| Most people are disgusting plebs who think 7 is average. |
| 5 is my most common score by a long shot, I think that is to be expected 'I only watch anime I like' is total bs because you can't know whether you like it before you actually watch |
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Imaishi said: you can't know whether you like it before you actually watch ...intuition? i could probably score all the shows im gonna watch next season right now and they would be incredibly close to what id actually rate them it's not that hard to pick good shows, no one is choosing at complete random over time u get better at recognizing whats going to be good or not |
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| To begin with while 5 has average as a "name" indeed, we only can rate from 1 to 10, so the real "middle" isn't 5 but 5,5 meaning that 6 is just as much a choice for average. Well, it was probably said several time already, but too lazy to check the whole thread. Also, peoples usually -well, usually- don't brainlessly watch things without selecting it prior to this. It's of a genre they like, or from a director they like, have seiyuu they like, or someone recommended it to them, and so on. As such, it's not like they're equally watching both bad (for them) and good (for them again) show, so their mean score should logically be at least average+ (meaning 6) rather than average- (5). Maybe even closer of 7 if they're really careful with what they pick, who knows. So no, you shouldn't see more 5 than anything else. 6 and 7 should be the most frequent. |
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| I do have more things rated 6 (119 titles) and 4 (124 titles) than 5 (110 titles) though not by much. I don't know why, but I guess I'd have to explore what "average" even means to me. At the same time, it's not that big of a difference in number of titles, so there's not much of a reason to bother figure it out. |
| I only watch anime that seem interesting for me. |
| I think it is easier to know if you liked or disliked the show, average is when you can't decide if you liked it or not. Personally I score more 4's and 6's than 5's for that reason. |
| If they think 7 is average than let them its their list none of our business.I personally think 7 is a very high score the series I give 7 are usually the ones I truly enjoyed and am impressed by.I do have a lot of 5s. 5 is not a bad score I'm positive about 5 rated series I just think they aren't anything special and didn't stand out to me that much.Just mediocre. |
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| Well 6/10 is my average score. It used to be 5/10 but I want to be as generous as possible and I dont want to be harsh in rating so I adjust my rating system. I think Im in a safer side :D |
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| I find it amusing how so many posters are missing a part of the question the OP asked. Sure, as most people noted, we see more 6+/10 votes than 5/10. And many people already gave reasonable explanations for this. However, as the OP hinted to, we also tend to see more 1/10 than 5/10, and that's definitely not something you can explain with "I tend to watch shows I think I may enjoy to begin with", right? I mean, sure, "bile fascination" is a thing, and a few ppl would definitely want to watch a spectacularly bad show. But I believe that's only a tiny fraction of the actual explanation. So, what are the reasons for this? I can see at least a few points: 1) Stories are good or bad as a whole: When you do an exam, you can often be evaluated on the grounds of how you answered each part. Say the exam has 20 questions, you answered 12 correctly, you get 6/10. Easy, ain't it? Unfortunately, though, stories do not generally work that way. When we evaluate an anime (or any story, really), we can commonly divide our score among several elements: sound, story, characters, graphics, etc. However, these elements do not exist in a vacuum, and the success of each depends to a great extent to the success of the others. When was the last time, for example, that you found a story with a great story but horrible characters? It doesn't happen very often because really, if you want to have a memorable story, you need to also have at least good or passable characters. This, in turn, causes each element to improve or downgrade each other. Think of it like the old saying - a chain is as strong as its weakest link. If an anime has one or two glaring flaws (like horrible story and music), they are likely to bring down the whole anime on their own, even if some of the other elements (like graphics) are not THAT bad. You may call it (positive/negative) synergy, if you want. Naturally, there are exceptions. Guilty Crown, for example, has arguably excellent graphics and sound but awful story and characters, and it may be a good candidate for a 5/10 score (which iirc is my score of that anime). But it is just as likely that somebody will be badly hurt by the story flaws and bring down the whole rating, irrespective of its other highlights. 2) Anime generally are not that bad: I'm sure some of you may laugh, or at least flinch at this statement. However, this is not as absurd as it sounds. Compare it, for example, with the state of art of manga or doujinshi works. I would argue that it is much easier to find average (or outright bad) manga or doujin than anime. Most anime tend to at least meet all the basic checks - sure, they may be prone to pandering to the base, but unless you have somewhat uncommon tastes (like me), you will find them to be at least enjoyable on a more reliable basis than manga/doujin. Why? The answer is quite simple. Anime have much higher production costs than manga, or doujin works. So, the industries working on them are much less likely to put their money on crapshoots. On the one hand, they're less likely to risk and thus tend to "play it safe", sticking to tried and true formulas which may not strike us as original, 10/10 stuff, but still work; on the other hand, if they didn't have at least the common sense to avoid the sort of flaws which make over half the public frown upon them, they would not stay in business for long. Anime, unlike manga, cannot be as reliant on niche publics, after all. In short, while anime may be a bit more "conventional", they also tend to be much less commonly bad. If you're not convinced, consider for a comparison the videogame world. Back when production costs were low (in the past century, that is), it was much more common to stumble upon very bad videogames. However, since production costs skyrocketed, so did the quality average to an extent. When was the last time you saw a "blockbuster" (think on par with Dragon Age or Mass Effect) be "average" - at least according to a large number of people? The reason is again self-explanatory: if you are pouring this much money in a work, and you know how to stay in business, you will make damn sure your work is good. 3) When it comes to low scores, motivation wanes: Whether you would rate a show you liked as 8, 9, or even 10, there is no denying you probably at least enjoyed it. Therefore, you probably also are motivated to discuss them, to compare them, and so on. You may even spend a good deal of time arguing with your friends about why, for example, a certain show is more 9/10 or 10/10 material. But can you really say the same about lower scores? When was the last time you discussed passionately about whether a show should be rated 2/10 or 3/10? I do use these ratings myself, and nevertheless I rarely found as hard to distinguish between a 2/10 and a 3/10 show as it is to distinguish, say, a 8/10 from a 9/10 - after all, the latter discussion is more interesting, and I simply care more about it (even if, from a more objective point of view, distinguishing reliably between a 2/10 and a 3/10 can be just as challenging). In the end, thus, more people who find a show very bad will not even bother considering which score from 1/10 to 5/10 they should use. And many people will just default to 1/10 (or heck, even to 5/10) - which may explain why, as somebody else noted, 2/10 is even rarer than 5/10. In short, the OP is maybe right in saying that the 5/10 score is not as used as it should. And if somebody uses the whole rank system, they may end up actually downgrading a show they honestly enjoyed, because of MAL mean scores. But as I said, there are more complex reasons behind this phenomenon than "people are bad at rating shows", and even if we just focused on people who rank carefully and have watched a lot of anime, we should not necessarily expect their ratings to follow a perfect bell curve (one centered on 5/10). Unless, that is, they are aiming for this on purpose, tweaking their scores to achieve this mean value (which IMO is not a good system as it basically makes each person's scores basically incommensurable - my 7 and your 7 would mean completely different things. And that sorta defeats the whole point of giving ranks for others to see) |
Kittenpotpie said: omfg you placed madoka at 9? lemme break this down for u theres thousands and thousands of anime out there 5 means average do u have time to or would u even want to watch half of all anime? a quarter of all anime? no so obviously the shows u complete should be much better than average i even made a chart cuz im tired of u mouthbreathers asking this same shit every day  P.s. you can't appreciate good shows if you drop shit |
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| Good topic, OP. I've been wondering the same thing for a while. My list has a lot of fives tbh, and it's because I'm marking it the way you mentioned... if an anime is average (imo of course), then I give it the five. If it gives me something to remember then it's a solid seven. I haven't given out a ten so far because I don't think any anime has been a masterpiece for me yet, though some have come very close (and I'm not just saying that to be pretentious, it's honestly how I feel). As for why I'm able to mark so low, people mentioned they only watch anime that's interesting to them. Well, even if then anime doesn't interest me that much I try to see it all the way through so when I do mark it I know that I marked it fairly since I've seen the entire thing. Although it can be very painful at times... haha. But yeah! A friend of mine told me I marked one of his fav anime very low (it was a 5) but to me that isn't low at all... it wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great either. So the scoring system here is just a lot higher I guess. |
| Go look at my profile brah, a lot of 5/10 and lower here hehe |
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| a 5 out of 10 series is kind of rare for me to find actually i usually rate shows a 5 when i have absolutely no feeling regard them there are so mediocre and balance pros and cons so evenly this kind of anime are the most frustating to watch and utterly forgettable |
| I find most of the time people rate a show a 1 just because they can. They either are mad because the anime is rated higher than something else they like that they rated higher or they want to troll. Others seem to "feel" that it helps balance out the score, but that is a stupidly horrible reason to do that. I will honestly always think it is stupid that there are more 1 scores than 5 scores. |
| "Did you really think I wouldn’t cheat just because I was already winning?" - Dread Emperor Terribilis II "I chose glory and success. The box did not contain what was written on the lid." - Sand dan Glokta |
| I occasionally "prune" my list. I'll go back every now and then and re-evaluate my scores and always wonder why the hell I rate everything as high as they are. But I do agree with your original point OP. I've recently come to that realization as well and I'm making an effort to rate more shows 5/10 to truly make use of the entire 10 point scale. |
- | My Profile| My List | Scorching Ping Pong Girls Review | YT Channel | - |
Plate said: Most people don't even start anime that they will rate 5. It's not like people all watch a random sample of anime and you can expect the median rating to be 5. Exactly. When I'm choosing what to watch I usually pick something that I know I'm gonna like. If it turns out bad right away I tend to drop it, and I don't rate shows that I dropped early on (they might get good after a while, so it'd be unfair). The only shows that I give low ratings (4, 5 and 6) are those that I watched before I got really into anime (Bleach for ex) and the occasional show that starts off good and gets worse near the end (Zankyou no Terror, Evangelion), but those are very few. |
| Let's equate your question to something else for a second, in this world people are consumers of everything, if you ask the average person what they'd rate a product they use, they'll most likely respond with a 7 or above if it's something in their daily consumption, the occasional 5 or 6 if they used it for awhile, anything lower is because they hated it and it left an impression. Most people don't continue to think about the stuff they don't like and often times they forget about it. Now ask someone who's job is to test or rate products for some purpose and you'll receive a completely different type of rating. The 7 and above is now based purely on the efficiency, usefulness, and whatever else deemed important or essential to the product, the 5 and 6 are deemed average for the type of product, and lower is more or less just a failure and doesn't often make market if it receives enough of these ratings before it makes it into mass production stage. You're asking for critics and that's not what most people using this site are. These are the customer reviews on Amazon, not the reviews of product testers. Most who use this site like/love/really enjoy anime and its entertainment value like any other thing made for enjoyment. Usually once someone starts to watch around 100-150 anime they start to forget titles that they have watched, hence the list system. Thus people who use this rating system that fall into this category rate based on how much they liked it rather than whether they liked it at all or how it compares to what they've watched before. Now there are people who use this site to not only keep track of what they've watched, but also to criticize anime. There's a different mindset, if you're looking for people of that mindset you can find them in clubs on this site more often than not with an aim solely toward rating and dissecting anime because it's something that they like to do, and that's part of the enjoyment process. Neither argument that people are presenting is wrong, there's just "different strokes for different folks", and you have to be okay with that. Also to touch on something that was mentioned before that's bothering the hell out of me: there's no such thing as rating inflation if people don't rate the anime in the first place rating inflation only happens if the people who disliked the anime gave it a 10 sarcastically or something along that train of thought. If the only two groups of people who rate it are those who like it and those who have actual criticism for it, it averages back out. Don't cha think? It's no different than people never actually seeing the anime in the first place. |
*I am but a tiny star in your universe, but I can still guide you home.*  |
| usually I give a 5 for the SoL because I found it boring/made me sleep, hey at least I completed it... |
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keragamming said: Isn't average/mediocre supposed to be the norm? the typical, the standard? Just like a classroom where the majority of the students will be average students, while the remaining minority is bright sparks and below average students? The reason I am making this topic because I notice giving series a 5/10 seems to be rare in most persons list, and surprisingly not only persons that rate average anime as a 7/10, which is influence by their school grading system, but even the users that rate anime harshly, mostly avoid giving out 5/10 and either choose to giving that series a 6/10 or a 4/10. Now I am not saying we should rate most series a 5/10, but I would still expect to see people giving out 5/10 more often, whats more surprising is that, it seems 10/10 score is the norm on mal, but shouldn't this be the other way around? lol Are people having a hard time figuring out when to give a anime a 5? Personally I don't think you need to put much effort to reach mediocrity, to me, a series is mediocre when it doesn't do anything wrong, but at the same time it doesn't do anything new, its basically just following the same typical trend as other series, basically that series doesn't have a identity, its just one of those series. *cough cough* battle harem fantasy school light novel anime series. So if you rarely score your anime with a 5, why is that the case? I usually rate normal boring anime as 5 |
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| I have way more 5's than 4's. I'm more inclined to rate something 3/10 instead of 4/10. |
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Kittenpotpie said: lemme break this down for u theres thousands and thousands of anime out there 5 means average do u have time to or would u even want to watch half of all anime? a quarter of all anime? no so obviously the shows u complete should be much better than average i even made a chart cuz im tired of u mouthbreathers asking this same shit every day I like this solution, I've thought of this before :) that's why I'm ok with a higher-than-5 average |
| 100 Push-Ups, 100 Sit-Ups, 100 Squats, and a 10K Run, EVERY SINGLE DAY!! |
| because people don't know that you can score a show under 6 |
| N.etorare T.echnical R.esearcher |
| It's very simple. The number I give to anime represents the amount of things it does good versus things it does bad where of course some things are valued more than others. The only possible way for me to get an average score of 5 is to watch just as many what I consider to be good anime as I watch bad anime. There's no way I would force myself to watch a horrible anime whenever I finished an amazing one. I don't even see why I would need to watch any bad anime just so I can have an average score of 5. You also assume that I have watched every anime ever. I need to, because otherwise I can't properly determine what the average would be. There's also no reason to assume that half the anime score below a 5. I give points based on positive thing and subtract for negative things. I think the overwhelming majority of anime have more good than bad and I don't see any reason why that shouldn't be the case. The people working on them do work a lot on them and almost always try to make the best anime they can. |
| I enjoy some shows that I rated 5/10, I even enjoy some shows I rate 4/10 (a little bit) but at the same time I realize they're not that good. |
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| COZ I DONT FUCKIN FEEL LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| My Manga List My Anime List Shabada shabadabadaba I am DjG545 aka Dj Fo Fo aka The Mutha Fkn Name I'm Usin Now |
| This whole 5 should be average score bullshit wouldn't exist if MAL had not assigned the word "average" as a descriptor for the 5 score. Average is a mathematical term not a qualitative one. Something like "mediocre" or "passable" should be used to describe 5 scores. Average is literally whatever the totality of MAL determines it to be -- which unsurprisingly is around 7 point something or 6.95 for those who registered on graph.anime.plus. |
| Avatar: Anzu Kadotani from Girls und Panzer. Sig by MissIntrovert.  |
| Personally I don't drop a series no matter how low of a score I give something. I gave SAO a 5/10 but still managed to watch it all. |
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| Ofcourse you won't see lots of people giving 5/10. Most people are looking for "good" shows that they can enjoy. Your rating should probably avg around 6-7, closer to 6 the more anime you saw. |
| Eh, I rate 5s usually if the anime is boring. I enjoy most of the anime I watch. I have been think about abandoning the 1-10 rating. Imo it all comes down to whether or not you like or dislike the anime you watch. |
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8oomer said: It's also a synonym for mediocre. Words can have more than one meaning.This whole 5 should be average score bullshit wouldn't exist if MAL had not assigned the word "average" as a descriptor for the 5 score. Average is a mathematical term not a qualitative one. Something like "mediocre" or "passable" should be used to describe 5 scores. Average is literally whatever the totality of MAL determines it to be -- which unsurprisingly is around 7 point something or 6.95 for those who registered on graph.anime.plus. |
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| Because there is still people who have enough brain to not give a fuck about ratings and just do what they want to do. |
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ReaperCreeper said: That ambiguity is yet another reason that a purely descriptive word should be used instead.It's also a synonym for mediocre. Words can have more than one meaning. |
| Avatar: Anzu Kadotani from Girls und Panzer. Sig by MissIntrovert. |
| I have no idea why some persons are either taking what I said personally, or just being plain rude. It is a question people, I'm not bashing anyone, I'm just curious. This is the anime discussion forum for a reason. If you don't have anything constructive to say, then don't say anything. Thankfully, its just a small minority that is acting that way. Faith in humanity has been restored! Thank you all for your interesting answer to my question, the majority of them made sense, I read them all. |
| I just rate: Animation Sound Plot Characters My personal enjoyment take the results and divide by 5 but you are right, I don´t have an anime rated 5 XD |
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8oomer said: Context makes it pretty clear imo, but yeah, no reason to not make it 100% clear. Particularly given that a large amount of users have English as a second language. ReaperCreeper said: That ambiguity is yet another reason that a purely descriptive word should be used instead.It's also a synonym for mediocre. Words can have more than one meaning. |
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| Well if I got some level of enjoyment I generally bump it up to a 6/10. I'm a pretty lax rater anyway so I rarely rate something as low as 5. For the most part people either really like shows or they despise them. Finding that in between of mediocrity is actually quite rare it would seem. |
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keragamming said: Isn't average/mediocre supposed to be the norm? the typical, the standard? Just like a classroom where the majority of the students will be average students, while the remaining minority is bright sparks and below average students? Not really. This is only the standard thought since we've got used to view extremes as rare, but there's no way to infer safely that anime as a whole follows that distribution. Some people actually believe that crap anime is the norm and we can't do anything to prove them wrong. I have never noticed this trend and of course it does not affect me, but I wonder if there's some sort of similar philosophy to the one about not giving 10s because perfection is impossible or because there will always be a better show. Maybe once people find something remotely positive or remotely negative, they decide to score a 6 or a 4, leaving the 5s for some kind of perfectly average neutrality. |
| Well finally an interesting topic. I don't give much 5, because I see them as somethnig that has his good and bad points in balance and that is weird to see. If I gave something below 4 is because his bad points are too powerful for the few good points that it has (a terrible story but an oustanding animation for example Musaigen Phantom World) and the more drastical that it gets the more low the score gets. I think that my lowest score is 11 eyes who I consider as trash over trash but I still remember some good parts like the Ally of Justice and so it gets a 3. On the other side when it breaks the barrier and gets something above 6 like for example Amama to Inazuma is a heartwarming show with lots of heart and a nice interaction between the characters but is repetitive and the main focus is the food and that is a lot of hit and miss. So I think I gave it a 6 or 7 for it. I only give 5 for shows that are inoffensive, nor good, nor bad. Just kinda there... I can't remember them for the good or the bad. They are in a Limbo... |
keragamming said: Isn't average/mediocre supposed to be the norm? the typical, the standard? Just like a classroom where the majority of the students will be average students, while the remaining minority is bright sparks and below average students? The reason I am making this topic because I notice giving series a 5/10 seems to be rare in most persons list, and surprisingly not only persons that rate average anime as a 7/10, which is influence by their school grading system, but even the users that rate anime harshly, mostly avoid giving out 5/10 and either choose to giving that series a 6/10 or a 4/10. Now I am not saying we should rate most series a 5/10, but I would still expect to see people giving out 5/10 more often, whats more surprising is that, it seems 10/10 score is the norm on mal, but shouldn't this be the other way around? lol Are people having a hard time figuring out when to give a anime a 5? Personally I don't think you need to put much effort to reach mediocrity, to me, a series is mediocre when it doesn't do anything wrong, but at the same time it doesn't do anything new, its basically just following the same typical trend as other series, basically that series doesn't have a identity, its just one of those series. *cough cough* battle harem fantasy school light novel anime series. So if you rarely score your anime with a 5, why is that the case? just like u mentioned school i'll mention school aswell on highschool a 5 is kinda bad and a 7 is average and because everyone has been on a highschool for some years it's has hitched on your mind so it isn't that weird but there also people like me and im pretty sure there alot of other people who just rate according the MAL rating system or maybe a system they setup by their own |
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| I think a 5/10 means that you're feeling neutral towards a show/game/movie etc. Most of the time, people will either like something which would make it a 6+/10, or dislike it which would make it a 4-/10. Since true neutrality is relatively rare, you just don't see too many 5/10. |
| I give 5 to OVAs that i like a lot because it's my rating system |
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| Well, everyone has his own method to rate the anime. sometimes i found something in an anime that actually makes the rating good then just the anime deserve. i rate a normal ecchi anime (which i dont personally like much) 6 with good animation. if there would be a little story i would rate it 7 or if there is an opening or ending that i like it would also increase its rating How i rate anime total 10 points 1 Animation 1 Characters 5 story and it conveyed i Op/End song 1 OST 1 Enjoyment |
| That's my most frequent score... xD |
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| I give 5 to a show when I am lazy to find out if a show is good or not. For an example, I have bunch of doraemon and hamtaro like anime listed in there as 5. I have enjoyed both shows very much as a child, but i dont like it any more. But those two shows arn't inherently good nor bad and I don't want to go thorugh all that "kiddie" shit and get nostalgia drive while watching so I just give it a 5/10 hoping that it would convince mal users to not watch it. No in all seriousness, I like to give out 5 outta tens a lot. |
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| got 108 at 5/10 and below on my complete list. i dont rate dropped shows since i obviously didnt finish any of them. |
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