 Casual Discussion "I'll tell them that they are wrong every single time" - Madoka Kaname Interview conducted by: @Phloup Reviewed by: @AlexPaulLEWZ First things first, introductions! Could you tell us more about yourself? Well, I have never been the best at introductions but you all know me as "ACasualViewer." I am 24 years old, from Toronto Canada, and I have been watching anime since I was four years old. After watching anime for 20 years, I still quite love this medium and don't think I’ll stop watching anime for the rest of my life. For my real life info, I studied accounting and I currently work as a financial analyst. I don't actually particularly enjoy my job, but I am a pragmatic person, so I took the path anyone with my level of risk aversion would. For my interests outside of anime, I also enjoy games, reading, music, hunting, and occasionally hanging out with my in-person friends. My favorite color is blue like most people and my favorite type of music are movie soundtracks with no particular genre. If it’s a good movie soundtrack and I have an emotional connection to the movie, I’ll probably love it. I am always down to meet new people and if someone wants to say hi, please do reach out. My personality type is unironically tsundere, so I might seem cold or a bit blunt at first but I usually do get warmer towards people I know for a while. What is the story behind your username? Well, a lot of people find it ironic that my name is "A Casual Viewer" when spaced out in a sentence. This is because I have probably seen more anime than 99% of people who have ever watched anime. However, I personally see myself as the quintessential casual viewer. I am anti-elitist and I am opposed to gatekeeping the medium. I like it when people get into the stuff I like, and I am open minded to watching just about every genre of anime, except BL (boys love), and I watch most seasonal shows. I enjoy pretty much everything I watch and I rarely rate below a 7, doesn't matter how many times I have seen the exact same plot twists, power systems, settings, character archetypes, generic music, average art quality, I am still quite easily entertained and I will likely give a show a 7 rating as long as I enjoy it. This is fundamentally why I chose the username "ACasualViewer" because I really just am a casual person when it comes to enjoying anime and I have never been super picky on what I liked watching Could you give us a brief history of your time on MAL? Well, my history isn't really anything special, I knew about the site from over a decade ago, honestly, since I used it to find highly rated series to watch or look up background information on a show I was thinking of watching. I also did enjoy reading reviews on shows just to see what different people thought about a show, sometimes before watching and sometimes after, the former was to see if there were any significant deal breakers ahead of time, and the latter was to compare my thoughts to others. I only decided to join MAL in 2018 because my anime list on a spreadsheet was getting ridiculously cumbersome and I decided to just make an account and add all my shows online. I would say that at first, I only used the website as a list tool but over time I eventually started editing synopses and one day I decided to start reviewing anime. Various issues with the reviews system led me to apply to review moderator role and I guess Kina (Kineta) liked me in the interview since I am on the team now. Overall, it’s been a positive experience and I will admit that I don't dislike the community. How did you get into anime and manga? Well, as stated before, I started watching anime at age 4, and no, it was not Pokemon that got me into anime. My first ever anime was Gundam Seed, and I really liked the big robots blowing each other up. Seriously, that was the coolest shit when you're 4 and I was super hyped watching that show jumping up and down and I preferred it to most of the other "cartoons" I was watching at that time. I grew up in Toronto where there was a TV channel called YTV and a specific program called Bionix. For some reason they actually had an amazing selection of English-dubbed anime despite being a western TV channel. Due to the channel, I had access to various anime like the Gundam series, Beyblade, Inuyasha, Dragon Ball and DBZ, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Eureka 7, Full Metal Alchemist The Original, Death Note, and several other series, and I spent my childhood watching all of them! I had a very strong introduction to anime before I even knew what the word was. It was only in middle school where I learned that the cartoons that I liked so much were animated in Japan and were called "anime." I actually learned this from a copy of Shounen Jump I bought for a rare Yu-Gi-Oh! card and I started reading the edition backwards until I somehow realized the book was read right to left. In one of the stories I read, they talked about an anime adaption and then I googled the word and I learned all about the medium. My first experience streaming anime online, which is my primary means of watching anime now, happened to be Sword Art Online, and as a kid I thought that was a great show. I refuse to rewatch it and ruin my first impression. Could you recommend to us three of your favorite anime and three of your favorite manga? Well, I thought about this question a bit more intently than the previous questions, while I could just shill my favorite shows on my profile page, I feel like I should make more earnest recommendations of underappreciated series that I really like. Most of the shows on my favorites happen to be very popular so I am sure everyone who is interested in series like those will have either seen them or are planning to watch already, no point recommending Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or Hunter x Hunter. Instead I will be recommending the following shows: Welcome to the NHK (NHK ni Youkoso!) - a little bit of background on why I really enjoyed this series and why it has had such an impact on me is that I was bullied a lot in public school. And for various reasons, I was considering dropping out of high school—between dealing with thugs in my hood school and finding high school material far too easy. I was on the brink of just quitting. However, I stumbled onto Welcome to the NHK on a NEET forum that I was visiting during the research phase on whether I was going through to decide if I actually wanted to become a dropout. The show absolutely shattered my delusions, although in my life I never been NEET at any point, I realized my mindset and thought processes were eerily like Sato's and that I related to him very strongly. I saw how easily he fell into the pitfall of being a shut-in playing games all day or watching hentai or something. I saw just how much he suffered and I also realized that if I dropped out, I would definitely have ended up in this situation, except there would be no cute high school girl showing up to my door to help me, just abject rock bottom failure. By the end of the show, I completely realized that dropping out was a dumb idea and that I had to push through high school even if I was hating it at the time. This anime unironically changed the trajectory of my life A Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun), specifically Railgun S and T, however even the first one was pretty enjoyable. I really love the Toaru series, especially the light novels, but sadly, the main series never got a good anime adaptation. Railgun, however, did and I remember watching the very first season when it aired when I was in the 9th grade. The opening song captivated me and I really grew to like the headstrong but somewhat tsundere MC, Misaka Mikoto. Her electrifying personality, the amusing side cast, the amazing world building, and power system all drew me in. Although when I look back at the original Railgun, there might have been a bit too much fan service, as a 14-year-old boy I quite enjoyed it at the time. Now Railgun S1 itself despite being pretty fun isn't super impressive or anything, it was during Railgun S where the series truly begins to shine. I believe that the Sisters Noise arc is actually the single best anime arc I ever seen. If it weren't for the non-canon and slightly lackluster arc 2, I would have given this season a perfect 10. It ticks all the boxes I liked: captivating story with significant moral dilemma, top tier combat and animation, a heavy psychologically intense atmosphere, and the main character despite her strength demonstrating weakness against an impossible opponent. I truly recommend this series if just for this Railgun S arc. As for Railgun T, I will engage in shameless self-promotion and ask that you read my review on it. My third anime recommendation is Chihayafuru. Like Railgun, it has three seasons and the latter two seasons are notably superior than the first. However, in the case of Chihayafuru, even the first season is arguably at least a mid 8/10 minimum and it’s the show that really got me into sports anime. Yes, it’s a card game, but don't let your preconceptions cloud how you view this game, it’s actually very athletic and challenging and it’s a testament to the quality of writing this series has that I got so deeply into a show about teenagers playing a traditional card game. The entire world of karuta is incredibly fun to learn about and its one of those competitive series where the characters get better but the nature of the battle system makes it so power levels never get stupid and everything remains grounded in reality. The character drama is definitely some of the best I ever come across with an entire cast of incredibly lively and likable characters and the team competition arc during season 2 was one of the most intense and gripping final matches I ever seen, on par with Haikyuu's final match before the nationals. For manga recommendations, I will not go in that deeply, but here are the three that I think people should give a try: The first is Kingdom, and I am not exaggerating when I say that the anime adaption of season 1 was worse than the adaption Berserk got. I highly recommend avoiding the anime and instead reading this masterpiece. The manga art is just a tier below berserk and the series has stayed interesting across over 600 chapters and is still ongoing. Otoyomegatari is a series of stories about different brides and their lives set during the 1800s or so. Most of the stories, while separate, take place in the same timeline and world. Sometimes the stories do cross paths through specific characters and the world that is set up is incredibly vast. Each girl has an interesting story and I would highly recommend checking this series out if you like strong drama and excellent world building, also the background art is absolutely gorgeous see here:  The final manga series I would highly recommend is Yona of the Dawn. While I enjoyed the anime adaptation, I feel like the anime literally only touched the prologue of the series. The real story doesn't even begin until all four dragons meet up and that's where the anime essentially ends. I consider this show to be the peak of reverse harem. I think every guy is best guy and Yona's interactions with all of them is so sweet and awesome. Her growth through the manga is also a sight to behold. Are there any particular users you like or dislike, and why? So I would like to preface my response to this question with the note that I am a moderator so it may look bad if I say I like or dislike specific people, however regardless of how I feel about you as a person, I guarantee I only mod by the guidelines or what senpai mods recommend and I will never show someone biased treatment in my role just because I like or dislike them. I won't name anyone specifically for dislikes but if you know me then you know which users I dislike. People I like: 1. @Veronin, I am 100% sure Veronin doesn't know who I am, has never seen my profile, and we have never interacted. However, the reason why I put him up on here is because he is the very reason why I started reviewing in the first place. I came across his Little Busters!: Refrain review, and to this day, I consider it my all-time favorite anime review. That review completely changed my view on how reviews can effectively reach audiences and I have never felt so convinced to watch a mediocre show just for a season 2, for example, a lot of people compare Clannad seasons 1 and 2 for being very divergent in quality, but for work done by Jun Maeda, I would say Little Busters! is probably the series with the largest gap between seasons. Thanks Veronin for putting up such a great review, it made me want to review anime as well. 2. @Stark700, iconic guy and despite the rumors, I have only had positive experiences with him. 3. @SingleH, they probably don't even read the forums but I would like to give them a shoutout. They get so much unnecessary hate honestly, they are actually a very pleasant person if you get to know them, though moderating them can be a pain in the ass. 4. @Pleasegivemehope, thanks for convincing me to play NieR:Automata subbed, I played it dubbed before and I missed out. That is all. Would also like to mention @Mollie2060 and @Tasel for being interesting to talk to in DMs, @SmugSatoko as well and please go back to being SadMadoka, it was a cooler name! 5. Just going to tag all my review mod bros in one line here, all of you are the best, especially @gaussian_, @AlexPaulLEWZ, and @firefractal. What are your hobbies outside of anime, manga, and MAL? I have a number of other interests outside of anime/manga. I really enjoy playing platformer games, RTS games, JRPGs, story-rich games, and occasionally experimental games. Some of my favorite games are Zelda Twilight Princess, NieR:Automata, Age of Empires 2, Hollow Knight, Pikmin 2, Dark Souls and similar series, The Witcher 3, and I used to be Diamond on League of Legends in season 3 before quitting that toxic shitfest. Other things I like doing include hunting, fishing, citizen science initiatives like testing water quality, battleboarding especially on ComicVine, writing reviews on food, games, specific venues, volunteering for tax clinics in low income communities, people watching. What are your opinions regarding how the site is run? Especially on the subject of moderators and admins. This website needs more money, seriously, it feels like its running on shoestrings and bubblegum and I worry that another several-month shut down might occur anytime. I only have an anilist, Kitsu, and AnimeDB because I want backups in case MAL goes down, I prefer MAL overall to the previous sites, but I truly do worry about how long this site can stay up. In regard to moderation, I think way too many clowns are given a lot of leeway on the forums. This is because for some reason we cannot just ban people from a specific part of the site which means we got to remove them from access to their anime list as well which is a last resort move. Seriously, the amount of trolling and bait threads is way too high and so many genuinely awful people are given slaps on the wrist for behavior that would be a ban on almost any other platform. If you don't post porn or gore and you wait out your strikes, you can game the system and just never get banned. Outside of those complaints, I do like the administration, Kina is a very dedicated and hardworking individual and the moderation team is one of the most educated and amusing groups of people I have come across the internet. There's this image that internet community mods are sweaty teen groomers who have neckbeards and have never held a job or touched grass in decades, I can definitely say this doesn't remotely apply to our moderation team, everyone is well adjusted and fun to talk to and on top of that they are pretty smart in that they rely on reason and don't get emotional about the work we do. As for my take on the review system, I made it clear in a forum post which I will link here as a response: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1890309. Phloup: Now being part of the moderating team, has your perspective on MAL's review system changed? Yeah, my perspective has largely shifted once I saw what was really occurring behind the curtains and the state reviews are in on the website. I knew people rushed to post reviews the nanosecond after the show finished airing, I knew people engaged in plagiarism or exaggerated scores positive or negative to get more hits, but I never expected so many users to engage in review botting or vindictive reporting from “rules lawyers” who want to take down competition. Knowing what I know now and how difficult it is to deal with the issues present with such a small team, I appreciate the review system as is, there are definitely improvements to be made, but anything that we would need requires development resources that just aren't there right now. Some improvements I have enjoyed are blocking series from being reviewed until the first 3 episodes are out and the expanded trolling definition, and I think these are steps in the right direction. In addition, I have realized that I need to lower my expectations for a lot of reviews, which is something I did not do before after I realized that a lot of MAL's userbase are children, literally. They are not able to read guidelines or write out proper reviews because they are like 14-year-olds, and that's too hard for them. I don't mean this as an insult, it's just a matter of fact. Having overly high standards don't work, so moderators focus most of the time on trolling or spam over focusing a lot on reviews that just slightly break the rules. One thing I remember disliking before I was a mod was that the mod you got for your review determined if your review was likely to stay up and be edited or get removed. I thought this was unfair since it was just based on luck which mod you got but I realize now this is necessary and unavoidable. Sure, mods rule differently depending on how strict they are personally or how easygoing they are, this isn't perfect sure, but it’s not practical for all the mods to just sit down and majority vote on 1000s of reviews. Think of it like judges from real life, they refer a lot to prior decisions on how new cases are handled in order to be consistent, but the judge you get can in fact heavily sway the outcome of a case. I do believe the team tries their best to be consistent, but no matter what you do, these sort of differences between mods will occur and it’s not realistic to completely end them unless moderation was completely robotic which isn't going to happen. Do you think that purple perfectly represents the Review Moderator team? Why? If not, which color and why? From @AlexPaulLEWZ I would say purple represents the moderation team quite well. Purple is a color associated with royalty and our specific role as review mods is simply going over reviews and determining if they are worthy of remaining on the site. Probably a ridiculous cope but I think it makes the color fitting, we're probably the moderators with the absolute most leeway on how we interpret the rules and how much discretion we have on removals or edits. What are some of the more unique interactions you've had as a moderator? Well I was trying to think of a decent example to give and 2 come to mind. One was where one of my edits to a reviewer ended up on twitter without my username being cropped out which ended up getting a bunch of users rather salty towards me, did not expect someone to parade around a MAL dm on social media lol. The other example that felt more unique was where a user actually approached me before posting a review and asked for pointers and if their review had any content issues, I actually liked this since I rarely get to problem solve before a review is posted. AlexPaulLEWZ: A royal answer indeed! Phloup: And aside from interactions, has being a moderator led to any other unique experiences? Well, I would say one rather interesting experience I had as a moderator was judging entries for the Blue Period contest. I am not really an art critic and I don't know that much about art on a deeper level, however, due to the volume of entries, a number of mods got a chance to help separate the more beginner level entries from entries that were actually likely to win. Basically it was like one of those dating apps but with art pieces and we swiped based on whether or not it would be deliberated further by another team You've mentioned that one of your hobbies is hunting. How did your interest for it spark? In addition, are there any noteworthy hunting experiences you could share? Well, what sparked my interest initially was that I wanted to join Canada border patrol and one of the requirements was a gun license. I got my license but never did end up joining. I did not want getting my license to be pointless so I thought about hobbies, and well, hunting is naturally connected to owning guns. In addition, when I was a kid, I used to go fishing, which was sort of fun. It’s a rather big pain to get the gun license, then get a hunting license and then get equipment for the hobby, however, after my first hunt I thought it was a worthwhile thing to have pursued. On my first hunt, I got to shoot a goose, and I absolutely hate those birds so it was pretty fun. I am not the type to waste things as well, so, of course, I took it home though I am a bit of a light weight when it comes to blood so my friend who I went with actually did the processing. I wouldn't say there were any exceptionally noteworthy stories, I did once run into a bear but it was a small sort of cute one, my friend and I just made a bunch of noise so it got scared and ran away. AlexPaulLEWZ: I want to see that bear. Phloup: Was there a reason for why you initially wanted join the border patrol? I wanted a lazy job at the airport, no seriously, they basically don't do anything but get paid well above regular private sector jobs. However, I learned the airport border patrol positions are highly competitive and most people who start this job end up in Northern Canada or a place in the middle of nowhere. Due to this, I decided against joining. What are some of your favorite movie soundtracks? For anime movie soundtracks, my favorites are probably Princess Mononoke, Kara no Kyoukai, Anthem of the Heart, The Disappearence of Haruhi Suzumiya, Madoka Rebellion, and End of Evangelion. For live action, Django Unchained, Inglorious Bastards, Interstellar, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump, and Baby Driver. I might leave Django and Inglorious Bastards out, though. I guess if I had to give one main reason why I like these soundtracks, they either are related to a very effective scene in a movie so I have an emotional association, or the soundtrack accompanied the movie to new heights on its own. End of Evangelion is probably the best example for a song related to a specific scene, specifically the track Komm, süsser Tod which is the song that played during the most important part of the movie. AlexPaulLEWZ: I agree with EoE’s Komm, Susser Todd so much! Moreover, I also like AotH’s credits music in the examples you said above! In one of your former posts, you mentioned that people shouldn't be forced to go to school. Do you still stand by this? I am 100% behind the belief that people should not be forced to go to school. Education should be free and available, and if a child wants to be educated at a public institution no one including their parents should be able to bar them. However, if both a child over the age of 13 and their parents do not want them to go to school then they should be allowed to not go. It would be recommended they find an alternative form of education, be it on the job training, online learning, specialized skills training through some sort of trades organization are all fine. I really dislike that teenagers against their own will are effectively forced to go to school even if they are way ahead of the material and find it boring, some people are also more suited to go straight into technical jobs as they matured earlier than other kids their age. This whole delayed adulthood into people early to mid-20s is ridiculous and a sign of a society that is not properly molding kids into adults effectively What are your favorite books excluding those within otaku culture? It’s a hard selection for me since I have a bunch of books that are long running series that I liked as a teenager and then books I liked as an adult. As a teenager though, I really like Enders Game along with the sequels, Artemis Fowl (the entire series), Triskelion, the Pretties trilogy, Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6, The Miracle Strain, Fahrenheit 451, Slaughter House 5, Killing Floor, and the Jack Reacher novel series. As an adult I am not sure what my favorites are anymore lol. Phloup: If you had to recommend one, which one would it be and why? Enders Game, hands down. The movie did not do it justice. Do you see yourself leaving MAL in the near future? Probably not, I don't intend on quitting watching anime and the site works fine for me. The only reason I would leave is if the website itself fell apart for some reason, in that case I would need an alternative platform to use. Is there anything you wish MAL had? Next episode countdowns for currently airing anime would be great. Is there something unasked that you would like to talk about? Just a bit on fan wars, whether or not FMA:B or Attack On Titan are first place on the website means nothing. Stop attaching so much value to it since it genuinely does not matter, do something more useful with your time. Any feedback on the interview format? I think the format is fine, the process was rather slow though, I was under the expectation that usually people being interviewed are the ones who delay the process lol. Phloup: Yeah, I'm the one to blame for that. I got really busy during the interview process :( Can you recommend three members who we can choose from to interview next, and briefly explain why you would like to read their interviews? @SingleH, mainly so I can hear them rant about the website, I am sure they will have some completely fire takes. @Luna, as they are stepping down from being an admin, I am interested in their views on where the site is going and learning more about them in general. @Ryuseishun, because I always found them interesting to talk to in DMs and such, wonder how they are feeling about the site these days. If any of the above refuse then please do @firefractal in their place lol, might as well interview a brand new admin and get their perspective on the website. Phloup: Luna has already accepted an interview, so it's a good thing that you mentioned firefractal. And that's the end of the interview! Thank you for your time :D |
PhloupMar 4, 2022 8:50 PM
MAL review mod Cool and very honest interview. I don't usually hear of anime besides Clannad changing people's lives, to the extent of which you had is also something else too. I'll give NHK a watch. >However, if both a child over the age of 13 and their parents do not want them to go to school then they should be allowed to not go. I don't agree with this, or at least the age boundary. I'd say at the very least 16, though 18 is more ideal. I am no expert but aren't people aged around 13 incapable of making a rational decision, especially one that determines the outcome of their lives. But again, not a professional in this matter. Thanks for playing MAL Interviews, ACasualViewer. based yoru no kuni review btw. |
NextUniverseFeb 28, 2022 2:49 AM
| Great interview. It was nice to see the POV of mods dealing with shitposters/bait threads. I don't blame them if they take a while to catch on to them not like the mods have as much time here as those guys lolol |
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| Terrific interview, have been wanting to know you for the LONGEST time since I've come across your profile like few years ago. And this is you in a list that's quite the insight...plus on the mods side too with shitposters and the like, they must be stopped. |
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