Popularity doesn't always translate to critical praise. This is a harsh fact of life with any form of popular entertainment, including anime. In fact, some of the biggest anime can also be the most critically reviled. Fans might have loved the series despite any flaws while critics ruthlessly cut the show's misgivings down to size.
The reasons for this dissonance vary. In some cases, critics refuse to appraise popular, controversial anime in a vacuum, or they just don't get the excitement. Some critics are so harsh that they won't let any transgressions get past their sight, even if an anime has some redeeming qualities. Either way, harsh criticism usually only emboldens fans' love of their favorite anime.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
10 Pokémon's Nostalgia Perfectly Justifies Its Length
To say that Pokémon is an immoveable pop culture juggernaut would be a massive understatement. Originally an anime made to simply tie-in with the already-popular video games, Pokémon took a life of its own and has stayed on air since 1997. As of this writing, the original anime has countless movies plus 1,181 episodes and counting.
While those who grew up with Pokémon since the original 150 have nothing but adoration and love for the long-running anime, critics think it should've ended years ago. As far as they're concerned, Pokémon isn't just an overlong and glorified commercial, but a slave to a formula that actively refuses to change or improve.
9 Sailor Moon Is An Irreplaceable Cornerstone Of The '90s
Even if its first impression to Western audiences was through a notoriously so-bad-it's-good localization, Sailor Moon remains an important part of its fans' childhoods. To them, the Sailor Scouts' undying friendship and their defense of love and peace were inspiring. More importantly, Sailor Moon was the ultimate magical girl anime.
Conversely, critics saw Sailor Moon as a corny and formulaic product of its time. In the decades after Usagi Tsukino first punished evil in the name of the moon, more magical girl anime improved on her anime's faults — including Sailor Moon itself, which got a more faithful and critically-approved reboot in Sailor Moon Crystal.
8 Black Clover Is A Shonen Anime Done Right
When it started, Black Clover was almost immediately dismissed for being another generic shonen anime about a loudmouthed underdog who proved himself through determination and friendship. As Asta's journey went on, though, fans gradually grew to support him, and they saw his story as a formulaic anime done perfectly well.
On the other hand, critics didn't change their opinion, even if they agreed that the series got better after a rocky start. While critics acknowledged the anime's technical strengths, such as its animations, they still saw Black Clover as a derivative and unoriginal fantasy that they would've loved if it premiered in the early 2000s, not in 2017.
7 Sword Art Online Is The Ultimate Isekai Power Fantasy
Sword Art Online is practically the epitome of the isekai genre's worst indulgences. Not only do critics accuse it of being a shallow power fantasy designed to fulfill its audience's desires through the nigh-unbeatable Kirito, but it's also blamed for popularizing most, if not all, of the modern gamified isekai genre's insufferable clichés and tropes.
On the flip side, casual viewers think the anime is a perfectly harmless piece of escapist entertainment. For them, Kirito's time in Castle Aincrad is the epitome of everything great about isekai adventures. More importantly, fans think Sword Art Online is far from the worst example of what self-indulgent isekai anime has to offer.
6 Goblin Slayer Is Basically "DOOM: The Anime"
When it premiered, Goblin Slayer quickly became one of the most hotly debated anime of all time. Even beyond the controversial pilot episode, critics found the titular Goblin Slayer's warpath to be excessive and not beneficial to an otherwise generic fantasy anime. Simply put, Goblin Slayer's bloody adventures didn't live up to expectations.
In contrast, Goblin Slayer's fans loved the gory violence and the story that unfolded. Those who loved watching the Goblin Slayer exact brutal bodily harm on the goblins favorably compared him to The Doom Slayer (aka Doomguy) from the hit ultraviolent DOOM games, whose selling point was also its cathartic brutality.
5 The Saga Of Tanya The Evil Is The Ultimate War Anime
Despite being in a genre as oversaturated as isekai, The Saga Of Tanya The Evil stood out by not only being set in a war-torn world but by starring a shamelessly evil villain protagonist. Even jaded fans loved Tanya von Degurechaff's ruthless Machiavellian wartime service, which they compared highly to Light Yagami's reign as Kira.
Dissenting critics, though, didn't see the entertainment value in what they saw as a blatantly fascistic power fantasy. Besides the anime's obvious Nazi Germany analogues being depicted as heroic underdogs, Tanya's backstory as an adult salaryman living in a 13-year-old girl's body was deemed unnecessary at best and deeply disturbing at worst.
4 The Rising Of The Shield Hero Is The Edgy Deconstruction That Isekai Needed
Most modern isekai anime are dismissed as transparent male power fantasies and The Rising Of The Shield Hero is viewed by critics as one of the clearest examples of this. In fact, its premise of the Shield Hero, Naofumi Iwatani, being falsely accused of sexual assault was more than enough for some critics to deem it as one of the worst anime of its year.
Casual audiences and isekai devotees, however, adored The Rising Of The Shield Hero because they saw it as the breath of fresh air that the genre desperately needed. To them, Naofumi's uphill struggle for redemption was a fight worth seeing to its end. Despite the harsh criticism, the anime scored high ratings and scores on fan sites.
3 Redo Of Healer Can Be Viewed As A Sleazy Guilty Pleasure
It goes without saying that Redo Of Healer is one of the most controversial anime of recent memory, as it starred a villain protagonist on a mission of revenge. Keyaruga's vengeance involved violence and sexual assault, which critics found offensive and repulsive. Worse, it was a power fantasy, meaning it indulged in its target audience's worst desires.
Meanwhile, Redo Of Healer's fans loved it precisely because of how mean-spirited it was. Fans compared Keyaruga's pursuit of vengeance to the similarly revenge-themed sexploitation movies of the '70s, which were controversial then and now for the same reasons. That being said, even Keyaruga's fans acknowledged that the anime was an acquired taste.
2 Domestic Girlfriend Is An Entertainingly Trashy Melodrama
Familial melodramas aren't anything new in anime, but Domestic Girlfriend pushed the niche to its breaking point. The anime focused on Natsu Fujii's love triangle with Rui and Hina, his classmate and teacher who were his stepsister and stepmother, respectively. If critics saw a contrived romance, fans saw a fun if trashy love story.
Domestic Girlfriend's fans lovingly compared it to an overly dramatic telenovela that still managed to show surprising moments of genuine conflict and heartfelt emotion. In contrast, critics saw Natsu's story as just another lowbrow love story that glossed over or even romanticized the more troubling realities of a student-teacher romance.
1 Oreimo Is The Progenitor Of The Imoto Niche
Oreimo is credited for popularizing the so-called imoto niche, or romantic anime that feature a brother-sister couple. What made Oreimo stand out was its lack of pretense regarding its incest, as Kyosuke and his sister Kirino were blood-siblings who harbored feelings for one another. Unsurprisingly, the anime received intense critical backlash.
Despite giving birth to the controversial imoto trend that dominated most of the 2010s, Oreimo still has a dedicated base of fans and defenders. Viewers who had no problem with the Kosaka siblings' romance actually appreciated how Oreimo didn't hold back, which is something that can't be said for its many imitators.