Going right from Zeta Gundam to the sequel (ZZ/Double Zeta) breaks my brain, even though I know it’s coming. Zeta is played very straight and gets grim towards the end. The tone of ZZ eventually evens out a bit but those first dozen or so episodes of Ragtag Band Of War Orphans Clowning On Every Adult is like a mallet to the nads.

Yazan should not be comic relief. 😤

Last two shows I watched were Anohana and Kaiji S2. And now I’m rewatching Azumanga Daioh without subs as listening practice.

Three very different shows, but I’ve never really thought about whiplash that way. I’m just done one show and onto the next.

Overlord is amazing, but definitely a very different vibe from Apothecary Diaries, despite being in the same fantasy genre.

I think I would say this happened to me once when I went from watching Coffin Princess Chaika to Skeleton Knight in Another World.

Like your experience, Chaika and Skeleton Knight are both fantasy themed anime, but boy was the beginning of EP1 of Skeleton Knight uncomfortable. I mean, it was like that on purpose, and it obviously achieved what it was trying to accomplish, but I think that that type of opening would have been better if they showed a whole lot less than they did (which was still basically nothing, by the way). Goblin Slayer had a shocking opening, but it gave a good reason to the viewer why goblins would be hated, and made goblins a justifiably evil villain for the show. Skeleton Knight on the other hand, could probably have gone without the opening and would have been fine as the rest of the show doesn’t ever really match that intensity.

Chaika was a mostly fun show, with an easy to follow plot. Skeleton Knight, while also easy to follow and a mostly fun plot, had massive whiplash from its opening episode, at least IMO. I am not a thin-skinned person, and while I don’t necessarily feel good or comfortable with certain onscreen actions, I do think that they can be used to enhance a story, depending on context and presentation. But in Skeleton Knight, it didnt really add anything, it just left me wondering for the rest of the entire show “why did they chcoose to open the show like that, was that a shock style marketing attempt?”

The recent Fugukan. One episode of (highly predictable) grimdark followed by (highly predictable) wall-to-wall harem fluff, and even on the rare occasions when it got marginally serious again, it was never on the level of the first episode.

Pretty bad show, even by the standards of forgettable fantasy light novel adaptations. If you haven’t seen it, don’t bother.

I went from Train to the end of the world to Akudama drive that whiplash hit like a fucking train no pun intended. Good experience tho honestly I just roll with the punches. I try to ease out of one vibe into another but sometimes honestly I want the whiplash.

Its like hitting the brakes on a rollercoaster.

One of the more memorable ones recently was last season going from watching Medalist, a sweet and wholesome show about a figure skater, to The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really Really, REALLY Love You which is probably the horniest show I’ve ever seen.

Right now I’m going back and forth between Yakitate!! Japan, a very goofy and happy-go-lucky show about a young baker, and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam which is mainly watching people die in space and elsewhere. I think they each make for a good break from the other.

This happened to me just this past week. My wife and I finished season 7 of Natsume’s Book of Friends and the final two episodes are so dramatically different from each other. They are both excellent, probably some of my favorite episodes from the whole series. One is a heartbreaking tragedy and the other is very touching and optimistic. It’s an anthology show, so it’s not crazy for this to happen, but it’s just the first thing that popped into my head seeing this question.