I do see somewhat of a problem with the merging of certain compilations into a single entry...namely, that people might not then be able to find what it is that they're looking for. For instance, I first saw the Studio 4C shorts Kigeki and Kung-Fu Love completely independent of their respective compilations, and I didn't even know the names of said compilations until the titles were changed in the database recently. Hell, I didn't even know that either one was part of a compilation until some time after I first watched them and added them to the list. My concern is that, depending what information was entered when the entries were merged, it could be very difficult for someone searching only under those individual short names to find what it is they're looking for. And even if they had, it'd be hard to single out just which short they'd seen by having a simple "1/5" in the compilation entry. I think this becomes less of a problem for something like The Animatrix or Batman: Gotham Knight, where all of the shorts share the same theme and would most likely be seen by the viewer at the same time anyway, but for some of the more unconnected compilations, I think there's some value to keeping them separated out.
(That being said, it would be nice to condense down the whole mass of Animatrix entries on my list, even if it means nerfing my series count a bit. :P)
I'm also a bit disheartened by the decision to remove the entire category of North American edits, since I was actually intending to attempt to add one or two myself, and I think there's some inherent value in having them presented that way. For instance, the anime Tetsujin 28-go comprised 83 episodes, but I saw all 52 that were dubbed and released in the US as Gigantor. As it stands, I have the series on my "Completed" list, even though the episode count displayed doesn't match what I've actually watched; it's either that, or leave it in "On Hold" or "Dropped" forever, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. Gigantor is obviously still anime, since it's just Tetsujin 28-go under a different name and dubbed into English, but it's also its own entity in a certain respect; the original Astro-Boy series falls into a similar position. I think one could make an even more powerful argument for Robotech, where listing the individual portions under each component series' entry won't do a whole lot of good for users, since (I'd assume) none of the episode counts match up at all. Maybe it's just the organizational nut in me, but I'd rather have everything on my list represent the actual number of episodes I've seen of it. The US version of Dragonball Z is already being singled out due to its large userbase, but don't fans of somewhat less-popular shows deserve similar treatment?
And just to second an earlier comment, I would very much disagree with the removal of the two Superflat entries. While they may be intended as Louis Vuitton advertisements, each has its own short plot progression, and they feel far more like an independent short than any sort of ad. They've also received a decent amount of critical acclaim, and they were worked on by Takeshi Murakami himself. |