Bad, okay, great.

I don't mind if the story is bad at the beginning if it get better as it go, but i really hate when story don't end well, so many great stories had bad ending and while i enjoyed reading the story, because of the bad ending i felt like i had wasted all my times.

Oh this is a great question, as someone that will start reading almost everything, as long as I already read it I will come back eventually so bad beginning is not a problem for me mmm...

Picked okay->bad->great, but I'm really fine with anything with at least an okay ending. Although if it has a bad beginning, ideally the bad parts doesn't go for long otherwise it'll be hard for me to get interested even if it does end up great.

You would want at least an okay start to lure readers in. I'm not really sure on how you would get people to read your work with a bad start.

Nice poll!

I went for "bad beginning, okay middle and great ending." Though any combination with a "great" or "okay" ending is acceptable, really. What drives me absolutely up the wall, and which is unfortunately common in not just manga/anime but most works of fiction (especially long-running ones) is "great beginning, okay middle, bad ending."

I guess this stems from the feeling of having wasted all that time, effort, and maybe even money on something with little to no pay-off. But when a book/show steadily improves, your satisfaction keeps rising and at the end you're left with a really good feeling. Also, I have enough patience to push through a mediocre start as long as I can see glimpses of potential, and even provided you dropped something because the beginning didn't impress you, you can read comments, etc., find out whether the story improved and come back to it with the assurance that your perseverance will pay off. But once you start something great, you want to keep going, hoping for at least an all right ending...which will more likely than not never happen. A prime example of this is the summer 2017 anime Seikaisuru Kado: it started out wonderfully, became a bit cliche towards the middle, and has currently (at the 9/12 point) hit an all-time low, though the majority of fans seem to be digging the sudden turn into "hot magical girl vs creepy alien" territory that the plot took.

I wonder about the "bad middle," options, though. I don't think I've even remotely enjoyed anything that doesn't have at least an "okay" middle part. In my experience if the middle is bad, the conclusion's bad as well: there's usually no coming back from such a drop in storytelling quality.

I went for bad, okay, great in the end.
It's so disappointing to read a manga with a great beginning for it to slowly fall from grace. I decided on a bad beginning because usually these days I don't read stories that have freshly started, so if I know it gets better as the story goes on, I'm willing to push through the bad in order to get to the good.

Series having great endings is very rare but they usually make the end of the series pretty satisfying when they do pop up.

With regards to the previous poll, I voted 'a lack of money'. I'm 28, but a full time student. When I was working I had the money to buy merchandise, and I did, but then I suffered more from a lack of space since Japanese apartments are tiny. Also, I often didn't want what was on offer since I don't always like the current trendy anime/manga.

With the current poll, I can forgive a poor beginning. I hate a bad ending, especially if it started so well. I chose bad beginning, okay middle, great ending since I prefer things to get better as I go along, but I could deal with an okay beginning and bad middle if the ending was great enough.

Bad beginning, great middle, okay ending as act 2 is where the actual story happens. Not that such a messy quality range would lead to a good product. Okay beginning, great middle, bad ending also works.

How closed off stories tend to work but ongoing manga don´t usually apply, for obvious reasons:

The most up-voted option can´t work, as one could never connect to the characters or story if the journey to the resolution wasn´t good at some point. The reader would just accuse the writer of doing a twist for the sake of it, or not "earning" the ending, or...

It´s also highly unlikely most would plow though at least 2/3 of ALL content if they didn´t like what they read. Not that a truly bad beginning would help. Most wouldn´t even reach the jouncy middle but starting good and just falling apart as you go on is about the worst writing sin you can commit. Setting up a functioning 1st act, aka the premise of the overall story, ain´t that hard after all. So Okay beginning, great middle, bad ending would work too.

I went with "okay, great, and then bad." I can't start a story if the beginning can't hook me, so it just has to start off as okay or better. It can't just fall from glory mid way, or I'll drop it, (unless the stories short to begin with). A bad ending is okay, because I won't be reading the story after it ends, anyway.

Here is an excerpt from a TED talk about the hero´s journey, as coined by Joseph Campbell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA

Star Wars IV famously follows it 1 to 1. His book The Hero with a Thousand Faces is about the best book on effective storytelling that exists.

This is a tragedy. But, well...
I'll be going with Okay beginning, bad middle, great ending.

Okay Beginning, so that I don't quit reading just after few chapters or volumes; or simply don't put the series on hold.
Bad middle, critics will talk Batshit about it here, some will quit or put it on hold. And most will have hope for it.
Great ending, this is where it makes a awesome comeback, critics talk positively about it, fans start dancing in euphoria, ratings starts overflowing. All's Well That Ends Well.

Great beginning, bad middle, okay ending

Allows me to enjoy the good parts and quickly drop it afterwards.

I'd rather not read anything with "bad" part. I won't read something with bad beginning because I will immediately drop it. a manga with bad middle is boring. you have great expectation for a manga because it has great beginning, but because the middle part is bad, you just stopped reading it altogether. and if I know that a manga has a bad ending, I will definitely avoid it.

if I have to read something with "bad" part no matter what, then I choose bad beginning. growing into okay middle, and ended great. so that I wouldn't have big expectation of the next part.

Can we just leave the Bad out? Really a Bad beginning is not going to hook me into a story especially if its a TV show or manga. If I'm at a movie theater I may have no choice to sit and watch it all the way through, but its definitely going to color my impression of a film. A bad ending is a little easier to accept if the middle was great, but a slow slide from a great start to crappy ending tends to leave me feeling disappointed. I'm better if its something like OK->OK->Great or OK->Great->OK or even Great->OK->OK. Hell, I'm good with OK->OK->OK. Bad is just well, BAD and sometimes stories can't recover from that no matter where its placed.

I prefer them getting better with time. If it goes downhill or stale at some time compared to the past, there's the risk of me losing interest and not finishing it, even though the finale may be fantastic, which would be a shame. So bad->ok->great is my choice here.

You can do so many great things when you have characters, lore, world all developed.

Went with Bad Great Okay

If I have to choose any to be bad, it's definitely the beginning. Read plenty of manga with bad beginnings that were great afterwards. Now, I would normally read a few more chapters before deciding to drop it, if not, I'll often pick up back on manga that I've dropped to try it again.
Great middle as it's normally my main motivation to continue with the story, especially with the long series. Okay ending... cause I'm used to manga with pretty normal ending or even questionable "is that even a proper ending?"

As to "Now I'm curious about a combination of this poll and your age" - we're all from different countries
I'm 27, I don't even earn enough to rent my own place (which is not that strange here), and delivery cost is atrocious. Really. Sometimes it's even pricier than the thing that I want to buy. Not to mention it's risky, because the mail services here are not that great too.
So when I want to buy something, I have to think that I'm giving my money for something that will just stand on my shelf, and I will pay big money for delivery. And I have to remember that there's a chance that it won't even get to me...
In the end I always prefer to keep the money for my education. Because that's the thing that can give me a chance to have more money later.
The only things I DO buy are: games (Steam, almost always with ~90% discount, no delivery , 100% chance), and, very rarely, something from Chinese sites (cheap), and only if it's not sold here and I really want it and know what I'm going to use it for.

Well I can't read something with a bad beginning because I'd drop the series immediately. There's no guarantee it'd get better, and I wouldn't want to continue when the story was poorly planned from the beginning. And a bad ending is unforgivable in my book. No matter how good a story was in the beginning or middle, if it has a bad ending it leaves me frustrated and unsatisfied. So I'm stuck between okay -> bad -> great and great -> bad -> okay. While I appreciate a great ending, I have the feeling that if a story started out just okay and then went bad, I'd likely stop reading in the middle.

For me, the start should be at least okay. Otherwise I will never get to the parts that may be good.
For the rest, it depends on how bad it is. It needs only one really bad chapter for me to never look at it again.
For exapmle Bleach. The beginning was good. The majority of it was kinda okay. I read it, because I wanted to know the rest. Then came the fight between Ichigo and Aizen. Never again did I read a single page of Bleach.

Yea i choose Bad beginning, great middle, okay ending, Mainly because most series go on like this anyway. Some may start great but a lot start out with a slow or not that great beginning then develop into a great story then have just an okay ending. My breakdown is this:

Great part: I rather have this the most in the middle cause the "middle" is usually the largest part that has the most important content thats developing in the main core of story. Im seeing this as the beginning being one arc to start the series then the middle is the several in between arcs (for a long story) or the core arc (for a short one) then the end is the last arc (for a long one) or just the how it ended (for a short one). so of course i want the biggest or most important part to be great.

Bad Part: I feel like the "bad part" should only be at the beginning cause thats the only portion of a story i could except being a little bad cause its just starting and i usually give the beginning of manga a few chapters or so to get good. It would suck if the Middle or core of the story was bad, cause thats usually the largest part like i said. Plus having the end be bad would ruin the whole series for me cause i wouldn't want to reread it knowing it was ruined at the end. I know a lot of series that started off not so good but developed pretty great later. Trust me a bad ending does ruin a series for you. i have a few examples of series that i liked but a horrible ending or last arc left a really bad taste in my mouth for them. And i cant think of them the same anymore. Its easy to override a bad beginning with the rest being better but a bad ending can override the whole series for you.
Plus people take the "bad" word to the extreme. It could also be just "not as good" not "terrible" like people are saying. What one considers bad can vary.

Okay Part: Its nice to have a great ending of course but most just end in an okay way anyway so i can accept that. Most endings dont go exactly as you would hope but to me okay means it at least did what it was suppose to do and at least satisfied me..
So overall i still want the middle to be great versus all the others.Also no one whats any part to be bad of course but if you have no choice but to pick out of the three then the beginning is definitely the way to go and the one that can be ignored the most if its bad.

Probably bad beginning, great middle, okay ending.
The enjoyment comes from immersing ourselves while the story progress.
I'd likely forget or drop the still ongoing series if the middle part is too boring.

I already knew that most people in manga community are obsessed with endings, but these results are still very sad. So many great series were bombarded with bad votes just because people choose to ignore everything that happened during 90% of those manga and only rate the ending.
Objectively, if you enjoyed most of the series, then regardless of the ending your evaluation should still be positive. To put it another way, that positive experience you already had is still there, even if conclusion was not to your liking.

As for me, if the series has bad beginning, then I probably won't read it at all, unless someone whose opinion I value recommends it. If it has bad middle, then it's very likely to be dropped sometime during that part of the story. If the ending is bad, it will diminish my enjoyment and opinion, but it's not something critical. And the part between beginning and ending is usually the longest one, so naturally I would want it to be great. Which leads me to this: okay-great-bad.

It's hard. I would like a great or okay ending but who'd stick with a bad beginning? If the beginning is bad I might just not read far enough to get to the good part and if the middle is bad and drags on to long I might also not feel like reading the rest...

I simply won't reach the ending if the bad part is in the beginning or the middle

Great beginning, bad middle, okay ending

Certainly my first choice was Bad beginning, okay middle, great ending but then again to be honest; Im the type of person who judge what I read/watch from first impression so I'd prefer to be wowed with a great start. Full of potential and whatnot to expect. Im okay with an Okay Ending even tho its not that great. I never seen a great ending anyway. Its almost always mediocre closure but Im not complaining.

Okay beginning, great middle, bad ending
this is the most reasonable choice, because if the beginning is bad i won't continue reading, if the middle is bad i give up, and the ending is usually very short/fast so it doesn't bother me that much if it's bad.

I choose Okay, Great and Bad. For me is quite simple if i got bored or feel that the work is bad, i stop reading no matter what. I don't understand people who read stuff they feel its bad because for me it is something i do to relax and have fun.

Bad, Great, Okay is what I chose mainly because the middle is the longest and therefore it needs to be great to sustain a reader. A bad ending would be terrible since it always leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I'm going with Bad, Okay, Great.
That way there's a nice ramp-up... and once I get past the bad stuff, there's no more of it that I have to worry about.

Then I'll watch a bunch of okay stuff until the very end, which would end up being great, and the majority of my time will have been well spent.

I've never in my entire life read a manga with a great ending.
Never.
The nearest "great" endings are only considered as good only.
So, I chose the most probable answer - okay ending.
"Bad beginning, great middle (this always happens in my favourite manga(s)) but okay ending".

Definetly not bad middle or bad ending.
Middle being the longest part, i'll definetly drop the manga.
Bad ending will always leave a bad aftertaste when you'll remember it.

So obviously bad beginning. It'll be hard to start the manga but if you have an okay middle you'll saw some improvement and keep hooked.
And the a great ending will left you happy and you'll remember this manga as a fulfilling story.

A very interesting subject, and there was so many axed manga ^^

So many chooses bad at beginning, I understand of wanting to "save best for last" but think realistically - if you find the beginning terrible, you normally don't know if it'll get any better later on. So what are the chances you'll simply drop it?
Therefore stories with bad start will just die without chances to make amends. I'd say it's better to have at least good at start and bad in the middle.

Reminded me of Air Gear.
Great start with a lot of potential, then starting to shit around vol15 I think
I completely stop reading it.

There is also a lot of good one that got axed...
Mx0 etc

sigh...