Forum - View topicAt what point or how many episodes do you drop a series?
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Masakaki said it best. As soon as I become consistently bored with an episode and continuing feels more like a chore than entertainment, then I drop the series there, unless I have a compelling reason to continue (recommended by a someone whose judgement/taste I trust, based on a manga I like, etc...)
The majority of the time, this happens in the first episode. There are tons of first episodes that I've only watched half of because I didn't like them and turned it off. I know this is being very picky but honestly, I do not have the time to waste on entertainment that isn't doing its job. There are some times when I may give things a second chance, for the above reasons, but I'd rather watch something which grabs me in the first episode, which a lot of anime has. |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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It depends a lot. I just decided to drop Toriko at 73 because it's not even worthy of being my background sound anymore. It's clear that they plan to drag this foreeeeeeeever (I expected, but they're setting it like One Piece*, which is a lot worse than I thought considering its quality).
* Like One Piece, Toriko has a sort of different part of the world which is on a completely different level of difficulty. In One Piece it only happens after episode 500. Some other series I drop really fast. But annoying or very generic characters are usually the main factor, not episode count. |
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Cranium
Posts: 45 |
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This is true for me too. To even start watching that first episode, the show must have either an interesting premise or good reviews/recommandations. That leads me finishing only 2 or 3 series per year. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8474 Location: Penguinopolis |
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My (general) philosophy is that if it takes more than five episodes to decide you dislike a show, you don't get to complain about the show being bad.
Though things can get complicated if the show has its ups and downs throughout. It could start off really well and then devolve. If you're in the middle of a series and it has three bad episodes in a row, it's probably time to drop it. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Probably about two episodes in, if I'm not intrigued or excited to see more, I go "meh" and move on to something else.
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Rhyono
Posts: 1039 |
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I dropped it after 2 episodes.
I watch it solely for the protagonist; he makes the show.
I watched the entire thing while in college...those were dark days. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Well that's silly. Surely the more you watch of a show, the more knowledgeable you are about it and the more you have a right to say if it is bad or not? |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7989 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I think he means more that if you're watching it longer than that it's because you're interested in it and thus "like" it on some level and thus shouldn't complain. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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No, I've sat through some truly terrible shows, most of which were not good for my health. I watched all of BLOOD-C - glorious trainwreck that it was - and finished Deadman Wonderland, Fractale and [C], three god-awful shows. I didn't watch them because I liked them, I merely tolerated them in order so that I knew exactly how bad they were. It irks me that if I only watch three episodes of something bad then people accuse me of not truly knowing how good it is, and yet now penguintruth is spouting this nonsense. |
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loraen
Posts: 12 |
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I usually drop a series after a half a dozen episodes at most. There are exception of course.. I liked Dragon Ball, watched through Dragon Ball Z even though it kept getting worse, but when we got to Dragon Ball GT, I barely managed about 1.5 episodes of it. I drop series when they're either bad, or just not my thing (I'm sure Monster is awesome, but a long psychological thriller series isn't for me even if I enjoy the occasional psychological thriller movie).
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DieHardBleachFan
Posts: 277 |
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I'll typically give a series 3-10 episodes before I drop it. I can usually tell if I'm going to stick with something after three episodes, but there are a few shows with which I made an exception to let them get a little further into the story.
Eureka Seven was the first example of this. I had first seen this on Adult Swim in English and wanted to pull my hair out because I couldn't stand Renton's voice, but I was really interested in the premise, so I let that get to episode 5 before I got used to the higher pitch of his voice and really started to enjoy it. Fate/stay night was the second example. This show seemed like it was right up my alley, but I couldn't stand Emiya through the first 7 episodes, however I LOVED the premise and supporting characters. I gave that one 10 episodes, just to be fair and I'm glad I did. It turned out to be one of my favorite animes of all-time. Though there have been cases where I've made it into the 100s of some of those really long shows and dropped then because they got so ridiculous. (*cough* DBZ) |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Given your username, I found this to be amusing. Thank you for making me smile. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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There's no hard and fast rule for me when it comes to dropping a series. I suppose the most general consideration for me is: do I think the series will ever become something I find entertaining?
I don't watch every series that comes out, so that means right away that I'm screening out shows whose plots/genres/styles/whatever is such that I don't think I'd like them. If a show makes it through that screening process, then I will usually try to stick with it for a while. For the most part, shows that I start are ones that I *want* to like and see through to the end, so for me to drop it means that the show is so bad that it actively destroys that positive bias. As a result, I'll often watch mediocre shows through to their end because I had already decided to do that by starting the series. But then we get to shows that are Bad. When do I stop when it is clearly a bad show? I have hotbutton things which immediately turn me off of a show. I couldn't stand more than one episode of Case Closed, but that was because I misunderstood its premise, so the fault for that wasn't the show, but my not paying attention when deciding if I wanted to watch it to begin with. With Freezing, it entered Insta-hatred when 1) I got the impression that the writer/staff got some sadistic enjoyment out of seeing younger women being brutalized; and 2) the response of the main character chick to the Boring Male Lead near the end of the episode, which seemed like a betrayal of character. All I wanted to do after that was pummel the writer/creator of the series. But by far the most common reason for dropping is that the series is Not Entertaining, and shows no signs of ever becoming entertaining. Whether that's because it's boring, the pacing is messed up, the plot is non-existant, the characters are excessively trite, or droll, or the world is unrelentingly depressing or bleak with nothing to provide contrast (Casshern Sins comes to mind, though I did finish it). The plot/characters are merely tools for jerking around the emotions of the viewer (Air / Now and Then, Here and There are examples, though I did finish them, too). If I've invested enough time in the series, then even if I find some of the above to be hard to stomach, I'll usually gut it out so as not to have wasted the time I've already invested. But sometimes, it's so awful or infuriating that I can't do that (Fractale, Occult Academy). I'll reach a point where I'l say: I was wrong to start this, and this is just crap. I don't care what happens anymore. I will say that as I've gotten more uh... weathered in my anime watching, I've become quicker on the trigger when it comes to dropping (or not even picking up) various anime series. Things that I might once have tolerated in a series (say, harems with Boring Male Leads) I'll find myself either not watching at all, or dumping within an episode or two. Once I liked fan service, but these days I find it is starting to disrupt the flow of the plot (Strike Witches, especially the 2nd series which I dumped after the 1st episode). Am I becoming set in my ways? An old geezer? (Get off of my lawn!) Or are anime themselves changing? I'd guess it's both. I just hope that I don't become *too* critical of new anime, otherwise I'm going to run out of things to watch. :/ |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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As long as you aren't one of those people who endlessly complain that every season is the worst season ever, you will never run out of things to watch. This season I am still watching twenty-one series, including some from the previous season like SKET Dance, Space Brothers, and Hyouka. Some of those twenty-one I am close to dropping (namely Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse and Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate), but most are at least somewhat decent series. Maybe not fantastic but at least entertaining enough to be worth watching. There's always something worthwhile to watch. Always. If you don't follow fansubs then go to Crunchyroll, they have a huge selection. And there are plenty of people on these Forums who are middle-aged or older, so age is no barrier to finding something you enjoy. Sorry for the side-track. |
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naninanino
 Posts: 680 |
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I'm a pre-emptive dropper myself, so most get dropped less than 1 episode in. I can decide if a show is worth my time based on my research beforehand and if I seem uncertain, I don't need to see too many seconds of a show to make the final desicion.
There are exceptions of course. Like Bakuman, which I thought was setting itself up nicely, yet I noticed somewhere along the second season that it was all the show is going to do. There was nothing to expect from it, so I dropped it as soon as I realized that. Also the big three battle shows, which I dropped due to huge quality drops, which just made me realize that I rather get my action anime fix somewhere else. |
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