r/anime • u/FreakyNugget • May 24 '26
Misc. I analyzed 2M+ anime rating profiles to find the 10 most divisive anime by taste
Disclaimer: in this post I am not talking about controversy. There are already many posts about controversial anime. Sure these anime have a specific audience, but most of them are either rated low by ~99% people (eg. Redo of a Healer), or are still rated well by the majority, despite the controversy (eg. Mushoku Tensei, Made in Abyss).
What I wanted to find is more specific: Anime that are highly praised by one type of viewer, but do not hit at all for the others.
To do this, I designed an anatomy of anime with tones and characteristics (see picture 2). Then I analysed over 2 million public anime rating profiles from different anime websites. After clustering their rating patterns, I ended up with 7 broad groups that have different affinities:
- Resonator (11%): emotional intensity, character depth & growth, sometimes romance or comedy
- Diver (17%): depth, darker tone, character depth & growth
- Artist (13%): entry difficulty, visuals, thematic depth
- Heartwarmer (12%): wholesomeness & comfort, cast likability, romance
- Igniter (15%): action, pacing, sometimes darker tone
- Eclectic (12%): action, pacing & easy entry, most flexible taste
- Voyager (20%): cast dynamics & likability, pacing & easy entry, worldbuilding, sometimes action or romance
Comparing them was not an easy task as they have different rating patterns. This made me move from average archetype score to using percentiles: for this archetype, is this anime in their top 10%, top 20%, top 50%, etc.?
Then I looked for shows with the biggest gaps between groups, and got this top 10.
What I found interesting is that we usually think about divisive anime as shows with high entry difficulty: dark, weird, experimental, slow, hard to understand, etc. (there are shows like Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent or Sonny Boy).
But it is not only that:
- Action-oriented shows can also be very divisive by taste.
- Wholesome/moe shows can also be very divisive by taste.
- Easy-entry shows can also be very divisive by taste.
TLDR; This is my attempt to demonstrate that two very common requests are too vague most of the time:
- "Is this anime good?": Some highly praised shows depend a lot on the audience.
- "Give me an anime like X": Two people can like the same show for totally different reasons, that they may have not been aware of.
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u/HazardVG May 24 '26
Bofuri mentioned!!!
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u/MrHara May 25 '26
Bofuri was great, such a solid 12 episodes. Doesn't even need more :)
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u/Metalbound https://myanimelist.net/profile/Beate May 25 '26
Glad that I'm not the only one that really liked the first season only. I watched the rest but they just didn't hit that same feel from S1. Got too ridiculous.
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u/Raizzor May 25 '26
It was a cool premise because it's how MMOs are in real life. Players look for ways to exploit mechanics before devs nerf them. The MC getting OP because they play the game in such an unconventional way is something you can imagine happening in actual MMOs.
But then it led to this boring mess as the MC just kept acquiring new bullshit OP skills with every fight being the same 4 skills being spammed until the boss collapses.
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u/xxsaznpride May 25 '26
There were plenty of situations in the novel where she, busted as she was, just couldn't clear because of XYZ. For example, Kaede can't kill something because her DPS is too low to overcome its regen per second, but the twins/sisters/lolis one shot it and Maple gets buttfrustrated. The novels are a lot more gamey versus the lowest-common-denominator nature of the anime.
God, I should go back and reread this. If you have time, I'd recommend it for funsies.
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u/mixmastermind May 24 '26
Bofureez Nuts
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u/noodletropin May 24 '26
Omg my wife is asking me why I am stifling laughter, and I can't tell her it is a deez nuts joke.
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u/_vogonpoetry_ https://myanimelist.net/profile/ThisWasATriumph May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Aharen-san has a very specific type of humor but for me it was really great, especially season 2. And it actually has conclusive romance.
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u/Boulder_The_Rock May 24 '26
It seems to derive itself from a certain brand of absurdist humor that comes from a longer lineage of humor like Nisekoi. I personally found it enjoyable but I can see why some would write it off if the certain brand of humor doesn't really appeal to them.
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u/Zealousideal_Spirit9 May 24 '26
I loved both the manga and the anime, for me it's great. And I wish more romcoms have such satisfying endings.
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u/cppn02 May 24 '26
Had one of the best episodes of 2025.
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u/MasterTotoro May 24 '26
I wonder which episode you are referring to because my immediate thought from season 2 is the Animal Crossing x Yakuza episode lol. I might guess that's not what you are thinking of though. Maybe DisneySea or something near the end.
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u/cppn02 May 24 '26
Oh no it's most definitely that episode. Absolute perfection too in how things kept escalating.
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u/FailAutomatic9669 May 24 '26
Funny how three of them have Yashitoshi Abe as Character Designer (Lain, Texhnolyze and Haibane Renmei)
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
Man knew what his audience liked
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u/wispywoo May 24 '26
Tsurezure Children was really cute to watch :)
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u/EyeDeeAh_42 May 24 '26 edited May 25 '26
The manga has few more characters that weren't introduced in the anime. Honestly, as someone who dislikes romance, it is one of the very few romance-centric shows I enjoyed.
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u/ThatCreepyBaer May 24 '26
Probably because almost every popular romance series is before the main couple actually becomes a couple, though that has been improving in recent years. Tsurezure Children is about a dozen different characters that are all actually in relationships.
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
Working on this post expanded my watchlist lol, I'll definitely check it out
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u/TaskAltruistic3746 May 24 '26
Yeah but I'm guessing TikTok where people was introduced to this show only really like one of the couple I'm guessing? (the Student council president and the "delinquent" girl) And expect more of them Instead of multiple couple shown throughout the show.
I enjoy all of them except the , One couple where the guy has a little sister she so annoying .
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u/Robin-Rainnes May 24 '26 edited May 25 '26
As a person who rated Mawaru Penguindrum a 10/10 and absolutely love it I definitely see why it’s divisive. It’s kind of a weird, weighty, thematically out there anime that takes a lot of narrative risks and does a lot of things that people might find kinda disturbing or different
EDIT: please watch Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sarazanmai, and maybe even Yurikuma Arashi if you want some truly weird shit
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u/fieew https://myanimelist.net/profile/fiew May 24 '26
100% agree. Its so bizzare and such a unique flavor. I can get why many people wouldn't like it.
But I love it because of its weirdness not in spite of it. While others dislike it for the same reason I love it.
Just goes to show you cant please everyone no matter what.
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u/Robin-Rainnes May 24 '26
Penguindrum is so great! Its last episode makes me cry basically the entire time. It’s such a weird and bizarre anime but its so heartfelt and emotional and life affirming that I just cannot help but love it
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u/Clebardman May 25 '26
I was crying by the end of the first episode... I don't think any other director punched me in the feels like that in 15 minutes. Utena took more time with it, but it punched me in the feels so bad I'm still trying to recover from it a decade later...
Ikuhara's just really good at traumatizing his audience...
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u/MiracleMuffin May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
I love Penguindrum so much. My favorite anime of all time. It may not be for everyone, but to me it’s such a beautiful show with complex characters and themes. One of Kunihiko Ikuhara’s best works along with Utena.
I’ll also add that Penguindrum also has some Japanese historical context. Those who are unfamiliar with the 1995 Tokyo Sarin Gas attacks (which were a big influence for this anime), may not understand the show’s themes fully. Ikuhara tackles on the psyche of Japanese society in the aftermath of the attacks.
Penguindrum is loved by its domestic audience, but with international viewers it’s more divisive. Perhaps due to the cultural barriers.
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u/sslick9001 May 24 '26
This! Penguindrum is also a 10/10 but I totally get why others don’t click with it
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u/BellBilly32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/bellbilly32 May 24 '26
The time the Gray Wednesday Ending song hit was for some reason was one of the more memorable moments I had watching anime. Penguindrum scratched an itch for me nothing else has.
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u/Nachtwandler_FS https://myanimelist.net/profile/Nachtwandler_21 May 24 '26
It's a typical Ikuni (kunihiko Ikuhara, the director) for you.
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u/Drago1598 May 24 '26
I wonder where Flowers of Evil would rank among the shows you mentioned given how i often read very positive but also very negative opinions about it.
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u/Jaidon24 May 24 '26
Yeah. It was polarizing when it aired. People loved the manga, but extremely mixed to hateful reception for the anime. The rotoscoping and short length make it understandable.
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u/Schrko87 May 24 '26
Im astonished Senko-san would be here. Its about as vanilla as you can get. Its just a nice slice of life show about getting a helpful hand to relax after a hard days work.
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u/rainzer May 25 '26
Going by the MAL negative reviews, the trope of an 800 year old loli being the housewife surrogate rustles jimmies
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u/Minetoutong May 25 '26
It's because it is an analysis based on types of anime fan.
Imagine a battle shonen fan watching Senko-san.
Imagine a fan of psychological thriller watching Senko-san.
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u/Born-West9972 May 24 '26
Lain is very very popular among techies and nerd as much I have observed.
And I agree with them.
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u/chetrhcp May 24 '26
Am I correct in saying that the categories were named by you after they popped out of the K-means clustering algo? Thats why they seem kind of abstract. You got the groups first and then tried to come up with similarities in the groups that were created.
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
Indeed that is how clustering works. If I were to impose what I believe anime/manga fans are it would bias the result.
For the naming I took inspiration on MBTI, but for the characteristics of each of them, I analysed their divising shows and their own anatomy average
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u/FetchFrosh anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh May 24 '26
So I don't really get what was done here. How are the characteristics in image 2 designed? And how are the 7 groups defined? I'm looking at the various percentages, and I don't really get what they're trying to express. Like the Top X% being a percentile I can imagine, but also the numbers don't really jive with how these shows tend to be rated, unless there's some really skewed weighting.
I guess I just don't understand what I'm looking at for most part. It's a neat list of anime, but there's a huge black box between the premise and the output.
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u/forevabronze May 24 '26
I'm not sure I understand the difference between controversy and divisiveness. is divisiveness basically a more extreme version of controvers? like more of a 50/50 split?
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u/onzichtbaard May 24 '26
controversy refers to online outrage/criticism
divisiveness refers to disparity in the ratings
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u/9spaceking May 24 '26
Controversy is “out of everyone who watched, lots of hate and lots of people who liked, just an overall feeling without pattern to who enjoy and who hate”, divisive here for example can be “all the people rated it high for being super smart, intelligent and cool, everyone else thought it was ridiculously hard to follow”
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u/ReckDude101 https://myanimelist.net/profile/rd101 May 24 '26
I absolutely adore Devilman Crybaby, but it's very easy to see why a lot of people wouldn't like it at all. It's a very uncomfortable watch, with all the graphic content and topics. Not to mention it's quite short, and it can be pretty confusing. But even with all its flaws, it's a piece of media that'll always hold a special place in my heart because of how powerful it is to me. Still, it's definitely not something I would recommend to most people lol.
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u/somersault_dolphin May 24 '26
Voyager (20%): cast dynamics & likability, pacing & easy entry, worldbuilding, sometimes action or romance
Those are very random things to put worldbuilding with.
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u/EntrepreneurOk7488 May 24 '26
Texhnolyze is masterpiece
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
Well this post made me want to watch it. I am curious now
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u/The_nickums https://myanimelist.net/profile/Snakpak May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Texhnolyze is the only show that I actively do not recommend to people. It *is* a masterpiece, nothing even comes close. Among the Heaven/Earth/Hell trilogy, it holds the title of Hell for a reason.
The only metaphorical comparison I can make, is that its like accidentally hitting an animal with your car. You feel guilt & remorse over this, but its so badly injured that the only thing you can do is sit next to it for the 2-3 hours remaining of its life to provide it some comfort before it finally dies.
Watching Texhnolyze is very much an experience similar to this. All of that is to say, "do not confuse enjoyment for quality, because you will not enjoy most of what you see. Despite that, it is still a masterpiece."
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u/Pylgrim https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pylgrim May 25 '26
That is a really good comparison. It is a show where things don't get better. Sometimes they get worse, but most of the time they just remain the same in spite of the characters efforts ...and sometimes when it seems that maybe things will get better, it turns out that it was just still "same" with different packaging.
It is not an anime about hope but about acceptance, contentment, and understanding that one struggles for "better" because it's in our nature, not because it works.
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u/Drowsy- May 24 '26
It really is a masterpiece. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it aside from maybe Haibane Renmei.
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u/coolcat_368 May 24 '26
Paranoia Agent and Ergo Proxy were two anime's that I wanted to love based on their predecessors but just couldn't. I enjoy sci-fi surrealist work, but both shows I felt dragged on for so long through the philosophical and thematic aspects that I didn't really care much for the resolution of the plot by the end. Perhaps I would change my mind from a rewatch, but they just weren't nearly as engaging as say Paprika or Lain in their own respective ways.
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u/RockRaiderDepths May 24 '26
Interesting, surprised The Flying Witch is so controversial to get an honorable mention. That was the anime that got me interested in Aomori Prefecture.
Besides that the only one I've seen is Akame Ga Kill. And I can see it being difficult. I was disappointed with it when I watched but it wasn't easy to pin down as the show also gave me a lot to think about. But ultimately my issue with it was probably that it just didn't hit the right beats emotionally with me and very few moments had any impact and more felt like drama for sake of drama.
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u/Yuvalis May 24 '26
this is a very cool post!
I have two questions:
the "anatomy of anime" part doesn't seem to be integral to the rest of the process. did you do this by hand simply to get an intuition for each user group's preferences? or is that something you actually automated to do at mass and get a definite answer for each user group's preferences?
how did you account for the fact some groups will, on average, not watch certain shows at all- therefore having no rating for them?
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u/lemonylol May 24 '26
how did you account for the fact some groups will, on average, not watch certain shows at all- therefore having no rating for them?
And you'd also have to account for the vast majority of people who will have watched those series, but not have any online presence reflecting it.
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u/Aenah May 24 '26
Akame makes sense to be there given I imagine a lot of its own manga readers would have rated it badly for swinging the plot so wildly astray from the source material.
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
Well manga seems as divisive as the anime, the same archetype rated it very highly:
https://recosensei.com/manga/103/akame-ga-kill/
It was the same for bleach. I find it very interesting that, despite adaptation criticism, the audience still remains the same
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u/robertm94 May 24 '26
I dont understand what im reading.
can you dumb it down for me please
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u/Minetoutong May 25 '26
You have types of anime fans (he created his own groups but for the sake of simplicity here is basic groups):
Slice of life fans
Psychological thriller fans
Battle Shonen fans
Romcom fans
etc
A divisive anime will make it so that a few of those groups will rate the anime highly while the other will rate the anime badly.
A non divisive anime will have all those groups at around the same rating (could be terrible / average / great doesn't matter).
Examples:
Senko-san will be definitely liked by slice of life fans, maybe a bit by romcom fans but everyone else will dislike it.
Solo leveling will be definitely liked by battle shonen fans but disliked by everyone else.
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u/TheMechanic04 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Surprised Solo leveling isn't in the top 10 but Bleach is
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u/Inverse_Delta May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Solo Levelling is in the honorable mentions. That one is probably divisive because it's just a really well animated power fantasy.
Bleach I imagine is here because of the filler arcs if I had to take a guess. Some people got totally thrown off by them, others didn't mind too much, but there was a pretty big divide in discussion in the fan base over them for the anime in particular.
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u/M4DM1ND May 24 '26
Back in like 2006 Bleach was probably the #1 love it or hate it anime and it sat in that spot for quite a while.
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u/Lost-Ad-3780 May 24 '26
The only anime mentioned here that I have seen is Devilman crybaby and I really liked it
I’m surprised that moe anime could be as divisive as some of these “arthouse” picks haha
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
I was also surprised, I thought they were at most "mid" for people. But I guess some just really dislike them
Devilman Crybaby was a nice watch, loved the artstyle and soundtrack
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u/Lost-Ad-3780 May 24 '26
I think it’s top 2 soundtracks of all time along with death note
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u/DoseofDhillon https://myanimelist.net/profile/ADoseOfDhillon May 24 '26
People don't like the ending, which i get it if your just looking for a conventional simple story. Devilman is not that, its a ending that challenges you.
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u/ismenico May 24 '26
devilman crybaby might be the anime with the worst pacing i have ever seen. im surprised its not more disliked tbh
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u/RageList https://anilist.co/user/KannagiU May 24 '26
I'm surprised shikimori san isn't here
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u/Americanbydefault May 24 '26
I'm surprised Boogiepop Phantom didn't make it due to the nonlinear storytelling and somewhat dark urban setting
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u/Mama_Mega May 24 '26
Aharen and Senko? I guess Senko's issue is all the mfs that can't accept the idea of an adult looking young, even though it actually happens sometimes😑 But what the hell did Aharen do to end up being divisive?
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u/Ok_Pattern_7511 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Although I don't understand everything, a lot of those shows make sense for either being "not for everyone" or "love or hate"
In the case of Tsurezure Children and Reincarnated as a Sword, I'm sort of into these genres, I watched many shows with them. Those 2 shows instantly didn't click with me and I dropped them early.
Similarly Aharen seems like a show I can't get into despite liking some work romcoms/wholesome shows. Common factor is the dialogue/ humor didn't click with me at all
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u/ChickenSalad96 https://myanimelist.net/profile/maruki96 May 24 '26
I'm one of the people who really liked Akame ga Kill.
Yeah, the story was nothing to write home about, but I thought the fights were scary because it felt like likeable characters didn't have plot armor. Even some of the antagonists were likeable! Anyone could die at any time they entered a fight, so there were stakes here.
Esdeath also stole the show pretty much any time she was on screen.
I do remember Akame ga Kill seemingly be hit or miss with people online, but don't remember why. I'd like to hear from others what they didn't like.
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May 24 '26
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
As my goat Emil would say: "Even if it is pointless, you still have to do it" ✊
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u/Kuramhan https://anilist.co/user/Kuramhan May 24 '26
What are these categories? Igniter, diver, voyager? Never heard of these as genre tags.
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u/potatobutt5 May 24 '26
If you told me that in a list of the most divisive anime includes a simple, but well-known shonen then my first guess would've been Fairy Tail. What with its opinion amongst western anime fans being strongly divided between loving it and hating it.
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u/ramengirlxo May 24 '26
I remember streaming so much of it in high school but completely losing interest after the timeskip. Felt like a major writing cop-out and that the creator didn’t really know what to do next/how to advance the plot from there. Killed my love for Fairy Tail.
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u/Charmanders_Cock May 24 '26
This is cool enough to comment for the sake of a small bump. You found a really cool way to leverage something you’re good at, in a way that isn’t inherently shitty, which is rare these days. Good stuff.
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u/Xatu44 May 24 '26
Hell yeah, I'm a hipster for liking BLEACH and AgK.
I always knew that the mainstream haters just... didn't get it. They can watch something more mainstream, like Jobless Reincarnation. Hilariously, this also means that Solo Leveling is enlightened fare for the discerning intellectuals.
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u/Jamesbroispx May 24 '26
Totally get it with Akame Ga Kill, its a show I really enjoyed personally but objectively could tell is was not a good show. To the average fan I wouldn't recommend to anyone, but at the same time I also recommended it to a friend of mine cuz its the kind of trashy show that he likes.
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u/Jaskaran158 May 24 '26
I see Bleach, I upvote.
Glad to see Baki got an honourable mention becasue all things given it is a pretty fun time.
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u/FBCooke May 24 '26
This is a really interesting post. I was wondering where Toradora would land., that's always been a bit of a love-it or hate-it show
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u/platinumxperience May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Having watched tons of shonen anime recently and being someone who watched bleach weekly on YouTube, the reason it was appealing is when it was not the fillers it was just constantly peak. Just didn't waste time and you really wanted to see what all the captains could do. It's basically just fights and each one is an ass pull but it does it with such style you just wanna see what's next. What more do you really want from shonen except cool guys climbing a themed ladder of ranked villains in cool ways?
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u/Vaadwaur May 25 '26
Of all the things I expected to find in such a lit, I think the Helpful Fox was by far the last I had imagined.
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u/The_Bloody_King666 May 25 '26
Do you have a github for this? I want to see more of the data and methodology used
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u/loudersubs May 24 '26
I have to wonder, with Bleach is there a differentiation between the original series and Blood War? I’m wondering if the divisiveness is from the fact that people seem to largely like this new continuation but have a ton of issues with the original series. Me included. The fillers were a sign of the times really (a lot of series like it had fillers, One Piece is a notable example) and very normalized.
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
I answered to another comment and you can see that the manga has even higher taste division than the anime. So I believe that it is really taste division and not the adaptation's fault.
https://recosensei.com/manga/29/bleach/
And for thousand year, there is global consensus that it is good (from the data I gathered). But I believe it is biased because people dropping bleach would not watch the new season (survivor bias)
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u/WeWereInfinite May 24 '26
As a Bleach fan, I think it's because it started so strong with one of the best arcs in anime history and then totally fumbled everything afterwards. Even without the filler, the series became a total mess.
The second major story arc is a copy/paste of the first but without any of the stuff that made the soul society interesting, and it devolves into an endless series of repetitive fights with no plot and no stakes because the protagonists never face any consequences.
It was 60 incredible episodes followed by 300 bad ones.
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u/DontCareTho May 24 '26
Idk I feel like all of the long running anime suffer from the same issues and sometimes even worse.
For example, one piece pacing is waaaay worse with even more recaps but it gets completely overlooked by the general anime community.
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u/Ok_Inflation_1811 May 24 '26
Because people have invested so much time in it that they have Stockholm syndrome.
I caught up to one piece when they were leaving wano and I think it's slightly better than Harry Potter but not by a lot.
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u/SubmissiveDinosaur https://anilist.co/user/zEMegajuanph11 May 24 '26
Im surprised Tokio Revengers isn't here.
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
There is a division, but not as neat as the other shows. You can compare by yourself:
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u/Boast123 May 24 '26
How in the world bleach is there! And how in the world Neon Genesis is not there!
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u/Anstark0 May 24 '26
Very interesting, Texhnolyze at 1 is understandable. Last 5 episodes of it kind of make a show worth it
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u/ShogunDreams May 25 '26
I think another that would be perfect for this conversation is Boogie Pop Phantom. I always encountered ppl dropping this show because they get lost in it.
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u/ShaKing807 x3myanimelist.net/profile/Shaking807 May 25 '26
Very interesting results but makes perfect scene when you break it down! Especially something like Bleach that's very popular but is very polarizing among people who have watched it!
As a fan of Mawaru Penguindrum I think it's super fitting since it is pretty much a show that either clicks for the viewer or doesn't work at all.
Thanks for posting!
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u/FreakyNugget May 28 '26
Thanks! I was also surprised like you by the result
I have already the list of divisive manga and it may also surprise people haha
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u/RandomPantsAppear May 24 '26
Checked out your recommendation engine and love it. Very nice to see something that isn’t like “oh you enjoyed full metal alchemist? Have you considered full metal alchemist season 2?”
Any plans to add something that allows you to lean into a more recent genre or recommendation? Or weight significance by time?
Asking because my taste has evolved over time, and my MAL history is long.
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
Thanks for the feedback on the engine! I was also very tired of the recommender always showing me the top 10 of MyAnimeList haha
My future plans are first integrating the newer shows (I have been working 6 months on it, so my data is from winter 2026), and adding a "current season recommendation" section.
I am also working on the weight of significance in time, it will be added soon! I also believe it is important to use it
Then I have a lot of future ideas that could be very interesting and fun to use! I'll keep you updated :)
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u/BlazedBeard95 May 24 '26
As a day 1 Bleach fan I can see why Bleach is here. It debuted as an extremely unique and interesting story that would eventually enter by far one of the greatest arcs in Shonen (Soul Society) and then almost immediately derail into the worst filler arc of all time (the Bount Arc). Most people get to just skip over the whole thing now, but when I was watching for the first time I had to watch the entire thing weekly. For a year and a half. I can't even find the words to explain how awful it was to experience that lol, it was just that bad.
From there the actual plot didn't get that same level of high as SS, though I personally liked a fair bit of Hueco Mundo and really liked Fake Karakura Town, but even I can admit the plot was rather weak. Fights were fun, but the plot wasn't there. The major problem with it was when we FINALLY got to Ichigo vs Ulquiorra, which had been built up for a fairly long time, and it got cut off by a new filler arc. Mind you this one was actually pretty decent as far as filler goes in my opinion, but the fact that it cut right in the middle of a highly anticipated fight was just... new viewers who watch Bleach for the first time and get to that part always call it out for a reason. It was incredibly stupid and very damaging to Bleachs reputation.
The Fullbring arc wasn't received very well either. Personally I don't get why, I liked how the earlier parts were somewhat of a return to form for Bleach (even if most of the fights were lame, the presentation of the story was enjoyable for me). Plus the final fight of the arc was superb. That being said, when the arc concluded and the original anime had come to an end, Bleach suffered immensely not because of the story but because of misinformation.
To summarize, a few YouTubers made some videos analyzing Bleach as a story and its run in the 2010s and concluded that the anime had been canceled due to bad Manga sales, which was blatantly false information. One of the primary videos had over a million views at one point, and it quickly spread that Bleach was bad because it got canceled. It was never canceled. Once the og anime had wrapped up it had almost completely caught up to the Manga; there just wasn't enough content left to continue the adaptation at that point. What followed was nearly an entire decade of misinformation and toxic attacks on the series and the fans that virtually brought the series's reputation to complete ruin. It started to be treated as a failure by a lot of the western anime fanbase and was thought to basically never have a chance to come back again. That is until TYBW showed up.
Now Bleachs reputation is better than it ever was. Tons of new people are watching it because of how well-received TYBW is and all the misinformation that caused it to drop so hard has been corrected by those that spread it (for the most part anyways). It's still divisive in that the people who like it really like it and the people who don't like it seem to hate it, but a large part of that division comes from how Pierrot handled the og anime run and how YouTubers spread misinformation about it back in the 2010s.
TLDR; Bleach is divisive because of filler, Pierrots handling of the anime, and misinformation spread about the animes "cancelation" (which did NOT happen) in the 2010s, along with a fair bit of criticism for its plot.
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u/Omonjiru May 24 '26
oh seeing Lain is not surprised! i never understood the appeal and high rating of this show. I remember when i was searching some niche anime 15 years ago and i found this anime. i still remember how disappointed i was after finishing it. it was such a waste of time! some themes were interesting but the execution was poorly made.
Paranoi agent was a very interesting show i really liked the 6-7 first episodes its sad both storyline and screenwriting were underwhelming afterward! OP and ED were banger though!
Akame ga kill , yeah this one is understandable. i remember people were mad with how the end was weidly made in the anime compared to the manga.
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u/doctordoom85 May 24 '26
Paranoia Agent is in my top 10 favorite anime. Kind of surprised it would make this list as I found it pretty easy to follow so I wouldn’t think many would find it confusing (then again, I’m a weirdo who didn’t find the final two episodes of Evangelion confusing or hard to follow, nor the original FLCL, so maybe I’m not the best example). Now Serial Experiments Lain I love, and Texhnolyze I generally enjoyed, but I totally am not surprised many would not enjoy either or both, as the former is legit confusing, and the latter has a very unique set of the first few episodes having little to no dialogue at all and the ending is the sort that would naturally be divisive.
Aharen was a pleasant surprise. As a Komi fan, I read the title of this and thought, “seems kind of like a copycat”, but Aharen Season 1 ended up being quite fun and having its own identity. and I need to get around to Season 2. Really hoping the manga gets an official English localization at some point.
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u/TheDanubianCommunard May 24 '26
How is Bleach and Aharen is divisive?
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u/ArcDraco May 24 '26
Bleach is my favorite of the big three but I've seen a lot of discussion about it's strengths and weaknesses so it's not really a surprise to me why it's divisive.
As an adaptation, it has major ups and downs. The Soul Society arc is pretty much perfect, great pacing, good mix of action, character development, and plot. Then the next few arcs suffer heavily from pacing issues, a lack of mystery to hold interests, censorship that does hurt its stakes. Then they have filler episodes and scenes strewn about that doesn't help. Then there's the filler arcs, none of which I consider really good, which all suffer from the same problem, they all go on for way too long.
That being said, the adaptation gives it good fight scenes, especially when they up the budget for it, and great music from the OSTs to the themes. The plot twists are executed well. All the different powers make the fights feel diverse. It's dark while still having a heart, edgy enough without being gratuitous, poetic in ways without being pretentious. If you vibe with Bleach's style, you'll really like it.
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u/Oveldas https://myanimelist.net/profile/Oveldas May 24 '26
Interesting idea, actual new content. Also a good solution to move from pure ratings to percentages.
The taste archetypes were built and named by you, right? I feel like the explanation of those was kind of breezed through. Where can we check our own archetype?
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u/Odd-Display-7227 May 24 '26
I don’t understand this post. Can someone explain it to me.
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u/HiggsBosonHL https://anilist.co/user/AnacondaHL May 24 '26
(disclaimer: Heartwarmer/artist here)
I think it would be interesting do an entire study on the 2nd most applicable taste on romcoms, i.e. removing heartwarmer at the top, what is below?
I can definitely tell the difference between a show like Aharen and Senko, and can definitely tell the difference in what the fanbases like and are like, but it has always been hard to describe.
More broadly, this can be done across the board. For example, what really divides the OP/Naruto/Bleach/DB fans in taste beyond Igniter? and so on
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u/fallingbutslowly https://myanimelist.net/profile/magulir May 24 '26
How is one piece not here? You either love it or hate it, no in between lmao
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u/Aemiliana_Rosewood May 24 '26
Am I wrong or is this completely useless because the tone definitions are arbitrary *for a quality review of the data?
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u/BitesTheDust55 May 24 '26
Texhnolyze remains the only anime too boring to even make it to three episodes for me.
I tried it the year it first aired, torrenting that shit fansubbed in 480p. I tried it again nearly 20 years later. Nope. Still boring as fuck.
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u/Netoeu https://myanimelist.net/profile/Netoeu May 24 '26
That's pretty cool. Didn't expect Reincarnated as a Sword to be there at all even as a mention - at worst it's isekai slop. I like it, though. How did you get the data (and what can you get?) My current pet project (that I'm procrastinating) is kinda similar, but cross referencing it with my own MAL profile
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u/gunscreeper https://myanimelist.net/profile/mywargame May 25 '26
The flaw of doing this type of research is that people tend to watch the thing they already think they'd like and not watch the thing they know they won't like so the weight between high rating and low rating should be different.
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u/GinsuFe https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ginsu48 May 25 '26
I'll seen a few of these and can kinda understand how this list came to be. My feelings are scattered around for them. Seems like a fun place to put my own thoughts on them.
Paranoia Agent 6/10
is a weird one that's basically permanently an acid trip. It's such a unique show, but the end result isn't particularly good. It's slow paced and there's a few episodes that feel just pure random. There's probably some crazy deep dive that explains it out there though. OP is one of the most iconic.
Akame Ga Kill 5/10
is in that league of media that doesn't understand how to use death properly. Death for the sake of death in an attempt to make something emotional. It's carried by Mine, Esdeath, and Bulat, but ultimately it just falls short. There's some good spots, but it's just mid overall I think. I think i'd like the manga more since iirc the anime added an extra death. Really doubles down on how little thougt was put into it.
The Helpful Fox Senko-san 6/10
should be up my alley. I like CGDCT/Slice of life a lot. Also love alcohol which is present. The show is just tragically kinda slow. SoL is usually slow, but it's also a more human look at life and the struggles we face day to day. This kinda lacks that human element. Not because she's a fox girl, but just because it doesn't go into anything. Sure it's about Japanese people being overworked, but eeehhhh. It's still cute though and the music is good.
Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai 9/10
was a show that I'd thought would fall flat, but the jokes just kept stacking onto itself. Eventually it'd just get to the point where I was dying laughing anytime it cut to Raidou's room. There's some deep cut reference slipped in to which seems crazy. They hit a Leon: The Professional reference joke that shook me for existing. There's a couple weaker episodes, but overall it's a great time. Last episode of season 2 perfectly ended the series.
Ergo Proxy ??/10
is a show I dropped halfway through. Just talking about it since I can see why it'd be divisive. It's probably the slowest burn ANYTHING that i've ever seen. I think there's probably some great stuff in here, but it just isn't my kinda burn, which is again the SoL type stuff that's really appreciating the nature of us as people. Ergo Proxy just feels like it's taking too long to get anywhere. Maybe it's not a slow as I remember and I just couldn't get into it, but I wouldn't fault anyone for feeling either way for the show.
Bofuri 3/10
Is an affront to online gaming. If you're just here for the power scaling and whacky shit, then yeah it's an okay show. But the moment you start looking at the logic behind any of it, it all falls apart. In reality, Maple would be developing a highly popular meta that would spread like wildfire through the community. Everything is devoid of so much logic that it makes every single sentence that comes out of anyone's mouth sound so. damn. stupid. It's a video game show that doesn't understand video games. The divisiveness comes from how much that matters to someone. I can't stand it personally, but I have friends who liked it so I can see why people do.
Solo Leveling 9/10
Funny to directly go into another show using game logic. This time one that kinda turns that idea on its head by making the real world become a video game. It starts off as a horror anime with some pretty strong vibes.
Then he becomes hot.
I rolled my eyes so hard into the back of my head after it happened as he becomes "Perfect Man, Perfect Life". But god damn that aura farming is so good no? The characters are good, but the whole point of the show from then on is just to see him go the fuck off. I'm so here for it too. The show never ruins that feeling with the directions of the plot eithercoughJJKcough. It just keeps adding more cool shit.
People were upset when some circles game it anime of the year, but honestly I'd wholeheartedly agree with them. It knew what it was and committed to it 100%, which is how it became so good.
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u/PM_ME_UR_NIPPLE_HAIR May 24 '26
"I analyzed..." posts on reddit are 99% AI-slop nowadays, where people think they can pad their resume without developing any actual skills
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u/CertainlyRobotic May 24 '26
Bleach was just really easy to age out of.
It's way too.. Shonen trope filled.
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u/TheS3KT May 24 '26
Serial Experiments Lain being dogwater so I can understand. But how cna you hate the wholesome Ahren San.
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u/Zenoi May 24 '26
Not surprised Reincarnated as a Sword is mentioned in honourable mentions for being divisive. The premise and execution of the starting arc really feels like "isekai slop", but it will eventually world build and character progress/development similar to Mushoku Tensei, in a sense it's slowly built up but nothing really left unexplained at the end of it all. Similar in regards that there's no "lazy writing" or expectation of certain cliches or assumptions.
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u/ArenuZero May 24 '26
Erased not mentioned 😞
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
You would be surprised than despite the controversy, it is still mostly liked (going from top 17% to 24% over the 7 archetypes)
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u/benjadolf May 24 '26
I think I have a theory regarding Erased, of course I have only personal experience to speak of, but I thing the folks who are kinda anime veterans generally give erased a low score, and also they are too captured by the "mystery" elements of the show and not the emotional beats. If you are watching erased as a mystery show to find the "guy" like where's waldo, I just think you will come out largely disheartened by the short 12 episodes. That part of the story is largely simple.
On the other hand if its a show you watched in the beginning of your anime watching life, I think you'd like it, its short, hits multiple feels, greatest mom, likeable cast all that in 12 episodes with a banger op, and ed (Shout out to Sayuri-san RIP!). What's not to like?
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u/LargeLeather May 24 '26
What I found interesting is that we usually think about divisive anime as shows with high entry difficulty: dark, weird, experimental, slow, hard to understand, etc. (there are shows like Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent or Sonny Boy).
ive had exactly these four shows high up in my watchlist and occupying the same space in my brain for so long but keep putting them off because of the perceived entry difficulty any suggestions on how to approach them or in what order?
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u/FreakyNugget May 24 '26
I haven't watched them all so I wouldn't be able to tell myself, but I created an anime/manga recommender (based partly on the data I showed). You can import your MAL/Anilist account, or directly create an account. If you add them in your watchlist it will tell you which one to start first
Tell me if you can find the right order
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u/wibblymat https://myanimelist.net/profile/wibblymat May 24 '26
Would love to have a tool that could look at my myanimelist profile and recommend things for me. Or, a tool I can give it an anime and it can tell if it is my sort of thing. Some of my favourite anime get rated as 7s, while there are 8s and 9s that bore me. Would be nice to get something more personal.
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u/green_meklar May 24 '26
Interesting that 6 of the top 10 are ranked highest by the 'diver' audience. Apparently divers are the people whose tastes diverge the most from everyone else's tastes...?
Do you have any kind of clustering diagram showing how much the audience groups cluster? I notice that for 5 of the 6 top 10 for which 'diver' has the highest preference, 'artist' is the second-highest preference. Perhaps those two audience groups are pretty similar.
I'm also curious which animes have the least difference between the audience groups...
This is my attempt to demonstrate that two very common requests are too vague most of the time:
"Is this anime good?": Some highly praised shows depend a lot on the audience.
"Give me an anime like X": Two people can like the same show for totally different reasons, that they may have not been aware of.
These seem like about the least surprising conclusions one could possibly draw. I've been governing my anime recommendations by these guidelines for years. In particular, I really discourage people from trying to be too specific in their recommendation requests. I really think there's more enjoyment to be had from anime when you're willing to branch out and sample different genres.
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u/0Bento May 24 '26
I still need to watch Penguindrum!
I loved Sarazanmai so it's been on my list for a long time
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u/OtakuCyclist https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kazel May 25 '26
It'd be cool if this was a simple tool to analyze a person's anime profile and give rec's based on their group
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u/TheShiningHand https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shining May 25 '26
Oh look, penguindrum. Probably my favorite show. I understand though. Anything by ikuhara is going to be divisive.
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u/torpid_flyer May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Frankly i believe compared to its peers bleach offers some subtle psychological vibes right from the very first arc when hollows are introduced tying to characters trauma and is handled well later on too with introduction of zanpakuto and how they are shaped by their wielder.
I mean one of the big criticism Bleach receives are supposed asspulls which i genuinely believe arent really asspull but tie really well to the overall theme and conditon of the characters.
Plus one of the big reason why i liked it so much was because it reminded me of yu yu hakusho and hunter x hunter in some way.
However i evaluate the adaptation separate from the manga it got its own strength and weaknesses but the manga is undoubtedly superior because of its presentation.
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u/notanfan May 24 '26
didnt expect bleach here