I am a college student in Minnesota who likes to watch a little anime in his spare time. Go ahead and send random friend invites! I don't care :)
Thanks for coming here, this section is under construction, so check back if you really want to read about me. Or friend me! Or read my blog! I do enjoy updating my blog and I appreciate comments about my thoughts.
How I rate anime (should you actually care)
My list scores deviate from the MAL average by about 1 point. I don't like numerical ratings but whatever.
Interpretations of "well written" and "applicable" are opinions of the reviewer, thus are subjective and opinion-based. Though uncommon, numerical ratings in reviews may not align with numerical ratings in my list because ratings in my list weigh primarily on my personal enjoyment of a series, whereas in reviews I focus more on the [relatively more] concrete and objective aspects of a series as to give a clearer view on what the anime contains.. The role of reviews is twofold: the evaluation of the production/artistic quality of an anime and the application of the evaluation, along with other information to give a clear view on the style of the series so readers (and potential viewers) can decide for themselves, based on such information, whether a series appeals to them and choose to watch it.
A score 9 or above identifies anime that excel in both technical (how an anime is drawn/presented, including art, music, voice acting, etc) and literary (how an anime is written, including general directing, character (presentation and development), plots and storylines, pacing, thematic elements, and other intangible evidences of quality storytelling) aspects appropriate to the goal/audience/purpose of the series. Such anime should never have to "rely" on the other category to pick it up (i.e. "this series has pretty crappy art, but the story is cool!" or vice versa). Anime rated 9 in my list and in my reviews never bore me or force me to make conscious decisions to finish or continue. In short, I should generally always be looking forward to the next episode while I am watching this series. Scores of 10 (and only such scores) are curved so at most, 1/10 of my completed anime are rated 10. Should a review attain a 10, that anime will always also be a 10 on my list.
A score of 8 identifies a excellent series, with slight deficiencies in either technical or literary aspects (see above). Strong recommendations are common for such anime, as they are admittedly top quality and very enjoyable. Typically, my personal enjoyment of an anime differentiates 9s from 8s. Anime that "don't do anything wrong, but aren't quite entertaining to me" fall between 7 and 8.
Anime with parts, arcs, aspects (like art direction or music), or episodes that I specifically dislike to the point of labeling them explicitly negative generally fall as 7 or 8 depending on my personal enjoyment of the rest of the series (i.e. how well it makes up for it). A rating of 7 is my standard for a "good" series that entertains in a conventional manner and shows good production and directing quality. The series may have caused unexcitement, disinterest, boredom, or unoriginality at isolated times. A few times in the season, I have to remind/force myself to continue with this anime. Regardless, these series manage to generally entertain. 7 is my personal most common rating.
Anime that "don't do anything wrong, but bore me" fall between 7 and 6.
Anime with ratings of 6 are below my expectations and can be labeled as "average". In these anime, I can typically identify at least one specific flaw that made the series unenjoyable to me. Other aspects of the series partially recover this flaw. Series that I have to specifically will myself to complete never score higher than 6.
Series rated at or below a 5 generates no interest from me, and may have entertained me in a few isolated instances. They often have several problems, such as unintresting characters or plot (when there is supposed to be one). These series essentially failed to entertain me; series rated 4 I could not recommend to anybody, regardless of taste in anime.
Series rated 3 or under fail in even more spectacular ways. The amount of "quality time" (i.e. the total length of the enjoyable/entertaining portions of the series) is less than 10 minutes per 13 episodes (whereas anime rated 9 should be almost completely quality time). They not only fail to entertain me, they make me hate it by insulting my intelligence. While watching such anime, I often have to contemplate whether sitting here and forcing myself to finish this crap is a sign that I hate my life.
I've only seen two episodes of Bakemonogatari (they were great), but I'm waiting until the DVD versions of the episodes come out since some of the later episodes were censored or something. That sound about right?
You know, I was thinking about it, and I decided that the people who created MoD brought more joy to me than 90% of the rest of the industry. Thus I commemorate their efforts with a slot in my top 30. If only there were some high-quality pics of my favorite character, TGWGHHBO which I could use... Oh well.
