History AudienceAlienatingEra / AnimeAndManga

** You also won't find many fans of the first two arcs of the second season of ''[[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]'', which is sometimes considered the weakest point of the franchise. Criticisms include either dropping plot threads from the first season or resolving them in anticlimactic ways, [[DemotedToExtra demoting prominent characters to extra]], an absurd amount of ProductPlacement, and a gargantuan block of irrelevant {{filler}} episodes at the beginning of the season. The season had to be [[RealLifeWritesThePlot extensively rewritten]] [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents following a real-life scandal]], namely the discovery that one of season 1's voice actors was a member of the dangerous Roma Sophia {{cult}}, under investigation in Japan at the time. In particular, it was required that almost all elements of mysticism be removed from the series, which led to a hasty {{retcon}}ning in of a [[DoingInTheWizard sci-fi rather than magical origin]] for the BigBad Yliaster organization, among other changes.

* Many fans believed that Creator/{{CLAMP}} entered the Audience-Alienating Era when their first original anime, ''Anime/BloodC'', took off which earned a mixed reaction from viewers and poor BD sales for having a FailureHeroine, which invokes a lot of GenreBlindness, IdiotPlot and [[TooBleakStoppedCaring the needless gore and violence]]. Though many argued that the audience-alienating era started when the last chapters of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' enter into MindScrew territory and the NoEnding of ''Manga/XxxHolic''. CLAMP is now trying to WinBackTheCrowd by continuing ''Tsubasa'' and ''[=×××HOLiC=]'' in order to fix the problem, the sales went down on its second week which indicates that CLAMP really needs to step up from their game to pass the audience-alienating era. In 2016, they finally did when they released the sequel of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', ''Manga/CardcaptorSakuraClearCard'' whose anime adaptation aired in 2018.

** Many, '''many''' fans see ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' as this. After the end of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Creator/ToeiAnimation decided to bank off of ''Z'' 's success by creating an original sequel series. The anime attempted to [[LighterAndSofter return]] the franchise to the comedic roots of the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', but suddenly went back to ''Z'' 's DarkerAndEdgier tone after that didn't work. Many of ''GT'''s detractors state that both the comedy and drama of the show was shoehorned in compared to the more natural flow of the original manga, and the [[CerebusRollercoaster sudden shifts in tone]] taken by ''GT'' certainly didn't help matters.

** In Japan, ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'' is seen as a rather inferior PostScriptSeason compared to the first three parts. Reasons for this include the [[{{Retcon}} retcons]] of the bow & arrow and the protagonist Josuke being the illegitimate son of Joseph, the incredibly formulaic MonsterOfTheWeek plotline (which had already been established as a formula in ''Stardust Crusaders''), and the lack of a real end goal until Reimi Sugimoto and Yoshikage Kira show up. [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Overseas, however, ''Diamond is Unbreakable'' is considered a good follow-up season.]]

** The franchise hit another slump during [[TheNineties the 90's]], when it was carried largely by [[Anime/LupinIIIYearlySpecials a series of annual TV specials]]. Said specials are often considered to be of hit-and-miss quality, due in part to the fact that Creator/TMSEntertainment did not directly animate the specials in-house, which often resulted in low-budget animation and inconsistent art styles and character designs. The early English dubs of these specials are also marred with the poor-quality voice acting of the era, and come off as off-putting to recent fans who are more familiar with the iconic Creator/{{Geneon}} dub cast.

** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX''s first two seasons. The original series ending and the considerably lower quality of ''GX'''s dub did it no favors in the popularity department, but even fans of the series acknowledge that the series's lack of focus, slow pace, and excessive goofiness did a lot to ingrain the "[[FirstInstallmentWins spinoffs are always awful]]" mindset. Thankfully, it GrowingTheBeard with the Yubel arc, rescued the franchise from its A.A.E. in time for the first season of ''5Ds.''

** The ''5Ds'' A.A.E. extended into its successor series, ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal'', which took the filler and RecycledScript of the other series and magnified them. Thankfully, it pulled itself together by the introduction of the [[KnightOfCerebus Arclights]] and [[GrowingTheBeard jumped heavily in quality]] with ''ZEXAL II'', but the back-to-back combo of ''5Ds'' second half and ''ZEXAL'' first half was quite the blow to the show's older fanbase.
** While the first season and a half of ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' was very well received, the rest of the series from the Synchro arc onward fell into this. Instead of addressing many of the problems the previous series suffered from, ''Arc-V'' caught itself up in them too, with the rest of the arcs having terrible pacing and a massive amount of wasted potential on account of the series' TroubledProduction. And that's not even getting into the returning [[LegacyCharacter Legacy Characters]], many of whom were said characters InNameOnly, and the ending, which managed to sour the whole series for many fans. It got so bad that at one point, the bottom 10 anime episodes of all time on the Japanese rating website Nico Nico Douga were ''[[UpToEleven ALL]]'' ARC-V episodes, and has permanently tarnished the name of director Katsumi Ono.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' continues the trend of divisive series. Following off the heels of the already-disliked ARC-V, VRAINS had a lot to prove from the get-go. Unfortunately, the series was seen as SoOkayItsAverage by many fans of the franchise ([[AmericansHateTingle especially in the west]]). Most of the problems revolving around both the new "Link Summoning" mechanic, which [[{{Nerf}} nerfed]] other Extra Deck summons both in and [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh out of universe]], as well as the protagonist Yusaku Fujiki AKA: Playmaker, who some saw as having all the problems with [[Characters/YuGiOh5Ds Yusei Fudo]] taken UpToEleven with few of the positives, being a boring InvincibleHero with [[TierInducedScrappy a broken deck]] [[FlatCharacter who never really develops]] until the last few episodes of the series. Season 2 did not help matters with characters like [[IdolSinger Aoi Zaizen]] or [[ProfessionalWrestling Go Onizuka]] [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter being given the shaft]], the introduction of [[SpotlightStealingSquad Takeru Homura AKA: Soulburner]] and the villain Bohman, a FlatCharacter as bad as Yusaku who never seemed to be able to settle on a consistent backstory and clearly hadn't been planned ahead of time. While the series rebounded in its third season with a fan-favourite villain and ended up better received than its predecessor, it wasn't enough. After it ended early due to middling ratings, Nihon Ad Systems and Creator/{{Konami}} took the series away from Creator/StudioGallop and gave it to Creator/{{Bridge}} for the SoftReboot that is ''Anime/YuGiOhSEVENS''.
* The second season of the ''Manga/BlackButler'' anime is seen as this by nearly all of the fandom. The [[LoliconAndShotacon shotacon]] fanservice was cranked up to intolerably {{squick}}y levels, the new characters were poorly written and completely unlikable (and the returning ones were derailed or {{flanderized}}), and the plot was a near-complete mess that had nothing to do with the manga and had a GainaxEnding. It took ''years'' for another season to be made, and it unsurprisingly ignores everything that happened in this.

* Many fans believed that Creator/{{CLAMP}} entered the Audience-Alienating Era when their first original anime, ''Anime/BloodC'', took off which earned a mixed reaction from viewers and poor BD sales for having a FailureHeroine, which invokes a lot of GenreBlindness, IdiotPlot and [[TooBleakStoppedCaring the needless gore and violence]]. Though many argued that the audience-alienating era started when the last chapters of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' enter into MindScrew territory and the NoEnding of ''Manga/{{Xxxholic}}''. CLAMP is now trying to WinBackTheCrowd by continuing ''Tsubasa'' and ''xxxHolic'' in order to fix the problem, the sales went down on its second week which indicates that CLAMP really needs to step up from their game to pass the audience-alienating era. In 2016, they finally did when they released the sequel of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', ''Manga/CardcaptorSakuraClearcard'' whose anime adaptation aired in 2018.

** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' continues the trend of divisive series. Following off the heels of the already-disliked ARC-V, VRAINS had a lot to prove from the get-go. Unfortunately, the series was seen as SoOkayItsAverage by many fans of the franchise ([[AmericansHateTingle especially in the west]]). Most of the problems revolving around both the new "Link Summoning" mechanic, which [[{{Nerf}} nerfed]] other Extra Deck summons both in and [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh out of universe]], as well as the protagonist Yusaku Fujiki AKA: Playmaker, who some saw as having all the problems with [[Characters/YuGiOh5Ds Yusei Fudo]] taken UpToEleven with few of the positives, being a boring InvincibleHero with [[TierInducedScrappy a broken deck]] [[FlatCharacter who never really develops]] until the last few episodes of the series. Season 2 did not help matters with characters like [[IdolSinger Aoi Zaizen]] or [[ProfessionalWrestling Go Onizuka]] [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter being given the shaft]], the introduction of [[SpotlightStealingSquad Takeru Homura AKA: Soulburner]] and the villain Bohman, a FlatCharacter as bad as Yusaku who never seemed to be able to settle on a consistent backstory and clearly hadn't been planned ahead of time. While the series rebounded in its third season with fan-favourite villain [[spoiler:Ai]] and ended up better received than its predecessor, it wasn't enough. After it ended early due to middling ratings, Nihon Ad Systems and Creator/Konami took the series away from Creator/StudioGallop and gave it to Creator/{{Bridge}} for the SoftReboot that is ''Anime/YuGiOhSEVENS''.

** While the first season and a half of ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' was very well received, the rest of the series from the Synchro arc onward fell into this. Instead of addressing many of the problems the previous series suffered from, ''Arc-V'' caught itself up in them too, with the rest of the arcs having terrible pacing and a massive amount of wasted potential. And that's not even getting into the ending, which managed to sour the whole series for many fans.

* ''Manga/WaveListenToMe'' had the School of Wave Wisdom arc, an arc-long BizarroEpisode that completely threw any semblance of realism out the window as the protagonists end up getting caught in the midst of a cult that plans to use radio as a sonic weapon. It ditched the topic of radio broadcasting to feature such ridiculousness as a breeding program, a LargeHam cult leader, and revealing the cult to worship [[ChekhovsGunman a character who had previously only been mentioned as an aside]]. It certainly didn't help that it was longer than any other arc in the manga at that point--and the finale included AttemptedRape and Koumoto, Nakahara, and Shinji mowing down scores of {{Mook}}s with previously-unseen fighting powers. After this arc, the manga pretended like it never happened.

* ''Manga/AstroBoy'' might be a classic, but not even it is not immune to audience-alienating eras. In the sixties, Tezuka had Astro Boy go through a FaceHeelTurn, and wrote a story where a construction error turned Astro Boy evil. Instead of being a champion of justice who never wanted to hurt a human being, the evil Astro didn't care a bit about human lives anymore. Though Tezuka was fully aware that violent anti-heroes were the latest trend in manga, he didn't feel that it was the way to go for Astro Boy, but his [[ExecutiveMeddling editor insisted that an Astro Boy who killed people and destroyed buildings would be more interesting.]] Tezuka himself was convinced that the readers preferred Astro to be a good-hearted robot, and was proven right when the readers turned out to have zero interest in reading about an evil Astro Boy. Tezuka [[HeelFaceTurn changed him back,]] but it took a lot of time and effort to get the series' popularity back.

** The franchise suffered another Audience-Alienating Era but for a different reason, ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays (ranging from episodes to toys) and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin' Good movie being shown in March. Though, both perform well in terms of TV ratings.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' had an audience-alienating era in the middle of the 2000s that destroyed the international popularity of the franchise and shook the foundations of it over in Japan. After the runaway success that was [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Wing]], nothing really stuck with the American audiences: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the original]] simply had terrible ratings, [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G]] never really became anything more than a CultClassic and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED SEED]] was such a bust that it got kicked into the small hours graveyard slot about halfway through the series. Speaking of ''SEED'', its' [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny sequel]] managed to kill any traction the original had acquired, even in Japan, and for a while it seemed that the alternate universes were doomed. While [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 00]] did get pretty positive reviews, it was the last truly dedicated effort Creator/{{Sunrise}} had at making a profitable alternate universe, and the 2010s only continued the decline in no small thanks to the ''Build'' subseries taking up a majority of the TV slots: [[Anime/GundamReconguistaInG only]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans two]] brand new series following the traditional formula were made after the first Build series debuted in 2013.

** ''Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'' is agreed to have been the start of an Audience-Alienating Era for the movies (though as with the main series, whether or not it's merely a continuation of one is up for debate). Coming after the [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel positively-received]] ''Anime/PokemonKyuremVSTheSwordOfJustice'', ''Genesect'' quickly became a divisive movie thanks to a slew of questionable story decisions, most prominently [[ReplacementScrappy the introduction of]] a brand new (yet {{suspiciously similar|Substitute}}) Mewtwo over the fan-favorite original from ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie''. The [[Anime/PokemonDiancieAndTheCocoonOfDestruction next]] [[Anime/PokemonHoopaAndTheClashOfAges three]] [[Anime/PokemonVolcanionAndTheMechanicalMarvel movies]], based on the main animé's concurrent ''XY'' series, received [[SoOkayItsAverage lukewarm]] (at best) reception with fans (being regarded as fairly shallow and hollow, especially ''Hoopa and the Clash of Ages''), and even in their native Japan they performed poorly in comparison to the other movies in the series. The poor reception of the ''XY'' movies may explain the movies going under a soft reboot starting with 2017's ''Pokemon - I Choose You!'' and likely why ''Sun & Moon'' didn't get its own tie-in movies. Even so, no movie has not been released since [[Anime/PokemonSecretsOfTheJungle 2020]], although that's more because of the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic than {{Sequelitis}}.

** The franchise hit another slump during [[TheNineties the 90's]], which it was carried largely by [[Anime/LupinIIIYearlySpecials a series of annual TV specials]]. Said specials are often considered to be of hit-and-miss quality, due in part to the fact that Creator/TMSEntertainment did not directly animate the specials in-house. As a result, many of them suffer from low-budget animation and inconsistent art styles and character designs. The early English dubs of these specials are also marred with the poor-quality voice acting of the era, and come off as off-putting to recent fans who are more familiar with the iconic Creator/{{Geneon}} voice cast.

* Creator/StudioGainax, a once renowned studio, is widely agreed as having fallen into irreversible decline in the 2010's. While the studio weathered the departure of Creator/HideakiAnno to found Creator/StudioKhara in 2006, the mass exodus of staff members, including Creator/HiroyukiImaishi of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' and ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' fame, to found Creator/StudioTrigger in 2011 dealt a crippling blow to Gainax. Soon after, Gainax would also lose the rights to their CashCowFranchise ''Franchise/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to Anno and Khara, cutting off lucrative merchandise sales of the series. With much of its talent gone, Gainax decayed from producing acclaimed original series to mediocre adaptations of {{Shonen}} manga such as ''Manga/MedakaBox''. As the decade went on, many of Gainax's properties were either sold off or shifted to their sister company Gainax Fukushima, which was later spun-off into a legally separate entity called Creator/Gaina. The last nail in the coffin was when a top executive at Gainax was arrested in 2019 for sex crimes, prompting Anno to not only publicly denounce his former studio but also reveal years of financial mismanagement, shady actions, and failure to repay loans from Khara. With Gainax's name tarnished and very few productions in the pipeline, many fans doubt that Gainax will ever emerge from their Audience-Alienating Era.

* Creator/StudioGainax, a once renowned studio, is widely agreed as having fallen into irreversible decline in the 2010's. While the studio weathered the departure of Creator/HideakiAnno to found Creator/StudioKhara in 2006, the mass exodus of staff members, including Creator/HiroyukiImahshi of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' and ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' fame, to found Creator/StudioTrigger in 2011 dealt a crippling blow to Gainax. Soon after, Gainax would also lose the rights to their CashCowFranchise ''Franchise/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to Anno and Khara, cutting off lucrative merchandise sales of the series. With much of its talent gone, Gainax decayed from producing acclaimed original series to mediocre adaptations of {{Shonen}} manga such as ''Manga/MedakaBox''. As the decade went on, many of Gainax's properties were either sold off or shifted to their sister company Gainax Fukushima, which was later spun-off into a legally separate entity called Creator/Gaina. The last nail in the coffin was when a top executive at Gainax was arrested in 2019 for sex crimes, prompting Anno to not only publicly denounce his former studio but also reveal years of financial mismanagement, shady actions, and failure to repay loans from Khara. With Gainax's name tarnished and very few productions in the pipeline, many fans doubt that Gainax will ever emerge from their Audience-Alienating Era.

* Some renowned studios have also taken big hits. Creator/StudioGainax has lost some key creators like [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Hiroyuki]] [[Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt Imaishi]] and Creator/HideakiAnno, who have formed their own studios. As a result, Gainax seems to have decayed from producing acclaimed original series to mediocre adaptations of {{Shonen}} manga such as ''Manga/MedakaBox''.

** ''Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'' is agreed to have been the start of an Audience-Alienating Era for the movies (though as with the main series, whether or not it's merely a continuation of one is up for debate). Coming after the [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel positively-received]] ''Anime/PokemonKyuremVSTheSwordOfJustice'', ''Genesect'' quickly became a divisive movie thanks to a slew of questionable story decisions, most prominently [[ReplacementScrappy the introduction of]] a brand new (yet {{suspiciously similar|Substitute}}) Mewtwo over the fan-favorite original from ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie''. The [[Anime/PokemonDiancieAndTheCocoonOfDestruction next]] [[Anime/PokemonHoopaAndTheClashOfAges three]] [[Anime/PokemonVolcanionAndTheMechanicalMarvel movies]], based on the main animé's concurrent ''XY'' series, received [[SoOkayItsAverage lukewarm]] (at best) reception with fans (being regarded as fairly shallow and hollow, especially ''Hoopa and the Clash of Ages''), and even in their native Japan they performed poorly in comparison to the other movies in the series. The poor reception of the ''XY'' movies may explain the movies going under a soft reboot starting with 2017's ''Pokemon - I Choose You!'' and likely why ''Sun & Moon'' will not get its own tie-in movies.

* A sizeable portion of the fanbase felt that ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' went into an A.A.E. with the Fullbringer Arc. The arc focused on new characters with totally new powers instead of the established characters and featured a plot that seemed almost completely unrelated to any part of the MythArc. To be fair, with [[spoiler:Ichigo depowered and Aizen alive but imprisoned]], there weren't many plot threads that could be carried over directly from the previous arc ''and at least nothing involved Aizen''.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge'' is widely accepted as the [[Franchise/{{Gundam}} franchise's]] lowest point. The art style drew aspersions before it even aired, but deeper problems came. Common complaints are that [[RecycledScript it rips off everything the previous Gundams had]], [[TooBleakStoppedCaring the deaths are only for shock value]], the plot is dumb and inconsistent, and its treatment of women is worse than in shows from decades before. The 2nd arc is considered better, but the 3rd arc pushes the series into rock bottom. This explains why the OVA for that series, ''Memory of Eden'', decided to focus more on the second arc, to the point that it [[DemotedToExtra demotes Kio to a background character]] by the time the 3rd Generation comes along.

* ''Manga/AstroBoy'' might be a classic, but not even it is not immune to dork ages. In the sixties, Tezuka had Astro Boy go through a FaceHeelTurn, and wrote a story where a construction error turned Astro Boy evil. Instead of being a champion of justice who never wanted to hurt a human being, the evil Astro didn't care a bit about human lives anymore. Though Tezuka was fully aware that violent anti-heroes were the latest trend in manga, he didn't feel that it was the way to go for Astro Boy, but his [[ExecutiveMeddling editor insisted that an Astro Boy who killed people and destroyed buildings would be more interesting.]] Tezuka himself was convinced that the readers preferred Astro to be a good-hearted robot, and was proven right when the readers turned out to have zero interest in reading about an evil Astro Boy. Tezuka [[HeelFaceTurn changed him back,]] but it took a lot of time and effort to get the series' popularity back.

* A sizeable portion of the fanbase felt that ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' went into a DorkAge with the Fullbringer Arc. The arc focused on new characters with totally new powers instead of the established characters and featured a plot that seemed almost completely unrelated to any part of the MythArc. To be fair, with [[spoiler:Ichigo depowered and Aizen alive but imprisoned]], there weren't many plot threads that could be carried over directly from the previous arc ''and at least nothing involved Aizen''.
** There are also fans who consider the four year long Arrancar Arc a Dork Age. In general, the writing became a lot more divisive after the Soul Society arc, and the series' sales and ratings dropped to the point where the anime was cancelled as soon as the Fullbringer Arc wrapped up.

** The most widely agreed upon dork age happened with ''Anime/LupinIIIPartIII'', which consists of the third anime series and the ''Legend Of The Gold Of Babylon'' film. Both the series and the movie had Lupin wearing a [[RealMenWearPink pink jacket]], most of the adult themes downplayed and the slapstick brought UpToEleven (as well as [[OffModel a bizarre design for Fujiko]]). Although nowadays it is [[CanonDiscontinuity widely ignored]] by both the anime producers at Creator/TMSEntertainment and most fans in general in favor of ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' and the yearly specials it inspired, it did get a homage episode in ''Anime/LupinIIIPart5''.

* The retirement of Creator/HayaoMiyazaki in 2013 sent Creator/StudioGhibli into an existential crisis. But, even before Miyazaki gave up film-making, the studio is considered by its hardcore fans to have entered a Dork Age starting around 2004 when Miyazaki released ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', which did well on both sides of the Pacific but got mixed reviews. This was followed by his son Goro's ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'', which was critically-panned ([[CreatorBacklash especially by Ursula K. LeGuin]]) and thrown into NoExportForYou limbo in North America for several years due to rights issues. After that came Miyazaki's ''Anime/{{Ponyo|On The Cliff By The Sea}}'', which was a return to the whimsical tone of his late-80s-era movies but still disappointed hardcore fans despite doing quite well at the box office. By 2010, longtime producer Toshio Suzuki openly speculated about closing the studio, although a shutdown was at least delayed by the modest success of ''Anime/{{Arrietty}}''.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' had a dork age in the middle of the 2000s that destroyed the international popularity of the franchise and shook the foundations of it over in Japan. After the runaway success that was [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Wing]], nothing really stuck with the American audiences: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the original]] simply had terrible ratings, [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G]] never really became anything more than a CultClassic and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED SEED]] was such a bust that it got kicked into the small hours graveyard slot about halfway through the series. Speaking of ''SEED'', its' [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny sequel]] managed to kill any traction the original had acquired, even in Japan, and for a while it seemed that the alternate universes were doomed. While [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 00]] did get pretty positive reviews, it was the last truly dedicated effort Creator/{{Sunrise}} had at making a profitable alternate universe, and the 2010s only continued the decline in no small thanks to the ''Build'' subseries taking up a majority of the TV slots: [[Anime/GundamReconguistaInG only]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans two]] brand new series following the traditional formula were made after the first Build series debuted in 2013.

** ''Anime/HappinessChargePrecure'' looked like it would escape the Dork Age...in its first half. The second half was struck by a RomanticPlotTumor while other plot threads from the first half were either [[AbortedArc dropped]] or [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot poorly resolved]]. It's telling that original series creator Washio Takashi returned to be the series planner for the next season, ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure''. It is also telling that this was the first series to bring in ''less'' than 10 billion yen to Bandai since ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar''.
** The franchise suffered another Dork Age but for a different reason, ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays (ranging from episodes to toys) and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin' Good movie being shown in March. Though, both perform well in terms of TV ratings.

** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX''s first two seasons. The original series ending and the considerably lower quality of ''GX'''s dub did it no favors in the popularity department, but even fans of the series acknowledge that the series's lack of focus, slow pace, and excessive goofiness did a lot to ingrain the "[[FirstInstallmentWins spinoffs are always awful]]" mindset. Thankfully, it GrowingTheBeard with the Yubel arc, rescued the franchise from its DorkAge in time for the first season of ''5Ds.''

** The ''5Ds'' DorkAge extended into its successor series, ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal'', which took the filler and RecycledScript of the other series and magnified them. Thankfully, it pulled itself together by the introduction of the [[KnightOfCerebus Arclights]] and [[GrowingTheBeard jumped heavily in quality]] with ''ZEXAL II'', but the back-to-back combo of ''5Ds'' second half and ''ZEXAL'' first half was quite the blow to the show's older fanbase.

* The Anime/UnicronTrilogy as a whole is considered a Dork Age for ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', even among the franchise's notoriously split fanbase.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': You'll get a lot of answers for what counts as the show's Dork Age (and if it has ever left it). Two examples crop up more often than others: Johto and Unova.

** Unova is brought up due to how the ResetButton was pressed for Ash, his new traveling companions, the initial story arc with Team Plasma being [[AbortedArc unceremoniously dropped]] and later refitted into a short mini-arc, the unsatisfactory ending at the Unova League, [[EndingFatigue and ending on a lackluster]] arc comprised mostly of filler.
** ''Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'' is agreed to have been the start of a Dork Age for the movies (though as with the main series, whether or not it's merely a continuation of one is up for debate). Coming after the [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel positively-received]] ''Anime/PokemonKyuremVSTheSwordOfJustice'', ''Genesect'' quickly became a divisive movie thanks to a slew of questionable story decisions, most prominently [[ReplacementScrappy the introduction of]] a brand new (yet {{suspiciously similar|Substitute}}) Mewtwo over the fan-favorite original from ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie''. The [[Anime/PokemonDiancieAndTheCocoonOfDestruction next]] [[Anime/PokemonHoopaAndTheClashOfAges three]] [[Anime/PokemonVolcanionAndTheMechanicalMarvel movies]], based on the main animé's concurrent ''XY'' series, received [[SoOkayItsAverage lukewarm]] (at best) reception with fans (being regarded as fairly shallow and hollow, especially ''Hoopa and the Clash of Ages''), and even in their native Japan they performed poorly in comparison to the other movies in the series. The poor reception of the ''XY'' movies may explain the movies going under a soft reboot starting with 2017's ''Pokemon - I Choose You!'' and likely why ''Sun & Moon'' will not get its own tie-in movies.
** In general, when the anime goes through a DorkAge, it gets a lot of fan backlash (which sometimes extends to Ash and Pikachu themselves) due to its ubiquity and effect on other parts of the franchise. It also should be noted that said fans are the PeripheryDemographic, since the target audience appear to have had much fewer problems with Johto and Unova.[[note]]particularly the latter, which was most stable in the ratings throughout its run, whereas there was a noteworthy drop-off in Johto due to the ''Pokemon'' fad in general dying down in popularity.[[/note]]
* Many fans believed that Creator/{{CLAMP}} entered the Dork Age when their first original anime, ''Anime/BloodC'', took off which earned a mixed reaction from viewers and poor BD sales for having a FailureHeroine, which invokes a lot of GenreBlindness, IdiotPlot and [[TooBleakStoppedCaring the needless gore and violence]]. Though many argued that the dork age started when the last chapters of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' enter into MindScrew territory and the NoEnding of ''Manga/{{Xxxholic}}''. CLAMP is now trying to WinBackTheCrowd by continuing ''Tsubasa'' and ''xxxHolic'' in order to fix the problem, the sales went down on its second week which indicates that CLAMP really needs to step up from their game to pass the dork age. In 2016, they finally did when they released the sequel of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', ''Manga/CardcaptorSakuraClearcard'' whose anime adaptation aired in 2018.

** The franchise hit another slump during [[TheNineties the 90's]], which it was carried largely by [[Anime/LupinIIIYearlySpecials a series of annual TV specials]]. Said specials are often considered to be of hit-and-miss quality, due in part to the fact that Creator/TMSEntertainment did not directly animate the specials in-house. As a result, many of them suffer from low-budget animation and inconsistent art styles and character designs. The early English dubs of these specials are also marred with the poor-quality voice acting of the era, and come off as off-putting to recent fans who are more familiar with the iconic Creator/Geneon voice cast.

** Some extend the franchise's dork age through the late 80's and the entirety of [[TheNineties the 90's]], with the [[Anime/LupinIIIYearlySpecials annual TV specials]] during this period being of hit-and-miss quality, due in part to the fact that Creator/TMSEntertainment did not directly animate the specials, meaning that many of them as a result suffer from low-budget animation and inconsistent art styles and character designs.

** Overseas fans of the series tend to look down on ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo Golden Wind]]'' due to the perception of main protagonist Giorno Giovanna as bland and uninteresting (though translations may be to blame for this), the extremely formulaic MonsterOfTheWeek nature that exacerbated the flaws of the previous two parts' plot styles, the [[WTHCostumingDepartment ridiculously designed]] and overly generic villain Diavolo, and the ending, which reeks of DeusExMachina even by ''[=JoJo=]'' standards. Detractors take particular ire towards Giorno because he's the illegitimate son of the earlier villain Dio (even reappropriating his battle cry of "MUDA MUDA MUDA"). However, after 2017 saw the release of improved scanlations followed by the 2018 AnimatedAdaptation and its [[SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing excellent dub]], much of this animosity has disappeared and ''Golden Wind'' [[VindicatedByHistory has become better-regarded.]]

* ''Manga/AstroBoy'' might be a classic, but not even it is immune to dork ages. In the sixties, Tezuka had Astro Boy go through a FaceHeelTurn, and wrote a story where a construction error turned Astro Boy evil. Instead of being a champion of justice who never wanted to hurt a human being, the evil Astro didn't care a bit about human lives anymore. Though Tezuka was fully aware that violent anti-heroes were the latest trend in manga, he didn't feel that it was the way to go for Astro Boy, but his [[ExecutiveMeddling editor insisted that an Astro Boy who killed people and destroyed buildings would be more interesting.]] Tezuka himself was convinced that the readers preferred Astro to be a good-hearted robot, and was proven right when the readers turned out to have zero interest in reading about an evil Astro Boy. Tezuka [[HeelFaceTurn changed him back,]] but it took a lot of time and effort to get the series' popularity back.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age but for a different reason, ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays (ranging from episodes to toys) and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin' Good movie being shown in March. Though, both perform well in terms of TV ratings as they had positive messages and themes and pretty interesting characters (with backstories) and designs.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age but for a different reason, ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays (ranging from episodes to toys) and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin' Good movie being shown in March. Though, both had positive messages and themes and pretty interesting characters (with backstories) and designs.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' but for a different reason, both had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays (ranging from episodes to toys) and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin' Good movie being shown in March. Though, both had positive messages and themes and pretty interesting characters (with backstories) and designs.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' but for a different reason, both had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin Good movie being shown in March. Though, both had positive messages and themes and pretty interesting characters (with backstories) and designs.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' but for a different reason, both had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin Good movie being shown in March. Though, they had positive messages and pretty interesting characters with backstories. The dork age also affected its sister franchise, Super Sentai.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' but for a different reason, both had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays and the latter suffering from one of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) being tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin Good movie being shown in March. Though, they had positive messages and pretty interesting characters with backstories.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' but for a different reason, both had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays while the latter had suffered with one case of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin Good movie being shown in March. Though, they had positive messages and pretty interesting characters with backstories.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' but for a different reason, both had suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays while the latter had suffered with one case of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin Good movie being shown in spring.

** The franchise suffered another Dork Age with ''Anime/HealinGoodPrecure'' and ''Anime/TropicalRougePrecure'' but for a different reason, it suffered from low sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with the former suffering from production delays while the latter had suffered with one case of its cast members (Rina Hidaka) tested positive and the lack of a 2021 All Stars movie as a result of the Healin Good movie being shown in spring.