The anime fandom is no stranger to declaring this or that new anime “the worst of all time”. Usually, this is directed at highly controversial works or ones that have a tremendous amount of hype behind them. The result is that technically competent but narratively bland anime series are often labeled as the absolute bottom of the barrel.
Despite these debates, the anime community decided on the objectively worst anime long ago. According to anime ranking site My Anime List, the lowest-rated anime of all time is Tenkuu Danzai Skelter+Heaven, which sports an unreasonably low score of 1.89 out of 10 according to fans.
While it might be tempting to think this rating is an overreaction, actually watching Skelter+Heaven suggests that 1.89 might actually be too high.
20 Years Later, Skelter+Heaven is Somehow Even Worse Than When It Premiered
Released in 2004 as a tie-in to the PS2 game of the same name, Skelter+Heaven is a 20-minute OVA that has been baffling anime fans for two decades.
The loose approximation of a plot sees an object of unknown origin appear over Tokyo. In response, a squad of artificially created young women pilot mech suits (called Skelters) to deal with it.
That may sound like a fairly simple plot, but somehow, Skelter+Heaven makes it absolutely confounding.
The editing of Skelter+Heaven alone is enough to qualify it for ranking among the worst anime of all time. Scenes are just mashed together in a way that makes the plot difficult to follow.
At one critical point, the OVA’s female heroine, Lin, damages the squid creature with her mech. The following scene sees her floating in a void, talking to a blob of energy next to one of the other pilots.
Confounding matters further is that the other pilot, possibly a girl named Midori (a few of the female characters look similar, so it’s unclear), was just knocked down by the squid in a previous scene and is possibly dead. Midori does not speak, and Lin does not acknowledge her presence.
Is all this happening in Lin’s mind? Is she talking to the Squid? If so, how did her cutting the squid lead to a psychic link between them being formed?
Maybe, if viewers can stomach a second viewing, they might be able to parse an answer or two from the scattered bits of dialogue, but even that can be strangely vague in a way that makes the material less engaging, as opposed to more.
As if the confusing plot and editing weren’t enough, the OVA also carries the sin of being about as visually unappealing as possible.
Skelter+Heaven Is Just Uncomfortable to Watch
At first glance, Skelter+Heaven has a fairly generic mid-2000s art style. Then it moves.
The best animated anime series will use their animation to help tell the story, integrating art style and motion to help convey the anime’s atmosphere, mood, or theme.
Skelter+Heaven, on the other hand, has animation that is often distracting. In particular, the use of 3D CG feels wildly out of place. While the alien squid in particular stands out as a strange design, what’s far worse is the integration of the girls and their Skelter mechs.
For reasons that are unclear, Skelter+Heaven does not have its cast of female mech pilots in anything actually resembling cockpits. Instead, the Skelters are more like those seen in classic science fiction films like Aliens or Avatar.
Unfortunately, the Skelters are rendered in 3D while the girls are (usually) rendered in 2D, making the two styles clash.
A possible motivation for having the girls just visible outside their Skelters is the OVA’s weirdly sexual undertones. The pilots’ outfits are all skimpy things that really don’t make much sense as something anyone would wear into combat.
There are scenes of the girls working out that, if clipped out of context, look like they come straight out of an adult anime. As if to remove any doubt about the OVA’s intentions, it devotes some of its run time to a poorly justified shower scene that’s barely even suggestive.
Anime can get away with being trashy fun. The best guilty pleasure anime embrace their risqué elements to tease viewers. Unfortunately, there’s nothing fun about the sexual elements of Skelter+Heaven. It’s just uncomfortable.
Despite Its Many Faults, Skelter+Heaven Is Not The Worse Anime Of All Time
Despite the many awkward moments found in Skelter+Heaven and despite its low rating on My Anime List, it’s difficult to see it being called the worst anime of all time.
Not only are there anime out there with worse animation (like the disastrous Ex-Arm), there are anime that promote some fairly gross ideas.
Skelter+Heaven is, in its own way, advocating some less-than-ideal views of women, but it is such a benign and tired way that it’s difficult to get up in arms over.
Skelter+Heavenis far from inoffensive, but it is also not overtly upsetting either. The anime does not leave enough of an impression to make viewers feel genuinely sick, and for that reason alone, it probably doesn’t deserve the title of worst anime ever.
