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Why Do So Many People Have Mean Scores Below 6?

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Dec 8, 9:18 PM
#1
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May 2025
38
Why watch so many anime that you dislike? Just drop it if you dislike it as it is masochistic to do something you dislike, especially when it is entertainment.
Dec 8, 9:22 PM
#2

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Apr 2015
3777
I feel like we get this thread almost every week now.
"Well, she's flatter than a pancake"
-Mimi Alpacas
Dec 8, 9:28 PM
#3

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Apr 2021
336
So he says with a 5.17 mean score, are you just wanting to tell us you're a masochist?

Going through your list, damn, look at all the trash you've watched and completed, mods, just go ahead and delete this thread.
Dec 8, 9:32 PM
#4

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Apr 2010
430
Let me ask you in turn, why do you care.

For a real answer, because 5.5 is the average score on a scale from 1 to 10, so if you watch enough stuff with decent variety and care about consistency and intellectual honesty with your ratings that's a natural ballpark of where your averaged score should be.
Dec 8, 9:53 PM
#5

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Feb 2025
163
because 5 is the average, not seven

selfawarecorpse said:
Why watch so many anime that you dislike? Just drop it if you dislike it as it is masochistic to do something you dislike, especially when it is entertainment.

something i rated low can still be enjoyable eg. i enjoyed watching Classroom of the elite very much even though i have given it a 3
talkedDec 9, 5:39 AM
Dec 8, 9:57 PM
#6
Demon

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Mar 2024
345
Because they give anime mean scores
Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars. I've never even seen an eagle.
Dec 8, 10:07 PM
#7

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Apr 2010
430
Toooooooooohru said:
Because they give anime mean scores

I'm going to assume that's a pun and it's hilarious, cheers!
Dec 8, 10:20 PM
#8

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Feb 2014
5820
Because they're nice people, that's why the score of how mean they are is very low.
Dec 8, 10:42 PM
#9

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Apr 2020
3640
Because some Anime shows only start to suck at 2/3 of the show, after the viewers' had already invested so much time on it. At least for me, that tends to be the reason I give low ratings. Some shows pull a business move and suddenly rush things up, after properly pacing everything that came before.
Dec 8, 10:43 PM

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Jun 2017
3154
They just want to annoy people who care about other people's scores.
Guess what: it works.

Dec 8, 10:44 PM

Online
Jul 2022
314
my mean score is 8.52, i guess i just likes anime
"JJK and CSM fan that loves watching movies"

Dec 8, 10:46 PM

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Jun 2015
4398
Because we're not children. You'll understand when you're older.
Dec 9, 12:44 AM

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May 2018
12560
"Why Do So Many People Have Mean Scores Below 6?"

Can't talk about others, but 5/10 is actually pretty watchable in my book. I enjoy mid stuff...and this is what anime industry provides me with most of the time.
Or you can call me "hard marker" or something.
Dec 9, 1:04 AM

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Nov 2021
1032
I rate based on the enjoyment i get from each series.
Dec 9, 1:08 AM

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Jul 2009
90
There's no one answer, and most of the time it's not really a problem (after all 5.0 is average, out of 10). There's a couple of accounts that run around giving 1s and biased negative reviews to everything they find "problematic" or whatever, while boosting other shows with 10s, but those are few and far between, and are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
It all evens out with how big the user base is.
Dec 9, 1:18 AM

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Sep 2018
5507
Because the line between "barely watchable, I won't drop it" and "watching it is too painful, I'll drop it" isn't the same for everyone. For some people it's between 7 and 8, for some others between 2 and 3.
Dec 9, 1:45 AM

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Jan 2020
1245
I think they torture themselves into watching bad shows a lot, which kinda justifies the reason why their mean score end up being lower than expected. Not many of them would do the "3-episode rule" so when the anime didn't get a lot better, their disappointment hits even harder.

As for me, my mean score is 7.13 so I'm satisfied with what anime I liked and enjoyed watching.
Dec 9, 1:52 AM

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Jun 2012
262
On this website, a 5 means "average" which imo is basically "watchable" tier anime that isn't really good or bad, but holds your interest enough to watch it which means they don't dislike it at least.

If they had means scores of 4 or below that's when I'd really start wondering if they're a masochist lol... although some people do enjoy watching trash just to laugh at it too even if they acknowledge it's trash after the fact.

Take for example something like Henkei Shoujo, do you think anyone watches that because it's good?
Dec 9, 1:55 AM

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Feb 2025
861
Because everyone’s rating system is different, and everyone has different tastes.
Dec 9, 1:57 AM

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Oct 2019
6900
Short answer: They are generally harsher with scores.

Long Answer: Some of them enjoy the shows they rate lowly and just think most things they watch are bad "objectively" and some of them hate most of what they are watching, but care so much about the few shows that do land on a 8-10 for them, that they are willing to sit through dozens of things they hate just to find those rare few gems.

I do wonder though, since most people like that have seen a lot of anime, you would think after a long while you get a decent idea of what your taste is.

Like, I generally have a pretty decent idea of how much I'm going to like something before going into it.
Dec 9, 2:05 AM

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Oct 2019
6900
Reply to aweebwhoexists
On this website, a 5 means "average" which imo is basically "watchable" tier anime that isn't really good or bad, but holds your interest enough to watch it which means they don't dislike it at least.

If they had means scores of 4 or below that's when I'd really start wondering if they're a masochist lol... although some people do enjoy watching trash just to laugh at it too even if they acknowledge it's trash after the fact.

Take for example something like Henkei Shoujo, do you think anyone watches that because it's good?
@aweebwhoexists

Not that I disagree with you, but I do think it makes more sense for someone's average score to be at least a 6.

Cause think about it, 5 is not the average of everything you have seen, it's average... in general, watchable, fine, ok, as you said it yourself.


What I'm saying is, 5 would only be the average of the list, if you watched an equal amount of anime that are better and worse than watchable... but most people seek good shows far more than average or bad ones.

So unless you are an avid bad media enjoyer, or are REALLY bad at telling how good something is before watching it, your average score should probably be above a 5.
Dec 9, 2:13 AM

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Apr 2024
1556
Don't think of scores in absolute numbers. Think of them as relative to the mean.

So if you give a 8/10, but your mean is 7, the real score for that show is +1.
If I give a 8/10, but my mean is 5, my real score is +3.




This means someone with a lower mean likes an 8/10 show a lot more than someone with a higher mean.


APolygons2 said:
So unless you are an avid bad media enjoyer, or are REALLY bad at telling how good something is before watching it, your average score should probably be above a 5.
It's the other way around. Whenever I found a show that is better than 10/10 I had to push everything else down.
TransferUserDec 9, 2:19 AM
Dec 9, 2:18 AM
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Oct 2019
3196
I don't dislike anime at all. I love it my mean score is below 5 so that my 8-9-10 shine in my list. Few of them the better.
Dec 9, 2:19 AM
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Oct 2019
3196
Reply to TransferUser
Don't think of scores in absolute numbers. Think of them as relative to the mean.

So if you give a 8/10, but your mean is 7, the real score for that show is +1.
If I give a 8/10, but my mean is 5, my real score is +3.




This means someone with a lower mean likes an 8/10 show a lot more than someone with a higher mean.


APolygons2 said:
So unless you are an avid bad media enjoyer, or are REALLY bad at telling how good something is before watching it, your average score should probably be above a 5.
It's the other way around. Whenever I found a show that is better than 10/10 I had to push everything else down.
@TransferUser finally someone who understands this. Seem we are few around here.
Dec 9, 2:21 AM
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Oct 2019
3196
Reply to APolygons2
@aweebwhoexists

Not that I disagree with you, but I do think it makes more sense for someone's average score to be at least a 6.

Cause think about it, 5 is not the average of everything you have seen, it's average... in general, watchable, fine, ok, as you said it yourself.


What I'm saying is, 5 would only be the average of the list, if you watched an equal amount of anime that are better and worse than watchable... but most people seek good shows far more than average or bad ones.

So unless you are an avid bad media enjoyer, or are REALLY bad at telling how good something is before watching it, your average score should probably be above a 5.
@APolygons2 unless you want your high score to shine and for that it means everything below.
Dec 9, 2:32 AM

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Jun 2016
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selfawarecorpse said:
Just drop it if you dislike it

I still have to rate it if I drop though.
MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST
Dec 9, 2:33 AM

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Apr 2020
4054
Because they're free do dislike stuff, even if it's entertainment.
Dec 9, 2:35 AM
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Nov 2022
267
My mean score is 6.23, some shows I’ve rated as a 4-5 and out of those I’ll go and rewatch because they’re fun to watch despite not being “peak” anime as it were.
Dec 9, 3:03 AM

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Sep 2013
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Create a ranking about most popular topics on MAL, and I can already see this in top 5, most likely.
Dec 9, 3:52 AM

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6900
Otakupervert890 said:
@APolygons2 unless you want your high score to shine and for that it means everything below.


TransferUser said:
It's the other way around. Whenever I found a show that is better than 10/10 I had to push everything else down.


Huh, that's actually interesting to me cause one of my close friend always says the exact same thing, but I kinda don't get this.

Maybe I'm just too nerd brained, but the way I see it, it makes no sense for the adjustments to ever be that big.

if 5 is average, and anything below is subpar, it makes no sense for the show you consider "great" to ever get to that point. The way you go about finding a new best, or new worst, is making every score, have a larger gap of quality.

Let me fully nerd out for a second.

If you find a show that is an entire score above what you previously considered a perfect 10, so, if you have an 11/10.... sure, you would have to decrease the score of everything else to match it, but it would still not be by an entire point.

an entire point from the new 11/10, while still using 10 numbers, is 10% of 11....

which brings down the initial value to a 9.9, which means every time you do it, you are losing 0.1 worth of score on every single thing that you have rated, making your rankings go down for no reason...

and that is IF the new 10 is an entire score above your last 10. realistically, finding something that is a whole level above the best thing you have ever seen, is going to be damn near impossible.

so in a more realistic setting, your new best 10, is only a little better than your old best 10, which means you're more likely to be losing a lot more than just 0.1 score value every time you do it.

I mean think about it this way, if you just decrease the score of everything by one every time you get a new best 10, what do you do with your 1s?

The range of quality in your 1s is going to get WAY too big if you do that a few times.

So in conclusion....


I have to find a better hobby than thinking this hard about anime ratings.....
APolygons2Dec 9, 3:55 AM
Dec 9, 4:08 AM

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Apr 2024
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APolygons2 said:
realistically, finding something that is a whole level above the best thing you have ever seen, is going to be damn near impossible.


Over the past 20 years it happened to me a few times. Two times I bothered to adjust all my ratings.
If you watch enough anime you'll eventually encounter this. Especially if you start watching at a young age.


APolygons2 said:
if you just decrease the score of everything by one every time you get a new best 10, what do you do with your 1s?


Does it matter? I like to differentiate between good anime, but I don't feel a need to differentiate that much between bad anime. Also, when I did the adjusting the first time I had a big hole in my ratings between 3 and 6 where basically nothing was, so I stopped adjusting when reaching this hole.
Dec 9, 4:08 AM
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Oct 2019
3196
Reply to APolygons2
Otakupervert890 said:
@APolygons2 unless you want your high score to shine and for that it means everything below.


TransferUser said:
It's the other way around. Whenever I found a show that is better than 10/10 I had to push everything else down.


Huh, that's actually interesting to me cause one of my close friend always says the exact same thing, but I kinda don't get this.

Maybe I'm just too nerd brained, but the way I see it, it makes no sense for the adjustments to ever be that big.

if 5 is average, and anything below is subpar, it makes no sense for the show you consider "great" to ever get to that point. The way you go about finding a new best, or new worst, is making every score, have a larger gap of quality.

Let me fully nerd out for a second.

If you find a show that is an entire score above what you previously considered a perfect 10, so, if you have an 11/10.... sure, you would have to decrease the score of everything else to match it, but it would still not be by an entire point.

an entire point from the new 11/10, while still using 10 numbers, is 10% of 11....

which brings down the initial value to a 9.9, which means every time you do it, you are losing 0.1 worth of score on every single thing that you have rated, making your rankings go down for no reason...

and that is IF the new 10 is an entire score above your last 10. realistically, finding something that is a whole level above the best thing you have ever seen, is going to be damn near impossible.

so in a more realistic setting, your new best 10, is only a little better than your old best 10, which means you're more likely to be losing a lot more than just 0.1 score value every time you do it.

I mean think about it this way, if you just decrease the score of everything by one every time you get a new best 10, what do you do with your 1s?

The range of quality in your 1s is going to get WAY too big if you do that a few times.

So in conclusion....


I have to find a better hobby than thinking this hard about anime ratings.....
@APolygons2 yeah you go way to hard. My point was more that because I have a mean of 4.96 shows put in either 6-9 or 1-4 range are defined by the 5. Thus leaving few 10 whole reason I am at 2% so a system like that with just 2-3% of 8-9-10 give value to them by how big the gap is from the mean. Which could also be represented by the shows rated at 5.
Dec 9, 4:16 AM

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Apr 2019
1212
Because they don't have anything better to do.

I mean, you could be spending time with your friends, family, relationship, doing other hobbies, gaming, making money.

Yet you still deliberately choose to spend time consuming average stuff. Well, I guess it's understandable if it's the only hobby you have.

If I were to rate and finish all my dropped shows, my mean score would probably be below 5, but that's a big waste of time.

Dec 9, 4:27 AM
Deez

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Jul 2021
282
Haters gonna hate, I like liking things
Dec 9, 11:34 AM

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Sep 2016
23611
OP itself has a mean score below 6 ... great irony
*kappa*
Dec 9, 6:38 PM

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Jan 2021
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I thought of making a serious reply, but as noted by other users, OP himself has a mean score of below 6.
Dec 9, 6:55 PM

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Jul 2021
11273
Dude, if you drop something you will still have it in the drop list, and it'll pull your average down.
Dec 9, 7:00 PM
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Nov 2025
151
People policing other people's lists is kinda cringe, don't you think?
Dec 9, 7:06 PM

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Oct 2023
97
5 being labeled "average" is not "an average anime" it's "average enjoyment". Not good not bad just average between 1 and 10.

Otherwise, average anime 2020-2025 is lower quality than 2010-2019 which is lower quality than 2000-2009 which is higher quality than 1990-1999 which was higher quality than 1980-1989 and ()-1979 has too few to matter. Which average is the average?
If the average is something not decided by the best era, rather it is the average of all anime, how are you going to retroactively score already scored anime to reflect the new average?
No reasonable person is going to.

Imo scoring should be how far from being a masterpiece something is. A masterpiece, not the masterpiece.
Dec 11, 3:30 PM
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Apr 2017
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They like to torture themselves. If the anime is a 5 for me, I just dropped it. I almost never have anime at 5 since I usually just dropped it or just don't put it in my list.
Dec 11, 4:06 PM

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Feb 2016
2786
Is this really a mystery in 2025? it's extremely easy to understand.

It's easier to enjoy good anime if you broaden your horizons, specially when it comes to bad anime, as you'll start appreciating actual good storylines a lot more. It's called having standards.

Plus I can't really see what's the issue of spending 24 minutes of your life every week "watching something you hate" all media is supposed to be consumed to form your own mindset and taste, if you just avoid shows you don't like or hate, you're never going to improve your taste.
"We could make the world better, but it's easier to just shut our eyes."
~Blackwall
Dec 11, 4:37 PM

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Oct 2020
406
OP is right. I gotta change some of my scores so my average for anime and manga is a perfect 6.9, because the funny meme number is a funny meme number
Dec 11, 4:46 PM

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Mar 2019
945
Well my mean is 6.8 something and rising but that's because I only watch things that I think I will like. And after years of watching I'm usually right. Now if I forced myself to watch everything then my mean would be a lot lower for sure.
Dec 12, 2:10 PM

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Jul 2023
678
My current mean is 6.22 which I think is fair

Rounding that down to a 6, a 6 would be "average", which is about how I rate anime.

A 7 is good but either heavily flawed or something I think is only slightly better than average

You can go up to 10 accordingly

5 is mediocre, not BAD but below average

4 is where I start calling the anime "bad"

You can go down to 1 accordingly on levels of how intolerable it is
Dec 12, 2:25 PM

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Feb 2021
349
because even if you drop something you can still rate it, it’s not rlly that complicated
bam

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