Shoutout to the anime fan who showed me the 3 episode rule trick last week

I was at a local meetup in Portland last Saturday. This guy overheard me complaining about dropping shows too early. He told me to watch exactly 3 episodes of any new anime before deciding. No exceptions even if the first one is boring. I tried it with a show I hated after episode 2 called 'Orbital Kids' or something. By episode 3 the story actually hooked me. Now I'm binging it every night after work. Has anyone else had a show flip completely after giving it that third episode chance?

2 comments

2 Comments

maryadams17d ago

Oh man, I totally felt the same way before but now I'm a full convert! I had this show called 'Stellar Drift' that I almost dropped after episode 1 because the animation was rough and the main character annoyed me. My friend begged me to try three episodes and by the end of episode 3 I was literally crying during a scene about the guy's dead sister. I've also had the opposite happen where a show was amazing for two episodes and then just fizzled out completely by episode 5. The three episode rule isn't perfect but it saved me from missing out on some real gems that just needed a little time to find their footing.

the_wendy18d ago

I have to say I am a bit skeptical of this "3 episode rule" thing. I mean, a show is either good or it isn't, and forcing yourself to sit through two boring episodes just to get to a third one that might be better seems like a lot of time wasted. Plenty of shows start strong and then fall apart after episode three anyway. I get that some stories need time to set up the world and characters, but I have also dropped shows after eight or nine episodes because they never got better. One or two episodes should be enough to know if the vibe is right for you.