While there are more anime than ever these days, there are also fewer long-running anime series than ever before. Series often wrap up early, or don’t have the support to keep going for longer than a season or two. Of course, the series that do run for a long time often run out of steam long before they come to an end.
Running out of steam doesn’t always mean a series is terrible, or that it can’t recover. Sometimes an ongoing anime just has a weak season that it might be able to bounce back from, while others have just started rambling because they don’t have a defined ending. Whatever the case, they’re in a spot where they have to either find some new plot point to work towards or they need to wrap things up.
Case Closed Doesn’t Seem to Have an End
Detective Conan Enters The Crime Scene In Case ClosedImage via TMS EntertainmentÂ
One of the longest-running anime currently on the air, Case Closed has been airing since 1996 and currently has almost 1,200 episodes. Case Closed is best known for its murder mysteries and bombastic characters, which have kept viewers engaged for over 30 years now. The series follows Shinichi Kudo, a teenaged detective who gets transformed into a kid by a criminal organization, and solves mysteries while continuing to shut down the organization.
It’s probably a little unfair to pick Case Closed, but it’s hard not to watch the series and not wonder how much longer it can keep going like this. It’s so loosely plot-focused that viewers can drop in and drop out whenever, and there’s very clearly a specific enemy that needs to be taken down, but after 30 years not wrapping up is ridiculous. And that’s all without mentioning that significant chunks of the series are filler episodes, which is wild for a series that’s been going this long.
The Irregular at Magic High School Takes Years Off for Mediocre New Seasons
Tatsuya picks a pistol in The Irregular at Magic High SchoolImage via Madhouse
The Irregular at Magic High School was part of the first wave of light novel-based series featuring overpowered protagonists. The series follows Tatsuya Shiba, who begins attending a prestigious magic school despite having weak magical abilities — at least that’s how it seems to his peers. At this point, Irregular at Magic High School has been running for three seasons since 2014.
Irregular is popular enough to keep getting new seasons, but the anime just isn’t good enough for it to take this long between seasons. At this point, it’s four years between seasons already. Nevermind all the traditional problematic anime tropes in the series, the series itself is beginning to fall apart. The animation for Season 3 left a lot to be desired, and honestly, the Tatsuya glaze-fest got old a long time ago.
Tsukimichi Has Erased Any Sense of Challenge
Official promo image for the Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy anime featuring the main characters.Image via C2C Studios
Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy quickly became a fan-favorite isekai anime, coming up with a new twist on overpowered characters. Misumi Makoto was betrayed by the goddess who summoned him and immediately thrown away when she realized he wasn’t as beautiful as her hyumans. From its initial premise, it sounds like a story about vengeance, but actually Misumi just goes on to build his own life, separate from the goddess or her hyumans.
It was an idea that worked well in the first season, but by the second season the amusement was already starting to wear thin. The hyuman and demon kingdoms aren’t developed enough to care about them, so it’s mostly just Misumi building his kingdom while no one is actually capable of stopping him. By the end of Season 2, it’s even implied Misumi is already stronger than the universe’s goddess, so it takes any excitement out of their next meet-up away. The third season might still pick things up, but for now it feels like there’s already not much left to offer.
Spy x Family’s Long Breaks Are Making It Hard to Maintain Interest
Spy x Family pilotImage via CloverWorks, Wit Studio
Spy x Family might be the most controversial anime to talk about running out of steam. After all, when the series first aired, everyone was in love with the entire cast. Seeing Yor and Loid learn how to be a proper couple was endearing, and Anya still might be the cutest kid in anime history.
The problem with Spy x Family might just be that it goes off the air for long stretches between seasons. Sure, every series does that, but most series have plot hooks and burning questions fans want answered to draw them back in. Spy x Family’s meandering plot, by comparison, just feels like viewers could drop it at any time and not really lose much.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Has Forgotten Why People Loved It
Naofumi feeds his shield new items in The Rising of the Shield Hero.Image by Kinema Citrus
Remember when The Rising of the Shield Hero was considered wildly controversial for its story? Brought to a fantasy world while reading a novel in the library, Naofumi quickly turns into an outcast thanks to a false accusation, leading to him having to figure out the world on his own. Even if people thought the premise was sketchy, a lot of people still loved Shield Hero for showing an isekai anime hero that wasn’t just wildly overpowered and had to work hard to solve his problems.
Yet at this point, nearly all the elements that brought fans into Shield Hero have vanished. Naofumi has long turned into another overpowered isekai anime character, as he’s easily the strongest of the summoned heroes. He got justice for his false accusation ages ago, and at this point is considered a hero by everyone that once turned him away. While some viewers are still following the series, others have faded away as they realize this series doesn’t have anything that sets it apart from other isekai anime.
Tower of God’s Weak Second Season Makes It Hard to Care About the Future
Bam spends time with his friends in Tower of GodImage via Telecom Animation Film, Answer Studio
Tower of God was by far the most successful experiment that came from Crunchyroll deciding to try and adapt a bunch of webtoons. People barely remember Noblesse, and God of High School is only remembered for wasting its potential with a rushed adaptation. By comparison, Tower of God’s first season was beloved and fans eagerly awaited the second season.
When the second season launched several years later, though, it was far from what people wanted. Suddenly, they were introducing tons of new characters and expanding the lore in a haphazard fashion that made it hard to care about the season at all. Worse, the animation and direction took a significant downgrade from the first season, even as the fights got more flashy. It’s possible a third season could bring the series back on track, but currently only people reading the source material are particularly pumped for its release.
Reincarnated as a Slime Has Become a Series of Endless Meetings
Veldora slacking off and reading manga in That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime The Movie – Scarlet BondImage by 8 bit.
Reincarnated as a Slime helped contribute to the current wave of isekai anime series airing today. At one point just basic harem power fantasies, now every other isekai anime involves the protagonist being reincarnated as something non-human, whether it’s a sword, spider, or vending machine. However, Reincarnated as a Slime stood on its own pretty well throughout the first season, with fans loving the way the action blended with the world-building.
However, the series has gradually been wearing thin since the second season. Rimuru and his allies are so powerful they barely have any challengers at all. Meanwhile, the third season focused almost entirely on constant meetings between political powers, but with almost zero tension and nothing interesting happening, they’re all snoozefests. Maybe the series can recover, but currently this anime is on thin ice narratively more than any other.
Rent-A-Girlfriend Had Its Fans Turn on the Series Due to the Manga
Ruka, Chizuru and Sumi in a Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 3 visualImage via TMS Entertainment
Rent-A-Girlfriend is a popular shonen romance anime that got its start at the beginning of the 2020s. The series follows Kazuya Kinoshita, a young man who spends money on a “girlfriend rental” service after being dumped. Though controversial, Rent-A-Girlfriend still maintained a passionate fanbase that kept the series going through multiple seasons, and even got the manga a live-action drama.
However, opinions on the series have shifted massively in response to recent developments in the manga. With the potential pairing everyone was looking forward to possibly never panning out, it’s hard for fans not to wonder why they bothered getting invested at all. The anime has a while to go before catching up to the manga, but it’s hard not to feel like the series isn’t just going to run around in circles at this point.