I started watching anime around 2008, and while I don't remember exactly what my first anime was, some of my favorites from early on were Full Metal Panic and School Rumble. But I was never fully invested in actively watching a ton of anime and went on a pretty lengthy hiatus from 2010-2016 due to losing interest over time. I eventually hooked myself back into the mix and am now a decently active anime viewer.
Every anime that I know I've seen in the past and rewatched within recent memory has been marked as rewatched with the approximate number of times I watched it before my anime hiatus. I don't remember exactly the number of times I watched an anime since I initially watched most of those anime over 10 years ago, but I put some rough estimates. Any anime that I never completed on my initial watch are not marked as rewatched, since that would lead to an excess number of episodes, and I don't want completely inaccurate numbers for my list.
I rate everything excluding most specials. All anime that I know I've seen in the past yet haven't revisited yet are listed as on-hold and will be there indefinitely unless I have interest to pick them back up. I do not bother to list these anime as completed since there are several anime that I never actually finished in my on-hold list, and I barely remember most of these anime in general, so I can't give a proper rating. When I do pick these anime back up and finish them, they will be marked as either rewatched or not rewatched depending on whether or not I finished them on initial watch.
I try to value enjoyment the most when it comes to scoring. Whether or not that enjoyment came from plot, characters, fun moments, satisfactory narratives, or compelling themes is dependent on the anime that is in question. I wouldn't call these explanations a strict guideline for how I rate shows, but it's a general idea on where I stand with my own personal scale.
10: Personal favorites, may not exactly be perfect, but these anime are extremely satisfying to watch for me in almost every aspect that I look for in an anime, and they resonated quite a bit due to strong messages or engrossing plot.
9: Anime that I enjoyed an incredible amount, pretty much the same justification as 10 except without the “personal favorites” part. Have some minor problems that keep them from being in 10 range, but generally have narratives that I enjoy wholeheartedly.
8: Pretty enjoyable but do have some sort of qualms about them, whether it be elements of the plot or inconsistencies in entertainment value. Nonetheless, shows that I have a general fondness for and had a lot of fun watching.
7: Don’t quite have the edge to be higher due to a number of problems, which can vary depending on anime but usually boils down to not being quite as engaged during portions of the anime as the anime that I graded higher. Relatively good from an entertainment standpoint and will lean positively on anime around this range.
6: I don’t necessarily hate the anime I put in this range, but I do wish certain elements of the show were taken out or at least toned down a bit. Anime in the 6s can be either not as entertaining as I wished they would be or have a lot of nice aspects but are weighed down heavily by certain problems I have. Some short OVAs/specials also fall in this range, as they are generally mildly enjoyable but usually not good enough to be pushed higher. The comment about OVAs/specials can be applied to TV series/movies as well.
5: Anime I generally will complain about due to certain key elements in the show that become excruciating or boring to watch, whether it be personalities of characters, repetitive narratives, bad pacing, lack of an engaging plot, etc. Most of the other OVAs/specials fall into this range because they are an ok watch, but hardly memorable or really that enjoyable. The comments about OVAs/specials can also apply to certain TV series/movies that I put under this scoring range.
4: Anime I mildly dislike. When it comes to harsh critiques about these anime, it will usually be about plot, characters, or the fact that I just found it really boring/annoying. Generally, the anime that fall into this range failed to entertain me for the most part and don’t have enough redeeming factors for me to be generous enough for a 5 score.
3-2: Anime that pissed me off in a lot of ways. Much stronger of a dislike probably due to aspects of the show that I find extremely annoying or a massive drag to watch. Not a huge difference between 3 and 2, just a matter of which ones I dislike much more.
1: Anime that I found either offensively bad and/or extremely boring. Pretty straightforward, nothing positive to say about anime in this range.
All Comments (2) Comments