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We Regret To Inform You These 9 Classic Anime Don’t Hold Up Anymore Anime that Don't Hold Up Beyblade Gundam Wing Hellsing

By J.R. Waugh Published Feb 22, 2026, 9:00 PM EST An experienced Editor representing Canada via Screen Rant's Team Anime, J.R. has been reading manga since the first printing of Shonen Jump in North America. This passion drove him to write about anime, manga, and manhwa since 2022, having recently served as Lead Anime Editor for ComicBook.com. His favorite moments in media coverage include reviewing the series premieres of Zom 100 and Bleach: TYBW Part 2 back-to-back and briefly meeting Junji Ito at a VIZ gallery event in 2023. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

A troubling reality anime fans grapple with, especially as they grow older, is which shows age well and which ones don't hold up to scrutiny by varying audiences. Some see it happen as their tastes mature, or even reexamine old favorites with a stronger perspective. In other cases, society itself seems to be moving on from the classics.

This means series that were once considered untouchable, be they Saturday morning staples or Toonami tentpoles, are either less unassailable in the modern landscape, or were never all that great. It's a harsh realization for some audiences, but it's also crucial to note that loving them doesn't make you less of a "real" fan.

Classic anime is just as prone to modern scrutiny as in any other medium. It doesn't mean they're bad, per se, but just that they're tougher to recommend in the present than in their heyday when they were considered mandatory viewing, whether by discerning adults or excited youths tuning in to their weekly favorites.

Shaman King

Yoh in Shaman King 2001

A 2001 classic animated by Xebec, Shaman King was an eagerly-anticipated weekly series adapting a particularly inventive Shonen Jump premise of shamans from many of the world's cultures and creeds competing against one another. However, the series suffered from its second half diverging notably from Hiroyuki Takei's source material, and a somewhat rushed ending.

It's one of the instances where fans are strongly suggested to check out the manga instead. The animation is flat and features static frames that can pull audiences out of the action, a somewhat common phenomenon in popular 2000s anime. But the novelty of characters bringing different cultural customs and aesthetics to harness the power of spirits in battle, is pretty great.

Still, Yoh Asakura's quest to win the Shaman Fight to become the eponymous Shaman King brings him into some truly fascinating fights. But even the 2021 remake doesn't capture this as effectively, itself suffering immensely from pacing problems despite the manga then being long-finished. With stories like Shaman King, especially brutal fights like Johann Faust VIII, it's best to just enjoy the manga.

Love Hina

Love Hina anime

Perhaps not a great sign for Xebec, this 2000 anime was once a harem classic, a rom-com for the ages, and frequently featured in print ads like for Shonen Jump's monthly North American release. Nowadays though, the legendary tale of Keitarō Urashima is less of a timeless career-defining classic for its creator, and more of a formulaic relic.

Keitarō, wanting to fulfill a promise he made to a childhood friend, tries in vain to get into the University of Tokyo so he can see her again. But as he continues to fail the entrance exam, Keitarō finds himself having to stay at his grandmother's hotel, only to find that she converted it into apartments inhabited only by girls.

Featuring a typically dense male lead with a volatile group of female residents under his management, the series frequently puts Keitarō into compromising situations while he susses out his tenants. One particular resident, Naru Narusegawa, may even be the girl to whom Keitarō made his promise. Even though its misunderstanding-fueled comedy is repetitive, it's still fondly remembered by some.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe

Anime that Aged Poorly or Don't Hold Up Voltron

Itself a watered-down American localization of Japan's Beast King GoLion, Voltron: Defender of the Universe is a product of its '80s origins. With origins as a Toei Animation series predominantly made to feature exciting battles with an elaborate combined "Super Robot" sequence in virtually every episode, it was better as an episodic monster-of-the-week anime for kids tuning in and out weekly.

While its subsequent reboots may beg to differ in terms of the franchise's legacy, the series, including its subsequent use of Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, gets boring quickly in today's binge-watching anime climate. With dated animation, simplistic villains, and an intentionally predictable episodic structure, OG Voltron is best left as a joyful childhood memory.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

With every bit of respect for the memory of its creator, Kazuki Takahashi, and the monstrously popular trading card game it popularized, Yu-Gi-Oh! is looked at fairly strictly with rose-tinted glasses by nostalgic fans. It's unsurprising, too, as the series still aesthetically looks solid, thanks to Studio Gallop's wonderful recreation of Takahashi's character designs.

However, the anime itself, particularly from its most famous arcs in the Duel Monsters era, is rough to look at in retrospect. Discounting the hilariously bad censorship from the 4Kids era, Yu-Gi-Oh! thoroughly made every card it featured look super-cool, while simultaneously feigning paying attention to the rules of the game it supposedly promotes, albeit with stiff 2000s-era animation.

This includes moments like Yugi's pivotal Horn of Summoning Dragon moment from Battle City, or that time Seto Kaiba legitimately threatened suicide if he were to lose to Yugi in Duelist Kingdom. One can argue suspension of disbelief for times they break the rules, but this fails to explain why so much time is dedicated to spelling out card effects.

Demon Slayer's Tanjiro, Fullmetal Alchemist's Edward, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Jotaro in a red and blue collage with Tanjiro up front.

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Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Gundam Wing is certainly an important Gundam anime in the grand scheme by introducing audiences in the '90s to the franchise as the decade's most prominent hit boosted by the likes of Toonami. However, Gundam Wing pales in comparison even just to other '90s anime, with series like G Gundam and The 08th MS Team being seen considerably more favorably.

It's a bit conflicting. Gundam Wing has some great qualities to it, including memorable character designs and some great music. But it feels somewhat removed from its franchise identity, being bogged down with melodrama of its archetypal cast, making it fail to hold up to even other Gundam anime of the era, despite standing as the franchise's '90s poster child.

Berserk

Guts speaking to the Snake Lord before killing him in Berserk (1997) episode #1

Berserk is the best dark fantasy manga of all time, bar none. Its influence contains multitudes, inspiring decades of imitators across manga, anime, and video games. But its 1997 anime, while sporting strong animation from OLM and preserving the darkness of its source material, exemplifies what's truly frustrating to be a Berserk fan in the present.

For many anime-only fans, Berserk's 1997 series is potentially the only exposure they've had to Kentaro Miura's gritty saga. Berserk '97 got a lot right, while still making understandable omissions like Wyald's appearance, the brutality of Guts' traumatic past, all while feeling ostensibly faithful to what it did adapt: Berserk's most famous arc, but not its best.

Some even cite the arc's Studio 4°C film trilogy as more engaging, particularly for the unflinching brutality of the Eclipse's depiction. While there are shades of truth to that, the reality is that the series struggles between longer, reasonably flawed adaptations like the 1997 iteration, and insultingly brief abominations like the 2016 series. Berserk's anime needs to move forward.

Hellsing

Hellsing 2001 anime

An easier example to declare as not holding up for modern audiences, Hellsing's failures didn't kill the franchise, with 2006's Hellsing Ultimate righting most of its wrongs in killer style. But the original 2001 Young King OURs manga's adaptation by Gonzo and Digimation showed its age rather quickly in a number of ways.

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Hellsing 2001 featured significant differences from the manga source material and filler-heavy storytelling. While it's a good introduction to the Hellsing Organization's efforts in England, with the iconic first vampire Alucard fighting for the organization against supernatural threats and resurgent Nazis, Hellsing Ultimate is both more faithful to the manga and vastly outclasses the 2001 anime.

Beyblade

A staple of millennial anime consumption, Beyblade is more often an advertisement than an anime one will want to revisit for its initial 51-episode run. Adapted from a CoroCoro manga tie-in to promote the eponymous Takara brand of battling tops, the series is surprisingly animated by Madhouse, yet doesn't retain the timeless qualities of the studio's other works.

Despite being driven by a variety of characters who span the globe, as protagonist Tyson Granger gathers teammates and harnesses the mysterious power of their tops' "Bit-Beasts". Forming the Bladebreakers team, the action mostly resides in promoting the unique stat spreads and builds of its signature toy line, with rough animation and ham-fisted moral lessons throughout much of the story.

Cowboy Bebop

While certainly not intended to, this inclusion is sure to ruffle some feathers. To those who encountered Cowboy Bebop, particularly in the United States in the early 2000s on Adult Swim, it was like a glorious gateway to anime for mature viewers. It contained sophisticated sci-fi/noir storytelling, the iconic Yoko Kanno on the soundtrack, and a strong character-driven episodic approach.

What this translates to is a legion of loyal fans who defend it for its accurately-appraised qualities, but frequently talk down to those who don't find it as engaging, as it was produced for a TV-viewing era in anime that doesn't translate as well in the age of streaming.

To those who discovered Cowboy Bebop in its definitive years, it's a timeless exemplar of the late '90s anime scene. It made the medium cool for a whole generation. But the medium's popularity now is driven by different elements, namely a more strictly seasonal, serialized approach appealing to an increasing majority, to which Cowboy Bebop sadly does not belong.

37 9.0/10

Cowboy Bebop

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-14 Animation Western Action Science Fiction Release Date 1998 - 1999 Network TV Tokyo, WOWOW Prime Directors Yoshiyuki Takei, Ikuro Sato, Hirokazu Yamada Writers Keiko Nobumoto, Michiko Yokote, Dai Sato, Sadayuki Murai, Akihiko Inari Franchise(s) Cowboy Bebop