I'm just a random person who happens to enjoy anime and manga.
All my ratings and reviews are purely subjective opinions and in no way intented to claim any authority, invalidate anyone else's views or decract from their favorites and enjoyment. That being said, I do put a decent amount of thought and consideration into my ratings, hoping that my approach might make these scores tangible, comprehensible and consistent, and thus useful or helpful to others.
Some cursory (work in progress; also: currently re-watching a lot for scoring purposes) outlines regarding scores:
Scores, roughly paraphrased:
< 5 will be dropped without rating, most likely quite early on.
5: So-so. Neither good nor bad, or good and bad balance out.
6: Passable. Probably more good than bad, but not my thing. Maybe for genre fans?
7: Decent. I've mostly enjoyed it; with some caveats or annoyances I couldn't overlook.
8: Good. I've enjoyed it a lot; some details were unsatisfying, dull or unappealing.
9: Great. I've enjoyed it very much; not perfect, but its few flaws were negligible.
10: Excellent. Maybe too niche for others, but nonetheless a real gem in its own right.
Things that might (or might not) affect the score:
Concept/Setting: The premise, backdrop, and other such narrative prerequisites.
Characters: The cast, its traits, qualities, motivations, interactions, developments.
Script/Writing: The plot that builds upon and emerges from the above points.
Pacing & Closure: Really a part of the writing, but so crucial it'll demand special attention anyway.
Tropes & Stereotypes: These are inevitable, so it's rather about the execution and quality thereof.
Art & Animation: In particular, background art, character design, style, and art shifts -- and of course the eponymous animation.
Audio: seiyuu, OP/ED, SFX, BGM and ambience.
Other Details: Fan service, filler episodes, extras, and whatever else won't fit elsewhere.
Enjoyment: This is where all the individual parts come together. Was it enjoyable, satisfying, entertaining?
Now, all that being said, the most significant factor: I'm not a critic with a checklist, constantly analyzing the work in question. Instead, I'll lean back and try to enjoy myself. All of the aforementioned points and their specifics might either affect the score positively or negatively or not at all, depending on whether it happened to grab my attention, left a passing or lasting impression, or otherwise stood out, for better or worse. Ultimately, the above rendition is supposed to make my ratings coherent, comparable, and understandable, both for myself and others.
(I don't have the slightest idea what else I could or should write here.)
((I now do have some ideas what else I could write here. Coming SoonTM.))
Amazing, thank you for getting back at me ! I must confess i was very very mad at MAL shutdown but it was more because it cut short our discussion (my very first topic around MAL) about Ergo Proxy than for its actual closing. At leat I wanted to tell you of how good your last post describing ergo proxy paradoxal structure was to read !
I followed your advice and I really appreciated the ride death parade has to offer. I'm currently preparing the story for a novel surrounding the themes of psychological pain, death, judgement and the meaning of divine status for the living, so it felt right down the food table for thoughts :)
Get used to the thanks ! It seems they aren't gona stop !
If I may ask you, could we keep in touch as friends on MAL ? No obligations to talk or share anything, it's just i can't get enough of your seals of approval/recommendations and checking your list reassured me we get similar feelings from the animes we've watch.
On my part now, i would like to share with you the results of my research after posting on MAL since you helped me a lot through it. It doesn't mean you have to check it out, just that those shows correspond to my demands if they trigger your interest then I'm glad i could share something usefull from my little experience with you.
First, i'd like to recommend you a show for a good 80%-sure that you'll like it : Mushishi. It's my favorite episodic show, it's calm and very clever. It uses very strange creatures invisible to most of men (mushi means insect in japanese) and how they impact on the life of the living and its meaning for the pursue of their life.
In the topic I made, someone recommended me to watch Shinsekai yori and i must say it has one of the best fully-explained worldbuilding for science fiction in anime, with a lot of political questions and very hard revelations about the shades of history. All very disturbing.
Another one that is very surprisingly interesting and fun to watch is Youjo Senki. It's hard to explain, let's just say it's about a true liberal japanese worker, believing in free market and the power of rationnality, who gets punished by god for his disbelief in the ability for faith to guide life. So he gets reincarnated into a little girl in a similar context to first world war but with magic, which he can perform, and gets enrolled and exploited by his hierarchy to go on the front line. This show is really challenging a lot of absurdities from the life and professionnal ideologies, like military as a science or rationnality as root of the order for the world.
Finally, in my OP i was also asking to hear about shows that display broken mind characters who have been swallowed by pain and have to reinvent themself to keep on. Well it's less philosophical than the previous ones i named and more mainstream but it's amazing for two reasons. First, the animation lures you to think it's just another adventure/fantasy/isekai mainstream which will contain a lot of stereotypes or ecchi situations and characters... well not at all, it's still an adventure but more a dark psychological focused one because when the mc dies (in gruesome ways), he gets resurrected in the past (kind of check points like in a game) with all the memories from his death and before. Sounds like a cool hero life, well not at all, the trauma of death might come in many ways and it's always mindblowing to see the scenarist reinvent the wheel at each death. That's the second best part of this show, because the structure of the show imposed itself to be repetitive (death-relive events-death-relive events-death...) the story should have been doomed from the start to get boring and the twist expected. But not at all, the pacing and the interrogations about if reliving the day will finally impact the outcome during the night of his death or what can you do if you're the only one to know the truth about what will happen is incredible and refreshing to see. Consequence of life as death is at its upmost. The character really grows throughout the show, i even could follow him when he started to lost his mind and sound childish as hell. I didn't enjoy the happy ending but that is just me who hates heros and ... happy ending i guess xD (also this chapter has a very traumatic ending in the manga and lot of repercussions for the rest of the main cast of characters, which the scenarists of the anime didn't think it was worth ending on because they still dont know if there will be a sequel).
Well, i said my piece, good to hear from you ! I've seen you've started watching moribito i hope you'll enjoy it !
All Comments (1) Comments
I followed your advice and I really appreciated the ride death parade has to offer. I'm currently preparing the story for a novel surrounding the themes of psychological pain, death, judgement and the meaning of divine status for the living, so it felt right down the food table for thoughts :)
Get used to the thanks ! It seems they aren't gona stop !
If I may ask you, could we keep in touch as friends on MAL ? No obligations to talk or share anything, it's just i can't get enough of your seals of approval/recommendations and checking your list reassured me we get similar feelings from the animes we've watch.
On my part now, i would like to share with you the results of my research after posting on MAL since you helped me a lot through it. It doesn't mean you have to check it out, just that those shows correspond to my demands if they trigger your interest then I'm glad i could share something usefull from my little experience with you.
First, i'd like to recommend you a show for a good 80%-sure that you'll like it : Mushishi. It's my favorite episodic show, it's calm and very clever. It uses very strange creatures invisible to most of men (mushi means insect in japanese) and how they impact on the life of the living and its meaning for the pursue of their life.
In the topic I made, someone recommended me to watch Shinsekai yori and i must say it has one of the best fully-explained worldbuilding for science fiction in anime, with a lot of political questions and very hard revelations about the shades of history. All very disturbing.
Another one that is very surprisingly interesting and fun to watch is Youjo Senki. It's hard to explain, let's just say it's about a true liberal japanese worker, believing in free market and the power of rationnality, who gets punished by god for his disbelief in the ability for faith to guide life. So he gets reincarnated into a little girl in a similar context to first world war but with magic, which he can perform, and gets enrolled and exploited by his hierarchy to go on the front line. This show is really challenging a lot of absurdities from the life and professionnal ideologies, like military as a science or rationnality as root of the order for the world.
Finally, in my OP i was also asking to hear about shows that display broken mind characters who have been swallowed by pain and have to reinvent themself to keep on. Well it's less philosophical than the previous ones i named and more mainstream but it's amazing for two reasons. First, the animation lures you to think it's just another adventure/fantasy/isekai mainstream which will contain a lot of stereotypes or ecchi situations and characters... well not at all, it's still an adventure but more a dark psychological focused one because when the mc dies (in gruesome ways), he gets resurrected in the past (kind of check points like in a game) with all the memories from his death and before. Sounds like a cool hero life, well not at all, the trauma of death might come in many ways and it's always mindblowing to see the scenarist reinvent the wheel at each death. That's the second best part of this show, because the structure of the show imposed itself to be repetitive (death-relive events-death-relive events-death...) the story should have been doomed from the start to get boring and the twist expected. But not at all, the pacing and the interrogations about if reliving the day will finally impact the outcome during the night of his death or what can you do if you're the only one to know the truth about what will happen is incredible and refreshing to see. Consequence of life as death is at its upmost. The character really grows throughout the show, i even could follow him when he started to lost his mind and sound childish as hell. I didn't enjoy the happy ending but that is just me who hates heros and ... happy ending i guess xD (also this chapter has a very traumatic ending in the manga and lot of repercussions for the rest of the main cast of characters, which the scenarists of the anime didn't think it was worth ending on because they still dont know if there will be a sequel).
Well, i said my piece, good to hear from you ! I've seen you've started watching moribito i hope you'll enjoy it !