The decade 2010-2020 gave us some of the best anime. One-Punch Man, Katanagatari, Hunter X Hunter, all came out of this era. At the same time, this decade reeked of some of the most awful storylines. A few examples in that direction would be Pupa, Mahou Sensou and Re: ZERO.
Some of these anime have bizarre plots, whilst others have no plots at all. Additionally, they reek of trash dialogues, redundant storylines and/ or plagiarism. They figure in this list because they have nothing to redeem them. Here are the ten worst anime storylines of the 2010s, ranked.
10 TANSU WARASHI (2011)
A cheap Snow White rip-off, Tansu Warashi is the tale of a regular lady Hiiragi who goes to the office and follows a regimented lifestyle. Until one day, her mum sends her a family heirloom, a dresser. The gigantic dresser houses six children, child slaves if you will. They clean and cook for Hiiragi, their mistress.
Some of you may find the story endearing when looked at from a distance. But on a closer look, did Hiiragi really need child labor to compensate for her clumsiness? Nah, not going to fly.
9 CHAOS DRAGON (2015)
Let's give Chaos Dragon credit where due, good animation. Let's address the pathetic storyline: a chaotic war tale in the year 3015 with the protagonist Ibuki reluctantly drawn into the conflict. Between the two countries, Donatia and Kouran, a buffer Island Nil Kamui suffers badly. Until there comes a day, the pauper prince, Ibuki rises to the challenge.
With most obvious Shounen tropes and most annoying Shounen protagonist, save yourself from the chaos that is Chaos Dragon.
8 PUPA (2014)
Siblings Utsutsu and Yume Hasegawa are misled by red butterflies in wake of their abandonment. These butterflies infect the two with a cannibalistic virus, known as Pupa. The sister, Yume is completely infected and the brother Utsutsu, partially. Because Utsutsu took a sacred vow to be there for his sister, he must give himself away to be cannibalized.
What is it with anime resting on incestuous love and gore? Pupa isn't the only example of this problem on the list. It is a one of a kind storyline, dealing with a brother, sister and sexual cannibalism.
7 MY SISTER, MY WRITER (2018)
My Sister, My Writer has perhaps the worst storyline of 2018. The use of the word 'perhaps' denotes the fact that it's incomprehensible. The story is about a brother-sister duo, Yuu Nagami, and Suzuka Nagami. The sister is an accomplished writer who's won a novel writing contest that the brother was to win. The novel is about a younger sister who dotes on her older brother, pretty much the story anime's story as well.
Suzuka wants Yuu to take credit for the novel because apparently he's such a loser, so why not lean into an unhealthy, co-dependent cycle. Other than that, there's an apparent element of incest in the anime, with Suzuka infatuated with Yuu. An abysmal story of the glorification of Suzuka's incestuous fantasies and Yuu's inaction.
6 MÄRCHEN MÄDCHEN (2018)
Meet a socially awkward girl Hazuki Kagimura, adopted into a foster family. Her solace is to read stories that tickle her imagination. She calls this 'Story Syndrome.' One day, she chases a mystery girl in her library and is transported to Kuzunohra Girl's Magic Academy. Her bigger purpose in life is to learn magic and become a powerful mage known as Origin Master.
The anime fails to explain why all of this should happen to Kagimura. Why's she the chosen one? There's some battle royale apparently but that's beside the point. In fact, there isn't any point in the whole story, an abomination of an anime.
5 HAND SHAKERS (2017)
Hold hands with a little girl for she may die. Hand Shakers is a pathetic excuse for an anime. Tazuna Takatsuki holds sick Koyori's hand and activates his powers as a Hand Shaker. He must hold hands with her for eternity and never let go.
Except, the girl actually makes it without holding hands, a couple of episodes later! It's a tale riddled with numerous plot holes. Later in the story, Blade and Dagger manage to survive without holding hands. Wasn't hand holding the whole premise of Hand Shakers? To make matters worse, this phenomenon takes place in a parallel dimension called Ziggurat where time doesn't exist in the first place. So, how exactly does hand-holding work?
4 RE: ZERO- STARTING LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD (2016)
The story revolves around a clueless stranger who is dragged into an alternate world somehow. Meet Subaru Natsuki, who while leaving a convenience store is lifted into the fantasy world. How that happens remains questionable. Subaru's journey into the fantasy world is as bad as his existence in the real world was. He is beaten by thugs to be saved by a mystery woman Satella. Only to be murdered again and again.
If someone markets this as a psychological thriller, they are selling you lies. It's nothing but a cycle of life and death of a random dude you just saw.
3 MAHOU SHOUJO? NARIA GIRLS (2016)
This fresh hell will leave you utterly confused. You'd think this stems from the general ridicule that people have for Shoujo anime with multiple characters. But no. Mahou Shoujo? Naria Girls is so baffling, you'll wish you'd never seen it. The story is all over the place, so much so that if you didn't read the description, you wouldn't be able to tell it was a story.
Although the plot is fairly simple, it is based upon the land of Nariadia. The land is eternally trapped in the winter season by the cruel Ice Queen. Ultimately Naria Girls arrive to free their land from Ice Queen's clutches. How this plot progresses is beyond comprehension.
2 DIABOLIK LOVERS (2013)
Diabolik Lovers has unfathomable content, the kind that can put Satan to shame. The truly masochistic story, it tells the tale of Yui Kamori. It just pains your heart to see Yui treated like some scumbag by a bunch of vampires and passed between them. The six vampires are brothers who considered Yuito to be their 'sacrificial bride.' With each day, Yui is abused a little more and she loses more of mind.
Diabolik Lovers is a brand new wave of sadism, an eyesore of an anime catering to people's worse impulses. It's not the lack of a plot but the glamorization of sexual abuse that breaks your heart in Diabolik Lovers.
1 SWORD ART ONLINE (2012)
Sword Art Online is adapted from Reki Kawahara's first four novels by the same name. It combines the genres of action, fantasy, drama, and romance to tell the tale of Kazuto Kirigaya. Kazuto is trapped in a virtual role-playing game called Sword Art Online along with thousands. In what can be described as a virtual hell, the players' actions directly impact their actual life.
Although the anime sets off on a good plot, it stops making sense in the second episode. From there on, Kazuto's storyline is all about saving random women. These filler episodes are introduced to show Kazuto's power until he meets his constant companion Asuna. SAO now ventures into a cheesy romance between the two, and the actual plot takes a backseat. The second arc progresses in a similar fashion, Kazuto logs in to save his wife Asuna this time. There's a lack of original and proper writing, and it's devoid of depth and character development. Don't bother going further.