This week's poll was suggested by lollylopmr. Have you ever read a series that you would rate with the lowest possible score? Or do you do your research well enough that you avoid those train wrecks? If you have, what do you consider the worst series in existence?

You can submit poll ideas here: https://www.mangaupdates.com/topic/kilkdnn/site-manga-poll-suggestions

Previous Poll Results:

Question: Do you prefer foreshadowing of a clear ending or a buildup to an unknown ending?

Choices:

• Ending clearly in sight - votes: 798 (48.4%)
• The unknown - votes: 850 (51.6%)

There were 1648 total votes. The poll ended: February 15, 2025

Dang, pretty even split. Not often we see that

A just ruler amongst tyrants

I always reserved 1/10s for the genuinely lowest of the low and plagiarism but we managed to dig through the bottom of the barrel with AI "art". Life always finds a way but I think that we finally reached the mystical 0/10 publication form. Plagaristic robot fever dreams. Cyberpunk dystopia in my lifetime was achieved at last!

I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

I did rate a few as 1 indeed... I just really like reading weird stuff... Or something that has unexpected new trope mentioned in description... But because i am not going for safe popular series, from time to time i will step into a pile of poop... Straight up 1 is rare, but it did happen a few times... (Though they are in my hidden lists, because the fewer people know about that crap the better)

I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius

Generally I want to read a good chunk before I rate something, and if it's that bad I drop it before I reach that point.

I have a few 2s for shorter series that I probably wouldn't have continued if they were longer. I have a few 1s on things I read 3 chapters of and I kind of feel like it isn't fair to the series?

I don't think I ever really rate anything in a 10-point scale as 1 for one reason: it'll just get lost in the noise, because people use 1 as their default option when they don't like something or get angry with it. Giving something a 2 or a 3 has much more impact. It shows people you've given it consideration.

Quote from naeddyr

I don't think I ever really rate anything in a 10-point scale as 1 for one reason: it'll just get lost in the noise, because people use 1 as their default option when they don't like something or get angry with it. Giving something a 2 or a 3 has much more impact. It shows people you've given it consideration.

I agree here somewhat... But i still gave 1 to a few series... Because I didn't want to give them consideration, it was a visceral reaction rather than consideration for all of those i gave 1... The ones i hated but didn't have visceral reaction to i rate between 3-5 usually...

I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius

I think I've started to read a few things I would give a 1 or lower... but I quickly dropped those manga, and so didn't rate them.

The worst manga I've ever completed was Monkey Peak which I gave a 2/10.

"We can not resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense." ― Jimmy Carter

I gave 1/10 to some manga that i enjoyed but some events or the ending ruined everything

i will not keep reading something i hate from the beginning though

I rarely give 1 to any series because I usually just drop it right away without rating. I also try not to give low ratings to series that just aren't to my taste so it's really hard to come across something that is that bad.

However, I have one manhwa that I hated so much that not only I rated it 1, but I also created a list called "STAY AWAY" just to put it there and remind myself to never read it again.

For me, to make it to 1/10... it'd have to be truly terrible. The "it's so bad, it's good" ain't gonna cut it. I at least could get enjoyment from that flavor of 'bad', but honestly, I think there's too little manga out there that could truly qualify for 1/10, in my opinion. Though to be fair, I tend to tune out, purely out of sheer boredom, if things start get that far, but of the manga I've done that with, I don't think I'd call any of them 1/10 material. Not even off the top of my head. Reminds me of how user scores on Metacritic are often times diametrically, and comically, on two opposing extremes/camps.

Lets say, on a video game, mind you, is realistically maybe a 7/10 at most. That's still decent of course, but notice how there's way more 10's than 9's or 8's on a definitively good series to the universally wider audience. Vice versa, significantly more 1's than 2's or 3's if found on a series that could either be simply good or definitively bad. Yet these ill-equipped user scores (and sometimes reviews), in their infinite wisdom, somehow expect to be taken seriously by a regular viewer/reader just passing by. There's no nuance and I can't bring myself to do indulge that. User scores on manga in general seems to follow the same pattern, unfortunately.

I reserve a 1 for series that either

1. Portrays something evil in such a way I believe IRL people will be affected (like that one series I am convinced is designed to introduce IRL kids to sexual themes).

2. Contains and protrays, in a positive light, content I morally object to (like the one one where the MC is a rapist and the story is trying to justify him and get the reader on their side, or the one where the MC refuses to 'bed' a woman who looks slightly underage but does 'bed' a girl he knows to be 10 years old and the story portrays it as a good thing).

or

3. Makes me think the author is insulting the reader's intelligence.

Writing that's awful but seems to be unintentionally awful only gets a 2.

I genuinely wish we could rate some series a 0.

I'm a jack of all trades but master of none. Too many jars and not enough hands.

it was Boys over Flowers they answered this a long time ago

Very rarely do I rate something a 1 out of 10.

In most cases, even if something isn't very good, I can still find some kind of redeeming quality about it which will at least boost it to a rating of 2 or 3... possibly even 4. Be it the art, or the writing, or even just a specific character.

However, a few years ago, I noticed that I didn't have any manga rated 1/10. I deemed to remedy this, and so I started a forum thread asking users to suggest the absolute worst manga they've ever read. I read them as the suggestions were coming in, and some of them still managed to be 2/10, 3/10, etc... but I eventually managed to find one so terrible that it got the fabled 1/10 rating from me.

For anybody wondering, that manga was Dead Word Puzzle.

Visit my scanning blog: Jammin' Scans

::End of Transmission::

What a funny coincidence, I just went to MU to check if I rated Drama Queen as 1 yet.

You win, Dead world puzzle is definitely a 1