Report timeaftertime's Profile

Hello there! Thanks for visiting my MAL page. I may have shared this page with you or you may have stumbled upon it by chance, so do take a look around!

Methodology

If you'd like to understand my ratings better, here's my methodology below:

1) Purpose

The purpose of rating anime I've watched is to keep a record of shows I've enjoyed and to share what shows I think are better than others. This is also a quick way to make recommendations if anyone asks.

2) Scale

This is my scale with one-word descriptors

10 = Masterpiece
9 = Favourite
8 = Great
7 = Decent
6 = Flawed
5 = Failure
4 and below = Catastrophe

According to malgraph, the mean rating as of Dec 2023 is 6.51 while the median rating is 7. Obviously, this is higher than the official MAL rating of "5 (Average)". My hypothesis is that most anime watchers would tend to watch, complete and rate shows and genres that they like more so than for shows and genres that they don't. Therefore most anime to most people would be "7 (Good)" if it is to their tastes and "6 (Fine)" if they don't particularly care for it.

As a consequence, there is this perception that shows rated below 6.5 are "Bad", and shows rated 7 to 7.5 are seen as "Average". I align my scale to this general sentiment so that there is some comparison that can be made between my ratings and the ratings of shows on MAL, and whether I feel a particular show is under or overrated. Thus in my books, a rating of 7 is "Average" -- the benchmark of a show that I liked watching but wasn't really my thing.

Now that the average grade is settled, we can look at what a 10 is for me. As much as possible I try to fit my ratings to roughly fit a standard deviation model: in this case, only about 2% of shows I've watched are allowed a 10 rating. For a show to hit a 10, it has to do the following

• Executes storytelling and visuals nearly perfectly
  
• Hits a personal note
  
• Ends with a satisfying conclusion
  

Note that a 10/10 show does not need to be perfect but it should have the hallmarks of perfection: in other words, not all masterpieces are perfect, but all perfect shows are masterpieces.

Shows rated with a 9 could have been masterpieces but fell short in their storytelling and art or did not have a satisfying conclusion. For a show to be rated a 9 it still has to hit a chord in me somewhere.

Shows rated with 8 belong to two categories, either:

1. Could have been a 9 if not for a glaring flaw (e.g. poor conclusion, terrible pacing)
   
2. A well-done show but I didn't quite care for the subject matter
   

Shows rated with 7 would fall into either of these categories:

1. I liked the show but it had some unacceptable or unforgivable flaws (e.g. OOC behaviour without context, extremely jarring pacing)
   
2. I watched it and I didn't hate it, and that was the only thing I could say about the show
   

Shows rated 6 and below can be safely read as "bad" in my opinion. A show rated 6 would have to be a disappointing experience; sometimes it is a show that I had wanted for it to succeed (like an adaptation of a manga I've read), but it was so poorly executed that it becomes worse than average.

Shows rated 5 exhibit clear flaws that I question why I even continue to watch the show. Sometimes I do continue watching the show to either hate-watch it or as a guilty pleasure.'

Shows are rarely rated 4 and below. Anything in this range is rated as a clear warning to stay away.

3) Process

My pace averages to about an episode a day: some days I would watch more and others not at all. With movies I tend to pause at convenient moments and come back afterwards.

I strive to reserve judgement if I have not watched a full episode of a one-cour anime or the first 20 minutes of a movie. I give a preliminary rating to shows I've watched after the first episode, or after the first 20 minutes through a movie. I may change the rating if and when I feel the show deserves it as I watch it.

The maximum rating for a dropped or on-hold anime will be 8.

4) Distribution Curve

Mean Score: 7.5
Standard Deviation: 1

10: 2%
9: 14%
8: 34%
7: 34%
6: 14%
5 and below: 2%

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Potential Lists:

- Manga With Meh Anime Adaptations
1. Masamune-kun no Revenge
2. Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet
3. Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru
4. Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san
5. Oshi no Ko

- Anime Adaptations That Surpassed the Source
1. 3-gatsu no Lion
2. Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge
3. Kubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai
4. Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!

Update Oct 2024:

Completed 200 anime.

Update Dec 2023:

Updated methodology.

Update Mar 2023:

Completed 100 anime. To celebrate this milestone, I have decided to revise the scoring of most of my anime such that it will fit a normal distribution curve better.

From my malgraph profile, it is clear that romance genre is my favourite by far, followed closely by slice of life. Since there is a decent sample size of both these genres, it is safe(r) to say that my score for anime that fall under these categories reflects a more informed judgement of the quality.

TLDR; I watch enough romance and SOL anime, trust me.