And with that out of the way, hi! Welcome to my profile!
No doubt you're here because you've read some review of mine and-- what? What do you mean I only write about old anime which no one cares about?! I've written reviews on anime as recent as from the past five years I'll have you know!
Okay, fine! You're probably here because I've modded your review then? Alright, just a sec...
*disappears*
*reappears in more professional looking attire*
Hi! I'm your friendly neighbourhood SpidermanReview Moderator-man! Or at least one of the many. If you've got an issue regarding review moderation, please first familiarise yourself with the review guidelines:
If this doesn't answer your query, please press 3 on your number pad.
Or alternatively leave me a private message after the beep.
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PS don't post on my wall as such matters are not for public consumption. k thanks.
THE LESS IMPORTANT STUFF
About me
I spent a significant part of my childhood growing up in East Asia, where watching anime is part of the norm - going around claiming you watch anime is like saying you listen to music - who doesn't?
So it wasn't until I was an adult in the west that I started thinking myself as an anime fan. The beginnings of this can be traced back to prehistorical times, aka, around the turn of the millennium, when digital fansubs were just taking off and being distributed on this new fangled thing called the interweb or something. I guess this makes me a dinosaur by anime fandom standards.
Anyway, my horizons broadened when I came across this website called animenfo (it was like MAL minus the personal list functionality) from which I discovered a ton of other anime I could watch.
After watching an anime, I used to read load of reviews on the site to see what other people's opinions were. Reading so many of other people's opinions made me itch to write my own (this was before MAL even existed). Kinda ironic, since I was so terrible at writing I had a phobia of essays when I was in school.
Animenfo eventually went into decline (and has now sadly ceased to exist), so I moved over to MAL, reposting most of my reviews here and editing them in the process the best I can (some are probably beyond help).
And here I am, still here many years later. Now with the power to pass judgement on other people's reviews mwhahahah--*cough cough cough*. I'd like to think I've become at least competent at writing reviews now, but I'm so busy these days I don't have much time to watch anime and write reviews any more.
Feel free to check out my reviews if you're one of the rare breed of anime fan who's interested in reading about anime that didn't just come out last month. I've written a lot, but I'll be the first to admit the quality of my reviews are a bit uneven; a lot of them make me cringe, especially the early ones. However, there are a few which I am quite proud of, so if you don't feel like digging through the trash, the next section contains a sample of what I consider to be my better efforts:
I don't find the MAL rating system suit my needs well enough. I'd really be happier if the scale went up in steps of 0.5. Also, a glaring fault is that 10 is described as "masterpiece" and 9 is "great". There's a big jump between being great and being a masterpiece - I can think of lots of anime that I would describe along the lines of "that was a great anime!", but very few would qualify as "masterpiece". This means that too many anime ends up falling into the 9 catergory because they couldn't make it to a 10 - in my opinion, if something is rated as a 9, it better be goddam better than just a plain "great". Even though I dislike the MAL scale, the dilemma is that if I use my own scale rather than the MAL scale, it will be misleading for people who don't read this long winded explanation of how I like to rate things. So here's my compromise: I've chosen to rate stuff using the MAL system to avoid confusion, but I also have my own scoring system, which I express using tags against the anime.
I have recently adopted a new personal scoring system that goes from -ve numbers up to +ve numbers. The more positive the score, the more I like it, the more negative, the more I hate it. The advantage of this type of system is that, despite being unconventional, it's intuitive. It's works better than the 1~10 scale, where everyone has their own way of rating and it's hard to tell exactly what's "neutral" - you get people saying "that was alright" and give something a 7, or "it's good but it's got some flaws" then rating something a 9! I guess people can still do that with the +ve/-ve system, but I feel the problem is less severe. Oh yeah, and I've chosen to have no upper and lower caps on my scoring system, as it's always possible there are even better/worse anime out there that I haven't come across yet.
The mapping between the two is roughly as follows:
[Note that these should be viewed more as "tiers" than a linear scale]
+4 or higher <--- The "godly" range of anime. Theoretically possible but realistically unattainable levels of goodness.
+3.5 <--- these are my absolute favourites (e.g. the whole Crest/Banner of the Stars saga)
+3.0 = 10 on MAL scale <--- Amazing (e.g. Monster)
+2.5 = 9 on MAL scale <--- these anime are definitely something special (e.g. Cross Game)
+2.0 = 9 on MAL scale <--- Great - these anime have something a bit special about them.
+1.5 = 8 on MAL scale <--- Very good
+1.0 = 7 on MAL scale. <--- Good
+0.5 = 6 on MAL scale <--- Fair
0 = 5 on MAL scale <--- Neutral
-0.5 = 5 on MAL scale <--- Mediocre
-1.0 = 4 on MAL scale <--- Bad
-1.5 = 3 on MAL scale <--- Very bad
-2.0 = 3 on MAL scale <--- Terribad.
-2.5 = 2 on MAL scale <--- Crap
-3 = 2 on MAL scale <--- Amazing...ly crap
-3.5 = 1 on MAL scale <--- virtually unwatchable
-4 or lower <--- unholy levels of Shite
Favourite anime lists
--- Top 3 ---
Crest of the Stars & sequels
Last Exile
Nodame Cantabile & sequels
--- 2nd Tier Favourites ---
Full Metal Alchemist & Brotherhood
Gankutsuoh
KGNE
Monster
Space Brothers
--- Best of the Rest ---
Cowboy Bebop
Cross Game
Death Note
Hikaru no Go
Noir
Planetes
Welcome to the NHK
Yu Yu Hkausho
Damn you bodied Clannad in that review - no biases, just stating facts. “Moe” is at the core of modern anime and I’m terribly annoyed by this aspect of modern anime. It’s more about selling stereotypes than telling stories. Great review.
Hi there. Just a question: if I edit a review, will the post be marked as "Edited"? I just want to fix a few sentences and grammar mistakes from a review I did a week ago, but I don't like it for everyone to see that it has been modified, it makes it look like I may have changed substantial information or something.
Shorter messages and a shorter wait, or longer messages with a longer wait... That's a good question. Personally I'd say shorter messages are probably the better option, mostly because that would mean getting them out closer to the real Christmas day. Also because of what you mentioned with having a small list overlap making it harder to write more (not that I've experienced that personally though). That would also mean giving up some of the 'human feel' that longer messages can have, but shorter messages can still be meaningful if they're well-written and concise.
You are indeed first! Welcome! I am glad you found Atama Yama amusing. I saw a review describe it as a Rakugo play, which describes the comedy aspect but not necessarily the narration style. I was wondering the same thing myself. That is completely fair about the other two shows, I'm glad to hear Ashita no Joe is good so far, I am also interested in watching it. I will admit, seeing your list made me miss the art and atmosphere of older shows and made me want to go back and watch some, so I will probably be visiting your list again soon. I appreciate the comment you have left and if you get round to it I hope you enjoy the other shows as well, Let me know if you do as I would be interested to hear your thoughts on them.
Hope you had a good Christmas and this new year is fruitful for you!
Not at all mate I was just messing, it was a good recommendation and I still liked it. I'll probably have to watch it again though with a drop of whisky in me lol. Cheers lad.
Yep, it was Boogiepop. You were an emergency elf on top of being a regular participant? Thanks for doing that, it must have been quite the task considering the number of people who signed up this year.
Hello, my fellow otaku. Thank you so much for the recommendation! I have watched Fantastic Children and the anti-mainstream feeling really hit the spot. I really like how the mystery unfolded as the episode progresses piece by piece and reminds me of Zettai Shounen that I watch long time ago. The art is just as expected of an old anime but that's where the gem lies and I love it. It really is challenging to watch this anime without any understanding of what it is in the first episode but then it would not be called "mystery" lol and I'm glad that I could finish it. Again, thank you very much and I know it's a bit late to say this but "Happy New Year and I hope you have a good one".
Hello fellow British citizen! Thank you for the recommendation! I have already binged Boogiepop and finished it just yesterday. I definitely saw the simularities to Lain and really enjoyed the atmosphere, music and art design but unfortunately that's where much of my enjoyment ended. I had seen what you meant by the character designs and the story not being the easiest to grasp and because I'm super adhd I never stood a chance lol but I still enjoyed it for what I could and I don't regret watching it. Thanks for the recommendation and hopefully you had a better Christmas than I did.
All Comments (1177) Comments
Hope you have a good day!
You are indeed first! Welcome! I am glad you found Atama Yama amusing. I saw a review describe it as a Rakugo play, which describes the comedy aspect but not necessarily the narration style. I was wondering the same thing myself. That is completely fair about the other two shows, I'm glad to hear Ashita no Joe is good so far, I am also interested in watching it. I will admit, seeing your list made me miss the art and atmosphere of older shows and made me want to go back and watch some, so I will probably be visiting your list again soon. I appreciate the comment you have left and if you get round to it I hope you enjoy the other shows as well, Let me know if you do as I would be interested to hear your thoughts on them.
Hope you had a good Christmas and this new year is fruitful for you!
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✨ Happy new year~ ✨
Thanks for all the work you've
done for MAL this past year!
Hope 2023 will be good to you!
(´。• ᵕ •。`) ♡
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