Just like I do anything else - I just rate by the vague concept of enjoyment :P Anime as a whole can be entertaining in a variety of different ways, and the same applies to ecchi.
Though how much I liked the ecchi itself plays a pretty big part to me as well, of course. Though there's a lot of different ways for an ecchi to be an ecchi, some more subtle than others - can look at DxD and how it rarely goes past showcasing a single girl at a time and focusing on elements like exposure at that. It makes it more accessible and easy to consume than something more scenario driven that focuses on a lot of group shots involving multiple girls at once like TLR does because it's still emphasizing it enough to make it prominent without the same potential for an overflow as well as using it to accentuate the characters individually in most cases as opposed to just being more straight-up about being sexually charged.
I do prefer TLR's scenario-driven, comparatively more group-shot mentality mind you, and just because it doesn't focus on individual characters as much it still uses it to accentuate their appeal really well, but if you really want to dig deeper into differences between ecchi these little things can kind of pile up in terms of what it does and how it does it.
There's also stuff like, say, Sankarea - in the opening part, Rea stumbles and as a result the MC sees her panties. While this could be chalked up to an average fanservice cliche if you look at it in a way that's surface level, how they frame the event happening is more in line with using it to sort of humanize a character that, up until that point, had been presented primarily as this perfect idol-type character. That alongside other elements to her introduction is meant to sort of break that barrier down, and it shows in how it doesn't necessarily focus on the panties themselves as much as the act of falling and her embarrassed reaction afterwards. Simply having something that can be interpreted as being such an element isn't really enough for it to be counted as ecchi, the end goal can generally be further interpreted as what gets the more focus. In the typical anime fall, are they focusing more on the hand landing on the breast and the sort of motion it makes as its being squeezed, or are they just focusing on the fact the fall happened? How long does it last, how much do they focus on the reaction afterwards, so on and so forth.
In the same vein, there's camerawork and the role it plays. Could be like certain areas in Shokugeki where Niku is cooking and they'll position the camera in a way viewing upwards between her legs as she's cooking (ironically this was one of the more fanservicey scenes in that anime and it is the exact thing people complain about and yet its still hoisted as this "how to do an ecchi" because there's a couple of foodgasm scenes that can be interpreted as such, but I digress) but the way they frame shots and how they use it to bring these elements to the forefront is also something that matters a lot. Imaishi's fanservice scenes tend to neglect that and focus primarily on movement, too, if you look at some of the areas in KLK that can be interpreted as much they tend to be very, very emphasizing the movement of these parts and the camerawork tends to be mediocre at best. Which is another way you can do it, but it's definitely not in the school of thought I'd say I support and simply framing a still shot well can draw out a much more sexualized response and simply emphasizing the animation more isn't going to be able to elicit that same level of response in most cases because, well, if you don't angle it well then it's still not really utilizing the ecchi shot itself to the fullest, no matter how much you try to compensate through animation.
Just a few basic things to take into consideration, I guess. I didn't really go too deep into any of them, was more meant to be an overhead, but ye. Ultimately those are some of the more mechanical aspects, for those who are interested in such a thing. |