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Sep 7, 2021 8:49 AM
#1

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From a rational viewpoint, the title shouldn't be true, since the middle is 5.5 and both 1 and 10 are equally as far apart from 5.5 according to absolute magnitude.

But, according to MAL statistics, only a small percentage of people are actually using 1/10, in comparison to 10/10. There's also the fact that the mean of MAL is closer to 10 than 1, and people are quick to call out how others always use 7 as an average.
https://anime.plus/s/globals

So do people think that there are more 10/10s, or good anime for that matter, out there than 1/10s, or just bad anime? What are your thoughts?
NextUniverseSep 7, 2021 9:02 AM
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Sep 7, 2021 8:58 AM
#2

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the majority of people just don't wanna score with 1s, 2s, 3s for some reason but they're quick to give a 10/10 if the anime has a cool chick with over 5000 pics on gelbooru (for example)
Sep 7, 2021 9:10 AM
#3

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Apr 2021
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The most logical explanation would be that most people don't continue watching an anime they find absolutely terrible and worthy of a 1.

No one bothers to score an anime they dropped after watching a single episode.
Sep 7, 2021 9:15 AM
#4

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Mar 2020
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My opinion is that the industry is more likely to produce something slightly above 5.5 than below 5.5.

They want people to like them and will attempt to make that happen so I feel 6-7 is where a majority of anime will fall.

It is likely why my average score is above 7. I screen my anime for things I will like and generally am content with what I end up watching. There are shitty ones for me in there. As time goes on it will likely slide down closer to a 7 as screening anime gets tougher.

None of it really matters it is my personal belief anyways.

Also I don't rate dropped anime since I don't finish them which will skew my score higher as well. I have better things to do then watch anime I don't like. Sometimes I see potential in a show so I stick with it. Or it just gets awful near the end so I watch the last couple episodes in hope it improves.
Sep 7, 2021 9:19 AM
#5

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I'm a bit tired of the ''7 is the average'' take, I get it it's the school system or whatever but I don't believe someone gives a 7 to something they thought was meh, at the start is always a bit difficult to rate because everything seems amazing but after some time people can easily differentiate it.

Now for the actual topic, I do think giving a 1 is way more extreme than giving a 10.
Sep 7, 2021 9:21 AM
#6
Ooga Booga

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Jul 2020
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A 10 gets thrown out quite often when you're hyped up after watching it or something like that, while rating something a 1 means that you couldnt find any enjoyment and every single aspect was terrible imo. That happens way less since most of the people can atleast find 'something' that wasnt completely utter shit and thus rate it a 2 or 3


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Sep 7, 2021 9:22 AM
#7

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Kuuhaku-Shirushi said:
Maybe it's more like people pick the ones they think they'll like, and it's usually a hit so the average mean score is 7ish? There are some tags I avoid because I know I very probably won't enjoy them. Same if the synopsis doesn't interest me/ if it creeps me out.

Also, if my mean score were 5.5, I'd think twice if I'd even want to watch anime at that point.

I don't think I've given a 1, 2, or 3 score. I haven't watched anything that I think deserves that score unless I'm exaggerating or use a different scale than MAL's default. But I have given some 9s and a few 10s.
Completely agree with those points, especially the last two
Sep 7, 2021 9:23 AM
#8

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May 2019
2279
To each their own I guess. I don't really care that much about what is the average score that is acceptable. Just make your own system or beliefs to wisely give scores.

Sep 7, 2021 9:24 AM
#9
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Yes, because I believe 1/10 should be given to anime with no efforts or redeemable quality like Mars of destruction.

I've seen someone who literally gave code geass 1/10. What's more is that they didn't even drop it, instead they watched BOTH seasons and rated both 1/10. You can usually find these in the "overrated anime" threads.

I hated Mirai Nikki with passion but I still acknowledge something good out of it such as the voice acting and maybe the animation.
Sep 7, 2021 9:25 AM

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Apr 2019
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Not for me. There is far too much trash in the world.
Bleach is best consumed with your ears open and your eyes closed.
Sep 7, 2021 9:32 AM

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I believe so, at least in the context of how I assign ratings. While both a 1 and 10 should be hard to achieve, it makes sense to me that, unless you pick what to watch indiscriminately or seek out bad anime, a person is more likely to encounter what is for them a 10 than a 1 simply from choosing to watch what looks enjoyable.

Edit: Then again, my intuition is that if a person watches every anime then they are likely to have more 1s than 10s. In that sense 10 would be more extreme.
HalcyonSkySep 7, 2021 6:06 PM

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Sep 7, 2021 9:37 AM

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No according to Theo1899. I have way more 1s than 10s.
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Sep 7, 2021 9:39 AM

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Should it be?

Yes

Is it?

No, most mal users centre there scores around a 7 and not a 5
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Sep 7, 2021 9:51 AM

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2065
Yes I do think that 1 is a much more extreme score than 10. I just think that there are more good shows or at least, there are more shows that people are more likely to enjoy than there are bad shows. Yes, quality is subjective but I think a show has to jump through far more hoops to get a 1 with most people compared to a 10.
Sep 7, 2021 10:15 AM

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Jul 2017
2625
In most cases outside of MAL, a score of 1 and 10 are equal in extremity. Within MAL, a score of 1 does come across as more extreme than a score of 10, probably because there aren’t many MAL users who give out 1’s in general. I don’t think that there are more good anime than bad ones, but I do believe that the high mean scores may be because many viewers end up dropping anime that they don’t like and not rating them. Also, anime fans in general do seem to be quite lenient when scoring anime.
Sep 7, 2021 10:21 AM

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Jul 2012
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Unless you're truly picking entries to watch at random or purposefully seek out shows that you believe will be bad you should generally scale towards the positive end of the scoring system.
Because most people will have at least some buffer to gauge their personal taste/interest and most people will also lean towards shows they will more likely enjoy using their own personal metrics and as a result will tend to score them more positively.
Sep 7, 2021 10:29 AM
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NextUniverse said:
So do people think that there are more 10/10s, or good anime for that matter, out there than 1/10s, or just bad anime?

Yes, this is what I think, at least so far.
Sep 7, 2021 10:32 AM

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May 2021
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I think it's because people don't think any popular anime deserves a 1. Comparing it to other shows they've rated higher, it would be wrong to give it a 1 if the anime in question has something going for it. It can be anything, likable characters, beautiful animation, cute girls, or just one specific scene they liked. As long as it's not completely atrocious (like Ex-arm), because there was some type of effort put into the anime, even if the whole lot of it is trash, people feel a little guilty giving it a 1 (saying that it's appalling can then appear a bit extreme).

I also want to add that this probably only applies to people who want to be consistent with their ratings, meaning they rate the anime by comparing it to other anime they've watched and rated.
Sep 7, 2021 10:32 AM

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May 2015
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Most of us are not watching anime in order to add more suffering to our life so it is more likely that we choose shows we think we might like and enjoy and avoid those that seem to be utterly shitty ones. It is that simple.
IshitatesoSep 7, 2021 10:44 AM
Sep 7, 2021 10:41 AM
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on a literal level, no, because both are the opposite ends to the ratings spectrum, but to most people, who's rating system is not all that different from the terms MAL associates with 1-10, yes and that makes a lot of sense.

the reason for why that is logical in my opinion, has very little to do with there being more good anime or bad anime than the other, it's just the fact that people are more interested in good anime (obviously) and aim to search, try and watch shows that they believe are good, or will be good for them.

even if you base the rating of 5 that is supposed to be average (according to MAL) on what is the average show, it only makes sense that your average mean will be around 5 (or 5.5 as you say) and that 1s would be as likely as 10s, if you are a robot that chooses what to watch basically at random as if you're sampling anime.

i understand people who want to rate more critically and for sure there are many who rate very leniently (guilty as charged) but i always find this idea that your mean "should" be 5 on a logical basis and any arguments that relate to this, to be pretty fallacious, is it not perfectly normal to be quality oriented and aim to avoid both poorly made stuff and anime that is of average quality according to your standards, while seeking out and mostly watching stuff that could be better than that and good to you?

for this logic i think it makes sense to have a higher mean than the absolute average and to consider 1s as more extreme than 10s for scores given by most other users.
Sep 7, 2021 10:49 AM

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Mar 2021
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I don't really think so. It's easy to give a 1 to just any bad series, but if you know what you're doing, it takes a lot to give a show a 10.
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Sep 7, 2021 10:50 AM
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561791
Well, speaking from my perspective, a 1 is an extremely low score to give to any anime. It's pretty rare that I'll rate an anime that low. But if that's how I felt towards an anime, I would even bother watching it in the first place or I would delete it from my list. I'm often times baffled by the number of people who complete full series and give a one to them. I don't know if the writing dropped severely in quality for them towards the end or if they just suffered through it. It wouldn't make sense to me for them to completely watch a series that they had no enjoyment in.
Sep 7, 2021 10:55 AM

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I try to pick shows I think I might like, and therefore usually don't reach the point where I would want to give them a 1 (I've come close on a few occasions though).
That being sad, I know of a fair amount of anime I know I'll absolutely hate and want to give 1s, so I just stay away from them. I just don't want to waste my time on things I know I'll hate.
Sep 7, 2021 10:57 AM
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I would hope that 1s are less frequent than 10s. There are people and companies trying to make money off this stuff. Producing something viewers would consider a 1 would be a major failure, especially since anime is mostly just adaptations of manga. Like who would adapt a manga that everyone hated? There has to be some kind of sign the story would be enjoyable for these companies to even bother making them.
Sep 7, 2021 10:58 AM
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No. It's statistically inevitable that there are fewer works representing perfection (or close to it) or the peak of what the medium can achieve than those that are worthless or nearly zero-effort with both the size of the medium and the effort needing for top quality. The far greater amount of 10/10 scores compared to 1/10s does nothing but show how lenient some people are in their scoring.

As for the OP's question on if there's more good anime than bad, that's a no too for the same reason of quantity and the effort required for quality making it inevitable it'd follow Sturgeon's Law.

As for the whole "7 as an average" thing that got mentioned, it's stupid for reasons already stated. It's by no means the median between 1 and 10 and the site even gives a short description of what the numbers are meant to represent.
Sep 7, 2021 11:03 AM
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Not totally unrelated but most of the ones I see are usually given out because the show is popular and they get a feeling of false superiority by appearing to dislike it.
Let's be honest, there are very few animes that actually deserve a 1 and even fewer reviewers who genuinely believe it deserves that. It's mostly all just shock factor and stuff like that.
Sep 7, 2021 11:09 AM
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Mar 2021
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it is, because it's unusual for someone to finish an anime they would rate a 1. while it's true there's likely far more garbage than quality anime, people tend to seek out things they think they would like, and while disappointment sometimes ensues, a lot of people have a good sense based on previews/summaries/etc. whether an anime is something they would like. given that, it's not really a surprise 10s are common and 1s are not. the incentive to watch what COULD be a 10 is far higher than the incentive to watch something with nearly visible stink lines coming off it.

it doesn't mean necessarily that people are being too soft in their ratings - life is too short for some people to consider touching the poop.
Sep 7, 2021 11:19 AM
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Violet42 said:
it is, because it's unusual for someone to finish an anime they would rate a 1.
That's assuming they wait until finishing a series to rate it as a 1 as opposed to rating them when dropping them. There's also the scenario of realising a work they used to like was awful when becoming more critically aware or changing their tastes with age, as well as the premise they were given to check out the series being betrayed/misleading. Overall, there's far more reasons for people checking out a work they conclude is a 1/10 than you're implying.
Sep 7, 2021 11:21 AM
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I think there are less chances of giving 1s than giving 10s in anime
Sep 7, 2021 11:31 AM

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Yes cause most of the ones people gives genuinely don't deserve it. Good animation alone automatically puts the score higher then a 2. (take god of highschool for example)

Now people can give tens way more openly though. For example, I gave No Game No Life a ten. Is it really? No. But I'm so bias and love the show so much to the point where I give it a ten.

95% of the shows that people give 1s aren't even ones. And 60% of the people who give shows 10s aren't ones either. So I'll say yes, it is more extreme.




Sep 7, 2021 11:32 AM

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I think I read somewhere that we don't subconsciously think 5 as the average number. We think 7 as the average. This explains skewness in scores.

Anime was it's best 20000 years ago, when cavemen drew art with real depth.
Modern anime is all garbage. I miss great old days of anime.
Sep 7, 2021 11:40 AM
Bβ˜…RS

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Yes, because giving a 1 to a show should only be reserved for ones that legit deserve it, like bottom barrel trash piles. Thankfully, there are not a lot of those kinds of shows. At least not ones that do try to be bottom of the barrel.
Sep 7, 2021 11:45 AM

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There are a few anime that deserve 10/10 ... but theres only 1 show that truly deserves 1/10 and thats Mirai Nikki
Sep 7, 2021 11:48 AM

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I think a 1/10 means that something has 0 redeeming qualities, so I think it's way more extreme
Sep 7, 2021 11:53 AM
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OmegaOtaku said:
Yes, because giving a 1 to a show should only be reserved for ones that legit deserve it, like bottom barrel trash piles. Thankfully, there are not a lot of those kinds of shows. At least not ones that do try to be bottom of the barrel.
By the same metric, 10s should only be reserved to shows that are the absolute cream of the crop for the medium (something statistically less likely than finding a bottom of the barrel work due to the sheer amount of titles in the medium), so it'd be quite a double standard to say 1s should be more reserved than 10s for that reason. At best, both should be handed out in equal amounts by that standard.

Erebus_Akeldama said:
Yes cause most of the ones people gives genuinely don't deserve it. Good animation alone automatically puts the score higher then a 2. (take god of highschool for example)
Not really. 1/10 is still different from leaving something blank as a "0/10" and would imply there's still at least some minor merit that prevents it from being a literal nothing. Saying good animation should place it higher than a 2 isn't something that can be statistically quantified either when that's purely dependent on how valuable animation is considered in the overall score by whoever's rating it (which, by what the majority have said in prior threads, is nowhere near the value placed on plot and characters). Not only that, but all that's given on this site as a benchmark for rating something as a 1/10 is that it's "appalling" which is very open-ended. Seems you're pushing your personal standard too much on how a work should be rated when it comes to 10s and 1s rather than using any universal metric, particularly when your "statistics" on 95% of 1s being rated wrong and 60% of 10s being rated wrong is certainly something you pulled out of thin air.
ChouErittoSep 9, 2021 5:02 AM
Sep 7, 2021 11:54 AM
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Good question
I don't have an answer tho, just wanted to appreciate a good question when I saw it.
Maybe yes, Cuz I have only 2 1/10 but twenty+ 10/10s
Ppl love anime more than they wanna admit I guess.

Sep 7, 2021 11:57 AM

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I think because the people who watch only a couple of series tend to watch more mainstream popular shows that probably suits his/her anime taste and gives them a high score. When I first started watching anime, I give lots of tens and nines to a bunch of anime that now I consider not more than average. I think the scores you give and your critical approach to anime you are watching is evolving as you watch more and more series. Still, 1 and 10 are at the same level of extreme, imo main reason of we are seeing more 10's than 1's, people just straight up give 10's to the show they liked and enjoyed while watching it without any critical approach and they simply drop the series they think is not worth watching it.
Sep 7, 2021 12:01 PM

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Apr 2018
425
If your mean is below 5. It may be time to find a new hobby. One that you enjoy. Unless you just enjoy shitting on other peoples work, if that's the case, then I guess keep spending time watching and rating things you hate.. That's always been my opinion.

Edit: Sorry I didn't mean to that directed at you, OP, I just now realized your mean was 2.8.
BorderlineSchizoSep 7, 2021 12:08 PM
My taste is trash. So is yours.
Sep 7, 2021 12:02 PM

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yeah I agree, that’s why I’m so surprised when I see people with dozens of shows scored as 1; because that means all those shows are the worst of the worst to them
Sep 7, 2021 1:22 PM

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RoninHimura said:
If your mean is below 5. It may be time to find a new hobby. One that you enjoy. Unless you just enjoy shitting on other peoples work, if that's the case, then I guess keep spending time watching and rating things you hate.. That's always been my opinion.

Edit: Sorry I didn't mean to that directed at you, OP, I just now realized your mean was 2.8.
No problem lmao. I can't be bothered to explain my system but I like anime lol.
Sep 7, 2021 1:43 PM

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the answer is yes. it is more extreme.
Sep 7, 2021 1:48 PM

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Both are extreme scores. I think most people just don't bother watching absolute trash tier shows worthy of being given a 1, all that much.
Sep 7, 2021 1:48 PM
Kii_Ibarra

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2505
More people use 10/10 than 1/10? Wow, I'm genuinely surprised

I've definitely seen way more terrible anime than I have masterpieces. Heck, I think I've tagged more anime as "Would rate 0/10 if I could" than I have ones I rated 10/10, lol

It's not often I come across a perfect 10/10 anime (last time was in 2019 when I first watched JoJo part 4), whereas it almost feels like every second anime I watch is a 1/10 these days, lol
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Sep 7, 2021 1:58 PM

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May 2021
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If you are not a complete moron you will usually go towards shows that you think you could like. I have never watched something that as plain light I say, "Yeah this will be terrible" because it is stupid. Then one should have a bias towards shows that are better in your scale than the average, so it should be way more rare to give a 1 than to give a 10 if you are not stupid.
Also, you have to take into account that most of the medium is a highly filtered entity, with people with multiple talents that cant make complete and utter trash for the lulz. So if you use a rating system that values all aspects of the anime a 1 should be almost impossible unless you are looking for it.
That is my reasoning behind crafting a score rating that is uniform, if I rated like a normal human being instead of a god creature and take into account all aspects I wouldnt have given a single 1 yet, but multiple 10s. A gaussian rating system is boring as fuck but the norm if you are rating correctly

Honestly if you give more 1s than 10s or more 2s than 9s or more 3s than 8s without a crafted distortion of your rating system like categories instead of distributed scores or a mapping from gaussian to another more interesting distribution then you are just being a contrarian or a moron
Gween_GweenSep 7, 2021 2:01 PM



Sep 7, 2021 1:58 PM

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Apr 2021
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It is on this site, but it shouldn't be considered such. Statistically it is more likely for there to be more 1s then 10s in any give medium, but most people rate more things 10 than 1 for various of reasons. Either because they get lucky and and just stumble upon more good then bad, or because they are really lenient with their scores. A lot of people also use 7 as the mediocre score rather than 5 which naturally devalues anything in 7 or above. Honestly, both of these scores are very extreme, and should be used sparingly.
Sep 7, 2021 2:00 PM
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Most of us have gone through that mindset of an anime being good just because it's anime. Middle school me thought that as long as it was anime it was the coolest thing ever and I'd watch it. That's probably why 1s are less likely than 10s, 1 means something is completely and utterly irredeemable and there's nothing to praise it for, but for a lot of people here, just the fact that it's an anime puts many of these 1/10 shows at at least a 2.
Sep 7, 2021 2:06 PM

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Feb 2020
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I will tell u a story.I watched top 10 anime from mal and rated it from 1 -10. I am super accurate and based ain't I?
this is basically 90 % of mal users scenario. and they say people dont use lower rating 1, 2 or 3s

I should ask the opposite how many people watch mal's low rated anime?

thats basically sums it up.

7 instead of 5 is the average score because they are still watch anime probably. mathematically speaking ur average shows ur love towards the medium. (It all about whether u are accurate to urself in the end)

It's super natural for people to not use lower score because most of those new people only watch high rated anime.

In the end, it people's own list. that can rated whatever they want. why do i care?
I will only be bothered when they flap their fake mathematical stupidity to justify there list and berate me.

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Sep 7, 2021 2:15 PM

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DinoPapiro said:
I'm a bit tired of the ''7 is the average'' take, I get it it's the school system or whatever but I don't believe someone gives a 7 to something they thought was meh, at the start is always a bit difficult to rate because everything seems amazing but after some time people can easily differentiate it.

Now for the actual topic, I do think giving a 1 is way more extreme than giving a 10.


yeah all my old scores used to be have 7 for meh and people would be like "why did u like [insert anime]? it was horrible" and i was so confused cuz i thought 7 meant bad/average
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Sep 7, 2021 2:37 PM

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There isn't any reason to watch a show that is a 1/10. I watch anime to enjoy myself and if I don't want to watch a show, i'll just drop it and likely not give it any rating.

Has a 8.60 mean score
Akasaka > Other Mangakas

Sep 7, 2021 2:56 PM
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Not if you are watching hentai. A 6/10 is considered a masterpiece
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