Forum - View topicAnime's 3-Episode Rule: Is It Still Valid?
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5421 Location: Iscandar |
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Like others here I have become good at judging what I like and dislike in the first episode. But I still believe that for one cour shows watching the first 3 episodes is still a good rule of thumb.
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Rob19ny
Posts: 1669 |
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The 3 episode rule is pointless to me. Once I decide to watch something and start episode 1, I finish it. No matter what. I am a completionist.
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animefan1238
 Posts: 299 Location: Ma |
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While this rule was more followed in the days of yor(early to mid 2000s) I adapted. I have a 5 ep rule. Gives the show time to really set itself up and to let me give it a fair shot. It is at about the halfway point of most shows so I believe it's a good baseline, for me at least. I've only broke this rule three times but that was to see how bad those shoes got and they did not disappoint to my amusement.
Overall I think three episodes is too short to judge a show. Give it a little more time, if you hate it then drop away. |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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I actually have a differing opinion about Trigun. What the three episodes revealed to me was that it is focusing on the ugliest aspects of the story, wanton cruelty, and hopelessness. I was surprised by my decision to drop it, but I can't justify watching it as presented.
Truthfully though- I was not a superfan of the first. Knives is the type of capital E EVIL character I just can't stand. |
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Dayraven
Posts: 175 |
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So be sorry for the people who can’t be completely certain they hate One Piece yet. (Though to be serious, I basically agree with your full post.) |
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db999
Posts: 299 |
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The way I feel about the 3-episode rule is that it’s mostly fine for series that are around 12-26 episodes long, and maybe for 50 episode series. I also think that while 1 episode is not enough to make a blanket judgment on if the show is going to be good or bad, it can be 100% enough to judge if it’s something you're interested in. However this rule is pretty much useless for anything exceeding that length, I’m talking about your shounen stuff like Naruto, where three episodes aren’t nearly enough. Obviously, if you're interested in a show like that your fine with a long time investment, but I’d argue that, unless you dislike or hate everyone and everything in the show in the first 3-5 episodes, you need to commit to watching at least the first 19 episodes before deciding. For most shounen stuff, especially stuff debuting before 2015, you need to really be willing to invest until the first full story arc is completed, which was usually around 15-20 episodes, to know if it’s something you’d like. But again you likely already know if you are someone who's fine with such a long-time investment in the first place.
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Juno016
 Posts: 2381 |
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Madoka Magica defined the 3-episode rule precisely because so many people dropped it after an episode or two and only picked it up again when the third episode created buzz. I think you have to take context of the time Madoka aired into consideration. Madoka advertised itself deceptively, and it spent its first two episodes setting up extremely common and overdone magical girl sentai tropes (which it would later tear down and rebuild back up brilliantly). There were hints of a darker tone in its lighting, subject matter, and the first witch sequence was... unique, but that itself wasn't near enough to communicate the kind of storytelling it was leading into, which we would eventually praise to heaven and back by the time the show ended. Of course, those first two episodes are infinitely more interesting and powerful in retrospect. They carry a ton of emotional weight and hint ever so subtly at the truth of the setting and characters, but if your expectations aren't grounded, it's so easy to miss those, and even if you notice them, they don't carry the same weight they do on a rewatch. I certainly was deceived, as was ANN's own Zac (R.I.P. Zac), who gave the first two episodes a pretty damning score and reviewーhilarious in retrospect considering he would eventually call the series one of his favorite anime of all time and laugh at his old review when it came time for a rewatch. Ultimately, I do not believe there are "rules" for storytelling or even for watching anything. I've gone back to rewatch shows I've dropped and enjoyed them immensely. I've also stuck through shows with great starts, but absolutely horrid middles or ends. Good writers can flop intros. Bad writers can write great hooks. Sometimes, slow starts are a product of a well-planned story. Sometimes they're not. Heck, sometimes you're just not in the right mindset to enjoy a story right that moment. I think it's fine to just kinda... do what you want. If something intrigues you, keep watching. If not, don't force yourself on the off chance things will get better. If something you dropped gets positive buzz later, don't be afraid to try again. If you miss a great show because it didn't get enough buzz after it picked up, you're never going to know, so don't worry about it. And anyway, art is subjective. Fun things are fun. Enjoy anime. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4817 |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3644 |
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Yeah, it's best taken as a guideline rather than a rule. If it doesn't sound interesting to you, don't bother (whether from synopsis, previews or word of mouth), if it does, then give it a chance. I think just 1 episode is usually too few, but no one should be afraid to drop something that isn't appealing to them and force themselves to finish something they aren't enjoying. Whether that's in less than 3 episodes, 3 episodes or any point after that. I usually still try to give a series I'm interested in 3 episodes, but usually I know within an episode or two if I'm going to keep following it. I've definitely had shows I would have regretted not watching if I dropped them after the first episode. It's also easier to just put shows on hold these days and just binge it after the season ends once the final reviews are in. Unless you have to be in the current conversation, sometimes it's better to just wait. Of course long running series sometimes need a bit more of an investment than 3 episodes, but having said that, any series that "gets good" well over a dozen or two episodes in, probably isn't worth my time. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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This would be a good strategy if you were looking at 3 random episodes, or maybe if it was 3 consecutive ones from the middle of a season. But my philosophy has always been that the first episode must be both relatively good and intentionally designed to grab your interest. If it doesn't do those things, either the show just isn't good, or the execution is sloppy and you can't expect much consistency from it. Most people are impatient and/or have many other things competing for their attention, and they usually won't spend a whole hour divided over 3 separate weeks to gauge a show's quality. Competent directors know this, and make sure the pilot episode does everything it can to keep people from wandering away. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any shows that had little going for them for the first one or two episodes, and suddenly became interesting at episode 3 or later. There was that (in)famous twist in Samurai Flamenco like halfway through... but, having dragged myself through it just to see what the hype was about, I can't say it suddenly became good at that point; pretty sure I never finished it. Everyone loves the Madoka example, but the ominous cosmic-horror vibe was pretty obvious from episode 1--heck, even from the first few scenes, which are also a dream-based in-medias-res thing that isn't explained until much later--and Mami's death was extremely predictable, though a little more gruesome than one might expect. You don't need 3 episodes to evaluate Madoka, unless you only watch anime where people get decapitated. (There are, of course, anime that start out good and fall apart later, sometimes not even until a sudden terrible ending, but that's pretty obvious.) The article kinda lost me when it got into how boring Magical Revolution (supposedly) is, and how incredible Trigun Stampede (supposedly) is... but, of course, there's also a subjective component to this. Consciously or not, people will generally make up their mind about a show's quality within the first few minutes (just like when meeting people), and after that, confirmation bias sets in. If you enjoy a show, you'll focus on the positives. If you're hatewatching it, every flaw and annoyance is impossible to ignore. After about 3 episodes, you'll have enough evidence collected to explain your perspective, and get in arguments with people on the other side. Convincing someone to switch sides is almost impossible, but the act of arguing makes us feel more confident in our own perspectives. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4817 |
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Vizo
 Posts: 167 |
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I used to get decent recommendations from My Anime List's anime recommender machine. Nowadays, I can generally tell what a series will be like from its preview material. I tend to especially enjoy series that can hook me with their premise alone. Sometimes you can even sniff out early plot twists from the previews.
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 193 |
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To me, "three-episode rule" has always felt like a shorthand for:
* If you hate the first episode, drop it. * If you're not sure how you feel about the first episode but there was a little something that piqued your interest, maybe stick with it another ep or two to see if it will actually hook you for good. Only a handful of anime a year (if that) are what I'd call "slow burners," so that's rarely a thing to worry about IMO. You can generally tell from the story's tone if it intends to be something more pensive and controlled. I've never bought Madoka Magica being a great example of the "three-episode rule." I remember the first episode of that making it entirely clear what tone the series was going for. In turn, having a secondary character with little screen time get killed off in ep 3 was not the extraordinarily huge shocker for me that it seems to have been for most viewers. It felt like a natural progression for what was established in the first two eps. |
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 501 Location: Poland |
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Like others already wrote, I don't think Cowboy Bebop is good counterexample, since someone who's bored by first three episodes will probably be bored halfway through anyway, since there are plenty of slow episodes unconnected with main plot. And Madoka did hint strongly at being more than just generic mahou shoujo in first episode, though in this case 3-ep rule would help someone undecided to stay and watch, which is what this rule is for. As for shows with botched ending, there is literally no rule that could save you from them except "only watching after series ends and you can read reviews and opinions" which is rather spoiler-risky strategy and will prevent you from enjoying community discussions and theory-crafting after each episode. It's like saying democracy is bad because it can't prevent oppression by majority.
In general, there will be shows that you know from description (or from source manga/LN) aren't for you, so you need 0 to 1 episode to confirm decision to dropping it, maybe reading 1st ep reviews to save time. There will be also shows that are immediately interesting or that adapt your favorite manga, so those obviously will get on your list unless some critical failure cause them to get droped. Three episode rule is good for those shows where first episode is inconclusive - if you have time for more anime it can be worth to keep watching for two more weeks and then decide, if you don't, it's best to cull your list in first week of the season. After all, it's not like if you drop something good you can't pick it up after hearing good reactions - I'm sure plenty of people picked up Cowboy Bebop or Madoka or Demon Slayer or Bocchi the Rock after seeing the buzz they generated, so it's not like if you drop anime after 3 eps you are bound to have "missed out on one of the most beloved anime this medium has to offer", unless you never ever pick up again anime you've dropped once. I mostly agree with Cho_Desu and several others posters that it's more of a useful guideline for those shows that are interesting but don't really wow you in first episode, the shows that leave you on the fence due to potential you think the first episode shows even if it's lacking. In most cases, experienced anime watcher needs 0-1 episode to know if it goes on watchlist or droplist, but it doesn't mean it's not useful guideline. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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I haven't seen Punch Line, but Steins Gate for me was one that started out well and deteriorated as it went on, with plot devices becoming increasingly ridiculous spoiler[(hack into the large hadron collider--actually a secret government supercomputer--to compress an entire human mind into a text message? change someone's gender by telling their mom to eat certain foods? okay then...)] and, later, less creative. spoiler[A very contrived-feeling "hopelessly try to save the girl with time travel" plot (something Madoka also does, but in a way that feels more plausible), and eventually just a regular old time machine instead of the unusual methods used earlier.] I can see how a show might seem questionable at first, and pay off in the end; but that sort of thing feels rare in anime. And even when it does happen, you have to ask whether the good at the end overcomes the bad beginning, or only cancels it out and leaves you with something just kind of okay. People often exaggerate about "suffering through" a show, but we're talking about mass-media cartoons, chronically obsessed with high-schoolers and bombastic zaniness; the vast, vast majority of TV anime are not intended as award-bait high art that's deliberately difficult to watch. In this type of environment, putting your best foot forward is essential. As a result, if that foot stinks, that's probably all you need to know. In the unlikely event that the first impression was wrong, and everyone starts telling you to keep watching, you can always come back to it later. |
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