| I feel like we get this thread almost every week now. |
| "Well, she's flatter than a pancake" -Mimi Alpacas |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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
| Because they give anime mean scores |
| Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars. I've never even seen an eagle. |
Toooooooooohru said: Because they give anime mean scores I'm going to assume that's a pun and it's hilarious, cheers! |
| Because they're nice people, that's why the score of how mean they are is very low. |
| 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. |
   |
| They just want to annoy people who care about other people's scores. Guess what: it works. |
 |
| my mean score is 8.52, i guess i just likes anime |
"JJK and CSM fan that loves watching movies"  |
| Because we're not children. You'll understand when you're older. |
   |
| "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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
Bury the Light 
| 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? |
| Because everyone’s rating system is different, and everyone has different tastes. |
| 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. |
| Also available at: YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8spdL1M_J-z0vO2C7jPLw Second Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AshPolygonsDo/videos Twitter: https://x.com/APolygons2 Backloggd: https://backloggd.com/games/lib/rating?page=8 IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/user/ur107632777/?ref_=uspf_nv_profile |
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?
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. |
| Also available at: YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8spdL1M_J-z0vO2C7jPLw Second Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AshPolygonsDo/videos Twitter: https://x.com/APolygons2 Backloggd: https://backloggd.com/games/lib/rating?page=8 IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/user/ur107632777/?ref_=uspf_nv_profile |
| 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: It's the other way around. Whenever I found a show that is better than 10/10 I had to push everything else down.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. |
TransferUserDec 9, 2:19 AM
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.
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.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.
| @TransferUser finally someone who understands this. Seem we are few around here. |
selfawarecorpse said: Just drop it if you dislike it I still have to rate it if I drop though. |
| MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
| Because they're free do dislike stuff, even if it's entertainment. |
 |
| Create a ranking about most popular topics on MAL, and I can already see this in top 5, most likely. |
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
| Also available at: YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8spdL1M_J-z0vO2C7jPLw Second Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AshPolygonsDo/videos Twitter: https://x.com/APolygons2 Backloggd: https://backloggd.com/games/lib/rating?page=8 IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/user/ur107632777/?ref_=uspf_nv_profile |
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. |
| 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. |
| Haters gonna hate, I like liking things |
 |
| OP itself has a mean score below 6 ... great irony |
*kappa* |
| I thought of making a serious reply, but as noted by other users, OP himself has a mean score of below 6. |
| Dude, if you drop something you will still have it in the drop list, and it'll pull your average down. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
 |
| 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. |
| 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 |
 |
| because even if you drop something you can still rate it, it’s not rlly that complicated |
bam |
 Because there are these three types of MAL voters. |
inimYesterday, 2:44 PM
 |
| i have a mean score of 1.20, i have watched more anime than the vast majority of anime watchers. you get jaded and critical if you are like me. now, anyone reading this and you are curious/mad like everytime i post my mean enjoy my profile, lol. cause it seems every time I type my mean score I always get a thread notification, hopefully this time it is a postive comment. |
| I am a Completionist. All Anime/Manga will be watched/read. All FILLERS will be enjoyed :) Join my discord - https://discord.gg/CwhqqfGmHw :) |
Reply to AllAlone8
i have a mean score of 1.20, i have watched more anime than the vast majority of anime watchers. you get jaded and critical if you are like me. now, anyone reading this and you are curious/mad like everytime i post my mean enjoy my profile, lol. cause it seems every time I type my mean score I always get a thread notification, hopefully this time it is a postive comment.
| @AllAlone8 this site doesn't even allow me to check your completed anime list because of the limit in 3000 titles, lmao |
mrBored0mYesterday, 11:31 PM
   |
Reply to AllAlone8
i have a mean score of 1.20, i have watched more anime than the vast majority of anime watchers. you get jaded and critical if you are like me. now, anyone reading this and you are curious/mad like everytime i post my mean enjoy my profile, lol. cause it seems every time I type my mean score I always get a thread notification, hopefully this time it is a postive comment.
| @AllAlone8 How were you able to watch that much anime in such a short period of time? Must be some 2x 3x magic. |
| Because there are some people like me who use the whole scale, though we are the minority. And since 5.5 is the middle of that scale, a mean score below 6 makes sense. |
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