Dec 24, 2016 2:55 PM
How to quickly recognize a potentially good or bad anime on MAL
Anime Relations:
Gantz, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Gintama, Uchuu Kyoudai, Hajime no Ippo: Rising, Gakkougurashi!, Berserk
Despite the popular argument that MAL scores and reviews are useless, there is a functional way to use them to rather accurately form an outlook on an anime, typically in just a few minutes. You just need to know what to look for.
This is a general methodology that I'm using; feel free to tweak the variables to your taste if needed. Mine are reasonably lax for things that suit my taste, and are very much on the conservative side for anything I am not likely to enjoy.
Step 1: Filter by rating.
Find an anime that is not a sequel/continuation/side-story. Make sure the average rating is ≥6.6 for ones that premiered before 2009, and ≥6.9 for everything afterwards. Don't bother with anything below, let alone significantly so, unless you feel really adventurous or want to explore some avant-garde short films or music videos. The reason is that in 2009 the anime fandom skyrocketed thanks to the proliferation of simulcasts and exported TV airings, provoking a considerable influx of younger users for every year since. A significant portion of these users tend to only use 7–10 for shows they finish and prefer watching ongoing shows, not engaging strongly with older content, leading to a massive skew in average score towards newer content.
Read the synopsis and genre/theme list. Increase the score targets by 1.5 points (so ≥8.1 and ≥8.4 respectively) if they definitely fall outside your main area of interest; e.g. if you dislike or aren't interested in sports, magical girls, shounen ai, high school romcoms, etc. This is to ensure that if you don't like the show after all, it's not because it was incompetent in its presentation. Anything with a score higher than 8.4 that is not a sequel or a side-story should be a safe watch in terms of not being badly made.
Ignore the ratings of sequels, continuations, and side-stories entirely. More often than not they have higher rating because people who dislike the original story would not watch the sequel in the first place; the higher the overall audience drop-off, the higher proportion of the core audience remains with the show, and the core audience is obviously more inclined to rate it higher because it's invested more strongly.
Step 2: Look at the criticism among the reviews.
Find one or two longest reviews with an overall rating of 8 or below. Read them entirely unless it's explicitly stated that they contain spoilers; read the opening and closing paragraphs otherwise; if the review is good (which is something you want), those will be the places where the author summarizes their biggest grievances. See if the criticism exposes aspects that are deal-breakers to you. If it doesn't, proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Compare to the source material.
Check out if the show is based on a manga and what the manga's rating is. Sometimes the adaptations are better, but more often they're worse, even catastrophically worse. If the manga is rated significantly higher than its anime adaptation, this is a strong indicator that the adaptation isn't that good. Some notable examples are Berserk and Gantz. If reviews for the anime aren't convincing, you can also see if reviews for the manga are any better in this regard.
See if the adaptation is complete: one volume of manga is typically adapted into roughly 50–100 minutes of screentime. Anything less is a strong indicator of content cuts or an incomplete adaptation, anything more suggests poor pacing or presence of filler episodes. This is not necessarily an indictment, but in many cases it means you should pay more attention to the manga instead, or at least understand the differences if possible. Some series like Hajime no Ippo or Space Brothers are only adapted halfway or so.
Step 4: Wet your toes.
If you can't form a conclusive opinion based on the previous steps, or if there aren't any decent reviews, watch the first episode or two and see if they hook you. Any director worth their salt will try to put their best foot forward as soon as possible to ensure the audience keeps watching, so a couple episodes are well enough to gauge your interest and the show's quality in general (don't believe anyone who says otherwise), at least if you understand what you're looking at. In fact, you rarely ever need more than one—it's just that some shows deliberately try to confuse you with their first episode (Haruhi Suzumiya, Gakkougurashi and so on).
Occasionally, the first episode will be off-putting, but the fans will claim that it gets better afterwards and urge you to continue. While very rarely this is indeed the case, such as when the first episode is anime-original (see: Gintama), any glaring problems seen in the first episode almost always betray the lack of skill or experience of the chief director, and when we're talking about the shorter series (chief directors are rarely changed or fired after a few episodes), it's an indication that the general problems coming from director's shortcomings will persist even if the content itself gets better. Not every good show's first episode is strong, but almost none of them are weak.
That's it, have fun.
This is a general methodology that I'm using; feel free to tweak the variables to your taste if needed. Mine are reasonably lax for things that suit my taste, and are very much on the conservative side for anything I am not likely to enjoy.
Step 1: Filter by rating.
Find an anime that is not a sequel/continuation/side-story. Make sure the average rating is ≥6.6 for ones that premiered before 2009, and ≥6.9 for everything afterwards. Don't bother with anything below, let alone significantly so, unless you feel really adventurous or want to explore some avant-garde short films or music videos. The reason is that in 2009 the anime fandom skyrocketed thanks to the proliferation of simulcasts and exported TV airings, provoking a considerable influx of younger users for every year since. A significant portion of these users tend to only use 7–10 for shows they finish and prefer watching ongoing shows, not engaging strongly with older content, leading to a massive skew in average score towards newer content.
Read the synopsis and genre/theme list. Increase the score targets by 1.5 points (so ≥8.1 and ≥8.4 respectively) if they definitely fall outside your main area of interest; e.g. if you dislike or aren't interested in sports, magical girls, shounen ai, high school romcoms, etc. This is to ensure that if you don't like the show after all, it's not because it was incompetent in its presentation. Anything with a score higher than 8.4 that is not a sequel or a side-story should be a safe watch in terms of not being badly made.
Ignore the ratings of sequels, continuations, and side-stories entirely. More often than not they have higher rating because people who dislike the original story would not watch the sequel in the first place; the higher the overall audience drop-off, the higher proportion of the core audience remains with the show, and the core audience is obviously more inclined to rate it higher because it's invested more strongly.
Step 2: Look at the criticism among the reviews.
Find one or two longest reviews with an overall rating of 8 or below. Read them entirely unless it's explicitly stated that they contain spoilers; read the opening and closing paragraphs otherwise; if the review is good (which is something you want), those will be the places where the author summarizes their biggest grievances. See if the criticism exposes aspects that are deal-breakers to you. If it doesn't, proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Compare to the source material.
Check out if the show is based on a manga and what the manga's rating is. Sometimes the adaptations are better, but more often they're worse, even catastrophically worse. If the manga is rated significantly higher than its anime adaptation, this is a strong indicator that the adaptation isn't that good. Some notable examples are Berserk and Gantz. If reviews for the anime aren't convincing, you can also see if reviews for the manga are any better in this regard.
See if the adaptation is complete: one volume of manga is typically adapted into roughly 50–100 minutes of screentime. Anything less is a strong indicator of content cuts or an incomplete adaptation, anything more suggests poor pacing or presence of filler episodes. This is not necessarily an indictment, but in many cases it means you should pay more attention to the manga instead, or at least understand the differences if possible. Some series like Hajime no Ippo or Space Brothers are only adapted halfway or so.
Step 4: Wet your toes.
If you can't form a conclusive opinion based on the previous steps, or if there aren't any decent reviews, watch the first episode or two and see if they hook you. Any director worth their salt will try to put their best foot forward as soon as possible to ensure the audience keeps watching, so a couple episodes are well enough to gauge your interest and the show's quality in general (don't believe anyone who says otherwise), at least if you understand what you're looking at. In fact, you rarely ever need more than one—it's just that some shows deliberately try to confuse you with their first episode (Haruhi Suzumiya, Gakkougurashi and so on).
Occasionally, the first episode will be off-putting, but the fans will claim that it gets better afterwards and urge you to continue. While very rarely this is indeed the case, such as when the first episode is anime-original (see: Gintama), any glaring problems seen in the first episode almost always betray the lack of skill or experience of the chief director, and when we're talking about the shorter series (chief directors are rarely changed or fired after a few episodes), it's an indication that the general problems coming from director's shortcomings will persist even if the content itself gets better. Not every good show's first episode is strong, but almost none of them are weak.
That's it, have fun.
Posted by
moozooh
| Dec 24, 2016 2:55 PM |
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