Forum - View topicHow to Destroy your Anime Backlog
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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One thing I'm really picky about in my anime is the art. I just HATE the art in Madoka Magica. The pastel washed out look doesn't do it for me. I tried to ignore it and enjoy the story, but I couldn't. Quit after episode 3. Art is a factor that'll easily get series crossed off my list. (Not saying the art was bad, just not to my tastes.) Magi I just couldn't get into the story...someday I might go back and try to read the manga instead, but realistically the manga will just stay on my backlog forevermore if I added it, haha. |
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thekingsdinner
 Posts: 1069 Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands |
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Great article. I might even take the advice of writing down the shows I REALLY want to see. Sure, I have a plan to watch list on MAL, but... It's enormous.
Also need to take a look at my DVD's of what I have/haven't watched yet, there's stuff in there which I bought years ago and still haven't watched. I mean, I have a regionfree blu-ray player now, I don't have any reason NOT to watch anything anymore. Oh choices and decisions, they make a mess of my mind. |
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
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I've often kept lists of stuff that I wanted to re-watch and it really doesn't work for me. For me it's about "mood" and phases. Every anime title that I own I've watched already through illegal online streaming, BEFORE things changed. So I bought the sets. Anything that I've watched RAW decades before from friends, I later purchased just to own and watch them. Now I have a backlog of DVDs that I have started but have never finished. Usually, I grab a batch that I'm in the mood to watch and set them near my TV for a weekend to watch. But I've had to put them back because nothing was happening. Plus, I only get 2 weekends home a month of free time. The only thing I had time for the during the weekdays was Dear Brother and now I got one volume to go. About a year ago I did a Go Nagai weekend. Just pulled all the films by Go Nagai and started watching and re-watching some DVDs. Then that led me to Gainax's Gunbuster 2 and later Giant Robo. I still have much to finish. Code Geass, Shin Getter Robo, Giant Robo, etc.. and now new stuff. I'm hoping to revisit the My-HiME/Otome franchise do a bullet action Bee Train weekend (Noir, Madlax, El Cazador and Phantom). It's not easy because there is so much news stuff coming out as well. And time is of the essence.
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5317 |
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I was surprised by that too, I've fount it useful to put the shows down I plan to watch, it's really great since I end up forgetting titles. |
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MisterLuck
Posts: 67 |
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@WashuTakahashi
Yeah... My friend had the same problem with Madoka Magica, though he did find the series more enjoyable in the movie trilogy when he watched them recently on Netflix. As for Magi, I found the manga to be better but that's not really a surprise. That doesn't mean I don't like the show it's just how can you compete with the source? |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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It's hard to say where the stopping point is for really long, or even ongoing series. For most shows, watching 3 episodes means you've already seen a quarter of the content, and I don't generally find too many 12 episode shows that suddenly elevate my opinion of them later on since there rarely is enough time to do so. Watching 40 episodes of One Piece, for example, does represent a lesser fraction of the show, and such shows are designed to build very slowly, so I can see where that seems like giving it a fair chance. Then again, that is still a pretty long time commitment, especially when you consider how many shorter series could be viewed entirely in the time it took to even watch a fraction of a long-running shonen series. |
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amagee
 Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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I specifically have a list of things "To Watch" and "Things to Give a Three Episode Check". I've been making myself watch at least one thing on this latter list every 2 weeks and it's been about as successful as I expected. In the past 6-8 months of doing this, I've found 2-3 shows I've liked that I would never have suspected that I would. In both cases, I don't think I would have even considered them if I hadn't been trying to clear the list. Possibly suffering through someone's recommendation or whatever for one hour every couple of weeks has been pretty rewarding in my case.
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Supermutant
 Posts: 376 |
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i do keep a list and use film aficionado to keep numbers. What I do is spend most of the month and half/two months just watching anime in my free time before animenext.. I always try to watch anime through the rest of the year but there are times around halloween and christmas I don't watch much anime.
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MisterLuck
Posts: 67 |
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Well one cour series aside seeing as I talked about it already on this thread and I hate to reiterate. Now as for why forty episodes for One Piece is fair. It's because the longer the series the more likely it's good, after all it has to be doing something right to be going this long and that's not hype created by some sub-sect of overzealous fans, but by the millions of fans that tune in and keep the series going for so long, so I say it's fair. But at the end of the day these formulas even what ANN suggested aren't set in stone for everyone. Everyone is there own unique person after all and this is just my opinion or formula that works for me. Just like the formula for Zac Bertschy works for him. Last edited by MisterLuck on Fri Jun 05, 2015 11:14 am; edited 3 times in total |
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kookykonata
Posts: 31 |
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Some of those tips are actually pretty useful. I don't really keep much of a list, though. We just pick something we haven't seen yet and watch it for at least 3 episodes, as stated in the article.
But anyway, What my wife and I do is set aside a dedicated time slot each week to watch at least one episode of each series we are watching, both current and old. Ours is every Friday night from 8 PM until either we are finished with them or the clock hits 11. This makes it to where it doesn't feel like a chore to us, and we actually look forward to what's going on in each series each week. As an example, here is what we do: On Fridays, we watch the second season of Nisekoi, Food Wars, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, My Love Story, and then one that isn't new which right now is Puella Magi Madoka Majika. It's kind of a slow approach, but if you have time, it's actually really nice. |
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7jaws7
 Posts: 704 Location: New York State |
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The three episode rule certainly doesn't apply to all anime.
For example, Index was recently something that I've always tried to get back to after dropping it after the first three episodes. But getting word that things don't actually get good until ep. 10 or so is what kept me going, and now I've been able to cruise right through it. (Railgun, you're next on my list!) |
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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I don't suffer from the "have to finish even though I only just find it slightly more entertaining than looking at the wall" problem, but I sincerely suffer from the "this was so incredibly good I have to make everyone I personally know who's into anime or at least willing to sit through stuff with me (exactly two people) watch this" syndrome. Given the fact that I live with one of those two people, I usually end up rewatching a show with that person right after finishing it instead of watching something new that might not be as good, even though time is too precious to not move on to new things. I've watched Princess Tutu three times in less than six months and the original Berserk TV series two times from beginning to end within three weeks. After finishing, I didn't want to move on. I wanted to unwatch it and then watch it again, because there was just no way anything I'd watch after that would be as much for me as that show was. This is not a clever way of catching up on your backlog. So my want to see list on ANN is constantly growing.
When I stumble upon something that sounds interesting, wanting to add it to the list and then realize it's already been on there for a while, that's usually when I decide it might be time to pick that show next. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4426 |
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I think my re-watch pile is bigger than the pile of things I plan to watch for the first time. From time to time, I'll look at my collection and realize that I only watched a show once, or that it has been like five years since I watched something I liked a lot, or that my recollection of major details is very fuzzy. The constant push to watch new stuff makes it hard to get back to re-watch anything. One thing that is fairly effective for me is to re-watch something with a friend who has never seen it. That usually adds enough to the experience that the show comes off feeling somewhat fresh again. |
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GVman
 Posts: 729 |
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This is some good-ass advice. Probably the best thing I've ever read by Zac.
I wholeheartedly agree with the bit about being willing to let go of shows you don't like. I made the mistake of buying Moonphase when I found the whole show for twenty bucks. While I didn't find it pedophilic like some folks did, I found it INCREDIBLY BORING. I got to episode 18 before it finally struck me that I found the damn show just as interesting as watching paint dry, and that I was only watching it because I bought it. I dropped it like a rock after that. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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My Crunchyroll queue has become one of the key ways for me to organize my digital backlog. Top of the queue is what I watch next. It doesn't really matter what it is. New shows are automatically added to the bottom of the list when added to the queue, so it sort of boosts my motivation to finish those older shows. If I want to watch all of that awesome current season stuff I've got to make it through ______. It works better in theory, but it has helped quite a lot, even if I cheat sometimes.
Another thing that helps me is to just pick one show from my backlog and devote one week to it. I'll keep up with all of the current season stuff week to week, but in-between that I make sure that I have one older show devoted to that week. If I make it through that show, I pick another, if, after a week, I haven't made much progress in it, the show probably just wasn't interesting to me and I'll probably drop it. |
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