What anime universe or franchise is actually the biggest/most confusing? (2025)

~AnimeDownUnder~

BerriesSan

toaru verse is a mixture of all these sorta complexities while still telling one story tbh. with everything being intended and not because "hey we can make a new show that doesnt affect anything in the main story just carry out an isolated series and still call it same universe." so in a way, thats the good type of complexity.

its actually only in toaru that i felt confused about the watch order because i didnt wanna actively affect the experience of the immediate next szn badly

nasuverse complexity comes more from the systems being all over the place and not inherently making any sense, but i feel thats as equivalent of saying that its dumb as saying its complex

but overall i was more confused watching nasu shit, but then i read into everything, and also consumed a good amount of nasu shit, (trust me, more than mpst fate fans) and came to a conclusion it makes no sense cuz its stupid

monogatari order isnt complicated, the series style is just a little unconventional

Forain

I apologize for my mistakes, because it's not my native language.

Theo1899

MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST

Kisaragi_Toka

justmaya

Anyway, honestly, I’m interested in Fate/Grand Order, but I keep telling myself not to play the game because I might get addicted.

It’s already hard enough with Genshin Impact.

tchitchouan

Zarutaku

AnimeDownUnder

AnimeDownUnder

AnimeDownUnder

Commit_Crime

kizumi91

Serafos

One Piece.

LoveYourSmile

Fate is also quite chunky, but it simply doesn't appeal me, so I have no strong opinion of its structure.

Monogatari... well, even the list of search results makes me itch.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Guilmon1

Digimon while not confusing to watch, trying to understand the connections between universes is a little confusing

I heard monogatory is very confusing, and in opposition to gundam everything is the same storyline

BerriesSan

but its rather simple from a viewer's pov if you were to not dig deep super into this b4 watching the series.
if u were to pick any order u see in the fandom, u would not be at a loss since the stories that majorly affect each other tend to be grouped into seasons. most of the time. it wouldnt be tough to understand in any way i feel.

alshu

AlShu's recommendations Interest Stacks

AnimeDownUnder

Technically Fate zero (pt 1) > fate stay ubw (pt 2) > heavens feel (pt 3) .... It's all 1 continuous story just think about it as parts and zero being the first part, stay night continues from the end of zero and heavens feel continues from the end of stay night

AnimeDownUnder

Linsette

If you're good at history maybe it will be easier to understand Fate.

aReviewer

FZREMAKE

Felkyr

DesuMaiden

animegamer245

CaptainKenshiro

Gundam and Monogatari are kinda hard to get because the prequels, sequels and spinoffs of the original entry don't have very intuitive names, so you have to find the first one and follow the release order to not get lost.

The alternative Gundam universes kinda have the same issue but not in the same level.

And Fate has clear continuity between connected prequels and sequels. Just like with Gundam, you just have to know that most of its entries are alternative universes, so you can skip a lot of its content.

Then there are the "verses" which some authors tend to do, Ozamu Tezuka, Leiji Matsumoto, CLAMP. If you intend to get into them like the extended DC or Marvel universes, you will inevitably get lost, but if you just stick to one franchise of them, you should be fine.

CaptainKenshiro

Syrian187

Now as to Fate itself I also used to hold the same opinion back when I first saw w/e the first Grand Order ova that came out without any idea of what it was. Since the original Stay/Night made plenty of sense and is completely coherent I had expectations of the same and was obviously thrown for a loop when I had no idea what was going on(same would happen with apocrypha(dropped at 2 eps) and having different writers as I would come to learn probably doesn't help). I also had wondered why there was skimpy dressed Rin under a different name when I saw babylonia and dropped it after like 2 episodes. Also the whole "characters look alike" thing is legit a thing in every single anime and especially when their are multiple works by a single artist/writer/mangaka. Hell bocchi the rock people love it but those characters not only have the same face but legit are the same exact height on some K-on level. Anything done by Fairy Tails mangaka and anything done by Tatsuki Fujimoto(Sayonara Eri legit has Reze, Makima, and Kishibe face). List could go on and on but you get the point.

But for all the saber faces that may exist they don't exist in multiples in any of Nasus' 4 main entries(Tsukihime, Fate/stay Night, KnK, Mahoyo). I now know that Grand Order is a gacha game and that it is in fact Rin's body although I still don't really have interest in anything Fate/Go or spin-off related to fate but at least I understand now it's a waifu game which is why it has multiples of popular characters $$$. But the confines of the main work are still good in my opinion even if fate is my least favorite of the 4 main Nasu series. If you just don't bother with those which you certainly don't have to F/SN(VN or adaptations of the three routes) is its own thing and it's not confusing in the slightest.

As far as Gundam I'm not a massive fan but I do enjoy some and maybe it's because I mainly have watched the ones that exist on their own timelines but I don't find it confusing in the slightest either. Hell they are essentially the same plot and formula every time just a new cast of characters not sure what's hard to for people to grasp. I guess if I for some reason wanted to back and watch like turn-a and all the old shit maybe I might find it more convoluted but it's not like you have to in order to be able to enjoy the other entries anyways.

Monogatari also not the biggest fan but I do like some aspects but from what I have seen which admittedly is only the Kizu movies and Bake I wouldn't say I found it confusing. Just seemed to lack an actual point or any type of meaning or progression as far as a story outside of long winded waifu dialogues and moments, which seems to be its intention anyways so no problem there just I'm not the intended demographic for sure.

Answering the question is probably tough as far as most confusing, off the top I can't think of anything I specifically felt that about but as for not making a whole lot of sense certainly a few that I could probably toss in there. Biggest as far as sheer number of entries if that's what were are talking about uh yea Gundam/Fate for things that I'm familar with at least. Jojo's will eventually have even more entries as far as the anime as well so that could be up there for me too as far as size.

Lucifrost

CaptainKenshiro said:
Then there are the "verses" which some authors tend to do, Ozamu Tezuka, Leiji Matsumoto, CLAMP. If you intend to get into them like the extended DC or Marvel universes, you will inevitably get lost, but if you just stick to one franchise of them, you should be fine.

その目だれの目？

HellindiuM

I agree on the Gundam series.

I disagree on One Piece. Its just has a lot of characters and even though there are many story lines during an arc they are usually resolved within the arc and outside the arc the overarching story is not too confusing. It is just very long and I feel the vastness of the world and the myriad of characters can be hard to remember which is not the same as confusion.

Confusing anime in terms of symbolism for me would be:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Serial Experiments Lain
Kyousougiga (Lot of Japanese cultural knowledge is required)
Ergo Proxy (I watched a video where someone explained everything, hit me like a truck but it was hard to understand when watching)
Sonny Boy

SPTLayzner

Guilmon1

AnimeDownUnder

aReviewer

It's impossible to get lost with Tezuka since none of the stories connect to each other. They merely reuse character designs.
Leiji anime should also be watched as if they are standalone because they all contradict each other.

Tezuka presented his works as “plays in which the characters appeared as actors.” He employed the so-called “star system.” Characters seen in one work appear in supporting roles in another.
This appearance was not random. The choice was often accompanied by a reason. Tezuka himself rarely explained the reasons outside his works, which later provided researchers with a tough challenge. Or it could be said that this was one of the driving forces behind serious manga research.
What is this if not a “Universe”?

It is expected that the speed of expansion of the worlds depicted by Gundam or Nasu Kinoko, backed by enormous commercial thrust, will eventually overtake the world of the late Tezuka. But at present, it is still limited to the accumulation of setting data.
In the accumulation of research and verification based on academic formula, it is estimated to still take decades to catch up with the exploration of the Tezuka universe.

Lucifrost

aReviewer said:
Tezuka presented his works as “plays in which the characters appeared as actors.” He employed the so-called “star system.” Characters seen in one work appear in supporting roles in another.

その目だれの目？