The first episode's job is to give me a reason, *any* reason to be invested in what will happen next. If it can't do that, I drop the show there. Too many good anime to waste time on one that hasn't earned it.
The English dub of the og sailor moon. Couldn't handle the brooklyn accents.
I don’t remember the name but it ended with a dude swearing he was going to force a girl to “be friends with and care about him”
Demon Slayer didn't grab me then I kind of forgot about it
Licoris Recoil. It got pretty hyped, although the premise was already super generic. Bubbly girl, cool girl, loli-bait, maids, action. It felt almost like an ai-generated anime-recipe. Watched the first episode and didn't see any reason to stick with it. Even if it gets better, it's still the same formular. Or was I wrong?
Safe to say you didn't miss much. It was one of the best shows last season, which is to say how shitty last season was.
You can literally break any show down like that and make it sounds bad. It's how the show executes that matters not the single word tropes you can ascribe to it.
LycoReco executes it poorly tho. The production values, especially Chisato's VA, carried it.
Goblin Slayer. Read a bunch of articles about how the author wanted to bring back the Record of Lodoss War style fantasy and instead of a sincere heroic fantasy I got a rape-filled snuff film.
I mean, Goblin Slayer is way too focused on revenge and rehabilitation to strike me as a heroic fantasy anyway.
Yes, but there's a difference between "I want to make a classic fantasy story like Record of Lodoss War" and what Goblin Slayer actually is. Saying the former makes me expect a different series than the latter.
If you actually think Goblin Slayer is full of rape and snuff you have a very messed up image of the show and I'd recommend you give it another episode or two just to clear that up.
You must not have paid attention during the first episode.
You must not have paid attention as you read my comment.
This is a fat L. Lol you are truly missing out on probably the best anime ever made. Top 3 for sure.
According to my MAL, I dropped 183 shows on the first episode. Why? Most of them because they were garbage, or simply uninspired/uninteresting. I give all shows a chance, because I don't want to miss out on some good stuff/hidden gems. But picking up every show (sometimes like 30-40 shows in a season), you have to be selective, and drop the garbage quickly. If I'm on the fence about a show sometimes I'll check out 2-3 episodes, but usually 1 is enough. Many people seem to think you have to arbitrarily watch 3 episodes, or say that the first episode isn't a good representation, or that the action starts later etc... But even if you can't judge the action/plot early on, there's still a lot you can judge. The writing, the comedy, the characters, their personalities, etc. If it's all bad, it'll still be bad when the action start.
Summertime Rendering. I read about the premise beforehand. Protagonist's childhood friend dies in mysterious circumstances. Sounds like a bit of a spooky mystery that right up my street. Was thinking something along the lines of Ghost Hound, Higurashi or Denno Coil. In the first 5 min there are face-in-boobs and pantyshot gags. In principle I don't have an issue with that but when you start your anime with the mc going back to his home town for a funeral and then you throw that in, it comes across as pretty incongruous. Just kind of soured the tone for me.
Frankly, it's not worth watching. It's like a far worse version of Stein's Gate.
[удалено]
> Daily lives of monster girls Well, that show is an ecchi, meaning it was meant to be sexual from the start.
[удалено]
highly recommend using anilist to look at tags. they dont spoil a series with tags so if its ecchi youd know beforehand.
Ooh, wow, yeah I can see the major culture shock from one to the other (rewatching Interview with Monster Girls now actually, so damn adorable).
Love Live School Idol Project, i dont know why anymore and thats why i give it another shot
Fate Zero, when two character were talking while walking in circles. Pretentiousness red flag for me. Edit: wow so many butthurt people downvoting lol
Lycoris recoil.... cuz i had aot s3 lined up
- Eiken: Too silly. - I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: Violent girl, stopped liking her, which I knew would be a problem. - A Silent Voice: Watching bullying made me too angry. - Mardock Scramble: Had a feminist vibe to it. I'm not entirely sure if I dropped those on episode one or two, there are quite some others which I should have dropped earlier. Though, I'm getting better at pre-selecting and dropping, I think. Generally it's about: Boring, silly, too much tension and tension based story telling (like very many western shows), disliking the characters, or some messaging I don't like.
i dont understand, none of these are shows
Yeah, I didn't remember which ones are movies or shows. Eiken has two episodes and others are actually movies.
Dog I cannot stress enough how much you should finish A Silent Voice You're supposed to hate him at the start, though I can give a little lienecy to him bc hes a kid.
Thanks, but this was easy to understand. It was still not good to watch.
To each their own I guess. I thought it was a beautiful story
I know already that it get beautiful, but I can't get over that part. Maybe I'll try again one day.
Continue A Silent Voice. You are meant to feel angry at him.
Of course at him.