Normally, I put these into categories for books, films, etc. This year, I’ll just rank them all the way to my least favorite, no matter the category. I didn’t find too many stinkers this year, so I guess that is a win for me!
Luckily for me, there weren’t TOO many things I hated this year, so this list should be relatively easy to do. (I’m so sorry this list is so late! School ate up my time.)
Special Mention: Sanda
The style was fine for this show. The problem was the story. . . and premise with the sexy “Sanda” character. Santa shouldn’t be sexy! That’s just weird.
I didn’t like how this story handled abuse and bullying. It was stilted and rushed in the end as well. I’m looking forward to letting this story fly away into the void in my brain of forgettable memories.
20. The Haunting (1963), 8/10
This is actually a great horror film! Unfortunately, I did not enjoy how I felt when it ENDED. The original book is one of my least favorite reading experiences, but I had somewhat positive memories of this film from my childhood. In my recent watching with my brother, we both concluded that some stories are just NOT enjoyable no matter how well they are told.
19. Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl (2025) 6/10
This is actually not badly animated, and the voice acting was fun to listen to. BUUUUT I don’t support the romance. The guy is 20, and the girl is 13. . . NO thanks. What really annoyed me was how chill most of the adults were about their budding romance, including the girl’s mother. It made no sense for them to feel this way. This isn’t 1900!
18. Clover Under Foot, 6/10
I didn’t understand how this world worked. How could they tell who a mutant was? Why did it matter? I know the story wanted to say something profound about mixed-race children, but it came across as bland and shallow in its execution.
17. Tarantula (1955), 5/10
This movie had a major flaw I couldn’t get over. There wasn’t enough tarantula. It tried to be a mad scientist story with a profound message on biological testing… but it was really bland, and I couldn’t care less about any of the characters. The greenscreened tarantula was actually pretty funny, and the military blowing it up in the end had me in fits of laughter.
16. The Dinner Table Detective 5/10
This particular show is up higher because I thought it was BORING. I kept at it and made it to the end, but felt so much nothing, I was annoyed. I know there is a light novel series for this, but my apathy grows stronger by the second! Therefore, my one favorite butler character can’t save my attention.
Plus, the animation, especially in the clothing design and execution, was quite dull and unrealistic for the high society the main female lead was supposed to come from.
15. My Senpai is Annoying (2021), 6/10
What I found annoying watching this show was how the creators used the “will they, won’t they” plot as a way to get people interested in the story BUUUUUT there was no payoff. I even jumped to the manga to see if something happens, but there is nothing. At all. Plus, there was a couple promoted in this show involving a high school boy and a grown woman. Yeah no.
14. The Inugami Curse (1951), 7/10
Don’t get me wrong, I do think this is a well-written mystery. I didn’t quite figure things out until the end, and I wasn’t bored. My problem with this story is similar to my feelings about Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs (1942). All the problems in both stories would NEVER have happened if the patriarchs weren’t complete and utterly terrible. For this story, the patriarch who dies literally sexually abused multiple women and screwed over anyone related to him with an abhorrently selfish will. Yeah. . . no happy endings in a toxic family.
13. Tsundere Prince’s Unruly Princess 5/10
Here is another story with a truly boring premise, with truly boring people, and drawn with boring graphics. I honestly don’t know how I made it all the way through the story. . . Plus, the romance was super frustrating. It’s been a hot minute since I read it, but I distinctly remember feeling utterly baffled with how the story played out.
12. Hades and Persephone (5/10)
The male lead in this story was stupid. He came up with the worst conclusions about the female lead and her motivations, and still was a jealous male lead whenever she deviated away from him. ( I think she should have chosen the other guy in the story personally.) He was a baffling box of contradictions that I could never get behind.
11. Doctor X (1932), 5/10
Don’t let this fantastic-looking poster fool you! This was a BORING movie that couldn’t decide whether it was a horror, mystery, romance, or comedy. The villain was so dumb (synthetic flesh), and I just wanted it to end!
10. The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princess (2025)
Right o…. this was made for horny men who don’t care if the animation is bad as long as they get to lust after 2D boobs and… things and have sexual fantasies about said 2D boobs and things. I couldn’t make it through more than 1.5 episodes. Obviously, this show wasn’t made for me.
9. Song of the Six Realms (2024), 6/10
First of all, this cover is absolutely beautiful. BUUUUUUT it has a pacing issue. Plus, the ending and some of the relationships made NO sense to me given the context of the time period and the world-building. I can see people liking this story, but I was mad after I finished reading this book. I felt like I invested my time in a story with little to no payoff.
8. My Dress Up Darling (2022)
This show has great animation and voice acting. The pacing is perfectly fine, and I wasn’t insulted by the premise of the story with the cosplaying and things. BUT I hate stories that put young men into compromising moral situations. If a MAN did the same things to a girl that the main female lead does, this story would be considered toxic. Why do we have this double standard in literature?
7. The Masque of the Red Death (1964), 6/10
Here is yet another great poster for a movie that was egregiously TERRIBLE. The acting, besides Vincent Price, was the stuff of high school musical legends! The pacing was awful, and the satanic undertones were super cringy. Plus, I didn’t understand the POINT of the story or how it ended.
6. The Dead Files (2011), 4/10
The premise of the show is simple. A historian and a paranormal expert research a location and meet after a few days to see what they have found. I didn’t like the editing for this show, nor did I appreciate how it set up this team as an unbeatable duo. They URKED me. It’s hard to explain… maybe it was trying to be deep and unshakeable in its evidence, but it was more like they used film editing to manipulate what happened at the locations.
5. One Punch Man Season 3 (2025), Episodes 1-6 5/10
Wow, this was a messy mess of a season. I watched this YouTube video that explains what happened to this show, and… J.C. Staff, I feel so sorry for you. Japanese animation companies are infamously AWFUL to their animators, and this show is an example of what happens when you give them a toothpick and a prayer to finish a popular franchise in 8 MONTHS. Good lord.
But what can I say? The animation is stilted and awkward, the pacing feels off, and the characters look super lame in the scenes that SHOULD have been epic. Oh well.
4. Useless Cinderella’s Feeble Attempt to Save the Kingdom (2024) 5/10
This story was supposed to be a dumb romance, but then it turned into a nonconsensual sex play I wasn’t looking for. Just because a guy is hot and “saved” the female lead from her awful family doesn’t mean he can take advantage of her innocence and naivety. Man, I hate what romance has become because of stupid Fifty Shades of Gray and book toc.
3. The Blob (1958), 4/10
Wow. . . this movie is garbage. If you like cheesy horror with little to no plot besides “big pink blob from space eats things,” then this movie is for you! I couldn’t have cared less about ANYTHING I saw in this movie except the old man from the beginning, who got eaten. What makes it SOOOO high up on this list is how PAINFUL it was to sit through it. I wanted this movie to end within the first five minutes, but because I hate stopping movies midway, I suffered throughout the whole thing.
2. Mothra (1961), 4/10
If I thought the LAST movie was bad, then this one was THREE TIMES worse. I watched the English Dub version with my brother, and we both almost died. It is ironically funny to a point, but that irony dies within maybe twenty minutes before watching it became unbelievably PAINFUL. That “Mothra” song became the theme music to my sleep paralysis demon, and I honestly just wanted the moth to come and kill everyone in their toy cars.
1. Strangers on a Train (1951), 3/10
We come to my least favorite thing from last year. I watched Alfred Hitcock’s movie earlier in the year and thought, “Golly gee, this must be a great book as well!” Man, was I wrong. The main character gets broken body and soul after being emotionally abused into killing this other guy’s dad, and in the end. . . he loses everything and everyone he ever loved. Yeah. I hated it. May I never read this book EVER again.
There is my list! I know it is five months too late, but I promise I’ll be writing a lot these next few weeks so stay tuned!
From the Perspective of an Old Soul 