| I look at an anime's score before I watch, but reviews on MAL pages of anime are more funny to me than anything. Usually they're just nitpicky or the user has a completely different scale for rating shows.. Usually one top review score will be a 4 from a guy who's average rating is a 4.6 and another will be a 9 from someone who read the manga and already loves the show. Everyone just has different tastes so an average makes more sense than listening to the ramblings of a single anime watcher. If you're interested in a show. Look at the rating on sites, ask a friend or two, and give it a shot. Reviews on MAL are useless. Thoughts? |
Hey there! If you'd like to talk about anime or anything else feel free to drop a comment on my page or DM me. I'd be glad to have a conversation and make some new friends :) My list: https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Amazinc?status=7&order=4&order2=0 |
| When I'm not sure whether I want to watch something based on the synopsis alone I try to take a look at one positive and one negative review. It gives me a feel as to why someone did and did not like that anime, which is usually enough for me to figure out whether I'd enjoy it. The review scores are about as helpful as the average rating. Not very. |
| "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34 |
SleepingBear said: When I'm not sure whether I want to watch something based on the synopsis alone I try to take a look at one positive and one negative review. It gives me a feel as to why someone did and did not like that anime, which is usually enough for me to figure out whether I'd enjoy it. The review scores are about as helpful as the average rating. Not very. Yeah that makes sense, I just skim sometimes if I'm unsure. I still try not to take any of it too seriously though. Sometimes its easy to see other people's opinions and just take it as truth or too close to heart. |
Hey there! If you'd like to talk about anime or anything else feel free to drop a comment on my page or DM me. I'd be glad to have a conversation and make some new friends :) My list: https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Amazinc?status=7&order=4&order2=0 |
| I agree that reviews are useless before watching, because every anime will have its dedicated fans rating it 9 or 10, ignoring the flaws. I just read negative reviews of anime I didn't like, they are way more interesting. |
| i take a quick glance at them sometimes, they tend to be extreme. i come a cross a lot of really weird taste people throwing out 4s and 3s to good shows i actually liked. Personally i go off just the name/pic/genre, been working great for me. |
| I think there are good reviewers out there but that being said, I usually stick to my own opinion even after reading reviews |
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| I don't even read reviews, I just scroll down, if my boy RebelPanda is there, I'll read his review, if not, I close the tab. |
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| I never read the reviews, takes too much time. |
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| I usually don't watch a series if its average rating is under a 7, but if the concept sounds interesting, then I'll look at reviews to see what its weaknesses are. If the main problem is a rushed ending, I would still go for it, for example The Day I Became a God. On the other hand, if its low rating comes from something like boring characters, then I avoid it. |
  "Truth is always a cruel thing." |
| 90% of time you disagree with the top reviews. But the 10% of times you watch one anime and don't understand WHY IS IT SO OVERRATED / UNDERRATED? (in your opinion), the best explanation is there in the reviews. |
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| I never even read the reviews because I thought it was a waste of time. |
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| I stopped caring about reviews when their quality became significantly worse in the matter of a day. That was the day when they removed the "not helpful" button. |
| Yes, for the most part. I like that shit, especially reviews that disagree with my own point of view. Not because "omg im so fascinated by the discourse" but exposing yourself to new ideas helps you become better at challenging the ideas you feel the need to disagree with. I want to shape discussion I'm in, not just shout some stupid, low-effort take into the void. Getting good at that isn't that different than getting good at a fighting game. You have to learn the moveset, controls and timing so you can effectively combat your opponents. Seeing some of the shit people pump up, trying to understand why I think it's shit, and finding ways to put that into words is kind of like my mental exercise. It helps keep me strong. |
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| if its astralbread review,i don't care,everything he writes is just pretentious and bullshit,that's it GangstaAkagi said: No, I first look at the reviewers profile and don't take it seriously if they have given Code Gayass a high score. but man your review,i can't take it seriously too 😔 https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=393980 |
ishowhatredMay 2, 2021 3:39 AM
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| Yeah most of the reviews are too long to be bothered with (aint got time for that) better off checking out the first episode if the synopsis has you interested |
| I don't think I've ever read a review in it's entirety tbh. |
| They're good when they explain why they liked or didn't like a show, for example when the reviewer says they loved the anime because it had nonstop action, I can avoid the show, because action usually bores me. I don't really look at the score, since people rate differently. |
| Nah most of the time they're too vague and unclear without giving examples to this criticism or praise, on the other hand there are people who summarize the entire story without adding anything. |
| I don't take em really serious but generally speaking I don't watch an anime unless there is one person who would give it a 10, whether they're dumbasses or not that just tells me someone really loves the anime and I might too But obv some old shows may only have like 1 or 2 reviews so then the issue is more if subs actually exist for this shit |
No watch list sig cuz "You watch anime in 3 days or 3 months! Such is the proper way!" |
| I don’t really read reviews because most likely my opinion will differ from theirs so it’s not really a good indication if I’ll like the show or not |
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| I usually like to go into a show blind then look at the reviews after to see what others thought about it. |
| yeah, i don't read anime reviews on myanimelist.. most of the time. |
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| I won't bother to look at that section anymore since most of the reviews are shit. I'll judge the series myself. |
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| shiiiiiiiiiiiiish some review on hxh said that chimera arc suck saying this "chimera ant art is shit for multiple reason the pacing is terrible asf the arc burns thru most it’s hype before the main villains even appear" Thoughts about this one? |
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| A lot of the reviews are by people who really love a series and will just give it a 10 regardless of any flaw or some pretentious dude who is ranting. I’ve never taken them seriously. I’d like to avoid reading cringe as much as possible. Also, reviews can be easily upvoted by bots and alt accounts, so the helpful count can be a suspicious indicator. They need to bring back “unhelpful” button. |
Shishou_23May 2, 2021 5:42 AM
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| I don't take the reviews of anything seriously other than video games because of the upfront cost associated with them and it's not really opinions I care about as much as they aren't too buggy. I don't buy games when they are new I always wait 30 days to make sure they work and aren't terrible. Ex CyberPunk 2077. When it comes to anime I can do it at a low cost so I take chances and don't care about reviews. |
| Not me , i never take it seriously , at most just around 20% . i still read it a bit to know what's the story about . |
| A number of mine that I did either had no synopsis at all or the anime in question wasn't available in English in any way, so I kind of made them as guides? but IDK make up your own mind on that one. |
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| I used to read reviews and take them seriously. Now, I don't. Especially for the new anime. Coz it's become a trend for people hating on the anime in the reviews. Top 5 reviews would have ratings - 3,4,7,5,2 - even for good anime. I would blame the people who write those reviews (like Rebelpanda, of course) - but it's not their fault that their reviews landed on the top. People, here on MAL, also seem to prefer hate reviews. So, I stopped taking the reviews seriously.... |
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| Nah why should I care about what some random nobody thought about the anime. |
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| Lmao, shows like Mushoku tensei have a score of above 8.4 and then reviews are filled with 3s and 4s and the reasons 90% of them give.... "Mushoku tensei contains pedophilic shit, so I gave it a 3." |
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Amazinc said: As a person that reviews regularly, I think that MAL reviews are mostly garbage and useless to read. I write mine because they are fun and post them here to get feedback and or criticism. So yeah, I agree that there is no real benefit from reading them.I look at an anime's score before I watch, but reviews on MAL pages of anime are more funny to me than anything. Usually they're just nitpicky or the user has a completely different scale for rating shows.. Usually one top review score will be a 4 from a guy who's average rating is a 4.6 and another will be a 9 from someone who read the manga and already loves the show. Everyone just has different tastes so an average makes more sense than listening to the ramblings of a single anime watcher. If you're interested in a show. Look at the rating on sites, ask a friend or two, and give it a shot. Reviews on MAL are useless. Thoughts? |
SolitaryWeeb said: There can be a problem, especially in a community full of butthurt people such as MAL. We saw what happened with AoT and FMAB, it was a fiasco. People just spam the unhelpful button if the reviewer doesn't agree with the rating the reader gave.Hrybami said: I stopped caring about reviews when their quality became significantly worse in the matter of a day. That was the day when they removed the "not helpful" button. Wait, why would they do that? I thought this site encouraged criticism, not hated it so much to where a not helpful review button would be taken away? Thats the equivalent of Youtube trying to take the dislike button away, only MAL succeeded here. |
| Why would MAL reviews be useless? The users are just writing their thoughts on the show. If they are being too pedantic or too "fanboyish", let them be; it's their choice. |
SolitaryWeeb said: I didn't mean people actually reading the review and not agreeing. Worded it incorrectly, my bad. I meant people just looking at the rating and not reading the full review.ScraF said: There can be a problem, especially in a community full of butthurt people such as MAL. We saw what happened with AoT and FMAB, it was a fiasco. People just spam the unhelpful button if the reviewer doesn't agree with the rating the reader gave. I mean, thats kind of the point of the button, to leave an unhelpful response if you dont think its a helpful one and vice versa. To me it seems like the helpful buttons are another way of saying "I agree" or "I disagree" to begin with. Leaving it with the only option "I agree" will give reviewers a big head in thinking that no one disagrees with them because the userbase no longer has an option to thanks to some bad apples. |
| Taking anyone on this website seriously is a big mistake. |
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| Top reviews on MAL are pretty useless. It's better to find people that seems to have taste that matches up with yours and just look at their reviews. I would suggest that instead of just putting reviews that get the most "helpful" at the top, it should be personalized to each user and also based on the affinity score. Though they should also modify the affinity system such that it takes into account the mean/median score that a user gives instead of just a straight point comparison, as different people are using different scales on this site. That the reviews that are scored as "helpful" rise to the top generally results in reviews that aren't necessarily good reviews of the anime itself but are interesting for other reasons, such as they bash it really hard or are really sarcastic, rising to the top due to people that aren't even interesting in the anime pressing the "helpful" button on them. |
hexashadow13May 2, 2021 6:24 AM
SolitaryWeeb said: Hrybami said: I stopped caring about reviews when their quality became significantly worse in the matter of a day. That was the day when they removed the "not helpful" button. Wait, why would they do that? I thought this site encouraged criticism, not hated it so much to where a not helpful review button would be taken away? Thats the equivalent of Youtube trying to take the dislike button away, only MAL succeeded here. Because it was abused. For instance, you could downvote the 4 reviews at the top and upvote the 5th, so it could be shown at the main page. |
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