Classic anime series are often ranked by rewatchability, and avid otaku love nothing more than sharing old favorites with new friends. But rewatching a personal favorite can have some definite downsides.
Anime often act as time-capsules, reflecting the era that created them as well as the mindset of the audience that enjoyed them. Memory is fickle and the sands of time can be cruel. All too often, rewatching a series leaves fans disappointed, wondering why a beloved show has lost its charms or how they fell in love with it in the first place.
10 It's Not Easy To Write Something Timeless
Knowing a punchline doesn't always ruin a joke. Many great comedies improve on a rewatch because anticipating a great gag can be as rewarding as being taken off guard by one. But it takes an especially clever writer to write jokes that remain humorous years after airing. Too often, jokes are dependent on cultural touchstones that soon lose relevance.
While most jokes in Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-Kun are funny years on because they're tailored to the characters and situations they find themselves in, other comedies aren't so lucky. Offbeat, inappropriate humor made the Ghost Stories dub infamous, but it doesn't work anymore. Jokes about Rosie O'Donnell and principals being lesbians just don't jive with modern sensibilities.
9 Formulaic Patterns Become More Apparent
Every genre has its tropes and clichés, and this can hamper a rewatch. After a while, one isekai becomes indistinguishable from another. Going back to rewatch earlier entries in the genre is often disappointing because isekai, arguably, have improved a great deal since Sword Art Online really popularized the genre.
Similarly, watching older mecha shows can be challenging in a post-Evangelion era. Magical girl anime that aired prior to Madoka can feel vapid. When a series is built to match the confines of a very specific mold, there is little point in rewatching it after the mold is broken. After all, there are a dozen similar series on the horizon, and only so much time in a day.
8 The Twists Are Twists No Longer
Credit where credit is due: Death Note remains a tense viewing experience on a second viewing. Yet, knowing the results of Light's decisions, the plot points to come, and the unsatisfying demise of several key characters to come can't help but deflate the story.
While suspense series don't necessarily become a dirge on a second watch, some degree of their luster is inevitably lost. There's no recapturing that surprise twist.
7 Time Is Often Unkind To Animation
Shows that were instant classics when they aired haven't often fared well as animation technology has improved. The advent of digital and flash animation, now more seamlessly integrated into 2D storytelling, has revolutionized anime.
But there were always series that, quite simply, never had the budget or time to deliver on an aesthetic front. Not to mention, character designs and art styles go out of fashion. Trigun is a great show, but it's undeniably a dated show.
6 Storytelling Can Age Poorly
A romantic comedy that begins with the threat of sexual assault simply doesn't hold up in the modern world. It's hard to recommend shows like My Little Monster because the implications of sexual violence are inexcusable. Similarly, fans have their reasons for avoiding newer shows like The Rising Of A Shield Hero or Mushoku Tensei, given the controversies that have plagued both.
Such misfires are particularly notable in the BL and yuri genres, where sexual assault was long treated as a standard stage of courtship for same-sex characters. It's impossible to watch series like Junjou Romantica without feeling extremely disturbed, but, at the time, when the show first aired, some queer fans were willing to take whatever representation they could get. These days, series like Given and Yuri!!! On Ice suggest the bar can and should be higher.
5 Distance Makes Nostalgia Grow
Kill La Kill is, in the minds of many an otaku, a fantastic show. But trying to recommend Kill La Kill to anime newcomers can be an uphill battle. The show is sexualized (intentionally, but undeniably) to an incredible extent. And while devotees can argue that TRIGGER was trying to be progressive and even feminist, it can be a lot to ask of a new generation to stomach a series this full of fanservice, no matter how fun the ride.
Kill La Kill was once an almost revolutionary anime. But that's the reality of being groundbreaking: what was once progressive can become regressive.
4 Pacing Problems Become Hard To Ignore
Watching filler episodes once is hard enough, but on a rewatch, even devout fans won't think twice about skipping One Piece's Davy Back Fight fillers or Naruto Shippuden's Allied Mom Force!!! arc.
Fillers are annoying, but it goes deeper than that. Filler episodes bog down classic shows significantly. This is especially true for shonen hits. When a series like Naruto is rewatched in a series of binges rather than single episodes weekly, the pacing quickly goes to the dogs.
3 The Novelty Wears Off
Sometimes, the charm of a series comes down to how unique it is. One-Punch Man was a refreshing shonen satire, and there's nothing Gintama can't lambast. When a showa-era series was reimagined for a modern era in Osomatsu-San, the novelty was matched by a zany script and oddball characters.
But being quirky isn't enough to sustain a legacy. While these series are certainly beloved, they had the good fortune of arriving precisely when they needed to, riding the zeitgeist to perfection. Rewatching them years later fails to capture what made them so special, especially since imitators have followed in their wake, cheapening the novelty.
2 The Comparison Mindset Kicks In
Shonen is the most popular anime genre on a global scale, but this popularity has its pitfalls. Shonen clichés are well-known and often exhausting, and though "chosen one" narratives and powering-up are certainly appealing to fans, sometimes, watching a new shonen series feels exactly like watching an old one.
It's not really fair to compare early Dragon Ball Z to Demon Slayer, but that's the way human minds work. And while current shonen hits are indebted to the classics, it's hard not to appreciate how far anime has come.
1 Rewatching Even True Classics Has An Inherent Downside
Some shows are actually better on a rewatch, but even this can be rough on fans. Classic shows can prove to be truly unmatched. Rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood confirms for most otaku that the series is among the best shonen series ever made. The characters are fantastic and nuanced, the story wrenching and ambitious, the worldbuilding immense. Rewatching Brotherhood is never a bad idea, but take heed: anything watched immediately after a masterpiece can't help feeling like a letdown.