T5W#282-Top 5 Worst Titles I Reviewed in 2020

As we hopefully look forward to a more optimistic and hopeful new year, 2020 isnt too far behind us just yet that we cant mock, hate and generally just look upon with disdain.  And while I did review some really good titles in that disastrous year, 2020 also saw some of the absolute worst titles I’ve reviewed in all most seven years cross my path.  I think I delivered the most 0/10’s in the same year (a grand total of 4).  So it’s rare I get a chance to select 5 titles that are generally the terrible and should be avoided…so let’s open the first T5W of 2021 with the Top 5 Worst Titles I Reviewed in 2020.  Ok? Ok. 

#5-The Resident Evil Movies-Apocalypse, Extinction, Afterlife, Retribution and The Final Chapter

I used to like these movies, then I played more of the games…now I hate them.  The first movie being ok aside, the Resident Evil movies are a mess that continues to have less and less to do with Resident Evil as they go on.  Beloved franchise characters are pushed aside for a bland and generic leading lady who has no ties to the video games and everything just becomes nothing but Alice, Alice, Alice and the end of the world.  Here’s hoping that the forthcoming reboot, featuring Chris, Jill, Claire, Leon and Wesker, will do this legendary horror franchise justice…and leave Alice and Paul W.S. Anderson as far from it as possible (I head his Monster Hunter flick has bombed pretty hard so…good?)

 

#4-Harlock Saga

The operatic trailer for this looked so promising, even with an abundant lack of Harlock himself in them.  Turns out, that abundant lack wasn’t intentional.  Harlock barely appears in this 6 episode snorefest and when he is around, he just stands around and looks cool while things happen around him.  Add in characters who are supposed to be important who do nothing, boring monologuing villains and 2 characters who commit the most haenous of acts and we’re expected to feel bad when they die and you get a recipe for disaster.  This is definitely one black mark in the legend of the Legendary Space Pirate best left forgotten.

 

#3-Ronin Warriors: Message

The Ronin Warriors TV Series made last weeks list of my Top 5 Best Reviewed Titles of 2020 and for good reason: it’s a solid show that still holds up, Toonami nostalgia goggles be damned.  The same cant be said for the OVAs that basically make up a “Season 3” of the Anime.  2/3 of them both got 0/10.  But at least Gaiden felt like an attempt at something new for the series.  Message is supposed to be the grand finale of the Ronin Warriors saga, complete with cool new armors for Ryo and the gang.  But about 90% of this five episode OVA is nothing but a somber clip show with no action and a villainess who is so overdramatic, all of her encounters with the Ronin Warriors are literal stage plays.  Seriously, not every Anime needs a continuation (unless it’s Legend of the Inferno Armor, that should have been a movie, not an OVA). 

 

#2-Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight

The original Record of Lodoss War OVA was the second title I reviewed for the Gundam Anime Corner after Eden of the East.  I had long wanted to see the TV adaptation and was psyched when I finally got a copy and a chance to review Chronicles of the Heroic Knight in 2020.  Man…talk about major letdowns.  Not only is Chronicles ugly to look at, there’s no establishing setting or where this fits into the OVAs events, if it even does at all.  And when the series resets itself with a new cast, we get a dull quest with the Lodoss D Team, consisting of party members who are either unremarkable, unmemorable, or just bad at their jobs.  Spark is the joke of this entire series and you can tell the original cast is all in on it.  Aside from a pretty beautiful opening theme, you’re better off sticking with the classic OVA.

 

#1-Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny

Last year I reviewed more Gundam than I think I ever have on this blog.  While Gundam X and The Origin both found slots in last weeks Best of 2020 list, there were plenty of Gundam stinkers to choose from for this list.  Gundam AGE collapsed under its own ambitions; Twilight Axis was just a glorified AMV ONA that made no sense…and G Savior just exists.  As bad as those three were, Gundam Seed Destiny remains 50 episodes of my life I’ll never get back.  A promising story is ruined by plot holes galore, a terrible new cast, the slow character assassination of the old Gundam Seed cast, and the existence of one of the worst Anime protagonists in history: Shinn Asuka, the kid who can get away with freaking war crimes and get a medal for them.  Gundam Seed wasn’t the greatest Gundam series of all time but it was fine enough.  Seed Destiny takes all of its good will and flushes it down the toilet.  And you know you’re series has done very, VERY wrong when the incomplete but still fascinating OVA, C.E. 73 Stargazer, is a much better product than the full order TV Series.  Sigh…this one just makes me angry…moving on to better things.