Revisiting any successful story comes with risks, and although some anime remakes completely outclass the originals, others fall short when trying to recapture their magic. There’s a reason remakes often get a bad rap, and it’s because they can upend a series’ legacy. On some occasions, they do live up to what came before, or even manage to surpass it. But that’s not always the case, and the ones that fall short of their predecessors are dubbed disappointing, or worse, unnecessary.
There are many reasons a reboot might not compare to the original, from failing to convey a certain charm to having a worse production quality. From a much-anticipated remake that suffers from animation and pacing issues to a modernized take on a story that didn’t need one, these are prime examples of good intentions leading to disappointing results.
3) Shaman King (2021)
Image via Studio Bridge
The original 2001 Shaman King anime was a nostalgic classic, but it had some glaring issues — the most notable being its deviation from the then-unfinished manga. This major complaint about the original series should have made 2021’s Shaman King remake an easy success. It certainly was highly anticipated among fans of the source material. Unfortunately, despite delivering a more faithful story, the second attempt at bringing Shaman King to the screen still failed to stick the landing. And it being a modern series with a completed manga and prior adaptation to learn from made that more disappointing. The animation wasn’t the improvement fans had hoped for, and it sped through too much of its story. It also lacked the nostalgic value of the original, leading many fans to recommend the manga over watching either.
2) Berserk (2016)
The 2016 Berserk anime is often cited among the worst remakes of the medium. It doesn’t help that it attempted to follow the ’90s Berserk series, which is generally considered a masterpiece, even if it didn’t get a proper ending or adapt the entirety of the manga. There were numerous reasons Berserk‘s 2016 anime flopped, from poor pacing to lackluster animation and production quality. Needless to say, it did not revive the anime for modern viewers in the way so many fans hoped that it would. Fortunately, the original series and the Golden Age movies still mostly hold up, but it would’ve been nice to have more of the story adapted in a satisfying way.
1) Digimon Adventure (2020)
Image via Toei Animation
2020’s Digimon Adventure remake was one that nobody asked for, but modernizing the story of the original DigiDestined still had potential. Unfortunately, the remake overlooked many of the strengths that made the first series great. Instead of focusing on the team dynamic and friendship between its large cast of characters, it placed too much of an emphasis on Tai and Agumon, much to its detriment. The plot and pacing also failed to match the original’s story structure, lacking satisfying connections and hurting the arcs of both the heroes and villains.
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