Japan’s declining birthrates and increasing rates of unhappy marriages has led to the implementation of The Red Strings of Science, a complex system utilized by the government to match partners in order to ensure successful partnerships. The Red Strings of Science matches 16 year olds together. It is under this system that we find our main character Nejima Yukari, an average teenage boy, who has a crush on a school mate, Takasaki Misaki. Determined to pursue his relationship before it is too late, Yukari attempts to confess his feelings to Misaki. When it seems like they are about to become a couple, Yukari receives his match, a girl by the name of Sanada Ririna. While Yukari continues to like Misaki, and vice versa, Ririna wishes to keep their partnership while also pushing Yukari and Misaki together.

Starting our list of worst anime of 2017 has to be Koi to Uso, a romance anime that was just difficult to stomach. The characters start off completely likeable, but as they descend into this twisted love web, you are left with less than likeable characters who do nothing more than frustrate you. Chalk this one up as a Kuzu no Honkai wannabe that tried to be a slice of life, too. So you’ve got melodrama and a desire to be a comedic slice of life, which just make this an awful watch no matter what genre you like, unless you like crappy anime with no resolution.

Haruna Yuu has just moved into a new town. He went out to buy dinner and while out, he is glued to his phone on Twitter. As such, Yuu bumps into a girl named Akitsuki Fuuka who believes Yuu was taking a picture of her panties after she had fallen. Quick to jump to conclusions, Fuuka breaks Yuu’s phone, but who knew this would be more than just a chance meeting?

Did you want a completely cliche romance with no originality or innovative plot sequences? Look no further than Fuuka, an anime that seems to think that life is full of coincidences and shoujo cliches that lead up to a dramatic and mindnumbing romance which insult an audience’s intelligence. Oh yes, Fuuka started off as a White Album wannabe (1 or 2, take your pick) and slowly descended into a melodramatic crap pile that really frustrated audiences. None of the characters are all that likeable, and add onto that an extremely generic and mundane plot that is so predictable its boring, and you’ve got yourself an anime not even worth mentioning unless it’s on our worst anime of 2017 list!

Miura Naoto is a high school dropout whose life is about to get a bit more interesting. A black box containing a female automaton crashes into his home. This is the start of a more complicated plot that involes an everchanging world and the humanity that refuses to change with it.

Clockwork Planet was a highly anticipated anime of the spring season and what happened? It was a mess. Clockwork Planet has a rather confusing and weak plot that many people cannot follow. Couple that with the fact that the two main characters don’t seem to have any real reason to be together but they just are, and you have some rather unpleasant interactions. That and a lot of the characters introduced in Clockwork Planet were unlikeable. Many people who were anticipating this anime were completely disappointed, but stuck in there as only loyal fans can do. Unfortunately, their loyalty was not rewarded and so, Clockwork Planet earned its rightful place on our list of worst anime of 2017.

Mochizuki Touya was just killed by accident. To make it up to him, God is going to allow Touya another chance at life in a new world where magic exists. Along with indescribable power, God grants Touya one wish of his choosing, which is to bring his smartphone. Armed with a smartphone and incredible power beyond the likes this new world has not known before, Touya is about to embark on a new life that he never dreamed of having.

Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni is based off of a light novel that seemed to be popular, so of course, we expected great things from it as an anime. Unfortunately, we got a generic light novel adaptation that screamed, “I’m trying to be generic!” That and, “I’m not even trying.” Touya is one of the most generic, OP main characters that we have ever seen with a huge lack of personality. Whatever conflict that is in the anime only lasts for a few minutes as Touya soon becomes so OP with some new power he had not known he had. Let’s not forget that he has all of these girls vying for his attention yet he keeps them at arms length, that or he has no idea some of the time. Couple that with the rather mundane plot and lack of any real depth for the other characters and you’ve got yourself a new isekai anime that stands out amongst the rest as being extremely boring and irritating. Go Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni!

Yuzuki is transported into another world called Hubga where history is painted with supernatural elements and supernatural soldiers called Getsugazoku with the powers of vampires and werewolves clash. War is breaking out upon the land as these Getsugazoku fight for their land and their own ideals. Yuzuki was unwittingly pulled into Jinga, but she may be the key piece in order to achieve power and peace over all of the land. Her blood the special ingredient that no one knew they needed.

Sengoku Night Blood had the potential to be a great reverse harem, isekai anime like the likes of Fushigi Yuugi, but the anime quickly went downhill after a few episodes. While the animation had the potential to be beautiful if not for the over saturated colors, the plot and characters couldn’t be more generic. Sengoku Night Blood took the overused otome game bit that so many reverse harem anime took before it with a generic main character who seemed to have her personality drained out of her with each episode and bishounen characters who couldn’t grow a personality with fertilizer and sunshine. Sengoku Night Blood was episodic and required the introduction of many characters per each episode without using them in other episodes just to build some sort of plot for that episode so that Yuzuki could get to know one of the many bishounen around her. This doesn’t leave much room for personalities to be fully developed so Sengoku Night Blood has rather shallow characters, a plot that gets in its own way, and nothing notable about it. Sengoku Night Blood failed to try to do better as a reverse harem, like Code;Realize, and fell into the same mediocre reverse harem category as anime like Amnesia and Starry Sky.

The new transfer student, Kanazawa Nobuaki has been distant with his new classmates. Just as he is starting to open up to them following the sports festival, everyone in the class receives a message from “King”. This is the start to the King’s Game where no one is allowed to refuse to take part in the game. While no one wants to take King seriously, Nobuaki knows that King is not joking and that they better comply or something bad is likely to happen.

Were you looking forward to Ousama Game because it sounded like a thrilling anime full of suspense and mystery? Well, delete it from your list because Ousama Game crashed and burned so fast. What was supposed to be an anime full of suspense and adrenaline ended up being an anime full of grating characters, ridiculous amounts of blood and gore, as well as mass paranoia. While parts of it are logical (like the mass paranoia), they are also quite frustrating as teenagers take their lives, fearful of the consequences when no death was indicated. Ousama Game diverted from the potential of being a truly glorious psychological anime and went straight for the horror anime route ending with a huge bloody mess.

Dynamic Chord is an anime about a music agency by the same name. Under the Dynamic Chord music label are several different bands and idols who are all pursuing their music career, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have lives, too. This is all about the music, the lives, and the pursuit of musical fame of those contracted under Dynamic Chord.

While a lot of idol anime tend to be terrible, none were as terrible enough to mention as Dynamic Chord. Heck, it felt like the studio producing it gave up on the anime. Dynamic Chord angered fans by its lack of effort and the many inconsistencies as many of the frames did not match up with frames from a moment ago. Heck, there’s even a stream that runs upstream, because that’s how gravity works, right? Let’s not even touch the part that there is no proper plot. Dynamic Chord was a huge train wreck and it’s obvious that the animators didn’t even try when they created this anime.

A group of Nazi officers take the opportunity to use the slaughtered people in Berlin for a ritual sacrifice meant to bring back the supermen known as the Order of the 13 Lances on May 1, 1945. While it is unknown whether or not these Nazi officers succeeded, the existence of the Order of the 13 Lances remains a secret to all but a select few for many decades. In the present day Suwahara City, Fujii Ren was hospitalized following a fight with Yusa Shirou, Ren’s friend. Every night, Ren dreams of dark knights who pursue murderers who are hunting people. Along with these dreams, Shirou’s words haunt Ren: “Everyone who remains in this city eventually loses their minds.”

Dies Irae is an anime that many were looking forward to during the winter anime season as it is based on a very popular light novel, but it failed to meet expectations, and not because Dies Irae had so much hype for it. Each episode felt completely confusing and disorienting as nothing seemed to connect. Many fans kept cheering and said to wait until episode 3 before making assumptions because that’s when it should have gotten good, but sadly, Dies Irae only became more confusing and infuriating as nothing made sense. Dies Irae failed to have a coherent plot, although it did have interesting characters. It felt like a mess of too many sub plots that didn’t seem to meld together to form a proper overarching plot. It’s sad to say but Dies Irae failed to meet expectations for the great anime it could be, and failed to be even a decent anime that some light novels end up being.

Hand Shakers are partners who can summon weapons known as “Nimrodes” from their subconsciousness once they hold hands. God will grant a wish to a pair of Hand Shakers should they defeat the other Hand Shakers. What are the limits to the wish from God? Why is it that they have been given this power? These are the questions that Tazuna finds himself facing when he is suddenly paired with Koyori, a girl who will die should Tazuna let go of her hand.

From the same studio as K, Hand Shakers was rather hyped up by fan expectations. I mean, if it’s created by GoHands, it must be beautiful and full of plot, right? Well, if the first episode where the girl with CG boobs was being abused and molested by her partner’s chains didn’t real you in, then we don’t know what else will. Hand Shakers seemed to burst onto the scene with all fan service and then come crashing down in a ball of flames. Following the first epsiode, the animation style continued to be remarkable (although we were not a fan of some of the CG elements incorporated in the anime), but the plot continued to take a dive with weak plot points, a boring main character, and a very uninteresting back story. Don’t let the beautiful graphics or the advertisements in Osaka fool you, Hand Shakers is not worth watching by a long shot.

Once The Reflection occured, people all over the world suddenly find that they have incredible powers. With these newfound powers, people pick their cause and some fight for good while others evil. Unfortunately, as people try to unravel these mysteries, the others are wrecking havoc upon the world.

Riding on the coatails of the producer, Stan Lee’s fame, The Reflection was an anime with lots of excitement. However, it was clear from episode 1 that this anime just wasn’t going to win any awards. What it did win was everyone’s disappointment. The characters were unoriginal and the story weak. The Reflection felt like a copy of many of Marvel’s works, especially X-men. The only thing that fans seemed to like was the soundtrack and the animation style which played homage to the 80s comic style, but even that cannot save an anime that has nothing else going for it. It’s a wonder how Stan Lee put his name on this anime.