10 Anime Series You Only Watch Once

Some anime you can watch over and over... others, not so much.

Higurashi When They Cry
Chiba TV

Movies like Requiem for a Dream, or books like The Road are the kind of stories where once is enough. Anime is like that as well, with series - that for some reason or another - only warrant a single viewing.

Usually it's explicit content that limits an anime's re-watch value. However, while that may be the case for a few on here, it isn't for all of them. Some are included for the sole fact that sitting through them once is a chore in itself, while others are the type of experience that are too distressing to even think about returning to.

Maybe it's the violence that turned you off, or that you were left feeling emotionally drained after the last episode and don't want to feel like that again.

Just as there are multiple reasons for re-watching some series, there are just as many for not re-watching others. Consider this list as a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the anime world.

With all that out of the way, let's get this party started with some anime series you only watch once.

10. Akame Ga Kill

Higurashi When They Cry
Square Enix

The first series up on the list earns its place because it is the definition of painfully average.

It covers the story of adventurer Tatsumi, who gets roped into joining a band of assassins attempting to overthrow a tyrannical government.

Akame Ga Kill is the type of show that's just plain bland. At first it'll have you thinking that it's got something to say thematically and character wise, but it doesn't.

There's honestly just not much to the show. The animation is average at best, only ever rarely becoming a spectacle, and characters tend to die right after or even before they start to get interesting.

Speaking of character, much like Game of Thrones characters die left and right. Some deaths are genuinely upsetting, but once you notice the signs, they become not only predicable, but annoying. Most of the deaths only seem to happen for shock value, with likeable characters dying for no good reason. That's also all the characters are is likeable, as they lack any complexity or depth.

While not necessarily bad, Akame Ga Kill is the type of series that you finish out of obligation with absolutely no good reason to go back to.

Contributor
Contributor

Part-time writer, full-time Kurt Russell enthusiast.