How do you pick new anime to watch each season?

[Nikanoru]

I'm not starting a recommendations thread or anything. ^^ I just would like to know what you usually do to pick your choices from the new anime each season (there's just so many!).

I have some trouble myself because I know that usually when I start an anime I just have to know the whole story cuz I'm just ocd like that... I can't sample some episodes and then drop it.

Last season I got into Madoka pretty late, only after it received so much attention, and I beat myself up cuz I hadn't followed along with that series any earlier.

So, what's everyone's preferred method of choosing? Blind picks? Story summary? Character design appeal (that was the reason I stated watching Merry, didn't regret it)?

[Marulash]

First is genre(s). For the ones I didn't choose because I didn't really like that genre I then read what the story is like, and see if it interests me. To a small extent I might include character designs and which studio producing it to affect my decision. Voice actors/actresses don't really matter for me, but if the ones I like are in it, then that's always nice.

If I still have doubts, I will watch the first (and maybe the second) episode to see if it still intrigues me.

[zarqu]

I'm lucky because I'm not OCD like I have to know how the story ends after watching a couple of episodes. I dropped Kore wa Zombie at like 8 episodes and Yumekui Merry at 7 episodes. Etc.

I usually try everything that season at least once. If I have doubts about a show and don't end up starting it, I read what others have written about it (read: RANDOMC).

Then there are a few studios I expect to deliver and check out just because of that. Like KyoAni, Madhouse (no Marvel adaptations, plx) and SHAFT.

[Midonin]

Visit the show's official website, see if it looks interesting, if "yes", watch. Not much more than that.

[brocko]

Chartfag actually gives you a pretty good rundown of what's to show up and what each is relatively about.

[ahelo]

Check the series which interests you based on previews and if you want, those that are getting a lot of buzz. Drop them when they get bad.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by zarqu

I usually try everything that season at least once. If I have doubts about a show and don't end up starting it, I read what others have written about it (read: RANDOMC).

Basically how I picked animes to watch each season. But I mostly read them up first based on various opinions and ratings, then check the genre to see if it's on my "ok" list.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by brocko

Chartfag actually gives you a pretty good rundown of what's to show up and what each is relatively about.

This basically from Character designs, summaries, and genre on their I can ussually decide what I want to try, though I ussually end up picking up a few addition series that someone else I know decided to try and recommend if I missed a good series.

[Master_Yoma]

I just watch what sounds good

[brocko]

Originally Posted by ahelo

Check the series which interests you based on previews and if you want, those that are getting a lot of buzz. Drop them when they get bad.

Generally what i do too. Chartfag and pre-season talk to find what's interesting. Then word of mouth and buzz for anything i might've missed at the start.

I'd assume everyone would do a similiar variation or another. Unless they're resorting to random number generators lol

[Gamer_2k4]

I don't even have a concept of anime "seasons." If someone makes a big fuss about a particular anime, I'll download the entire thing (or what's been aired) and see if it's any good. Otherwise, I just don't bother with anime. Heck, even if I was really into anime as a genre (instead of liking particular shows here and there), I wouldn't have anywhere near the time it would require to sample/watch all the new ones.

[Triple_R]

Well, for the past year and a half or so, I usually check out the various season preview threads over on the "Upcoming Series" subforum of Anime Suki.

The most recent one for these is the Summer 2011: Your Expectations and Anticipated Series thread.

These threads include a large chart listing all/most of the upcoming anime for the coming season. What I'll usually do is go through that chart and try to find at least 2 or 3 anime that I think I might like, and then watch them once they start airing.


Important factors in this are:

1) Character design/artwork. To help determine this, I'll sometimes run the anime's name through a Google Image search, and basically determine if I like what I see in the images that come up.

2) If the anime's premise sounds interesting to me.

3) The anime studio behind it, in a few cases. I usually like SHAFT and KyoAni works, I've found, so I'll usually give an anime made by either of them a shot at least.

4) What some of my fellow anime fans here on Anime Suki recommend to me.


This method works pretty well for me, I find.


In the case of Madoka Magica, I decided to start watching it as soon as its first episode aired because I really wanted to see how SHAFT would handle a magical girl anime. I also liked the character designs, and still do of course.

[gsilver]

I generally wait to see what kind of buzz the series get, and watch the first episodes of the shows that are getting both positive buzz, as well as shows particularly appealing to me, like magical girl shows, whether traditional (Precure) or not (Madoka)

So far this season, I've only seen Tiger and Bunny ep 1 and Kaiji 2 ep 1.

I usually end up picking up 2-3 shows a season.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

the art and the story. X)

[Pocari_Sweat]

First thing I look at is production staff and what studio is producing it.

If an anime is going to air on the noitamina timeslot, then I will check it out almost no matter what. Whether I continue to follow it is another question though. Notamina series, although they may not necessarily be my "season's best" have very good past track records with me.

If an anime is produced by SHAFT, KyoAni, A-1 Pictures, Production I.G, Brains Base or P.A. Works I will likely check it out, due to past record (though KyoAni has been failing me lately). Whether I continue or not, is also another question as typically I drop about half of SHAFT shows as they tend to be hit or miss.

On the director side of things, movies made by Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda I will always check out. On the TV side of things definitely ones directed by Kasai Kenichi (Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile, Aoi Hana, Bakuman). And of course Shinbo, but Shinbo and SHAFT go hand in hand .

On the musical side of things, Tenmon and Yuki Kajiara are what I look for. Even if the anime they compose for ends up being medicore, many times have I gotten hold of their OSTs.

In terms of character designs, I seem to like Naru Nanao's the best (Da Capo, sola, ef) so I may check out animes that use her design for aesthetic purposes.

I didn't really decide to check out series based on script writers in the past but from now on I think will if Mari Okada (True Tears, Toradora, Wandering Son, Hanasaku Iroha, AnoHana) or Gen Urobuchi (Saya no Uta VN, Fate/Zero LN, Madoka Magica) are involved.

After production staff and studio, premise and genre is what I look at. I tend to like "drama" of all kinds (maybe with the possible exception of shojo dramas). It just happens that slice of life is the most common premise for the genre so it ends that what I end up watching most. I do like to point out that I'm not a big fan of modern anime comedy, as the elements in comedy that I enjoy (wit, deadpan, sarcasm etc) are not very prevalent in anime, and there can be a lot of meshing between slice of life dramas and comedies, so sometimes I am careful. However, I'm not limited to liking slice of life dramas only as I've seen some great fantasy/sci-fi based dramas as well (Planetes, Seirei no Moribito, Time of Eve to give examples)

Lastly, I also check out the most popular animes of a season (critique their hype) and of course any recommendations given by friends .

[SilverSyko]

If there's an adaptation to a manga I'm reading, I'll usually watch the adaptation to see how it fares against the source material no questions asked.

Genre and synopsis is next. I'll usually look for my favorites which are action/adventure, romance/drama, romance/comedy, mystery and slice-of-life. Any synopsis with smut in it is instantly disregarded. Any ones with an interesting premise are put in the "considering" group which I need more persuasion before I actually try it.

Lastly, it's based on what Studios are doing it and what their reputations for previous series' are. The main reason I started watching Oretachi no Tsubasa wa Nai was because it was originally by Navel, the company who produced Shuffle!, which I enjoyed.

[IronWarrior]

I watch them all.

[TJR]

For me, it's mainly studio, director, lead writer (to some extent....), and genre. After that comes viewer opinion. If a show's getting good buzz after the premiere, I'll likely check it out as well.

Can't say I pay much attention to artwork since I find it to be secondary to my enjoyment of a series. Nevertheless, the attractiveness of the art and animation definitely affect my final judgement of any show.

[Genten]

First is art. I judge seasonal anime completely by their cover: if the art doesn't appeal to me, or has something that I don't like in the picture, then I'm not going to watch it. That may sound bad but my tastes in anime/manga art is fairly diverse. To give an example, I've enjoyed both the art of House of Five Leaves and Magical Madoka. That's a pretty big spectrum so I need to narrow it down a bit.

After I'm done sampling every picture on the chart and discard a few titles in that process, it's on to the summary! Every good book/anime/storytelling medium has to have a good summary. I'm not the person that will pick up a show for lack of information (despite the prestigious pedigree I refused to give C a chance until I saw some art and description). If the summary sounds remotely interesting then I will do a little more research. I kind've like to be fully prepared before jumping into a new series.

Checking genres, of course, is next. One would think the genres would be obvious from the summary and images but some anime, especially the seasonal ones, have a tendency to be, er, tricky. Since usually no concrete information exists for an early release of the seasonal charts I look up trailers. Do the trailers portray characters I want to see in action? Has the plot represented in the trailers completely disregard the plot in the chart summary? The trailers I hate the most are the ones with voice clips: I don't care who's voicing who, I want to see what the show is about. This process usually trims down the shows I want to watch into a manageable bunch.

I could care less about studios and staff. Sure, if the company producing a series is one that's produced many favorites of mine in the past then I'll probably be excited. But what I've learned is neither the studio nor the staff can predict how well the final product will turn out so I prefer to give each anime a clean state instead of judging them on production.

[TurkeyPotPie]

Originally Posted by IronWarrior

I watch them all.

I was wondering when someone was going to say this. I do the same. Since I don't read manga any more and don't care for light novels or VN games, I usually have no idea what most shows are about before sampling. I take a look at charts and sometimes something will catch my eye (premise or art style), but in general I go into shows blind and watch everything. I try to give every series at least three episodes to sort itself out unless it is excruciatingly bad, but I have no problems dropping a series at any time. I dropped Yumekui Merry after episode 10 for example because I kept falling asleep every time I watched an episode (the music was like a soporific).