Forum - View topicHow you rate 'My Anime'
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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I used to be pretty frivolous with how much I used the masterpiece and worst ever ratings in "MyAnime" but I've since gone back and re-thought my rating system and I've become much more stricter about what I give those ratings to. For me to give an anime a masterpiece rating, it has to meet several different requirements first. It has to have either an original plot or put a unique spin on a previous concept. The main characters must all have original likeable personalities or they must be developed creatively. I don't care so much if the minor characters aren't as unique or fully developed because they're supposed to have minor roles anyway, but I at least expect the major characters to offer a different experience from the characters that have come before them. There's just far too many Shounen Jump anime titles with the "I want to be stronger!" genki heroes or the ditzy magical girls with no atheltic sense who suddenly become expert fighters when they transform around. True anime masterpieces have to break some sort of new grounds with its stories and characters that previous anime series haven't done before.
The series must also have an even amount of pacing. The plot can't be too dragging but at the same time it can't be too rushed, either. Having unexpected plot twists isn't neccessarily a requirment as long as the execution is handled well, but an anime certainly will get extra brownie points for having plot twists. The animation must be of high quality. I don't expect it to be perfect since anime doesn't have the most flawless animation anyway, but I do expect there to be a sense of consistency and uniquness to the animation style and character designs. The studios can't take too many shortcuts with the animation, there can't be so many stactic background images or recycled footage, if the title is mostly 2-D animation with some random 3-D animation thrown in, the 3-D animation has to be able to blend in perfectly with the 2-D animation, and there can't be any animation errors that're so obvious that it distracts you from enjoying the title. I tend to be more forgiving with bad animation when it comes to older anime titles due to a lack of advanced technology and different animation style preferences of that particular era, but I judge the animation much more harshley with newer anime. Likewise, the music must also be of a high quality. It has to fit the scenes perfectly and be able to convey the emotions of that moment clearly enough for the viewer to understand the feeling of the moment. The music can't have too many genric tunes or be repeative BGM tracks. Having catchy theme songs isn't a requirement, but an anime will definetly get more brownie points if it has unique theme songs that get the viewer exicited about watching the anime. Once again, older anime will have their soundtracks forgiven much more easily but newer anime will have their soundtracks judged much more harshley. The ending to the anime must have a sense of conclusion. Not all of all the plotlines neccessarily need to be resolved (I actually sort of prefer an anime to have a couple of plotholes here and there as it makes things more interesting), but all of the main storylines at least should be wrapped up by the end. Of course, it goes without saying that the anime must also be enjoyable. It has to invoke some sort of emotion from the viewer. It can make you cry, it can make you laugh, it can make you yell at the TV when one of your favorite characters dies or any combination of these or other emotions, but it has to make you feel some sort of emotion (an emotion other than annoyance, obviously). Finally, I think the anime has to have some sort of impact on the anime community. I don't think a masterpiece can just be any good show but it has to be something that contributes to anime as a whole. Like by revolutinizing a genre or being a milestone in anime history etc. For example, FMA is my all time favorite anime and it meets practically all of the requirements I listed above, but I only gave it an Excellent rating because despite the show's popularity with anime fans, it hasn't really established itself as an important milestone in anime history. On the other hand, Spirited Away not only meets the above requirements, but it's also played an important part in anime history as a milestone film for being the first anime movie to win an Oscar and by becoming the highest rated film in Japan, so I gave it a masterpiece rating. To me a masterpiece can't be just any great anime. It has to have a sense of importance to it. As for the worst ever rating, I rarely ever use it if at all. There's some anime I've rated weak and not really good but I haven't used the worst ever rating yet since I've revised my rating method. For me to give an anime a worst ever rating, it has to be so bad that I can't imagine how anyone could possibly like it, but I always try to find something about a certain title that explains why other people might enjoy it just because I didn't. I easily could have given anime like DBZ or Pokemon a worst ever rating and nobody would've cared but I only gave DBZ a weak rating and Pokemon so-so because even though I don't care for those shows anymore like I used to, I can still understand why those series became as popular as they are, so I tried to be fair and understanding with my judgements instead of giving it a worst ever rating just because I didn't like it. |
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Bubblegum19e
 Posts: 25 |
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I rate anime on how they make me feel. If It makes me cry it's certainly going to get a masterpiece rating. If it's fun to watch and is very entertaining then more than likely its going to get an decent to very good rating. Making tears isn't the only way to earn a masterpiece rating, just an example.
It all depends on how I feel after the credits stop rolling. If I have to go to a forum and discuss it or can't stop thinking about, there's a clue that the anime did its job, and the excellent rating that follows. |
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undeadben
 Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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Kouji, it sure seems like you do an awful lot of thinking when it come to anime. I mean overall it is a simple enough rating system to use, but you have to step outside and look at the whole picture a bit more. You are one of the few people that rates objectively first, and that alone is interesting. You are the second person to post here, who admittedly does not rate their favorite series a masterpiece, and again, I can definitely understand where you’re coming from, even though this is not something I can not do.
I was looking though your list (I hope you don’t mind, you didn’t link to it), and I was a bit surprised at first. No offence meant, really, but reading your post I expected something different. However, when I look at your seen all as a whole, it really makes sense. You have an unusually wide range of tastes. It seems you like everything from fighting shounen to magical girl shoujo, everything in between and then some (I’d like to see you shopping online with a no limit credit card, that’d be a very interesting cart). This tells me you are very open-minded which explains how you can step outside of the subjective self-serving box to objectively and fairly rate your anime. Nice list and nice system. (And you write very well, you should add comments to your anime, if you ever get time.) One thing that caught my attention on your list quickly was the masterpiece rating for Cardcaptor Sakura. The reason it got my attention is that I just bought both box sets last week and put an anime I was watching (Bleach) on hold so I can watch this series through. I used to enjoy it when it was on Saturday mornings and was very sad when my sister stopped watching it and I didn’t have an excuse to watch it anymore. Now that I am not so self-conscious I picked this up so I can finally see the whole thing through. So I’m watching now, and I am loving it even more than I did when I caught it on tv, and I even though I don’t remember a lot about the series while watching it I do believe I’m catching a lot of things that were edited out for tv, plus the sub version is much better. Anyway, sorry about the tangent there, my point is that I had given this a ‘good’ rating just on remembering that I enjoyed watching this show on tv. Now that I am seeing this show and actually able to really pay attention to it, I was thinking that if I like it all the way through and it has a good ending my rating might go at least a couple places higher than good; and then here I see a public list with it rated masterpiece. Ok so that was my rambling story about looking at your list and seeing your rating for CS. Oh, and a question if you have time to answer, would you have, or did you, rate CC a masterpiece with your previous method? Many thanks again to everyone who has posted so far. |
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Well, I cut my rating in to 5 sections.
1) Story - This is the most important one for me, hence why I put it first. It encompasses not only the stories interest, depth and complexity but also how well the story flows. You can have the best animation and sound and acting in the world, but if the story isn't worth viewing then the whole thing falls apart. Advent Children is my shining example of this, such great production values but a horribly disappointing story which all but killed the series rating for me. 2) Characters - This is second in importance to me and generally encompasses character depth and development and their appeal and diversity. A great cast can make a great anime even better or can even lift a mediocre title a little higher. Where as a wretched cast can drag a series down and I often use Eva as my best example of characters gone wrong. 3) Video - This is no longer in any particular order, audio and video to me are of equal importance. Video pretty much encompasses the art quality, such as backgrounds and character designs, as well as the quality of the animation. Video doesn't really define an anime for me, ultimately I enjoy better quality more of course but it will not make or break the title for me if there are other aspects of the title that make up for it. Best example of this is Haibane Renmei which didn't have the best animation, but had great artwork and terrific audio, characters and story which more than made up for its animation shortcomings. 4) Audio - Audio is pretty much what you expect, the voice acting and the soundtrack. I'll praise a great actor or shoot down one I felt didn't perform that well. Usually comment on the quality of the music as well as great atmospheric music can really add to the overall effect and Haibane Renmei is again my example in that case. 5) Overall - This is basically the rundown of the how I put all my previous thoughts together to arrive at the conclusion I did and to toss in any other factors that influenced why I felt the way I did that didn't really fit in the previous sections. With titles I'm still in the process of viewing I simply fill in one field titled "So Far" and give my thoughts on the series so far but I hold my full thoughts on a series until I've either seen it all or given up on it. For titles I've stopped watching I simply fill in the same fields as I do for titles I've seen in their entirety and also add in a "Seen" section to show how much of it I actually did watch. And for titles I wish to see I simply do a "Why" and explain why they made that list. Of course, I make no claims on doing professional reviews. I simply use the comments section to explain why I rated the series the way I did and I make no claim that they are in any way a professional review. Ultimately it's all my opinion and simply the reasons why I think the way I do, it's not my attempt at stating fact, just an explanation of my personal opinion and it is bias as such. |
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IvoryBirch
 Posts: 137 Location: a distant northern land |
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Heh, I'm probably fairly "untrustworthy," given the fact that I'm very lenient with my ratings. I think the worst rating I've given is Weak. Out of curiousity, is the trustworthiness based on both your anime and manga ratings? The ratings for my manga are a lot more varied, since I'm really a manga reader who watches the occasional anime (this seems to be the opposite of most people on here). Currently my anime section is pretty pathetic. Anyhow, one reason that most of my ratings tend to be at least "Decent" is because I try to only rate series of which I've read/seen all (or all that has been released so far). I occasionally rate other titles, but I've usually read/seen around half before rating them. So, because I usually only continue with titles that I've liked from the get-go, most of my ratings are fairly high.
I make my ratings on a variety of factors, and the importance of these factors changes depending on the series. The main question I ask myself is, "Does this series/movie/one-shot accomplish what it sets out to do?" For instance, if a title aims for pure entertainment, and I am entertained, then it accomplishes this. Other titles are made for the purpose of challenging the viewer/reader intellectually, others pull at the heartstrings, and some are pure eye candy. I consider the creator's intentions, and judge the title accordingly. Aside from this, I consider the depth of the characters and their relatioinships very important, followed by my enjoyment of the story/plot. Artwork/animation plays a role, but it doesn't greatly affect my rating. If a title has amazing visuals, then that's certainly a plus, but I usually don't hold weaker art against a series (unless it's so horrid that I can't even look at it, in which case I probably wouldn't be able to watch it in the first place). |
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Kouji
Posts: 978 |
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Fiction Alchemist
Posts: 438 |
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Abunai, your list is really freaking good, if you ask me. Taste is relative, but I think you have good taste, dude.
Additionally, your post on trustworthiness is very helpful. My list: animenewsnetwork.com/MyAnime/?user=Fiction+Alchemist&categ=0 I don't have any specific genres I appreciate more than others. If I enjoy something enough, I rate it high (Masterpiece to So-so). If I don't enjoy it enough, then it gets "Not really good" or lower. I compare anime to each other in the scores, but I'm always sure to readjust the scores to insure I don't rate something I like too low. This is how I've come to accept "So-so" as a POSITIVE score. First: I want to feel emotionally involved. I cry during every episode of Trigun, for example... So, I'm a sissy. Whatever. If I cry (Trigun, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gungrave, Air), get angry at a character's actions (R.O.D The TV, Last Exile), or SQUEAL IN FREAKING JOY over something cute and/or funny a character did (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Aishiteruze Baby), then I'm pretty involved emotionally. Sometimes, I even feel a bit sick because I'm actually HURTING for a character onscreen. Last Exile, for example; I hurt for spoiler[Dio through all of the last episodes.] 
Second: I don't like for my suspension of disbelief to become... suspended. I'm a very open-minded guy. I see absolutely no problem with the typical reality and physics bending things anime does. Therefore, when I start thinking "That can't happen", you know something is wrong. For example, in Dragon Ball Z, when Freeza spoiler[ blew up Planet Namek with one shot, yet can't do the same to Goku. This was followed by the LONGEST FIVE MINUTES EVER.] I hate that crap. Third: I expect the characters to be in the center. I want the characters to be in command of the story flow, and for everything to unfold around them, rather than the other way around. If the characters aren't struggling with something, and are just bouncing around and into different situations (like in Pokemon), then it isn't worth my time. I also would like characters that are: actually IMPORTANT to the story, and aren't one or two dimensional archetypes. The exception to the former rule would include characters good that I'm glad they're in, even if they're expendable .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet failed BOTH of those rules and the exception as well. Fourth: I'm a writer, and I expect some work to go into plot and pacing, usually. I was DISGUSTED with how .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet handled plot and pacing. Exceptions are made for really fun shows that aren't driven by a continuous plot (Cowboy Bebop and Aishiteruze Baby, for example). I also like and appreciate coherence, though I'm bendable for the sake of weirdness ("Blame!" still fails, though). Fifth: I favor character designs I can at least tolerate. One Piece has some goofy designs, but I'm fine with those (an anime doesn't have to look like a traditional anime for me to like it). I hate the Gash/Zatch Bell character designs. All of them. They're caught somewhere between anime traditional appearance and a cartoony look, and it just doesn't work for me at all. I guess that's all. I hope I didn't offend any Legend of the Twilight fans here... Last edited by Fiction Alchemist on Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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beezis
 Posts: 76 Location: BC Canada Eh? |
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animenewsnetwork.com/MyAnime/index.php?user=beezis&categ=3 Small list I know but I really could care less to rate everything I've seen.
Personally (since that's what this all is) I like to look at myself as generally a generous but still strict rater. I will throw an Excellent (11/39 finished) rating out there if I really like the show but so far only two have ever cracked my Masterpiece list. (Millenium Actressand Last Exile) I rarely rate something below so-so if I finish the series at all otherwise I just giveup watching it and don't rate the anime because it didn't grab my attention enough. The way I rate an anime differs from time to time. Occasionally I will divide an anime into catagories (art, music, plot, characters and enjoyability) and give ratings from there to get an actual value for how well I perceived the anime to be. Recently I have been rating anime based on how much it grabs me and draws me into watching another episode regardless of its faults. |
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beast
 Posts: 102 Location: High Ground |
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Yeah, it's just that there have been a couple of very good/excellent anime that had a bit of a disappointing ending or weaker final episodes which could have been excellent/masterpieces respectively. And it just kinda feel awkward to rate them as high as shows or movies which I enjoyed to the fullest. The choice of these percentages is arbitrary (I'm not good at maths either  ), I just want to emphasize how crucial the last episodes (or, for a film, minutes) are to me.
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Atenias
 Posts: 6 Location: Amsterdam |
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Here is how I rate anime, not in specifique order:
1. The Overall Story The story should be somewhat realistic. Anime is often about fantasies and fantasy worlds, which make it fun. With realistic, I mean something as: the hero character get attacked all the time by villians, but never ever get even one little, tiny, mini, microscopic scratch, even when he fights against the final boss. Each anime should have more then 1 genre. For example: a horror movie with only blood isn't fun, there should be comedic elements in it or something like that. And there should be a proper ending, it's ok to leave questionmarks to the crowd, but not too much. And they shouldn't put the whole summary in the final episode, that's too much. 2. Drawing Style Since animeseries lasts for weeks, it would be nice if it was drawed at least good, proper. The colors, style, etc. should be acceptable, even if the story is good. 3. Voice Acting Very important: a boy-child shouldn't be voiced by an adult male. 4. Background Music Good BG music makes the story more exciting, romantic and whatsoever. Without good BG music, I become bored very soon. 5. Character Development The longer a series, the more character develops. It isn't fun if the characters stays the same as episode 1. If it stays the same, then it would be unneccesary too watch all the episodes. Characters develop, but it should stay realistic. A character who has always been stingy for 50 years, wouldn't change in 1 night in a good person (Christmas Carol???) 6. Characters This is different from point 5. There should be a lot of different characters in anime. Each of them a different personality and look, so that at least one of the anime-character is just like yourself, or someone we know. |
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cardcaptormanda
 Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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My Anime
I think carefully before rating, and I do consider a lot of factors, but the most important one is just how much I enjoyed it overall. Even if I know something is full of flaws, I'll give it a high-ish rating if I liked it. Likewise, even if I know a show has a lot of great qualities, if I didn't personally enjoy it, it won't get a high rating. I'm really stingy with Excellent and Masterpiece, and equally cautious about anything lower than Not Really Good. For me, it's generally something like: Bad, Awful, and Worst Ever - I almost never use these ratings. These three are reserved for series that have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Nothing is good about them, and everything would need to be either changed or improved substantially before they were watchable. Very few anime are actually this bad. Weak - A Weak title is something that makes me think, "Why did they even bother making this?" It's probably full of things that made me hate it, and its only positives are probably on the technical side (animation, acting, etc), or it had some other small thing that keeps it away from the next level down. Not Really Good - I probably really struggled to get through something I rated Not Really Good. Lots of flaws, and very few redeeming qualities. A waste of time, and something I would under no circumstances recommend to anyone. So-so - I feel like I wasted my time. I might not say I hate this series, but I dislike it quite a bit. I would almost definitely not recommend this to someone, unless they were looking for something just like it. If someone said, "Hey, I'm looking for a series with a woman who reloads her gun with her breasts! Wouldn't that be cool? Do you know anything like that?" Then I'd say, "I know the perfect series for you!" But otherwise, a So-so series is something I'm likely to actively discourage someone from watching. Decent - I didn't really waste my time watching it, but if I had skipped it, I wouldn't have really been missing out on much either. I would only recommend a Decent title to someone who I knew would enjoy it (if it had something I knew they particularly liked), and in conversation, I would probably say it was "Ok." Probably forgettable for the most part though, and had pros and cons in pretty equal levels. Good - I would recommend this to the average anime fan, unless I knew for a fact they would dislike it (it contains elements I'm aware they happen to hate). If asked if I liked it, I would say, "It was pretty good." If something makes it to "Good" then it truly has to have been worth watching. I generally enjoyed watching it, and would have been kind of missing out had I not watched it. Probably has some small to medium sized flaws that kept it from being "Very Good." Very Good - Basically, this is something that was "Good" but had an extra something that made me enjoy it more. I would have missed out on something great had I skipped it. I would recommend this to any anime fan, and even some non-fans. May have some flaws, but the pros far outweigh the cons. Excellent - It's hard to describe why I would rate something Excellent. After watching the last episode, I probably sat back and thought, "Wow…that was great!" and actually felt excited about having watched it. An Excellent series may have a small flaw or two, but they either don't really detract from my enjoyment of it, or the series has so many good points that the flaws don't even matter. If asked, "Should I watch it?" my response would be a quick, "Yes! Watch it! You'll love it!" to almost anyone. Masterpiece - I feel like I discovered something wonderful, and I'm grateful that I was able to experience watching it. A Masterpiece is something I want to run out and tell everyone about. This is something I personally couldn't have enjoyed more, and can't think of anything that needed improvement or of any flaws that detracted from my enjoyment. "Perfect, in my mind." is a good way to describe it. Once in a great while, I will give something a rating perhaps a little better than I think it deserves as a whole. For example, if it had an amazingly likable cast of characters, or a really perfect ending, then I might be influenced to overlook a flaw or two that it may have had. And then there are those times when I loved something, but don't know why. I know, in theory, it wasn't that good, but I find myself impressed by it all the same. We probably all have a few of those. 
I use Decent, Good, and Very Good for almost everything, with all the other ratings being used only for anime I truly loved or truly disliked. Last edited by cardcaptormanda on Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:25 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator  Posts: 11305 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Hope you don't mind, cardcaptormanda, but I merged your thread into this one.
That aside, my method has changed since I last posted. Formerly, I had rated things based on an overall average, but I dropped it since this is all subjective anyway. Out of the 5 elements (Art, Animation, Music, Plot/Characters, and Voice Acting), Plot/Char. is most important followed by Voice Acting, then Music. I've also rearranged some of my ratings, so that little statistic I posted on page 2 might be inaccurate now. |
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cardcaptormanda
Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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Oops, I'm sorry!
 I didn't realize there was already a similar thread. I checked back a little ways, but the last post in this one was over two months ago, so I guess I just didn't see it.
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undeadben
Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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Wow, this thread came back; I thought it had been left it for dead.
cardcaptormanda, it's interesting how you actually explain why you would give each rating as opposed how I began this thread by explaining what I look at before deciding on a rating. It's even more interesting that you base your substandard ratings on how much of a waste of time you thought the anime was was or even how you might suppose it was a waste to even create the series in the first place. And, how you give the higher ratings not only based on how much you enjoyed them but also how you would praise or recommend them to others. It certainly is a different way to look at it but it probably also helps keep you from some of the subjective traps I get myself into. Actually, looking at everything else you wrote, I rate very differently from you. (If you're interested you can read the openning post to see what I look at for my anime ratings.) My main way of rating is completely subjective and it basically comes down to how much I enjoyed something. And I am very liberal with what I rate (17 Masterpieces); if I love it, I can't stop watching it, put my life on hold just to watch one more episode, it gets a Masterpiece, no matter how many flaws it may have on my other categories. Although my enjoyment of a program can be hindered by my set list of categories so it usually sort of works itself out in the end. Something that is a bit different from my original post doesn't have to do so much with rating as it does for my 'top 20' that I added as a custom category to my public lists. A show has to climb the ladder to get to a certain position. My current number 20 is Fruits Basket, so before I put a new show in my top 20, no matter how I decided to rate it, I look at it and ask myself, "Did I like it more than Fruits Basket?" If not it doesn't make my list, if it does I look at #19 next and so forth.
Yeah, I have one or two of those. I usually chalk this up to fun. Like I am watching Mahoromatic right now and this show is not the best but I just find it so darned fun that I couldn't see myself rate this below good when I finish it. |
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ManOfRust
 Posts: 1935 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Here’s my list, although I still don’t have comments on most of the titles I have seen. I suppose I should at least make an effort to get comments on the ones I have tagged as personal favorites. I guess some rainy Sunday afternoon I’ll go into a writing frenzy and get things filled out.
I enjoyed reading this topic back during its first life cycle, but never got around to posting in it, so now that it’s back I think I’ll have a go at it. I was amazed at how detailed some people’s systems are. I don’t put nearly as much conscious thought into my ratings. I suppose if I had to really explain why I did or didn’t like an anime, my explanation would include many of the things other people use to systematically rate shows, but I’m just not that organized or thorough in my ratings thought process. Like many here, I only watch a show after doing some research into it, so I think my ratings get skewed toward the higher end of the scale as I completely avoid things that don’t look interesting to me. Even so, a real clinker finds it way into my hands from time to time. The whole time I was reading cardcaptormanda’s post I was thinking, “wow, this person thinks a lot like I do!” no insult intended! I tend to approach the ratings from a similar direction, thinking about what rating category a particular title fits into, rather than the elements of the show that would lead me to assign a certain rating to it. I really like cardcaptormanda’s reasoning for each category and with just a few adjustments I could happily steal that list and claim it as my own  (don’t worry, I'll restrain myself).
One thing that I think I always have in the back of my mind when rating something is whether or not I would recommend a title, and to whom I would recommend it. While none of my friends are into anime, there are a couple of people at work who are movie buffs and are always looking for a way to expand the types of things they have seen. We trade DVDs all the time, and I have loaned them several of the anime titles I have rated “Masterpiece”. So far, they have loved each one and keep asking me for more. (hehehe. I’m slowly creating more anime addicts, one co-worker at a time.  )
It’s interesting to me, however, that although we approach rating in a similar way, that cardcaptormanda’s list and mine are quite different. I compared a few titles that we have both seen and in many cases our ratings are far apart. It would seem that while our rating thought processes are similar, our tastes vary greatly, so we have produced very different sets of ratings. I guess that observation just goes to how subjective a process this really is. Other things that the series I have rated the highest tend to all have (in no particular order): Plot: There has to be something interesting going on. Even if the story is a tried and true cliché, are they telling it in a unique or interesting way? Is the story fun to watch? Does it engage me intellectually or emotionally? Art: I guess I would lump both character design and animation into this category. Anime is in great part a visual form of entertainment, after all, so I tend to like it better if it’s attractive. That’s not to say that ugly animation can’t be used to good effect, but overall I’d like to see something beautiful. It’s especially important to me when the animation style or execution helps to enhance the overall storytelling or deepen the mood of the show. Impact: I like shows that make an emotional impact, whether it be sad, funny, introspective, or inspirational. If I don’t care about the characters or what is happening to them, I’m not going to enjoy the show nearly as much. Music: Great music can elevate a show above what it would have been with just a mediocre musical effort. If it’s done well, music can help advance the story and deepen the emotional involvement. If it’s done poorly, it can be jarring and detract from the other elements of the show. It’s no coincidence that almost all of the anime soundtracks I end up purchasing are from titles I also greatly enjoyed overall. Closure: My personal preference is to have a decent ending to a show, and for me that usually means some level of closure. I don’t mind an ending being somewhat open, but I don’t like to get to the end of a show that I otherwise enjoyed and be sitting there thinking, “what just happened!?” It doesn't have to be happy, but the ending should make sense, not feature the dreaded “reset” button, and should bring the work to some kind of close. For me, a great ending can take a mediocre show and move it up a notch. Those are probably the most important things that influence my ratings. But, as I mentioned, I don’t systematically think of each category before assigning a rating. For people that have comments on their lists, I wonder if you have a strategy for what you put in the comment section? Do you use them to explain your rating? Do you use them as a kind of mini review? Do you use them to recommend or warn people who may be reading about the title? For me, I tend to just comment on whatever elements of the work stuck out for me. It may end up being something about plot, or character design, or music, or pacing, or even the DVD packaging, but I don’t really have a set goal when I make a comment except to note something about the show I thought was worth mentioning. I love all the time and effort people on this site have put into their “my anime” lists. I used to just read reviews when checking out a new series, but now I often browse “my anime” public lists also. There are a few members who have, through their “my anime” lists, become regular advisors to me on what new shows to check out. |
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