The mystery genre offers a plethora of anime that keeps audiences at the end of their seats. Popular series like Higurashi and Death Note paved the way for mystery anime like Steins;Gate and The Promised Neverland. It’s no secret that the best part of a series is the plot twists.
When a sudden revelation happens in a series, it adds a whole new layer of depth. However, there have been times when a series failed to surprise its viewers. In some cases, the plot twist revealed itself early on in the series or was too predictable for the audience.
10 Sonny Boy Was Convoluted From The Beginning
2021 was an amazing year for anime, with Sonny Boy being a fan favorite. Sonny Boy is a supernatural anime that focuses on a group of students trapped in another dimension. While the series was unique, there was little explanation for most strange events in the anime.
As a result, when the audience learned the truth about the dimension, it just came across as another vague explanation that would never go further. Sonny Boy excels in being peculiar, while it lacks transparency with its audience.
9 Akuma No Riddle’s Twist Fell Flat On Its Face
Akuma No Riddle has a lot of issues, with plot convenience being one of them. However, the most glaring issue with the series is its inability to surprise its audience. The anime focuses on a classroom of assassins tasked with killing their classmate before graduating. The synopsis sounds promising; however, the execution was not.
While Akuma No Riddle had more than one plot twist, they were all too unbelievable. Characters seemed to survive the impossible, explanations didn’t make sense, and random developments would contradict the story.
8 High Rise Invasion’s Reveal Was Too Predictable
Sometimes, the audience can see the big reveal coming. High Rise Invasion focuses on a girl named Yuri Honjo, who’s looking for her brother. Along the way, she meets a masked figure who remembers having a younger sister.
Unsurprisingly, Sniper Mask revealed himself as Yuri’s long-lost brother. What made High Rise Invasion’s plot twist so bad was that the series didn’t try to build suspense around the reveal. While the viewers knew the plot twist was coming, the failure to make it less obvious didn’t help.
7 Haruhi Suzumiya Leaves More Questions Than Answers
The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya is recognized as one of the greatest anime of all time. The series follows an eccentric girl named Haruhi Suzumiya, who unknowingly has the powers of a god. While the franchise has a lot of attention already, its plot twist could have made the series more interesting if given an extra push.
Once revealed that Haruhi’s emotions dictated how the world flowed, it made a lot of sense and was concise. Despite that, the series did not explain the origin of her powers nor their extent. By the end of the series, the big reveal only led to more unanswered questions.
6 Talentless Nana Wraps Itself Up In All Of Its Plot Twists
Talentless Nana is a unique gem from 2016. A story about a girl named Nana Hiiragi tasked with assassinating her classmates, the series was well received. As Nana was so calculating, viewers wondered how she would continue to beat the odds to accomplish her mission, and that actually might have been the series’ problem.
As Nana continued her mission, unexpected developments took place in every episode. This resulted in the audience failing to recognize development in the series since every plot twist changed by the end of the episode.
5 The Detective Is Already Dead Somehow Confuses Itself
Despite having the word “detective” in its name, The Detective Is Already Dead has a surprising lack of transparency with mysteries. The story focuses on a detective named Siesta and her assistant, Kimihiko, who travel around solving crimes. With that being said, the biggest mystery in the series made no sense.
When the story revealed how Siesta died, it confused viewers when she reappeared in her killer’s body. Hel, a high-ranking member of a criminal organization, had taken Siesta’s heart, yet Siesta lived on in her body. How this twist came to be, regardless of the explanation, is confusing.
4 The Promised Neverland Oversaturated its Second Season
When The Promised Neverland announced its second season, viewers assumed it would raise the bar — until the anime crammed as much manga content into it as they could. This would be disastrous for those who never read the manga adaption.
After escaping Isabella’s farm, Emma and the orphans came across a new type of “demon” that did not consume kids. While this revelation is fine, the pacing toward it was not. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of information, fans of the series didn’t have time to process the plot twist.
3 Steins;Gate Was Nearly Perfect
As far as science fiction goes, Steins;Gate is the best anime. A story about the dangers of time travel through Okabe Rintarou’s mistakes, Steins;Gate was revolutionary for the genre. The one thing preventing it from being perfect was the revelation that Suzuha Amane was Itaru Hashida’s daughter from the future.
Even though the audience could see the similarities early on, it still came as a shock. However, the fact that Mayuri figured it out before Suzuha or Itaru did was bizarre, especially considering all the evidence was perfectly lined up in front of them.
2 ID: Invaded’s Mystery Shtick Got Old Quick
ID: Invaded had a new take on the murder mystery genre. After a cop named Akihito commits a heinous crime, he’s forced to solve crimes for his former squad. The series began to decline after the repetitious nature of every episode. With the same catchphrase and crime executed the same way every time, it got stale fast.
From the beginning of the series, the audience knew that Akihito wasn’t a good person. The series tries to make the viewer sympathize with him as it reveals that he lost his family, but it doesn’t work. He had done his fair share of horrible things to people as well.
1 Erased Gave Away Its Surprise Early On
Erased may be the only anime that reveals its plot twist at the beginning of the series. A series about a boy named Satoru Fujinuma, who time travels to the past to save his friend Kayo’s life, the spoiler for who took her life was revealed in the very first episode. Outside of her house, a silhouette of Satoru’s teacher, Yashiro, was shown at the end of the episode.
This completely diminished any type of intrigue or suspense in finding out who her killer was for the whole series. Although Yashiro revealed his sick fascination with taking lives, his premature exposure was enough to negate further interest.
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