Anime has been seeing lots of success this year. Series like Spy X Family have brought unique humor, but there's action to be excited for later this year. Chainsaw Man is finally coming to the screen, and there's also a long-pined revival coming, as Bleach is finally getting its final arc animated in the anime reboot everyone wanted.
Anime reboots are usually cause for celebration, giving a series a second lease on life. They aren't all good, though. Sometimes an anime reboot can take a beloved series and spit on its memory. In the case of these series, some fans would have preferred they were never made.
Dirty Pair Flash
Dirty Pair is one of the more interesting older sci-fi anime. It was based on a light novel series and was notable for its two female protagonists. Kei and Yuri were space-haring heroines who would take on troubles for hire. The original anime ran for 28 episodes in the '80s.
The mid-2000s were a perfect time for a revival, as Dirty Pair Flash started life then as a novel by a new writer that promised to be a prequel. It was actually an alternate universe, playing loose with the original material. But when it got animated, it was criticized by fans for turning the characters into "parodies of themselves" and for having poor voice acting.
Saint Seiya Omega
Saint Seiya is an anime with lots of fans, but it never caught on in America. The adventures of the Knights of the Zodiac are a super fun watch. They use magical clothes called Cloths to become warriors called Saints and fight on the behalf of the Greek goddess Athena against other Greek gods.
There are many series about these different knights, including about nine different manga and anime, so there was a need for a refresh to bring new audiences in. The 2012 reboot/sequel Omega, which brought in a new cast, didn't do this well. It aggravated long-time fans and new viewers who felt the new characters were cliché, keeping it from gaining high praise.
Speed Racer: The Next Generation
An "anime reboot" doesn't necessarily mean that the reboot itself is an anime. Speed Racer is one of the oldest classics of the genre, back when it was known by Generation X as "Japanimation." This makes the choice to reboot it as a late 2000s cartoon on Nickelodeon baffling. It was made to tie in with the film, but hasn't become the cult classic as the film did.
The series takes place decades after the 1967 original and follows an orphan named after speed training to become a famous racer at a racing academy. Along the way, the characters try to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the original Speed. Very few characters remain from the original feature, causing fans to wonder why it's even considered a Speed Racer show.
Dragon Ball GT
Dragon Ball GT is the sequel to the incredibly popular Dragon Ball Z, or at least it was before Super booted it from the canon. In practice, though, it's more of a reboot of ideas from the original Dragon Ball. Goku is reverted to a child to go on adventures again. Instead of serious villains, there are more jokes and shenanigans.
While this isn't a bad idea, when the show was greenlit, most western audiences had only seen Z, with most not knowing about the original's story at all. This made it a tough sell for Z fans, even when it went back to more battle-style arcs. The other factor was it simply was too rushed. The creator wasn't involved, losing a lot of the impact and charm of the original.
Digimon Adventure (2020)
The original Digimon Adventure anime is one of the most underrated anime of the late '90s. It took a similar premise to Pokémon and added a lot more ongoing arcs. Its 2015 sequel also performed well, but mostly among longtime fans. This made a reboot the next logical course of action.
The 2020 reboot is considered to be among the worst Digimon series. A lot of the characters besides Tai were diminished in their roles. Additionally, the pacing was changed to a breakneck speed that gave no idea proper time for it to sit with audiences. With an additional focus on combat, fans felt the new anime was too much like Pokémon, losing its original charm.
Powerpuff Girls Z
This 2000s anime is a re-imagining of the Cartoon Network classic, The Powerpuff Girls. In a lot of ways, it makes sense to turn the cartoon into an anime, given its resemblance to classic magical girl anime. This reboot, though, misses the point of the original show.
While the characters are still called Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, they barely resemble their originals. They are now randomly empowered Japanese high school girls with no relationship to the Professor. The original's wackiness also doesn't translate well to anime, leaving many plot points underdeveloped. While it's neat in idea, this reboot is poor in execution.
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku DASH!
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku DASH! is the third attempt to adapt the original manga into an anime, but the original has a very strange plot. A scientist transplants the brain of a dead cat into a robotic schoolgirl, which creates the titular character, Nuku Nuku, and hijinks ensue.
It was already a tough sell for audiences, but DASH! did it no favors. The 12-episode OVA took place in a different continuity from the original, but mostly retread its plot with worse execution. Its English dub was considered one of the worst in early anime for being derivative and predictable, with nothing to set it apart from the original or its competitors.
Sailor Moon Crystal
Alongside Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon was one of the big two anime of the '90s and the series centered around Sailor Scouts representing the planets fighting evil was a massive hit. Despite being beloved, a reboot was definitely needed. Fans of the manga know the Sailor Moon anime cut tons of content from it.
Fans are unsure if Sailor Moon Crystal was the adaptation it deserved, though. While it does stick closely to the original, the anime has other problems. Unlike the original, which was slow, this anime paced the action much faster. Additionally, the animation quality was frequently off-model and jarring, although fans did think season 3 rectified these problems right before the show's cancelation.
Birdy The Mighty: Decode
The original Birdy the Mighty was only a four-episode Original Video Animation or OVA. Despite this, it remained a cult classic in the anime space. It tells the story of Birdy, an interplanetary space agent, and Tsutomu, a high schooler she accidentally kills. She ends up downloading his personality and must literally live with the guilt of killing him until a new body can be found for him.
The plot was well received, but some felt it needed more time to breathe than the OVA allowed, so the Decode remake was greenlit for the 2008 anime series. While the plot remained praised, aside from some comments about pacing, the animation was much worse than the OVA. While that's generally to be expected, tons of fans consider it to be a vastly inferior way to experience the story.
Berserk (2016)
Berserk is one of the most famous manga series of all time. Kentaro Miura's dark fantasy series has been a major inspiration for tons of other anime, manga, and even video games. It received an anime and a few animated movies in the late '90s, which covered the Golden Age story arc. These adaptations were generally well-liked, but they couldn't hold a candle to the original manga's gorgeous art.
In 2016, the production studio Liden Films attempted an adaptation of more of the story's beats using a CGI style, but it became infamous for its poor animation. The character movement is often choppy and the keyframing is poor, often resulting in characters suddenly flipping from one pose to another. Almost all critics believe that the anime reboot's strengths are solely in the source material, having no redeeming qualities of its own.