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10 Plot Holes That Ruin Your Favorite Anime

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Anime can be amazingly charming in his own way. It introduces you to interesting and quirky characters and takes you for a ride on their fantastic adventures. But sometimes these rides meet a few holes in the road, ones so jarring that after you’ve smashed your head against the dashboard a few times, you wonder how the driver ever missed them to begin with.

Whether it’s because the anime didn’t adapt the plot correctly or because the writer decided to not clarify things or did so in a separate medium, here are 10 anime plot holes that just make you wanna strap on as many seat belts as you can reach.

Number 10: Assassin's Classroom Got An Episode 1

The backstory of Assassin's Classroom claims that a monster destroyed 75% of the moon…. So the story’s over then, right? Because an event like that would purportedly end the world. The debris from the moon should have rained down as fiery balls of death and sadness. And even if that didn’t kill everyone, the imbalance in the tides would cause water-swept destruction the likes of which humanity has never seen. Not to mention the dramatic changes in climate. But none of that happens. In fact, there are no consequences to the moon’s decimation. It’s DBZ all over again.

Number 9: Mello Should Play The Lotto

In the Death Note’s manga, Mello manages to kill everyone in SPK with the notebook because he has a spy named Rett planted among them, but the anime doesn’t mention this at all. So the audience has no idea how Mello learns the real names of the SPK. To us he may as well have pulled them out of thin air thin air--or his hindquarters.

Number 8: The Date Is A Ninja In ‘Your Name’

Your Name puts any interesting twist on the concept of Freaky Friday by throwing time travel into the mix: Mitsuha lives and dies three years in the past. The idea is clever, but there’s a problem with it--it treats the time travel aspect as a plot twist and subsequently turns it into a plot hole. The current news plays throughout the movie; the two of them both attend school, where the current date is pretty much posted everywhere; they--kept--journals on the days' events. Surrounded by modern times, there’s physically no way neither of them noticed this detail.

Number 7: Hail Satan!

Dragon Ball was never really known for its storytelling, and we’ve never really cared. We’ve always been more interested in how hard the characters punch each other in the face. But the fact that Hercule Satan convinced the entire world that the Cell Games was a trick is a hard pill to swallow, especially since Cell wiped out whole towns on national television with and without Ki blasts. It could be argued that most didn’t see Cell shoot in person and that’s why they deny his powers, but they can’t deny the fact that entire populations have been reduced to just clothes.

Number 6: Naho Deletes Her Own Child In Orange

The fact that future Naho went above and beyond to reverse the suicide of a friend is admirable but the circumstances surrounding her actions just makes things even darker. Naho knows that by saving her friend Kakeru she puts her relationship with Suwa in jeopardy, which would be fine if the two of them didn’t have a kid together whose very existence could and is wiped out by her actions. It’s the idea that Naho didn’t even consider this that makes it so prominent.

Number 5: The Police Took Themselves Out In Elfen Lied

Near the anime’s climax, Nana somehow manages to reach Mariko despite there being a police barricade separating them, and it’s never explained how. When Kouta and Nyu get to the barricade, they discover all the guards laid out at the gate. But who did this? Nyu isn’t Lucy in this scene, Mariko is at the far end of the facility, and Bando doesn’t show up till later. That leaves Nana, but that would be a complete 180 for her character since she doesn’t kill, and from what we’ve seen, she’s definitely no Solid Snake. So who put these guys down?

Number 4: Naruto’s Childhood Is A Thing That Happens

There a number of reasons why Naruto’s childhood being the way it is doesn’t make much sense on the surface, but the biggest has to be Jiraiya. Jiraiya is actually humbled to be named Naruto’s Godfather, and it’s clear that he loves both Kushina and Minato, but for some reason, he can’t be bothered to check in on their kid when he learns both of them have been killed at the same time. And even if we allowed Jiraiya to have his 12-year Orochimaru/Akatsuki excuse, none of the other Jonin thought it would be respectful to befriend the son of the heroes who died saving them?

Number 3: Kira ‘Jesus’ Yamato

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed’s Kira survives life-ending events so frequently that’s he’s actually a meme, but none are as infamous as this: Kira and Athrun end up having a deathmatch in their Gundam’s and Athrun, seeing no other way to win, clamps his suit down on Kira’s and denotes it straight in his face. Some time later, Kira reappears with what can considered minor injuries. He claims he survived because his blast doors kept the explosion out of the cockpit, but when his Gundam is inspected, his cockpit is completely destroyed. So—what actually happened? An explanation behind this is never given. Did he just bathed in fire for a bit before deciding the plot needed him again?

Number 2: Angel Beat’s Kanade Is Clearly Confused

The twist ending of Angel Beats just warms the soul. You all remember it: the tear-jerking reveal that Kanade’s regret was that she couldn’t thank Otonashi for his donated heart? There’s a very noticeable problem with that, though: Kanade reached the afterlife before Otonashi, which would mean she died before him. So clearly she didn’t really have any idea who’s heart was beating in her chest at that moment. She may as well have just cheated the system in order to reincarnate. You can’t really look at this scene the same way after having this realization.

Number 1: …Bleach

Just…everything in Bleach. You think we’re joking, and we’re not. Aizen alludes that Ichigo’s entire story—from the day of his birth up until that moment—was his orchestration. The idea sparks so~ many questions and makes Aizen look so omniscience, you wonder how he manages to lose in the first place, especially after being powered up by the Hōgyoku.