The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"
Tier I: Ten: This is why I watch anime. These masterworks of artistic expression have had an impact on how I engage with media or storytelling in general; they've redefined what "good" means for me. They will forever be a milestone in my perception of theming, character writing, art, animation, and direction. Tens are personally important to me, and though they may have minor objective flaws, everything about their subjective presentation (e.g. art style, premise, genre, characters) appeals to me and feels like it was written for me. Nine: Honorable mentions for a Ten. The distinction between a Nine and a Ten could be as disappointingly simple as my disengagement with the work on bases that reflect only on my tastes, rather than the quality of the work; they could also be minor objective failings. For any genre, anime and manga that make a Nine indicate what I feel like the genre exists for. These are certainly a cut above other works, in my experience, and make it into the list of stories that I would consider truly great, outside the context of just anime and manga. Eight: An Eight will have me invested for its entire runtime, looking forward to each episode, personally relating to or enjoying the presence of its characters, and praising its presentation and delivered experience. These will have objective or subjective flaws that are to some extent noticeable, but don't significantly impact my experience.
Tier II: Seven: A really good; great, even, work that I thoroughly enjoyed. A Seven will have notable, albeit minor objective flaws. Subjective drawbacks like art or themes just not for me could also bring down something otherwise technically well-executed. Though I loved this, maybe as much as an Eight or above, the imperfections are too conspicuous not to engage with. Six: Though a Six will have objective flaws that, without fail, will ruin immersion, generally in the form of "wow, that dialogue was bad," or "how did they even arrive to this conclusion?" I enjoyed it for the most part. A Six is on the top half of the rating system, and thus, naturally has more subjective and objective factors that I like weighing out its faults; it's something that I would rewatch, if only to give it another chance.
Tier III: Five: Despite being generally considered the "average" score, I prefer characterizing a Five by the fact that it's in the bottom half: it's as good as a bottom half entry gets. A Five is majorly objectively flawed, and also failed to grab my attention in appealing to my tastes. I didn't struggle with dropping this, but I couldn't forgive it for its lack of originality, or bad writing, or just being plain boring. The good that a Five comes with doesn't outweigh the bad, but it also isn't bogged down by it enough to offend me for its existence. Four: This could either be something that just wasn't for me, or be objectively bad in such a severe way that it significantly outweighs any enjoyment that I derived from it. A Four could be alright, but aimed at an entirely different target audience, and as a result, fail to elicit enjoyment from me in any way meaningful enough to make it to a higher rating. It could alternatively be so bad that, despite my minute enjoyment of it on account of using characters that I've enjoyed or an interesting enough premise, makes it down a tier into bottom half.
Tier IV: Three: This, in my opinion, didn't need to exist. It's something that utterly fails to make me care about it positively; something that, unless I turn my brain off completely, will have me thinking up essays as to its several failings. A Three still isn't flawed enough to be universally considered objectively bad; however, it certainly isn't for me, and though I might be able to respect it for its inspiration, it failed in its execution. I at least considered dropping this, even if I didn't end up doing so. Two: A Two is bad, it's really, really bad. It's pretty much as bad as it gets. Of course, everything about it isn't terrible; it'd be a feat to achieve that without at least appealing to me for its originality. It just has both objective and subjective issues that stand out to me so blatantly, that affect my engagement with it at critical moments, that disgust me for what might be straight-up offensive projections, that I can't take them seriously in the slightest. One: A One was painful to watch. It really should never have been made, and it truly stands the test of time in how badly it handled itself. It could be a reprehensible message, a botched continuation of a genuinely good franchise, or just incredibly boring. Much like Nines and Tens, the only real difference between Ones and Twos is how much I hate the entry.
- A score for a Dropped anime necessarily has to be at most a Four.
- Ratings for anime that I am Currently Watching are only predictive, and are generally subject to frequent change.
- I need to watch at least three episodes to rate a series.
- I change the priority rating once I'm done with a title — for Plan To Watch (or Read), it's how soon I'll get to it; for Completed it's how likely I might be to recommend the entry/how high I think someone should prioritize watching (/reading) this.
Recommendations
- I would have no trouble recommending anything from an Eight to Ten, and I've probably made a lot of my friends watch these.
- A Six or Seven I would recommend based on my knowledge of someone's tastes for genre, characters and plot.
- I would only recommend a Four or Five if asked for something specifically of the sort, or if it is important to a larger franchise.
- I would try my best to suggest one stay away from a One to Three.
Favorites
- Tier I is essentially an extended favorites list.
- Each installment in a franchise stands on its own as a favorite candidate, therefore, I might have multiple entries of a serialized franchise in my extended favorites list, due to their own merits. The favorites list on my profile, will, however, only have one entry from a franchise.
- Since each title stands on its own, even if I love a franchise as a whole, I might not enjoy any particular installment enough to mark it a favorite.
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