When an anime series leans too hard into the comedic aspects, it can upset the balance.

Comedy has its place in anime, even shows that are not humor-driven. It breaks up tension and allows the viewers a moment to breathe. Moments of levity across drama or action anime can definitely work. However, there are instances when the comedy is just too much – not adding to the show's value, while taking away time from the anime's core strengths.

RELATED: 10 Terrible Comedy Anime Fans Grew To Love

Instead of being a playful break from the show's norm, the comedy can become an obnoxious and unfunny element. There are many series where the humor is at odds with the rest of the content. While this does not necessarily determine how the audience will feel about an anime once done, it can still leave an impact.

It is painfully tragic that Beast Player Erin has a noticeable flaw. Its handling of drama, character writing, political infighting, and moral themes are outstanding, but it cannot do comedy properly. The show presents harrowing and traumatic events, then follows them up with fart jokes and terrible comedic relief characters.

The issue is that the show does need levity to stabilize itself. Erin is a child that watches her mother's unjust execution. That is heavy. It is just a shame that the comedy it gets is so bland and constant. The humor of the show needs to meet the level of quality that as its drama.

Air Gear is high-octane shonen action mixed with Jet Set Radio attitude. Rollerblading across urban streets while also adding superpowers sounds like a fun combo. While the show has potential, a few issues hold it back. The most obvious is an inability to match the manga's level of art and intensity. Scenes that are explosive in the manga feel stiff in the anime.

Another grievance is its reliability on cheap humor and fan service. While there are gags that work, most of the time, they fall flat. They take away from any of the coolness the show has. They are too silly to go along with the daredevil nature of the anime.

Katanagatari episodes run for 40 minutes, complete with character backgrounds, motivations, action, and banter. As this is a series by writer Nisio Isin, the dialogue goes on forever. Often, characters conversing would take up most of the episode. However, the conversation in Katanagatari is meaningful, stuffed with foreshadowing, and engaging.

It is the gags that push viewer engagement to its limits. While some jokes are impactful and funny, others eat up too much time. Moreover, the gags are elaborated on past the point of being cute. The show is already long, and moments like these make it feel endless.

A classic '90s shojo manga received an adaptation from the legendary studio Gainax. It was not surprising that the product was good. It was fun and charming. However, it was not faithful to the manga's core. Instead, it prioritized humor over serious romance.

RELATED: Top 10 Anime Adaptations That Didn't Understand The Original

This created conflict between the production staff and the manga creator, Masami Tsuda. She did not believe that the anime understood the heart of the manga. It created a different way to view the series. While it was enjoyable on its own, it could be said that the humor was excessive and diluted the content.

There are so many things to love about Honey & Clover. Its depiction of college anxiety is earnest, its characters are nuanced and vulnerable, its color pallet is soft and warm, and the romance is cathartic. All these factors make the show a delight to watch.

On the flip side, its comedy is one-note. Often, it is just the main cast drinking and screaming at each other, with Morita being the focal point. It happens far too often, taking away from the emotional impact of the other scenes. The anime would drastically improve if the humor was not always so loud.

The first season of Full Metal Panic! suffered an identity crisis. It did not know if it wanted to be a school life comedy or a serious dramatic mecha anime. Its premise allowed for two scenarios, but instead of deciding on one, it tried to do both. Together, the two halves of the show kept clashing. Chidori's exasperation with Sousuke's antics would be paired with the genuine fear of a high school girl thrust into covert international warfare.

The franchise found a clever remedy for this issue. The following seasons divided the show in half. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu was a pure comedy, while Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid was a military mecha drama.

Comedy is not the main draw of Hajime no Ippo. The show excels during the intense boxing matches and the tension leading up to each fight. Unfortunately, the humor feels like filler. It is slotted in to pad the time between fights. While the gags can be good, they are knowingly crass and overstay their welcome.

The anime already has multiple seasons with so much unadapted content waiting. The humor is nowhere near good enough to justify increasing the show's runtime. Its inclusion indicates cliché shonen writing, which is a shame because the rest of the show is exhilarating.

How Fire Force employs its comedy is highly distracting. It sets up the joke, delivers the punchline, then lingers to point out the obvious. This is not unique to the show. Lesser comedic anime have bad habits that involve explaining the gag and acknowledging the joke was not funny.

RELATED: Fire Force: All Members Of Company Eight, Ranked By Strength

The real issue with Fire Force is the gags happen far too often. They get tiring and risk making the audience groan. The anime is most fun when it focuses on the action and the insanity. The fights are dynamic and engaging, unlike the jokes.

The first season of Medaka Box was a slice-of-life comedy set in high school. It was notoriously dull to sit through. Medaka as a perfect girl, did create enough funny situations to carry the weight of the anime. If the show stayed that way, it would have just been a forgettable comedy show.

It switches gears near the end of the season, pivoting to a shonen action. This turned out to be a much better fit for the show. Medaka's perfection becomes a focal point of the show's power scaling instead of the subject of a lukewarm comedy that had overstayed its stay.

Demon Slayer is a beloved shonen anime with some of the best animated fights of the decade. Nezuko is adorable and ferocious, the character designs are fantastic, and the animation is smooth and fluid. However, there is just one aspect to it that is divisive for so many people. Its comedy, specifically Zenitsu's personality, is unbearably obnoxious.

It is relentless screaming and ranting from Zenitsu, especially when it involves women. It sometimes gets pretty uncomfortable, and it happens enough that it can ruin the mood of the episode. Inosuke is also pretty loud, so his comedic bits add to the maelstrom of noise.

NEXT: 15 Comedy Anime To Watch Right Now

A Quezon City native, Dave Carl Cutler is an aspiring writer and devout hobbyist. Having graduated from the University of the Philippines Mindanao with a major in Creative Writing, he's written and edited articles for the university's academic science journal. All that said, his heart lies with anime, manga, and movies.

Subscribe to the CBR newsletter for exclusive comics, TV & movie news, reviews, interviews & much more!