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The 3 things about ANN Reviews.

And what does 'MLA format' mean for reviews?

I've always enjoyed reading the Anime News Network reviews of anime and manga. Zac is clearly the most hilarious writer here and I've either laughed or really enjoyed each and every review he has written.

The other reviewers are fine and are quite intelligent. I much rather a review that may be "wordy" but otherwise well written, has absolutely no spelling errors and for the most part, follows MLA format than a review that constantly has tons of errors, is opinionated and doesn't follow MLA at all.

Even worse is if the reviewer doesn't even know what MLA format is. In short, I rather read reviews from elite professionals than a person that doesn't have any credentials.

I think it's perfectly fine to state your opinion on a series through a review. Then again, you have to watch who you hand the screener to. You can't have someone (like myself) review a series like, say Kanon who absolutely hates hates moe. That just wouldn't be fair. You have to give anime like that to a neutral party like Otaku USA did for Strike Witches.

Teriyaki Terrier wrote:

I've always enjoyed reading the Anime News Network reviews of anime and manga. Zac is clearly the most hilarious writer here and I've either laughed or really enjoyed each and every review he has written. The other reviewers are fine and are quite intelligent. I much rather a review that may be "wordy" but otherwise well written, has absolutely no spelling errors and for the most part, follows MLA format than a review that constantly has tons of errors, is opinionated and doesn't follow MLA at all. Even worse is if the reviewer doesn't even know what MLA format is. In short, I rather read reviews from elite professionals than a person that doesn't have any credentials.

Not to be picky, but I find it hilarious that you made multiple errors in a post calling for "absolutely no spelling errors".

- abunai

I think it's perfectly fine to state your opinion on a series through a review.

You can't have someone (like myself) review a series like, say Kanon who absolutely hates hates moe. That just wouldn't be fair.

To me it is a slippery slope if you start putting personal opinions in a review then you start getting into the grey areas and then it becomes "Well it his show bad because it is bad, or is a show bad because said reviewer thinks it's bad."

Quote:

To me it is a slippery slope if you start putting personal opinions in a review then you start getting into the grey areas and then it becomes "Well it his show bad because it is bad, or is a show bad because said reviewer thinks it's bad."

You know what you have when you take personal opinion out of a review? A plot synopsis. And if I wanted to read a plot synopsis I'd go to the encyclopedia.

Go ahead, write a review without your opinion in it. You'll be staring at a blank page for a while.

Quote:

To me it is a slippery slope if you start putting personal opinions in a review then you start getting into the grey areas and then it becomes "Well it his show bad because it is bad, or is a show bad because said reviewer thinks it's bad."

You know what you have when you take personal opinion out of a review? A plot synopsis. And if I wanted to read a plot synopsis I'd go to the encyclopedia.

Go ahead, write a review without your opinion in it. You'll be staring at a blank page for a while.

The King of Harts wrote:

Quote: To me it is a slippery slope if you start putting personal opinions in a review then you start getting into the grey areas and then it becomes "Well it his show bad because it is bad, or is a show bad because said reviewer thinks it's bad." You know what you have when you take personal opinion out of a review? A plot synopsis. And if I wanted to read a plot synopsis I'd go to the encyclopedia. Go ahead, write a review without your opinion in it. You'll be staring at a blank page for a while.

It's the way the opinions come across in the review is what I meant. If someone writes a review from the third person perspective then the opinions while there don't stand out as much compared to where someone would write it from a first person perspective where the opinion are easier to point out.

You mean where opinions are stated as fact instead of "I think...?" It's true if a reviewer is saying something like "Personally, I think that such and such is slow to get started and doesn't go anywhere" and so on, it doesn't sound as persuasive, since the point of a review is to persuade the reader to either watch it or stay away. But regardless, anyone should know that the review is the persons opinion unless it's obvious it's just a PR statement or a paid review.

DragonsRevenge wrote:

You mean where opinions are stated as fact instead of "I think...?" It's true if a reviewer is saying something like "Personally, I think that such and such is slow to get started and doesn't go anywhere" and so on, it doesn't sound as persuasive, since the point of a review is to persuade the reader to either watch it or stay away. But regardless, anyone should know that the review is the persons opinion unless it's obvious it's just a PR statement or a paid review.

This is my last post on this since I'm beating a dead house.

In an earlier post about this so below is what I posted.

Also I see it that it can bring down the "power" of the review and the reviewer. What I mean by this is that if someone would say for example "I feel the shows quality drops around..." I would see it as well this is just their personal opinion and take them and the review with grain of salt. Now if a review would say something like "The overall quality of the series drops at or around..." that would come off stronger because while yes it still personal opinion it doesn't come off sounding like it is, and thus the review to me sounds

stronger.

On that note, Mike Toole (Anime Jump Show, his new column here) did a hilarious and I mean hilarious review of Kannon years ago. I can't tell if he hates moe (which I can understand to be honest), but none the less, was hilarious, but was well done though.