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How to go about remembering niche series you watched before using MAL?

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Nov 20, 2024 6:24 PM
#1
Offline
Jan 2017
271
Heya, got a problem I'm sure many people here have run into before. I've got this annoying feeling that my MAL list is incomplete, that I'm missing something I definitely watched. I went though some older shows that aired in past seasons and found one that I had indeed watched when I was first getting into Anime, being Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. It's been almost a decade since then, and while I've added most of what I've seen, I know I'm missing quite a few. I know I only watched Dubs when I was younger, but my earliest entries on MAL were from when I first got into seasonal shows instead of searching specific less legal websites' A-Z and picking shows based on thumbnails. Do you all know any way I could narrow down my search, to find similar shows to DMoA? Or have you accepted that you'll be missing a few?
Nov 20, 2024 6:38 PM
#2
JOYCONBOYZ

Offline
Aug 2019
95
You could go to Top Anime then Most Popular, it shouldn't take long to go through a lot of it and see if you recognize anything.
You can also check the recommendations on the page of a specific Anime.

Nov 20, 2024 6:41 PM
#3
lagom
Online
Jan 2009
105053
ye i got that problem at first too but then over the years of using mal forums i remember some anime shows that i forgot then i just add them to my list whenever i got a chance to do so so do the same imo
Nov 20, 2024 6:56 PM
#4
Offline
Jan 2017
271
Reply to beugmeister
You could go to Top Anime then Most Popular, it shouldn't take long to go through a lot of it and see if you recognize anything.
You can also check the recommendations on the page of a specific Anime.
Think they'd be skewed higher because they're dubbed? I'm worried I'd spend forever there since I'd also have to sift though almost 10 years of seasonal releases that've had their availability boosted by sites like crunchyroll

I suppose if I ever have a free afternoon I could doomscroll for a bit
Nov 20, 2024 7:01 PM
#5

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Jul 2021
1135
I've been having that problem since I joined MAL. I know there is definitely so much more anime out there that ive seen. Especially in the romance category. Your best bet is to probably look through the top rated and most popular anime. Or if you know the genre scroll through the tag.


Nov 21, 2024 3:23 AM
#6

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Sep 2016
17516
I just searched for old anime, especially kids anime that I watched as a kid, and I remembered most of them when I saw their titles or covers.
ZarutakuNov 21, 2024 4:08 AM
Nov 21, 2024 5:28 AM
#7

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Oct 2014
15614
Over the years I've just stumbled upon their entries. I don't think there's any anime I've seen that I still don't have in my list.
Nov 21, 2024 11:00 AM
#8

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Oct 2017
4745
I don't lol. Honestly I have seen a lot more shows, than I have listed on my MAL, however, any series I don't have strong memory of and I don't intend to rewatch I just decided to not list.

If you really want to know, just look by year, around the time you were watching or before. I have found long lost shows, just skimming through that way, plus you always find some interesting shows and OVAs as well.
Nov 21, 2024 11:10 AM
#9

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Dec 2022
5639
I didn't watch that many anime series before I made my MAL account, and the niche/unpopular series I did watch before making it generally left enough of an impression that I remembered to catalogue them anyway.

There were some series I watched fragmented episodes of as a kid (e.g. Sonic X, Pokemon Advanced Generation, Yu-Gi-Oh), but since I watched only a fraction of the episodes of these series—and completely out of order too—I can't really add them to my list.


╔⏤═⏤╝ ╚⏤═⏤╗
Shaded Horizon


Nov 21, 2024 11:19 AM

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Jul 2013
9696
I don't remember which anime series I watched before visiting this website.
Nov 21, 2024 11:22 AM

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May 2018
1041
Yeah, truth be told there isn't really an easy way to go about it. The easiest thing I've found is searching by genre.

anime search > [genre/theme/demographic] > "my list" in the top right > only checkmark "not in my list"...

at least that eliminates all the titles you do know you've watched. then you can sort by release date (and go back a few hundred pages)
can't yuck my yum




Nov 21, 2024 12:10 PM

Offline
Jul 2013
9696
I signed up for this site around 2013. This is the first legit anime forum I ever signed up to btw. I have been watching anime since 1995, but this is the first anime forum I ever participated in.
Nov 21, 2024 12:17 PM

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Aug 2019
599
i have always used mal, but sometimes i check my notes or messages ( i literally save my fav episodes / anime in a chatlog wth myself )
Nov 21, 2024 12:36 PM
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Sep 2020
153
Okay, so, since i got this feeling this year as well, the way i got around this was, first, think what was the oldest anime you watched, then, go to winter season from that year, and go through every single anime season from there, it might take a while, but if you do 1 anime year per day, it would be over faster than you expect, i got like, 15 extra entries in myanimelist, and even discovered a few extras from series i have watched before, that i didn't even knew it exist
Nov 21, 2024 1:35 PM
ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

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Aug 2014
8057
At some point you just have to say, if you don't recall it well enough, then just move on and should you stumble upon it again, either decide to add it to your list or rewatch it first.
Nov 23, 2024 2:00 AM

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Jan 2023
2958
Fortunately, since I started watching anime a few years back, I kept track of everything I watched on a Word file, long before I joined MAL.
So I never had problems 'remembering' niche series I watched :)
Nov 23, 2024 3:23 AM

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Oct 2010
21547
it's called having a functional memory
Nov 27, 2024 11:27 AM
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Jan 2017
271
Reply to Catalano
it's called having a functional memory
@Catalano bro no need for that do you recall everything you watched when you were 12 💀
Nov 27, 2024 11:28 AM
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Jan 2017
271
Reply to MeguSae38
Fortunately, since I started watching anime a few years back, I kept track of everything I watched on a Word file, long before I joined MAL.
So I never had problems 'remembering' niche series I watched :)
@MeguSae38 smart... wish a did that. It's been ages since I started though 😭
Nov 27, 2024 11:28 AM
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Jan 2017
271
Reply to Kwanthemaster
At some point you just have to say, if you don't recall it well enough, then just move on and should you stumble upon it again, either decide to add it to your list or rewatch it first.
@Kwanthemaster that's quite the chill mindset to have
Nov 27, 2024 11:30 AM
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Jan 2017
271
Reply to NoelleIsSleepy
Yeah, truth be told there isn't really an easy way to go about it. The easiest thing I've found is searching by genre.

anime search > [genre/theme/demographic] > "my list" in the top right > only checkmark "not in my list"...

at least that eliminates all the titles you do know you've watched. then you can sort by release date (and go back a few hundred pages)
@NoelleIsSleepy oh, this is a good one! I'll do this of an afternoon or evening when I'm bored, cheers!
Nov 27, 2024 11:40 AM

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Apr 2018
185
What i did was simply get into the seasons section, chose winter 1980, and went through each season adding everything i watched when i was young. It took quite a bit of time, but it was fun reminiscing about old anime.
Nov 27, 2024 11:46 AM
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Jan 2017
271
Reply to joaquinns
What i did was simply get into the seasons section, chose winter 1980, and went through each season adding everything i watched when i was young. It took quite a bit of time, but it was fun reminiscing about old anime.
@joaquinns NINETEEN EIGHTY?????? Brother I started in 2001 😭

Edit; I'm sorry I didn't realise you are literally old enough to be my dad, I was not familiar with your game unc
Nov 27, 2024 11:57 AM

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Apr 2018
185
Reply to Oni_Zokuchou
@joaquinns NINETEEN EIGHTY?????? Brother I started in 2001 😭

Edit; I'm sorry I didn't realise you are literally old enough to be my dad, I was not familiar with your game unc
@Oni_Zokuchou no problem! im old and also i watched anime from way before i was born.
Nov 27, 2024 12:01 PM

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Jan 2008
3322
Reply to Oni_Zokuchou
@joaquinns NINETEEN EIGHTY?????? Brother I started in 2001 😭

Edit; I'm sorry I didn't realise you are literally old enough to be my dad, I was not familiar with your game unc
@Oni_Zokuchou

I was watching shows in the 80's as a child I didn't know were anime. I still come across anime I forgot I had ever seen.
Nov 27, 2024 12:25 PM
ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

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Aug 2014
8057
Reply to Oni_Zokuchou
@Kwanthemaster that's quite the chill mindset to have
@Oni_Zokuchou
"At some point" only happens after extensive research, and then sometimes I even go back and try to search again. 😅
I've just had to come to terms that some things are lost, and until I get a new clue, it is what it is.
Nov 27, 2024 1:06 PM

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Oct 2015
6456
If you remember details from the shows, there are subreddits where you can describe them and people help you find it. Called r/whatanime
Nov 27, 2024 1:10 PM

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Mar 2021
3512
@Oni_Zokuchou

My list is always going to be incomplete. Not going to figure out the exact episodes of some random Anime I caught a few random episodes of back in the 90s. Most of the shit I consumed before Anime was ever being platformed regularly on actual TV was through renting VHS tapes at a local video store in the early 90s where most of the time they would only ever offer up the 1st volume or any particular franchise. If lucky they might offer a few more volumes if it was even actually available to western audiences (There was simply just a lot of shit that never got officially released in the West during this time period).

As another example I remembering watching plenty of "Sailor Moon" back in the late 90s but didn't watch the full series or even remember which episodes I caught airing on TV. I simply just don't add stuff to my list if I never finished something. The same thing goes with Anime series like "Outlaw Star", "The Big O", "Ronin Warriors", "Yu Yu Hakusho", "Dragon Ball Z", "Gundam Wing", "One Piece", "Naruto", "Rurouni Kenshin", "Inuyasha", etc... All series which I only caught episodes airing on TV or rented random episodes at a place like Blockbuster Video.

Also there is likely stuff I have actually watched and finished before but just never randomly came across in the database. Either because it's just simply not that memorable or it's just not even in the database to begin with (MALs database in itself is incomplete and only adds shit that has ever been platformed outside of Japan where I am sure there is plenty of obscure shit from the 70s that simply just isn't in the database).

Having an accurate list was never a true concern of mine to begin with. I originally only registered as a User to keep track of new seasonal shit because some modern Anime has still never made it to home release and some will likely never get released on physical media atleast when it comes to the West.


Nov 27, 2024 1:14 PM

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Apr 2024
1084
When I started to fill out an online database for anime around twenty years ago I had the same issue. Had an easy solution, though. I would only add anime to the database I watched in Japanese. Since I had only started doing that about a year earlier there was no memory issue.
Nov 27, 2024 7:03 PM

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Jun 2007
4084
If you encounter other users with extensive lists, like these, you can go into Shared Anime, and look through titles in the "Unique to [Other User]" section to see if any titles trigger a "That should be on my list, but it's not" response.

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It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
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