I don’t believe in reviewing series that I haven’t given a fair shake: usually this means watching/reading to the end (or for ongoing series, watching/reading up to the latest release). Long-running series especially can vary dramatically in quality over time, plot holes can get resolved, annoying characters redeemed, twists revealed, etc. But sometimes a series is so bad that I just can’t bring myself to continue unless I get strong reassurance that it does in fact get better. I also don’t want to clutter up this community with individual posts reviewing series that I think are below average or a waste of time.

Enter the Drop Pit! A place to dump all the series that are so bad/boring that I dropped them after a few chapters/episodes. Feel free to list your own dropped series that you think others (or at least other 30+ fans) shouldn’t even bother with. Or maybe there’s something I’ve dropped that you think I should give another chance? Please note that this is not a place for series that I’ve dropped only because they weren’t my taste, with the exception of series I dropped because they felt too childish (that’s the whole point of this 30+ community, after all!)

This is by no means an exhaustive list; I’ll add to it periodically as I try new series and stumble across ones I’ve tried and dropped in the past.

Webcomics:

The Lazy Lord Masters the Sword: dropped at ch8. Bad art, uninteresting characters, bland setting, weak premise, harmful lessons about overwork leading to success, definitely not of interest to the 30+ crowd.

Villain to Kill: dropped at ch5. Premise, plot, characters, and dialogue are all bad-fanfiction-levels of cliche. At least the art is passable. Definitely not of interest to the 30+ crowd.

Lookism: dropped at unknown chapter. I started this series due to its popularity; at first it was interesting enough on account of its original premise, decent art (strong rotoscoping vibe), charming moments, and social commentary (I was curious what the South Korean perspective on “lookism” would be). At some point however the series’ negative qualities took over: the never-ending stream of two-dimensional villains, excessively unrealistic plotlines, and the final straw: repetitive scenarios. The series currently stands at over 480 chapters(!?); IMO it should have wrapped up somewhere in the 200s at the latest. While the content is more geared to a teenage/young adult audience, it has enough good qualities to be potentially entertaining to older demographics too, but only up to a point.

Jungle Juice: dropped at an unknown chapter. I had kinda high hopes that this one would be a fun, high-production-quality action series. It starts with promise: an unusual take on a fairly worn genre, good art, overall crisp and professional. I didn’t even mind that it was clearly following a lot of standard shonen tropes (like the entrance exam), because as long as they’re executed well (and most importantly, with good pacing), I enjoy the occasional shonen action. However I started to get really worried after a scene where the villain escapes, because while I can forgive a protagonist with plot armor I will not suffer a villain with plot armor, since that means the series is going to constantly dangle plot development like a carrot in front of the reader, always just out of reach. I investigated a bit online and found out that the series is part of some larger universe (MCU vibes incoming…) and yes, it does have plot resolution issues. If I wanted to watch the good guys fight the bad guys and almost win but then the bad guys somehow escape again I’d dust off my ancient Sailor Moon DVDs for a nostalgia binge. Not for the 30+ crowd.

The Monstrous Duke’s Adopted Daughter: dropped at ch30. This one has over a 9-star rating on mangadex and a lot of rave reviews, so I tried really hard to stick with it in case it got better… alas it does not. It’s not necessarily terrible, but it’s definitely mid. My biggest gripe is that the setting is really overdone at this point, so either the plot or the characters would have to hit it out of the park to make it decent. Unfortunately neither is true: the characters are incredibly flat, with the villains having no depth beyond being evil, the protagonist’s allies are so forgetful I literally don’t remember enough to comment on them, and the MC little girl character is a mash-up of the Mary Sue and perfect-protagonist cliches. I found her really obnoxious, and about 50% of the series’ charm apparently comes from the readers’ feelings of “protecc the mc!” I don’t think I’d recommend this series to anyone, but especially not to the 30+ crowd.

Stray Souls: dropped at ch30. Painfully “young adult fiction.” Uninteresting setting, dull characters, cliche dialogue, excessive unnecessary jargon, aimless plot, just another purposeless dystopia/fantasy series. At least the art is decent. Not terrible by any means, just painfully “mid.” Unlikely to be interesting to the 30+ crowd.

Unholy Blood: dropped at ch22. This series is frankly boring. The characters, plot, premise, and even the fight scenes are all uninteresting. Even a quarter of the way through the series I just didn’t care what happened. The art at least is fine, but it’s nowhere near good enough to carry the whole series, especially one as bland and predictable as this. I hesitate to even call it mid, as that implies it at least has some entertainment value.

Print comics (manga, etc):

Western animation:

Eastern animation (anime etc):