Getting into anime is easy—staying with it when anime has a tendency to fall off is the hard part. The anime community is a very vocal one, comprising lots of opinions. Whether a show falls off is highly subjective. The latter half of Death Note, for example, has a very divided fan base: some insist that the second half is great in its own way, while others besmirch its second half entirely, saying that the series ended after a key spoiler occurs.

There are some series, though, where the opinion that it fell off is practically universal. There are a lot of reasons anime might fall off, since anime is (usually) an adaptation of some other media—a manga, light novel, visual novel, or something of the like. The main reasons are: the source material itself might fall off; the anime might run out of source material; the anime falls off of its own accord. The entries on this list are examples of each, and while some brave souls out there might lunge to defend them, they'll be few and far between.

7 Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror

A Comically Unfortunate Showing After Years Of Anticipation

To start off with something recent, Adult Swim's Uzumaki adaptation has been one of the most hotly anticipated in recent years—an ongoing project that was stuck in development hell for time untold. Uzumaki's first episode got things off to an absolutely killer start, even receiving a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. While it wasn't a 1:1 adaptation of Uzumaki, critics and fans alike loved how it captured the vibe of the original while threading together its most important narratives. Its art direction was also beautiful and unique. In combination, Junji Ito fans were hyped up and optimistic, especially because his work has so rarely received good adaptations.

Then something unfortunate happened: the second episode aired. In a massive controversy, Adult Swim hurried to pacify the enraged clamor. Apparently, the network had split the work between two studios: the first episode was produced by an entirely different studio from the others. The result was that the second episode had comparatively lackluster animation, worse pacing, and far less careful art direction. Naturally, fans felt both deceived and angry that the majority of the series wouldn't meet the high bar. In hindsight, tantalizing fans with the-Uzumaki-that-could-have-been by keeping the first episode was at best myopic, at worst cruel.

6 The Rising of the Shield Hero

Isekai's Most Popular Antihero Lost His Way, And Fast

The Rising of the Shield Hero starts off relatively promising. Its premise is interesting and unique among isekai. It can actually be credited with popularizing isekai antiheroes, and its serious disposition early on got plenty of fans hooked. It didn't take long for those same fans to realize their mistake.

The exact point that Shield Hero starts to fall off is debated, but it happens quickly. The earliest point fans cite is usually after episode #4, but by season 2, a massive tonal shift has taken place that renders the series little more than a straightforward harem. It's tricky, disappointing, and quite possibly impermanent—Shield Hero's third season is arguably underrated—but the series can't outrun its disappointing reputation.

5 The Devil Is a Part-Timer!

Time Turned Minor Wounds Into Major Ones

The Devil Is A Part-Timer! is presented as an interesting reverse isekai series where Satan has to escape to the human world and blend in, leading a normal life as a McDonald's employee. The first season had a particular charm that won countless fans over. Smashing supernatural intrigue with slice-of-life mundanity proved to be a winning recipe, catching on with isekai fans. Then, for eight years, the series never got a follow-up season.

It's no surprise, then, that when the second season was finally announced and fans got hyped for more, they were incensed to find none of the aforementioned qualities. The series' art style had changed drastically, as had the tone and humor. Plots ran thin as it leaned heavily on its slice-of-life elements. Ironically, the series that succeeded by making the most boring, everyday life interesting would ultimately fail because it became boring.

4 The Promised Neverland

A Shōnen Jump Favorite Had Its Best Arcs Gutted

The Promised Neverland has an incredibly compelling premise: children in an orphanage become suspicious of their caretakers and plan to escape. Anything else would be a spoiler. Caring about spoilers in an article dedicated to anime that fell off seems counterintuitive, right? It's not—the first season of The Promised Neverland is a must-watch adaptation of one of the best Shōnen Jump series ever. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has earned a 100% from critics, while on MyAnimeList, The Promised Neverland has been awarded an 8.49/10 averaged from over a million MyAnimeList ratings. The adaptation's first season is, suffice to say, amazing.

The second season isn't. While the general reception of The Promised Neverland's ending isn't great even in the manga form, the anime took a shortcut to mediocrity. The first season ends on an absolutely mind-blowing cliffhanger, only for the second season to skip several story arcs—including Goldy Pond, widely considered Promised Neverland's best story. The second season is dissatisfying and has been roundly panned by the community, and The Promised Neverland is in grave need of a reboot to fix it.

3 Tokyo Ghoul

The Divisive Horror's Adaptation Took a Shockingly Bad Detour

Tokyo Ghoul's second season is one of the most infamous of all time. The first season of Tokyo Ghoul provided a promising, if imperfect, start to the series—the second didn't. Entitled Tokyo Ghoul √A, the second season deviates from the source material and introduces an anime-only storyline. The pacing is bad, the characters become a jumbled mess, and the plot becomes confused. Worst of all, the changes made in the second season absolutely gutted the third season's continuity, leading some to call Tokyo Ghoul's third season a soft reboot.

It should be mentioned that the manga ending of Tokyo Ghoul is divisive, too. In fact, everything about Tokyo Ghoul is divisive. However, the second season of Tokyo Ghoul is such a stark departure from the relative stability of the original story that was depicted by the first season mostly faithfully. The result is the most renowned example of an anime falling off of all time—and the worst part is that it didn't have to happen that way.

2 The Seven Deadly Sins

One of the Worst Crash-and-Burns in Anime History

Even from the start, The Seven Deadly Sins was never a series for everybody. Its high-fantasy setting, battle shōnen thrust, and perverted sense of humor do make it a damn fine guilty pleasure, though. Besides, the first two seasons were ed by spirited voice acting (and a cast which, by the way, hosted animanga high-rollers like Jun Fukuyuma, the voice of Eren Yeager), a talent for building hype, and satisfying pacing.

The third and fourth seasons, on the other hand, take a turn for the worse. Handed off from A-1 Pictures to Studio Deen, the animation quality takes a straight nose-dive. This has a deeply regrettable impact on some of the most climactic moments of the show, since the animation quality is budgeted terribly awkwardly. There are high points where the quality meets its old standard, but they're few and far between—and at its worst, the quality dip is distracting, rendering the series nigh-unwatchable.

Making matters worse, the formerly respectable pacing also declined in quality. Overall, Seven Deadly Sins just became not fun at all to watch. Although the sequel, Four Knights of the Apocalypse, has an entirely different team behind it, the errors of Seven Deadly Sins continue to overshadow it.

1 Tower of God

The Manhwa Had Loads of Potential But Fell Flat on the Screen

Alongside Solo Leveling, Tower of God can be considered a rare manhwa giant that caught fire in the shōnen sphere. It centers around a mysterious tower throughout which a magic-like energy called "Shinsu" flows. The protagonist, Twenty-Fifth Bam, attempts to ascend the tower and rescue his childhood friend. The premise of a literal social escalation corresponding to a character's resources—here, their skill, cunning, and brawn—almost reminds of Korean dramas (The 8 Show is one such example of a tiered resource-based setting).

Such a literal backdrop is refreshingly out-of-place in Japanese media, though, and the physical representation of its underlying metaphor is attractively frank. Reception to the first season was mixed. Some thought its art style was amazing and unique, and they felt drawn to the world that Tower of God built out. Others felt like it was fairly milquetoast, covering over ultimately weak characterization and a thin plot. For the most part, though, the anime community would welcome its first season.

Its second season, though, took a drastic turn. On all fronts, the series changed—generally for the worse. Tower of God's art style and animation both drooped in quality, its plot became ever more confused, and its pacing became worse. Like many entries on this list, Tower of God's manhwa has also been accused of losing its way as it dragged itself forward. However, if Tower of God's abysmal second season proves anything, it's that a worsening adaptation can make the worsening quality of source material so much more obvious (and more drastic, at that.)