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How Much Does a Show's Rating Mean to You When You Plan to Watch it?

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Jan 5, 9:35 PM
#1
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Jul 2024
8
Just curious about this. Assume it's a show you've never watched.
SaindaYesterday, 9:39 AM
Jan 5, 9:36 PM
#2
🍅 Tomato 🍅

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Feb 2020
103789
It means nothing to me. I don't care about its rating or popularity.

Most CGDCT/idol/all-female sports/ecchi gets a crap rating by a default, but I still like those type of shows. I don't care about other people's opinions.

SerafosYesterday, 1:51 AM
Jan 5, 9:45 PM
#3

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Dec 2024
17
It just provide a quick snapshot of how a show is received. There are plenty of low rated shows that I enjoy. At the end of the day, ratings are just opinions from others and your personal enjoyment is what matters most.
Jan 5, 9:49 PM
#4

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May 2019
8172
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, numbers are arbitrary.
Jan 5, 9:58 PM
#5

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May 2018
992
I guess I'm in the minority then... I do use the average rating as a general gauge for how "likable" the anime is. Of course, there are hugely popular (highly rated) anime that I thought were terrible, and objectively "average" or bad anime that I have enjoyed. So, it's not the end all be all.

Actually something I rely on a lot more is my "friends'" ratings that you can find under the stats of an anime... particularly, those of users who I know have a very similar taste to mine.
can't yuck my yum




Jan 5, 10:06 PM
#6

Offline
Feb 2014
1946
Only in very broad strokes:

  • If it has less than 6 on MAL, it's something you can consider either objectively bad or just old (No idea why, but there's a recency bias here).
  • If it has less than a 7 I watch it with the mindset that there might be a flaw in it that means a lot for some people.
  • If it has an 8 or more, it just tells me that there is a community consensus of that that anime being good.
  • If the sequel has a lower score than the original, it REALLY fucked up.


As for some recent examples of mine:

  • Kokkoku being very close to a 7 (6.98 right now) was one reason for me to give it a chance, due to the way people talked about it in 2018 ("Blablabla OP is good, anime is bad") made me think it had a bad score here on MAL.
  • 16bit Sensation: Another Layer 6.90 (Nice) made me think it would've been a very "simple" and straightforward anime, but apparently that score is because it WASN'T that (I ended up giving it a 9, BTW).
  • Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers TERRIBLE 6.29 made me think "Oh no, it fucked up big time somewhere, didn't it?" because some of my first impressions of it made me think that it's the type of anime that should have a strong following.
Jan 5, 10:12 PM
#7

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Aug 2011
1020
A very high score might make me curious enough about something to at least check it out. I mean, why not? Best case, I find a new anime to love, and worst case, I waste the small amount of time time it would take to watch 1-2 episodes. I have nothing to lose.

I pay some attention when the score is especially low, too. I've yet to find a single anime that was truly worth watching, for me at least, that had a score below 6.4ish, so I would hesitate to watch something in that range, unless there was something about it that made me think I'd enjoy it more than the average viewer. Experience has taught me that it's rarely worth it, and there's usually a very good reason that a particular anime is disliked by most viewers.
palm-treeJan 5, 10:17 PM
Jan 5, 10:13 PM
#8

Offline
Feb 2014
1946
TL;DR: Just know that MAL has a negativity bias towards three things:

  • Ecchi
  • 3DCG (Well, non-standard animation in general)
  • Old anime


Kemono Friends score in the first weeks was a 4.
A fucking 4.
Jan 5, 10:20 PM
#9

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Jul 2021
1704
It's useful to gauge the general opinion of a title at a glance but more useful is the review ratio of recommended:mixed:not recommended. It can sometimes help me decide if I should watch something or not, but it's not all I take into consideration for this purpose.
Jan 5, 10:45 PM

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May 2021
584
In general I'd say it basically means nothing to me. It is kinda nice to have for looking back after watching a show. Can compare my arbitrary number of enjoyment to the 1-10 number that MAL gave it.

palm-tree said:
I've yet to find a single anime that was truly worth watching, for me at least, that had a score below 6.4ish, so I would hesitate to watch something in that range, unless there was something about it that made me think I'd enjoy it more than the average viewer.
This is a pretty strong vibe check as well. Anything sub 6.4 usually does something to earn that score. Doesn't really mean anything specific... Just a temperature read.
Jan 5, 11:21 PM

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May 2019
2041
To me it's just a generalization of audience reception towards it. But I also used it as the gauge or estimate for how much should I expect out of it.
                                                                   


Jan 5, 11:57 PM

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Sep 2014
2053
there have been many times i've disagreed with the 'popular' opinion on something, so ratings mean very little to me, to be honest. i read synopses to see if things sound appealing to my tastes, but either way i try not to set expectations before going into anything rly.




/ᐠ - ˕-マ。˚ᶻ 𝗓

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Yesterday, 12:12 AM
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Feb 2024
170
Generally I find the rating only matters to me if it's really low. 3 to a 4 range or below. Beyond that I've enjoyed plenty of shows in the 5 - 7 range that I reckon, were rated harsher than they deserved.
Yesterday, 1:06 AM

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Feb 2022
780
Nothing, if it's something about i love like incest then I can watch or read anything. I've even watched pupa for that and it's rated 3

I do look at rating if I get general recommendations like some comedy, then I do check the rating.
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Yesterday, 1:13 AM

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Sep 2018
4580
If anything catches my interest like the genre, synopsis, the animation staff, someone's recommendation, etc. I don't care about the score at all.

If nothing seems to interest me, then the score can make the difference between "well, I might try watching one episode" (>7.50), "maybe I'll watch it, unless it's extremely generic" (7.00-7.50) and "skip" (<7.00).

Anyways, remember that scores need to be interpreted and that score progression might be even more important. Let's compare two anime belonging to the same genres from last year: Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan, despite an extremely negative reception, is still somehow rated higher than Puniru wa Kawaii Slime that received very positive reception (that was the reason I watched it even if it wasn't on my radar at first). The difference is that the former went from 8.1x to 7.03 while it was airing, the latter from 6.3x to 7.00.
Yesterday, 1:41 AM
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Oct 2018
67
Short answer it doesn't, long answer it doesn't consciously. For the most part I don't check a show on here before deciding to watch it, I tend to decide what I'm going to watch from the promo poster and blurb, or the tried and true method of just hitting a character on the keyboard and seeing what's on screen ^_~.

MAL ratings are a curious thing, because there's so much inflation in them, so much stuff which is just bang average rates in the 7s, and yet, because there's so much inflation, if you see something with a score around 5, then it's probably fair to assume it's pretty bad, rather than middling... or just look at the Top 10 of all time... 1/3 of it is Gintama >_>
Yesterday, 2:02 AM

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Dec 2021
941
A low score (less than 7) only makes me curious about its flaws. But generally ratings does not affect my interest or disinterest.

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓾𝓻𝓪
𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓸𝓶𝓸𝓽𝓸
Yesterday, 2:14 AM

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Apr 2012
3399
If I'm ready to watch it, then it's irrelevant because that means I have decided to watch it, and the only importance such things have is as a piece of information which may be useful for deciding what to watch.
Yesterday, 2:20 AM
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Oct 2018
24
I don't watch anything below 6. I have an average taste like general audience so I tend to use rating to consider whether I want to watch it or not.

While rating can't be the accurate measurements whether the show is good or not, but I believe it can gauge if the show is really bad.
Yesterday, 2:28 AM

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May 2024
11

If the score is low, then I won't have high expectations, but that doesn't mean I won't give it a try.

Especially if I was already planning to watch it, I won't pay much attention to the rating.
Yesterday, 2:45 AM

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Jan 2021
5671
If I have already decided to watch it then there is no point in thinking about the ratings.
If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then its not a waste of time.

Yesterday, 3:01 AM

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Apr 2024
712
I don't even look at the rating before I watch it. Or after.
Couldn't care less.

Yesterday, 3:04 AM

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Oct 2017
4291
Varied, the rating depends a lot on the popularity, and year it came out in. Still MAL scores, aren't completely useless, you just have to adjust for context. Still if the premise is good enough, I can ignore the score completely.
Yesterday, 3:26 AM
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Sep 2023
93
not much, the recency bias in ratings is really, really bad. something with a high rating which is more than 10 years old is usually good, but 8+s from the last few seasons are mostly meaningless for my tastes.
Yesterday, 6:01 AM

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Jul 2021
8655
It's like kind of a red flag when the score starts with a 5, but not a deal breaker.
Cucumber ice cream is the best!
Yesterday, 6:18 AM
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Dec 2018
39
None to be honest, I pretty much just watch what I want regardless of rating in here. Specially when you take into account that older stuff mostly gets the shaft in rating here due to recency bias
Yesterday, 7:18 AM

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Feb 2020
3
Not much. I do more research about anime if its score seems too low or too high. I don't care about score if I already find anime interesting enough.
Yesterday, 7:41 AM

Online
May 2017
77
MAL scores generally set my expectations for things to be bad more than they can for them to be good. People find all different kinds of things interesting and all different kinds of series can be great experiences for different people, so there's not necessarily that much chance of me agreeing with the positive consensus on a work. The causes of things being considered bad experiences are more likely to be in common between people, so a series rated badly is one I'm more likely to find bad, but I'm usually not going to go out of my way to watch anything generally considered to be bad anyway when there are so many good things to see.

I have committed to watching all the mainline Gundam series and films and I am interested to see how my ratings line up with the average ratings for each. So far I've liked Witch from Mercury more than the average, the original series slightly less, and Zeta a lot less. I'm only about 25% of the way through ZZ and my provisional rating would be about what the current average score is.
"The suburbs dream of violence. Asleep in their drowsy villas, sheltered by benevolent shopping malls, they wait patiently for the nightmares that will wake them into a more passionate world." - JG Ballard, Kingdom Come (2006)
Yesterday, 7:48 AM

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Oct 2021
619
Who cares about the rating? Reading the synopsis of a show, listening to the OP, maybe even seeing the trailer... These are the things I'm looking for before I consider watching it.
Yesterday, 8:05 AM

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Oct 2022
1487
Prettymuch nothing because the ratings rarely reflect the experience I have. If it's 3.85 it's probably bad in some way, but very entertaining.
If it's 9.32 it's boring as hell... so the ratings are worthless
Yesterday, 8:10 AM

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Jan 2021
1907
I guess I am more curious about high-rated shows and why they are rated that way.
Yesterday, 8:26 AM

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Sep 2018
11756
I love ecchi so I realize my fav genre gets review bombed by certain demographics. As a result, high ratings are just corporately safe while lower ratings tend to be more different. I ignore scores, and think demographics matter much more.
Yesterday, 8:35 AM

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Dec 2022
5347
Not one jot. Of all the possible metrics for assessing the quality of a series, it's difficult to conceive of any more worthless than MAL scores.


╔⏤═⏤╝ ╚⏤═⏤╗
Shaded Horizon


Yesterday, 8:44 AM
Offline
Feb 2014
4257
If i have already decided to watch it then why would i care about the rating or popularity of it?

I have watched more highly rated anime that i considered either boring, bad or downright abominable trash than having watched low rated anime that deserved their rating or even worse.

So ratings or popularity of an anime on listing sites such as MAL don't really mean anything to me as my taste doesn't usually align with the general consensuous.





My Shoujo, Josei and Female targeted anime adaptations starting from 2017+ stacks:

Part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9181
Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9195
Part 3: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9225
Part 4: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9280
Yesterday, 9:06 AM

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Jul 2013
6832
These ratings don't matter one bit. Why would it even matter tbh?
Yesterday, 9:32 AM

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Feb 2024
218
It is impossible to deny that a good show has quite high ratings. I understand that anime can be overrated or underrated. Subjective opinion also plays a role here. But overall I look at the rating
Yesterday, 10:16 AM

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Jul 2021
1668
It means a fair amount to me.

But I still combine that number with other points of data to make sense of it. Like what genre it is, how old it is, how famous/infamous it is, whether it's a sequel, etc.

And I'm still at only 200 shows/movies completed, so it's not like I'm close to running out of interesting 8.00+ shows to watch...

I definitely ignore sub-6.00 shows, though, without even a glance.
Yesterday, 10:51 AM

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Sep 2016
11718
Quite a bit, shows above score 8 are usually safe picks.
DesuMaiden said:
Nobody resembles me physically because I don't even physically exist.
Yesterday, 2:09 PM

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Aug 2018
8413
Reply to Zarutaku
Quite a bit, shows above score 8 are usually safe picks.
@Zarutaku

I agree, but in reverse. Shows rated 6 and below are probably not great.
Yesterday, 6:13 PM

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Apr 2019
14
I don't think there was a single time where the score/ratings influenced whether or not I'm going to watch anything not just an anime. If I find it interesting I will check it out myself regardless of anything else. It is interesting to check reviews and such after watching a show though as some of them make for rather entertaining reads.
Yesterday, 6:24 PM

Offline
Apr 2019
4628
Depends on the rating's source. MAL ratings mean nothing, IMDB and anidb.net a little more. I sometimes fundamentally disagree with ratings on MAL, especially for recent shows.
inimYesterday, 6:40 PM

Yesterday, 8:06 PM

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Aug 2010
2468
If it's the usual TV series, I do consider it a bit. I'd be more cautious of anything scored below 7.

I don't look at scores of short anime or ongoing series.
10 hours ago

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Jan 2023
2454
It doesn't matter to me at all because I never watch an anime rating before watching it.
I only take a peek at it out of curiosity once I'm done watching it :)
10 hours ago
Offline
Jan 2021
529
Literally zero. I don't even check, nor care about, ratings. Only genre and themes matters to me.
7 hours ago

Offline
Sep 2016
11718
Reply to epidemia78
@Zarutaku

I agree, but in reverse. Shows rated 6 and below are probably not great.
@epidemia78 Depends, if it's low rated and unpopular then it's probably lame, but if it's low rated and decently popular, then it's often a controversial show, and these tend to be fairly entertaining.
DesuMaiden said:
Nobody resembles me physically because I don't even physically exist.
5 hours ago

Online
Mar 2012
8205
It means nothing, I will still give it a shot no matter how low it's rated if the synopsis or genres/themes interest me.

あんたの還る場所は何処だ
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あなたの許です
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