15 Years Ago MyAnimeLists LowestRated Horror Anime Was Released

15 Years Ago, MyAnimeList’s Lowest-Rated Horror Anime Was Released

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Fifteen years ago, the worst horror anime ever made was released — at least, according to MyAnimeList. Is Mars of Destruction so bad? Let’s find out.

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15 Years Ago MyAnimeLists LowestRated Horror Anime Was Released

In 2005, an anime based on a visual novel set in the distant future of 2010 painted an apocalyptic vision of the future, where terrible animation, inept writing and remarkably inane concepts lead to the end times. By 2020, Mars of Destruction (Hametsu no Mars in Japanese) ranks as the lowest-rated horror anime on MyAnimeList and among the lowest-rated anime on the site in general, with an average score of 2.27 out of 10 from over 31,000 unique ratings.

That means that Mars of Destruction must be a special kind of terrible. For the 15th anniversary of its release, let’s take the cataclysmic undertaking of rewatching the anime. Does it live up to its disastrous legacy?

The Most Bare-Bones Story

15 Years Ago MyAnimeLists LowestRated Horror Anime Was Released

A mission to Mars goes south in 2010 when the space shuttle, upon re-entry, explodes in the outer atmosphere. The shuttle had been carrying a special sample from Mars, which ends up raining down through the atmosphere to Earth. The powder, raining down from the heavens, awakens monsters called Ancients. In response, the world founds the Anti-Unidentified Ancients Special Team paramilitary force (or AAST) to fight these monsters. Most members are police officers, save for one high school kid who gets to wear a Power Rangers suit called the MARS. What is a MARS? Who knows.

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The anime primarily follows AAST on one of its missions. It reveals nothing about the characters on this mission, nothing bad happens to any of the established characters and, when the lead Ancient reveals humanity pushed their race to extinction, the anime abruptly ends.

Everything about Mars of Destruction rehashes plots you’ve seen better elsewhere, from Blue Gender to Evangelion, It directly copies Evangelion’s infamous “I don’t want to pilot the robot” exchange almost shot-for-shot and line-for-line. Characters speak in stock phrases that serve to only push the plot forward. It is hard to care about any of the violence in the series because none of the characters matter. The closest the anime comes to establishing world-building is indicating that life originated from Mars, then came to Japan thanks to meteors.

What makes this anime particularly laughable is how it attempts to present serious themes while being incapable of engaging thematically or emotionally with its audience. It dumps its “Humans are the real monsters” nonsense literal seconds before the closing credits. The monster who makes this speech spent half the anime clawing through civilians, and following its soliloquy gets blown up by bullets. It’s a laughable attempt to have a point, made funnier by its lack of buildup.

The Awful Animation and Sound Design

The bad plot might be somewhat forgivable if the anime had any technical competence, but it’s incredibly cheap-looking. The animation consists primarily of still frames where no one moves. It’s three minutes before it shows anything other than generic backgrounds. The characters, distinguishable only by hair color and gender, mostly talk off-screen so the animators can avoid animating lip-flaps.

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Action scenes are a joke, with characters stiffly shooting and lasers missing them. Characters explode into meat chunks upon dying, yet never fall. That is, of course, when they choose to showcase action and don’t cut away from it to avoid animating the anime. This wouldn’t be so bad if 70% of Mars of Destruction didn’t consist of action scenes.

On top of that, the sound design is noticeably terrible. Music is often absent, and when it does appear, consists of public domain MIDIs that are often poorly suited for the scene and abruptly cut short mid-note. The sound effects are repetitious and stock, with the same sound for footsteps being incorporated for energy swords stabbing through a monster.

Mars of Destruction barely qualifies as animation. In fact, it barely counts as a story. It’s a still, stilted short with little merit beyond its incompetence. At the same time, it’s so bland it fails to be overtly offensive. It’s hard to be angry over something so inept.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/mars-of-destruction-myanimelist-worst-horror-anime/

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