The Most Controversial Anime ever
Descriptions
Controversy and media are eternal partners. There's no escaping from the scrutiny of the audience over objectionable stories and content, even if it's anime. There's no shortage of mind-boggling anime series that left the audience shocked, if not traumatized.
Some anime titles have been so off-putting that even the fans across the Pacific couldn't handle it. "Controversial anime" doesn't necessarily mean series with solely offensive content. It also points to receiving hate from the fandom, poorly executed stories, and exploring themes that are simply off-limits.
10 Hetalia Axis Powers (2009)
The world has exploited the spoils of World War II, both for better or worse. However, Hetalia Axis Powers took it in a completely different direction by personifying the involved countries in the war into rather quirky characters. No matter how clever or comedic the content may be, World War II is a sensitive subject for those who still feel the reminiscences of its atrocities, and the political incorrectness in this anime simply fuels the fire.
The show features countries like Japan, Italy, Germany, and South Korea as anime characters with personalities tainted with what each country is stereotyped for. Of course, the theme didn't sit well with the audience and caused so much stir that the South Korean character had to be written off before airing.
9 Eromanga-sensei (2017)
Fan service involving cute girl characters—especially siblings—has always been a cringe trope in anime. It may be a weird guilty pleasure, but misadventures between brothers and sisters have always been controversial for the mainstream audience. Even though Eromanga-sensei's premises may look like a bunch of silly altercations between two siblings, the show has made use of comedy in all the wrong places.
Eromanga-sensei fans may justify the relationship between Masamune and his little sister Sagiri as a brother or sister complex. Still, it's pretty much a dumpster fire, which is, frankly, a waste of good animation. The series' synopsis literally explains the plot as a "new sibling romantic comedy," which sends red flags right off the bat.
8 School Days (2007)
The audience can find School Days in almost every list defining problematic and obscure anime. The show has a relatively simple plot where a bunch of irredeemable and self-deprecating high school girls fight for the love of the most toxic boy who ever lived.
Not only does School Days glorify the toxic male trope, but the show's depiction of sexual assault and harassment is borderline embarrassing and offensive. Seasoned fans depict School Days as one of the worst anime ever made, and they have solid ground for that. The undervaluing of female characters, openly cheating, and a pregnancy scare were enough to rub the fans in the wrong way.
7 Pupa (2014)
Pupa by Studio Deen is a notch up when it comes to the most controversial and worst anime ever made. Pupa not only has the honor of being the worst-rated anime show of all time but is an utter disappointment to the horror genre and even the sibling complex. It follows the story of two siblings, Utsutsu and Yume, who come across a witch who turns Yume into a flesh-eating monster.
If the flesh-eating element wasn't enough, the grotesque scenes and highly off-putting depiction of cannibalism just hit the final nail in the coffin. Utsutsu willingly offers his flesh to Yume, and they perform consensual cannibalism several times in the show. Pupa is a highly questionable anime series that almost angers the audience with its ridiculousness.
6 Death Note (2006)
Death Note's name on the list is itself a controversial move, given the unbelievable fame and success the series has garnered. Death Note's controversy has more to do with its impact on the audience rather than the content. Even though the show left no stone unturned in elevating the dark fantasy genre, its portrayal of morbidity and self-justice impacted the audience deeply.
The wildly popular Death Note caused a stir among young fans upon its release as several students were caught carrying notebooks with the names of enemies written in them. Light Yagami is a street-smart yet anti-hero character who is always likely to fascinate the viewers rather than repel them, even if that wasn't the show's intention.
5 Happy Sugar Life (2018)
If two words can define Happy Sugar Life, they'll be creepy and disturbing. The show is passed as psychological horror, and it does so brilliantly because what the show implies in the scenes is downright traumatizing. Unlike its name, the anime's plot is about Satou, who becomes infatuated with a young child after being unable to feel anything with tons of boys she slept around.
Satou's promiscuity isn't even the most disturbing part of Happy Sugar Life; it really starts to go downhill when it's revealed that Satou can even murder people who come in between her and Shio. Even though the anime never exclusively shows anything grisly, the implications will send chills down the audience's spine. The anime's suspense is off the charts, but its depiction of abuse, murder, kidnapping, and stalking will leave the viewers in a dark place.
4 Violence Jack (1990)
Heinous elements with a dash of comedy aren't a big deal in anime, but some shows take it so far that it's hard not to flag them. Violence Jack isn't a conventional anime; it is regarded as one of the first post-apocalyptic anime ever made, but that doesn’t eclipse its take on controversial themes like cannibalism and necrophilia.
Fans are used to dismembered bodies and over-the-top violence, but this anime touches a new level of depravity when it comes to gore. When one strips anything remotely humane and sensible from a story, the viewers get something like Violence Jack.
3 Elfen Lied (2004)
Elfen Lied is edgy, dark, and not for everyone. The show expertly dances on the thin rope of maturity and edginess but stands to be a show that sort of aged badly. Lucy is a modified humanoid with a violent instinct until she develops an alter ego that is innocent and child-like.
Elfen Lied became controversial for its violent and gory elements. Lucy's a killing machine who literally tears off limbs from live people and beheads them like Barbie dolls. Decapitation, dangling organs, and Lucy literally pulling apart a man in the first scene are something that conventional fans found too much to handle.
2 Kodomo no Jikan (2007)
Some taboos are engrossing even in anime, including the portrayal of highly controversial relationships like that of a teacher and a student. The story begins with a mischievous elementary school girl who develops a crush on her 23-year-old male teacher. Kodomo no Jikan, also named Nymphet, garnered a lot of heat from Japanese fans and overseas because of its take on such an inappropriate theme that's considered unwelcoming in several cultures.
Kodomo no Jikan fans didn't like how Rin's feelings towards her teacher were portrayed, and the dark comedy surrounding the subject simply didn't send the right signals. The debate around the show was so intense that the production company had to address it exclusively.
1 Interspecies Reviewers (2020)
Interspecies Reviewers is brimming with controversies, bans, and confused fans wanting to dip their toes in this hot mess. The simple answer for the show's controversial fame is it being unapologetic about the sexually explicit content portrayed in it. That's also why the series was banned in several Western countries and faced heavy censorship in Japan.
The show follows the adventures of an oddball group who enjoy brothels across the universe and write reviews so that others can know the best place to indulge in their sexual desires. The plot's controversy is self-explanatory, and since a mainstream studio released the show, it received a lot of criticism for its erotic content.
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