Mar 6, 2013 11:20 AM
Enjoyment - Should it be taken or should it not?
Anime Relations:
Inferno Cop
Now, this is not a continuation off my last blog entry "Old vs New". I haven't quite gotten to thinking how I'm gonna write that one yet. This one is about a rating style or specific that was the topic of a quite heated debate some time back and of course, I was part of that. Unfortunately, I ended up on the losing side since I had nothing to reply with to my opponent in the debate.
Here is the debate for a more clear view of it: Should "Enjoyment" be taken as a factor for rating or should it not? I was, of course, on the "Should Be" side. My argument was, even if an anime had a bad plot or characters, if you enjoyed it well enough, you can rate it highly. The counter argument was that Enjoyment was not a factor. That it is a feeling we get when it's other factors are good enough. At that time, I didn't have a counter-argument for this. But now I do.
Enjoyment is a feeling. Yes, that much I agree with. But is it a feeling that we get when certain factors of said medium of entertainment is good enough? No, I do not agree. Want an example; Inferno Cop. Seriously speaking; there is nothing in that series that is "good". But it still provides good entertainment. Why? Because "It's so bad, It's good."
I'm gonna use another example to further my argument. What is taste? Where does it come from (I know we taste with our tongue, so no snarky remarks)? Is food delicious because it is made good? Certainly, that is a factor, but that alone is not it, is it? I was eating a piece of chicken yesterday. It was well made, but I didn't like it (I love chicken btw, so that's not the reason).
Taste is like Enjoyment. It is an opinion, a feeling. Therefore, the same should apply to enjoyment, no? Another example; I love cheering for underdogs in sports. Mostly the better team plays well, but I can't help but enjoy the underdog's playing more. Take FC Barcelona, for example. I hate the team, but there is no denying they are one of the best teams in the world at the moment. Their passing, their footwork, their teamwork, their referees is all brilliant. But I still get bored with their football.
Why is this so? Here's the reason. It is because enjoyment is a feeling, an opinion. Our "Enjoyment Value" represents not a particular factor, but rather a feeling we have towards a particular form of entertainment.
P.S. Would this do better as a thread in the Anime Discussion section?
Here is the debate for a more clear view of it: Should "Enjoyment" be taken as a factor for rating or should it not? I was, of course, on the "Should Be" side. My argument was, even if an anime had a bad plot or characters, if you enjoyed it well enough, you can rate it highly. The counter argument was that Enjoyment was not a factor. That it is a feeling we get when it's other factors are good enough. At that time, I didn't have a counter-argument for this. But now I do.
Enjoyment is a feeling. Yes, that much I agree with. But is it a feeling that we get when certain factors of said medium of entertainment is good enough? No, I do not agree. Want an example; Inferno Cop. Seriously speaking; there is nothing in that series that is "good". But it still provides good entertainment. Why? Because "It's so bad, It's good."
I'm gonna use another example to further my argument. What is taste? Where does it come from (I know we taste with our tongue, so no snarky remarks)? Is food delicious because it is made good? Certainly, that is a factor, but that alone is not it, is it? I was eating a piece of chicken yesterday. It was well made, but I didn't like it (I love chicken btw, so that's not the reason).
Taste is like Enjoyment. It is an opinion, a feeling. Therefore, the same should apply to enjoyment, no? Another example; I love cheering for underdogs in sports. Mostly the better team plays well, but I can't help but enjoy the underdog's playing more. Take FC Barcelona, for example. I hate the team, but there is no denying they are one of the best teams in the world at the moment. Their passing, their footwork, their teamwork, their referees is all brilliant. But I still get bored with their football.
Why is this so? Here's the reason. It is because enjoyment is a feeling, an opinion. Our "Enjoyment Value" represents not a particular factor, but rather a feeling we have towards a particular form of entertainment.
P.S. Would this do better as a thread in the Anime Discussion section?
Posted by
yhunata
| Mar 6, 2013 11:20 AM |
6 comments
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SaapeXD | May 24, 2014 2:41 AM
Are u an Idiot? I didnt get a single balabber of this! Shishishi! XD
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Shrabster | May 8, 2013 1:32 PM
Well, enjoyment is just one of those paradoxical things I guess. Sort of like that one saying about alcohol, one beer is too many and a hundred isn't enough. With enjoyment it's both the first and last thing a person should consider when doing reviews or ratings. As both a person who rates purely on enjoyment and a person who doesn't consider it all will have scores that don't accurately reflect how they feel towards whatever show they are rating. I suppose it's easier to say, like most things in life, the enjoyment aspect in rating/reviewing just requires a correct balance.
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yhunata | May 8, 2013 2:24 AM
Reviews and ratings are quite different things. When I write reviews, I try to keep my enjoyment aspects for the series at a minimum. All I'm saying in this blog post is that Enjoyment should be just as valid a method of rating an anime as a "critical rating". You see, I mad this blog post soon after having a debate in one of the forum topics (I even mentioned that at the beginning of the post).Like I said in the post, enjoyment is like taste. You can't explain why you like it, but it's the most important aspect of the food (taste) or anime (enjoyment). Sure, you can say the salt was good enough, but that is subjective to each person, is it not? For instance, I hate most sweet stuff, so I would say they taste bad simply because I don't like sweet stuff. |
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Shrabster | May 4, 2013 7:16 AM
Not saying it should be taken out of the equation entirely, but I find the more well written and well thought out reviews and ratings to be the ones that only use enjoyment in small doses.
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Shrabster | May 4, 2013 6:33 AM
As for your example with Inferno Cop, ask yourself, what is it trying to do? I've only seen one episode, but from what I remember it seemed to me that it was going for humor (bizarre as it may be), in which case the main thing you should be judging the show on is if it's funny to you. Now you're getting into rating genres based on different standards.Here's an example from one of my ratings. Take School Days for example, I'd say it's main genre is romance drama with arguably slice of life and harems elements thrown in. The characters were awful and didn't really develop much if at all and it had a whole host of other problems I went even delve into but it's enjoyable because of how poorly thrown together and presented it is, not because it's the apex of writing and story telling. The difference between School Days and Inferno Cop is that Inferno Cop was trying to be awkwardly humorous and bizarre where as School Days was trying to be a serious drama but failed so miserably it was funny so you can then hold it's flaws against it because they were unintentional as was the enjoyment you got out of it. |
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Shrabster | May 4, 2013 6:05 AM
As imperfect as rating is, rating based on enjoyment is even more so. The biggest problem is that a person can't justify or argue enjoyment where as they could argue why they believe aspects like story, characters, and etc. of a certain work show quality. Now a person may not agree with those reasons but then he in turn must provide reasons as to why. Think of a rating like a debate. There are no absolutes. You don't argue facts, because well, they're facts. You argue opinions and provide facts and reasoning as to why you think something is so and the person with the best argument wins. If everyone rated on enjoyment you'd take what little objectiveness there was in rating and make it largely useless. You also lose layers of depth when you only rate on enjoyment and don't take the smaller things into account which are arguably what transform something from good into excellence. |