This used to just be a post, but I realized that it’s not really accessible anymore since I hadn’t hard-coded it into the sidebar anymore, so I decided to move this to it’s own page.
The following is a hopefully brief explanation of how I rate anime. Its not perfect and is rather subjective, of course, but these are my ratings, not some complex objective quantitative analysis.
While my ratings are from 1 to 10, “average” is more along the line of a 7 and not a 5 score. An 8 would be seen as slightly above average, 9 would be significantly above average, and 10 would be fantastic. Meanwhile, a 6 would be below average, a 5 would be bad, and anything below that would be pretty hard to get unless something was just atrocious.
Animation
I take into account three factors for this:
1) The time the anime was released (I wouldn’t expect an anime released in 1996 to have the same quality as one released in 2006). I try to compare shows released at around the same time to form a point of reference if I can.
2) How was it released (movies are held to higher standards than OVA, which are held to higher standards than TV series)
3) The “look and feel” of the anime. If the anime is goofy and has goofy looking anime, I won’t necessarily hold that against it, for example. Otherwise, typically the sharper and more detailed, the better.
I’ll say now that I’m not exactly an animation expert and so I don’t necessarily know about (and thus don’t necessarily notice) the more specific nuances of animation. Basically how I rate it is…if it looks good, I rate it high. If it doesn’t look good, then I don’t rate it high. Pretty simple I think.
Story
Also, pretty subjective to whether I like it. Does a suspension of disbelief exist? Am I laughing with them or laughing at them, etc. How well thought out is the story? Is it something I’ve seen a bazillion times before? Do they focus more on, say, fan service than the story? Things like that are what I take into account. An anime which has a lot of fan service or action, but little story won’t necessarily do well in this department. Meanwhile, if there is a plot, and episodes actually follow the plot, it will do better.
Perhaps the one exception are stories completely centered around comedy, and which comedy and not necessarily a central plot to drive the series. These series can get off with good story scores without a central plot, so long as series is able to sustain itself with it’s humor.
Music
Again, partially subjective to whether I just like it or not. However, I do pay attention to whether the music helps define or confuse the feel of the anime. Is it an action anime with romantic music (just as an example) or vice versa? What is the music quality (which can also partially be influenced by when the anime was released)?
Coherence/Story Arc
This is one of the hardest things to grade. Basically it goes like this: Is a goal and/or some sort of story line established (or seemingly established)? Next, how well do the following episodes progress this story line or the achievement of the goal?
Of course, this is imperfect. If there is an anime where the real story is different from what one perceived it, then I would look more at how the story was told to conceal this fact, etc.
Series with a lot of “filler” episodes, or which appear to be aimless until their “conclusion” won’t do well here. The only exception I might make is if it is clear from the very beginning that the show isn’t meant to be watched with a central plot in mind - but that largely depends on how the series is executed.
Also, I’m requiring a minimum episode count of 12 episodes for this to be applicable, so series shorter than that won’t have a score for this.
English Dubs
Not all anime will have a score for this because either 1) they haven’t been dubbed yet or I’ve seen it, but haven’t heard the English dubs.
Basically I look at all the major characters and see 1) is the voice actor/actress any good, and 2) Does the voice match what I would expect for the character?
I can usually forgive minor characters unless there are just a lot of bad dubs for them.
Gut Score
Basically, if I had to pull a rating out of a hat, what I would give it, and isn’t necessarily based on any of the other ratings.
Weights
Since I deem my gut score, music, animation, and story to be most important, they get high weights.
“Gut Score” is multiplied by 5
Animation, Story, and Music scores are multiplied by 4 each
Coherence/Story Arc score is multiplied by 2
Dubs score is not multiplied by anything.
Since not all shows will have a coherence and/or a dub score, the actual total points each anime is given changes. An anime with a score in both story arc and dubs will have a score out of 200 points. However, a story with no story arc score will only have a total out of 180, an anime without a dub score will only have a total score out of 190, and an anime without either will have a total score out of 170. For this reason, my final score will be a percentage of total possible points, and not the number of actual points.
My goal is to have a rating system that sort of parallels that of a typical school grading scale:
Excellent: 90% to 100%. These are shows which I believe are at a high level all around. While these shows may have some minor defects, they are overall the cream of the crop.
Very Good: 85% to 89.9%. These are shows that typically are at a high level, but may have a couple of areas in which it could have been better, but are still overall above average.
Good: 80% to 84.9%. These shows could be best classified from “average” to “slightly above average.” They may excel in a couple of categories, but otherwise are pretty much your standard anime fare.
Fair: 70% to 79.9%. These shows range from “average” to “below average.” There is little to nothing that is particularly outstanding about these shows, and perhaps some things may be deficient.
Poor: 60% to 69.9%. These shows are clearly “below average,” and include at least one major deficiency while not necessarily excelling on any particular point.
Terrible: Below 50%. These shows are basically what the description says. These shows have multiple major deficiencies.
A shorthand scoring scale may look like:
A: 90 - 100% (Excellent)
B: 80 - 89% (Very Good, Good)
C: 70 - 79% (Fair)
D: 60 - 69% (Poor)
F: < 60% (Terrible)
