Report boomhowdy's Profile

Here's my scale for anime. My rankings are biased towards characterization/development, creativity, emotional impact, and themes. These are all words you'll see me overuse in the following scale. I generally give very little weight to animation or 'bad ass' characters or fight scenes. This rating system is also slightly skewed towards episodic anime, as I have watched fewer anime that have an arc or meta-plot structure.

I haven't watched enough bad anime to really calibrate the bottom ends but,
1) Absolutely worthless
2) Painful to watch, but the experience can be enjoyable when making fun of it with friends. Probably degrades characters I might of liked with fan service or terrible decisions, like sudden and unexplained characterization changes. Also, likely reuses the same jokes constantly to ill effect.
3) A complete waste of my time, but it probably had something I could appreciate.
4) Had good ideas or a promising premise, but just drove it into the ground. The poster child of disappointment.

Here's where the real scale begins

5) Five is pure apathy. Maybe the anime had some interesting ideas, but they were never followed through. In these anime, there is probably only one or two characters I care about, and they usually don't get much screen time. Generic MC's in an otherwise passable show often get put here.
6) Six is the bare minimum for a recommendation or an anime being "worth my time." I likely enjoyed it, but was sidetracked either by poor choices or just boring episodes. Anime that depends more on the world for intrigue than the characters will probably be put here.
7) Seven is the perfect rank for an anime that I loved, but kept seeing ways it could have been improved. The series likely has great potential, but didn't explore the themes fully enough to become a masterpiece.
8) Eight features the same potential that a seven does, but follows through on its premise or main ideas better. An eight often is an anime that has an incredible start, but fades somewhere later in the anime. I will also often put first seasons that only later pay off into this category.
9) Two cases: a anime that, although incredible, just doesn't connect with me on the same level as true ten, despite it's artistic or aesthetic merit. If I'm not emotionally attached to most of the episodes, a masterpiece usually gets put here. The other case is anime that would normally be an 8, but that has an amazing final episode or arc. I bump up scores of anime I see as underrated as an emotional decision rather than a critical one also. A nine can still get away with a flawed episode or two.
10) Ten features extensive characterization or worthwhile and justified character development. A ten will be something that makes me feel strong emotions or something that stands as an aesthetic marvel. Or maybe even both. These are anime that hit home and make me think about my own life in a new way or sympathize with a character or situation that I didn't understand beforehand. A ten will have several memorable episodes that I can remember for the theme or emotional impact, not for gimmicks. They don't have to be perfect, and I'm not shy or hesitant about giving out tens when something deserves it.