| My question is for the people who have watched a decent amount of anime. Do you guys take MAL's reviews serious? I have been using MAL for a long time and i noticed that for the exception of like 200-300 animes, all others have at least 1 bad review in the top with scores like 1-5. So if i take this reviews serious that means that I SHOULD NOT watch most of the thousands of animes that have been made for the last 60 years, because apparently MOST of them are bad. Let me give you an example. You can literally find an anime that's in the top 60 (by score) and find a TOP review with a score of 1 and get this: "700+ people found it HELPFUL". Now if you can explain to me the logical possibility of that. A anime with a score of 8.7 (for example) with 100k+ votes IS ABSOLUTE DOGSH*T, according to a TOP review. Funny thing is in most of those reviews that are bashing decent animes have no constructive criticism, ZERO. Only because you don't like a certain storyline DOESN'T mean the storyline is bad, it means it's not to your taste. Finding an anime "boring" is NOT a constructive criticism. Explaining and exposing certain flaws and holes in the story IS a constructive criticism. Enough of that but my logical explanation is that the more an anime is popular the more haters it gets. Then a certain 'know it all' writes an absolutely braindead review with a score of 2 and all those haters go and make the review rise to the TOP. Now the problem to all of this is only one. MOST people when going to the reviews they will not read them, all they care about is the score. They see a review that 800 people found helpful and they trust it's an actual proper review. Years back before i realize how inaccurate the reviews on MAL can be i used to ignore so much animes because of that 1 top bad review. So do you guys take the reviews serious? Do you decide if you should watch an anime depending on the score of the review? Do you share my view on them like i do? |
GodMilkkApr 24, 2018 7:52 AM
| I don't take them seriously and I don't usually read reviews but when I do, I read them after I finished watching the series. |
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| I read them from time to time but I'm not taking them too serious. |
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| i dont read reviews only look at scores multiple users gave if dunno to watch show or not |
| anime with trolly reviews are usually trolly anime to begin with, by either being inherently trolly (like certain gag hentai's [pun very much intended], or stuff like pingu in the city [top review literally says "the manga was better"]) or by being trolled by the users for being [perceived to be] bad, not funny, whatever (saoI and II has the most helpful review giving them both a score of 4). the usefulness of the reviews depends on if you are watching one of these trolly series as they have an inverse relationship. |
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| You should press enter after typing 3 sentences especially if they are long. It helps me to read it easier. I never care about review, only genre and title matters to me. I even consider MAL synopsis as a light spoiler. If you want to debate, go to their profile comment and give them a piece of your mind. |
| For reviews i usually check for the most neutral one(s) (so 7-5 rating) at the top. Those (in my experience) give a good idea of what to expect of the anime without hyping or lowering expectations. Good enough for me when I'm on the fence about watching something. |
| I figure trolls find troll reviews helpful, but also too many glowing reviews with some obvious bias may be less helpful than a negative review from someone who is less enthused. So maybe that's why so many people find them helpful. Just like Amazon reviews, you find helpful things in the good, the bad, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. |
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| The score itself isn't as important as the why. If the bad review mentions something like deus ex machina or shallow characters I'm going to look at it differently than a negative review because of too much dialogue or too slow paced (since I tend to like slower paced and dialogue > action.) Like, given that there will be negative reviews, are the negative things stuff i came stand or stuff i might actually view as a positive. Also i usually dont read reviews, so in many ways even that doesn't matter |
KuuhakuDesu said: Do you care about threads made by recent created accounts, with only 1 forum post, that doesn't even have a title that describes it and is so badly written and formatted? I don't care about them but they do push me closer to substance abuse. |
| People who put MAL stats in their sigs are losers lol |
| I have never taken any review seriously and I will never take any review seriously because I genuinely don't care about other peoples opinions on much of anything related to entertainment. I will also never use reviews to judge whether I should pick something up because I'd much rather go into something blind then have a group of reviews I'm constantly comparing the series to, either to refute or support said reviews. Since at that point I'm not picking up a series because I wanted to watch it I'm just checking somebody's essay. |
| i remember when bananya had all top 4 reviews as 10.. too bad that troll had to ruin it by giving it 5 :( for every given anime there can be many opinions, that much should be obvious.. reviews aint objective so might as well embrace it.. find something boring is deffo grounds for a low rating if you ask me and anyway, best watch, and then read reviews |
romagiaApr 23, 2018 1:57 PM
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KuuhakuDesu said: Another question for the active users: Do you care about threads made by recent created accounts, with only 1 forum post, that doesn't even have a title that describes it and is so badly written and formatted? Do you share my view on them like i do? Why would people need to "care" for a "thread" to answer 2-3 simple questions? Also i need to have a old account to be able to ask the community a question? Again i may not be proficient at writing or formatting but as i see it it didn't stop the users from answering me. Your comment was useless, that it was. I will give you a point for trying to be a smartass tho. |
| I sometimes like to try shows from genres that aren't really my cup of tea - in this case, I choose more carefully and might want to read a negative review with many helpful votes to see what people disliked it for. It's already a show that I'm less likely to enjoy, so I want to check the reasons why others didn't enjoy it. But when it comes to shows I'm more likely to enjoy - I couldn't care less about negative reviews. Most of the time, I don't even check the top reviews for such shows, I just go into them blindly. |
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| I've only ever read like 5 reviews on this site. I don't give a shit. |
  WORK IN PROGRESS ~The frog leapt forth to my lilypad memory.~ I was indoctrinated by an inamorata rabbit, Adenomata affronted. It was the verecund, dismissed creatures That I jubilated in most. This rabbit I would nurture, At the aiguille of esse, The anneal of noblesse. ❤️ Birdie ❤️ |
| I only read reviews when I was a complete beginner, and even then I don't think I ever took them too seriously. In my opinion, it takes around the same amount of time to watch the first episode as it does to research a title, so better to just try it out. That being said, I don't drop series (the ones in my drop list are impossible to find the rest of, hence it's a forced drop until I find it someday), so "trying out" and anime means committing to it. I'm not a picky watcher, though, and can get some enjoyment out of most series. I say don't put too much stock in the reviews. There are a lot of reviews by people with extremely strong opinions, and I feel it's best to form your own opinion. Besides, we all have different tastes, so just because one person hates a series, it doesn't mean you will too (and vice versa). It's subjective and your opinion of the series may be completely unique. If you really feel the need to understand something's strengths and weaknesses before watching, follow the already given advice and pick a review with a more neutral score. IMO watching blind is the best way (knowing next to nothing about the series before watching), but if your anime time is strictly limited, I can understand being picky. |
GodMilkk said: I have been using MAL for a long time and i noticed that for the exception of like 200-300 animes, all others have at least 1 bad review in the top with scores like 1-5. Well it's way more just check unpopular seasonal anime to see top high score reviews... Enough of that but my logical explanation is that the more an anime is popular the more haters it gets. This is natural what do you really expect?! Then a certain 'know it all' writes an absolutely braindead review with a score of 2 and all those haters go and make the review rise to the TOP. Now the problem to all of this is only one. MOST people when going to the reviews they will not read them, all they care about is the score. I think this isn't true but I can't say anything about it So do you guys take the reviews serious? Do you decide if you should watch an anime depending on the score of the review? No, I read reviews after finishing the series I only see the scores of top reviews before finishing |
| Personally I don't really read reviews ever. But your logic is very questionable. For starters, what matters in a review isn't the score but the explanations of the reviewer and how detailed he accounts the elements in the show and how they interact. a 1/10 and a 10/10 review can provide the same information just with differenct conclusions because of different preferences. Or they can complement each other, with the bias of the reviewers cancelling each other out and making you able to see the 'meat' of the show and what to expect. Sp if you want to criticize reviews, don't mention the score because it is irrelevant to the quality of a review. And high scoring reviews are a dime a dozen because so many people on MAL have top-heavy scoring systems, which really makes them less useful overall because you never know if a 10/10 from a reviewer is an accomplishment or basically their average score. Lower rated reviews stand out more because of that and while all the fanboy upvotes spread out over dozens of reviews, the view negative ones will usually attract both the haters as well as the people looking for something to balance out all the fanboy reviews. That's why there's usually at least one of them at the front page. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Most MAL reviews are shitty comedy material if you ask me. |
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| I don't read reviews, wouldn't want them to influence me before I watch an anime. |
| Such things as score, popularity and reviews are useless, more of that - they are harmful. They are making prejudice and spoiling impression of anime. I completely ignore them and recommend you to do the same. |
KuuhakuDesu said: GodMilkk said: Why would people need to "care" for a "thread" to answer 2-3 simple questions? Also i need to have a old account to be able to ask the community a question? Again i may not be proficient at writing or formatting but as i see it it didn't stop the users from answering me. Your comment was useless, that it was. I will give you a point for trying to be a smartass tho. Good to see you've learned a bit how to use the "Enter" key. But you could learn more about using quotation marks. Also, some text comprehension, too. But that's irrelevant, as is my previous comment. Thank you for replying my useless question, by the way. Now pointing to what i have to actually improve is better thank you. Which makes your second comment not useless. I guess i should thank you too. For commenting twice on a thread you probably dont't care about, which is made by a user with one post. <3 |
| As soon as I read your question, I had to laugh out loud. Serious answer: absolutely not. I never cared much about reviews (or scores for that matter) and now I usually don't even read reviews. |
| You're a louse, Roger Smith. - R. Dorothy Wayneright This is my fight! No Senpai, this is our fight! - Kojou Akatsuki & Yukina Himeragi  |
What are you implying, oh good sir? In which way am i not legit? I guess registering and making a thread about something that you have been thinking for sometime and decide to ask how others feel about it is not legit. I've learned so much since i registered thank you. |
| The only time I even peak at reviews is to maybe confirm my own score, especially if it's low. Sometimes I'll have a "am I being to critical" moment, especially if the anime did a lot of things right in conjunction to my initial number for it. |
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| The scores made on MAL are kinda inflated. I rate how I want to rate :o |
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| I rarely read any but if I do its only for entertaining purposes. For some reason I like to read troll reviews. |
| My opinion is that I don't have one nor do I need one. |
I'm a shitposter for fun |
| That they're subjective and not everyone has the same opinion on an anime. Although I don't really care about reviews/scores. I'll judge for myself. |
Least degenerate visual novel enjoyer.  |
GodMilkk said: Do you guys take MAL's reviews serious? Honestly, I can't empathize at all with people who complain about the general quality of reviews in MAL like they are something specially cancerous. They are not. It's just your regular mediocrity, lots of low effort, some stupid ones and missing the point, some actually elaborate. The reason why many times the top reviews are found unsatisfying is because MAL's system inherently has a bias towards older reviews and since it doesn't have a "Not Helpful" vote the votes are simply accumulated over time and never balanced out. I read reviews from time to time, for stuff I've watched mostly. It's not an activity I get into too often but I don't have anything against that. Some turn to be bad, some turn to be good, I cringe with some and find a lot of greatly conveyed ideas in others. The rating is only an approximation to the thoughts of the reviewer, the format exists for a reason. |
| when I see a review at the top of the page that's only 6/24 episodes I get annoyed |
| I take them with a grain of salt, so to speak. It annoys me to no end that people give ratings after only watching 2-3 episodes. You don't know NEARLY enough to make an informed rating on a series after just 3 episodes... But yeah, the extreme opinions definitely seem to skew the overall rating a little bit. You get the people who love it, and the people who hate it. I usually disregard most reviews that give 10s, and most that give anything below a 3. The only time anyone should be rating a series a 1 out of 10 after 2 episodes is if it genuinely appalling to them. In that case, though, it becomes a question of they stumbled upon it in the first place. |
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| @GodMilkk I think you kind of answered your own question. The trust in a review is just as subjective as the review itself. You seem awfully attentive; just use your gut. And if it bothers you that s****y reviews are at the top, do what you can and upvote when you see a good one. Personally, I don't read reviews, and if I do, not in entirety. I only glance if there's one thing I need to confirm, and I certainly don't let reviews influence whether I watch a show. |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| I think I've said this many times before, I do not mind that MAL remove the -1 on the reviews. Yes, without even the hint of sarcasm. Even still today, I do not mind the review section, it can go fuck itself and blown up to hell for all I care. |
| more or less the same as the articles, the review are mostly crap with the odd insightful or interesting one. |
| If the review contains convincing arguments that support the reviewers score then yes I always take that seriously and if all other reviews have a score of 10 that con often just mean that it's an anime with manny crazy fanboys. Just look at Code Geass. |
| I read reviews after I have watched the anime most of the time so I can see how other people felt about it. Not sure about OP but I haven't seen any top reviews that are utterly useless and stupid yet, but that might be the type of anime I'm watching. Even the ones that rated it a 4 is an interesting read because they provided solid viewpoints and reasonings that helped me understand from their own way of criticizing the work. Also, haters and lovers go hand-in-hand. It's obvious that haters will bash the helpful button whenever they see a hateful review, which is the roughly the same as what fans will do too. Haters might be more toxic but it's a trait humans have to support opinions that align with our own. And OP, some of your points are fair enough especially the ones about constructive criticism. Most people here don't read the reviews so how much points a review have doesn't play a lot with the rating (which you shouldn't care much too anyway). My point is, just find an anime that interests you and don't read too much into the reviews. It's probably a good way to get a solid judgment on what you should expect from an anime but it shouldn't provide all the reasoning in whether you should watch it or not. I'm just here playing my part in writing fair and constructive reviews too, hopefully. |
My Anime List < Have a good day! > My Manga List |
| I give a fuck about Anime reviews. It's always better to make your own opinion. Don't let you influence by reviews beforehand. |
TheEyeOfSa said: GodMilkk said: "Joined Apr 24, 2018"I have been using MAL for a long time Reviews are okay, but why would you base your thoughts on the show on someone else's opinions? Form your own. Contribute to a discussion. People who make shit reviews just don't know what they're talking about, ignore them. I agree. You understand that to be able to search anime in MAL you don't have to register, right? Only because i registered today doesn't mean it's my first day on MAL. I use it to only search anime so until now i didn't find any point of registering. Even tho i think i did register a while back but i didn't use the profile because i didn't find it necessary. |
| Although reviews aren't stupid in any way, caring about reviews too much is stupid. So no, whilst I do read them, I don't take them seriously. |
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| If I take every review equally seriously, then a show having 3 top reviews rating it 10/10 and 1 rating it 1 is on average rated 7.5. Why should I give more important to the review rating it 1? I don't get the logic behind your rant one bit, if there's one. Seems like you're triggered by a review about one of your favs tbh. Oh and obviously, people are allowed to have different opinions. |
DeathkoApr 24, 2018 5:53 AM
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| MAL reviews have been getting worse recently. Too many people are just using the reviews section to bash genres and studios they don't like - cherry-picking parts of a show and making stuff up to fit their prejudiced narrative without actually honestly and objectively evaluating the content of an individual anime. It's too easy for troll reviews to get to the top with people voting "helpful" because they're funny. The people who actually care about quality and accuracy in reviews have no way to counter this. Vote trolling is a real thing now: there used to be a "not helpful" option but admins took it away (ironically, for fear of abuse) - leading to the unchecked abuse of the "helpful" option. Good reviews get buried under a pile of turds that are entertaining to read but misrepresent the show. So no, I do not take MAL reviews seriously. There are just too many lies. |
NyaaApr 24, 2018 4:13 AM
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| I went through the top "60" to thing what the hell OP was ranting about. I think @Polyphemus might want to join. I can't say I agree with him all the time, but its clear looking at his reviews that he puts thoughts into them and isn't trolling. Did it occur to you, @GodMilkk, that it might be his genuine opinion on the show? And that this review earned 700 likes because of its content and not just the rating it gives to the show? |
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| Most of them, no, from specific users and some rare random good reviews, yes. But I don't really read reviews that much. I read them when I know the show enough because I don't use reviews for recommendations, it's more of a cross-reference. |
 𝔚𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔞 𝔱𝔬𝔲𝔠𝔥 𝔶𝔬𝔲, 𝔚𝔞𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔫' 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔪𝔶 𝔪𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱 ______________________ |
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