adult main characters, adults treated as competent human beings;
bishonen, stylish art, realistic and highly detailed backgrounds;
anime fandom - fanfics, fanart and meta (Detective Conan, particularly, has an absolutely amazing fandom);
complicated plots, twisty storytelling, obscure character backgrounds, guess-along riddles and mysteries;
tournament arcs, POWER LEVELS (no, really), slow build-up;
dramatic and overpowering soundtracks;
epic themes, epic characters, epic plots - but in a somewhat subtle way;
symbols and metaphors that are or become plot relevant;
genius characters; immortals or adults trapped in a child's body (so long as this is kept reasonably secret);
secret identities;
Bromances, Ho Yay, Foe Yay, Heterosexual Life Partners, realistic portrayals of gay men and women, ambiguously gendered characters;
Ecchi situations as decoration that blend seamlessly into the setting (Touka Gettan), "Forbidden" or "unusual" relationships - archenemies, any form of incest, D/s, etc - presented seriously;
heavy technobabble, period dialogue that DOESN'T use modern terms, accents and dialects, uber formal outdated styles of talking;
large casts, interconnecting stories, crossovers, survival type situations, outsider POVs;
Anime Dislikes:
most seinen titles - this includes both sappy harems and uber-serious titles that lack character development and involvement of feeling -, and most slice-of-life and slapstick comedy;
fluff excuse conclusions - 'everything, against all odds, is alright now';
dubs (exceptions being songs and german dubs)
particularly particular styles, if they get used in more than, say, two anime (such as Gundam Seed's, or even the non-adapted CLAMP in Code Geass); plain - boring - character designs (unless there's a plot reason for this);
old school graphics and sound;
throwing random imagery around (I'm looking at SHAFT and Gainax) that doesn't serve any other purpose than lulz or wasting time searching for meanings that aren't there, nonsense plots;
slice-of-life that has neither a plot nor an original setting to flesh out;
illogical and utterly stupid behavior from characters who should know better, if this leads to drama, angst and tragedy (yes, like in Kurenai. And Grave of the Fireflies.);
genius shy moe girls; adult women who look and ACT like 6yr olds; immortal characters who suddenly act like teenagers;
secrets everyone knows;
men who act and look like thirteen year old girls, seme/uke, oneesama type lesbians, ambiguously gendered characters with big boobs that would be obviously female if not for the premise;
harmonious relationships, rape is love, 'sexy' common bullies, mortal characters with an IQ equal to their age,
frozen background characters, main characters as the only ones with stupid and/or neon hair;
too much creativity in magic systems (like, way past the ridiculous line); too much reliance on real-life concepts combined with too little research (Naruto's chakra-system still bothers me to no end);
too little creativity in settings, particularly for SF. Glaring technological inaccuracies that are not premise-required, confusing science with magic ("The mech reacted to my feelings of anger and desperation...", ESP however, is an exception - remote controlling computers with the power of the magical heart amulet isn't;)
...pantsu, hot springs, lesbian 'may I touch your boobs?' hijinks, otaku avatar female characters, skimpy underwear, underwear worn as everyday clothing, shiny oiled-looking body parts, anime version genitals;
How I rate anime:
I've seen a lot of discussion about this lately, so I'll go ahead and write what they mean for me, personally. The scale is the one used in schools around here, and my ratings are subject to change when I feel like it, so they're not always objective. I prize originality and individuality highly, but on the other hand if I don't care whether a series was original twenty years ago if I watch it now. Similarly if a series impressed me ten years ago it'll have a high rating. So:
10: This rating isn't actually reserved for masterpieces, but it's also not one I give out easily. A 10 rating means that the anime, besides being excellent already - at least an 8/10 - also has that special something. That something can be a number of things, like having a huge influence on my life (The Vision of Escaflowne), making me love the world I live in just a little bit more (Hinotori, Casshern SINS), actually making me a better person (Hourou Musuko), or just touching chords that resonated on an indescribable level (Hikaru no Go, .hack//SIGN).
There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes I'll give this rating is the series if my enjoyment of it was off the scale (Star Driver, Peacemaker Kurogane), or I can't find a single negative thing about it (Monster, Gundam 00 S1).
It is equivalent to 'Very Good' and 'A+', and also covers the very rare scores over 96%.
9: The actual score I use for 'masterpieces'. It's a very loose term though, and does not factor in my personal enjoyment except on a very basic level - whether it was there or not. Technical aspects - like animation and music - are more or less irrelevant to me.
Special cases included are anime promoted from a lower score - as low as 7/10, but not lower - for things like sheer guts in its main subject matter (Kodomo no Jikan), and franchise movies and OVAs that I feel are perfect as far as being a franchise movie and OVA allows them to be.
Grade equivalents are 'Very Good' and 'A', anime in the 85-95% range of scores get rounded to it.
8: The 'good' rating. All series under 8 are series I enjoyed immensely and were well-written, but fell short of being masterpieces by my standards. These series can still get promoted to 10 if they had a large enough impact on me. Typical examples are Sengoku Basara and Skip Beat.
Grade equivalents: 'Good' and 'B+', the 75-84% spectrum.
7: This is my most common rating, but not because it means 'average' - although in practice it's the closes thing to an average rating that I have. It covers anime that I've greatly enjoyed but found lacking in important areas (Densetsu no Yuusha Densetsu, Tactics), or found quite enjoyable but had an overused - or otherwise uninteresting - setting and premise (Toradora, Railgun), or anime I can't say I enjoyed much, but found that they objectively had heaps of redeeming points (Ashita no Nadja, Un-Go).
It's the largest category because anything below this point becomes hard to finish.
Grade equivalents: 'Good', 'C+' and 'B', the 65%-74% spectrum.
6: This is the most ambiguous category because it contains two very different types of anime: seriously flawed ones - to the point of being a trainwreck - that I still enjoyed (Sousei no Aquarion, Weiß Kreuz), and anime with great critical value that I hated (Texhnolyze, Grave of the Fireflies). 6 is my lowest somewhat positive rating, and it's equivalent to 'Satisfactory', 'D+' and 'C', or 55-64%.
5: Passing grade, barely. The grade covers the horrible trainwrecks that were still somewhat enjoyable (Koutetsu Sangokushi, Persona 4: The Animation), those series that were that special combination of ambitious and incredibly stupid or annoying (Fate Stay Night, Saiyuki, Black Cat) and those that managed to be both boring and forgettable.
Some insist that 5 should mean 'average'. In a certain sense, it does - it's series that are neither bad nor good, which is a bad things because anime above anything else is a form of entertainment.
In terms of grades, it would be 'Satisfactory', D, 45-54%. 45% is not a passing grade, but in practice below University level it rounds up to 50%, which is.
4: Failing grade. Anything below 5 means that the series is incapable of being an enjoyable watch by any stretch of the imagination. There's a low number of series in these categories because it's a chore to finish them. Series rated 4 are insipid and shallow, but still try to tell a story (Special A, Togainu no Chi). If they have enjoyable aspects then they also have terrible aspects in spades. Grades 'Unsatisfactory', 'F+' and 35-44%.
3: In exams this is the 'well, at least you bothered to show up' grade, and that reflects in anime: their only redeeming aspect is that they provide experience for animators. At best they can get a few chuckles out of me in terms of enjoyment before they resume being terrible (Ikoku Irokoi Romantan, Monochrome Factor, Shining Tears x Wind). "Unsatisfactory, 'F', 25-34%.
2: Not just bad, but offensively bad. The worst anime out there. Stunning in how nobody working on the project cared a iota about it. 'E+', 15-24%.
1: Not an anime. Currently the only thing I rated 1 is 'Yu-Gi-Oh: Pyramid of Light', which is not an anime. 'E', 0-14%.
Unrated: Either an anime I saw as a child (and most anime I saw a child would end up as 9 and 10 by default, which they probably aren't), or an anime in my dropped or on-hold lists (they're the same thing, really) that I got a bad first/early impression, but I'm not certain about it and I don't want it to skew MAL's compatibility calculations.
About me:
I'm a 23 year old anime fan from a Romanian town Resita. I've been watching anime since before I can remember, (thanks to the german RTL2). Occasionally, I'll write some thoughts in my blog here, but don't expect me to do that too often, I'm very lazy XD;;
Eh, unele persoane separă cele două domenii - mă refer la pasiunea pentru anime şi credinţă. Desigur, vorbesc despre "non-habotnici" (am inventat un termen :D ), care oricum nu s-ar uita la o asemenea făcătură a diavolului (pe lângă National Geographic, muzica rock şi ce s-o mai găsi pe moment)... :))
Fie ca sfânta sărbătoare a învierii Domnului să-ţi aducă patru taine divine: încredere, lumină, iubire şi speranţă. Clipe de neuitat alături de cei dragi şi numai realizări. Paşte fericit. ;) !
Geez, I haven't touched Psycho-pass for a week now. Still at episode 7, but I just have this gut feeling that the next will have plenty of Makishima. Bless the heavens for his existence.
Sakura is definitely one of the better heroines I've laid eyes upon, and I would relate to her whenever I managed to catch the show on tv. _(:3 I had to randomly pick between the characters I knew, so Sakura, Izaya, Rider, Sei and Conan. ( ´◜ᾥ◝｀ )
