How do you judge an anime?

[dreamless]

Kinda wonders how most people judge an anime, ie. to you what are the most important aspects about an anime? I ask this because lately I notice that there are quite some people complaining about the picture quality or some small bugs in animations or slight character deformations, which I don't quite understand myself.

In my case, for a good anime, it's story/character personalities > music > picture/animation. The story and character personalities are by far the most important aspects of an anime for me, and I really love great music, while I don't care about picture quality too much. Better picture quality is nice, but I don't really feel uncomfortable watching Gundam/Z Gundam even now, and as long as the story and/or music suck me in I don't really notice any bugs in animation or slight character deformations. I think I can watch an anime if it only has great story or great music, even if the animation sucks, but I won't be able to watch an anime with great picture/animation while the story and music suck.

So what's it like for you?

[wsheit]

I'm the same way- that's why I'm always touting animes like Gilgamesh

[srb]

Just like you, except I prefer the animation in older series like Z Gundam and Macross DYRL instead of the newer stuff.

[ZhanDVG]

Hah, another ditto here... big old school anime fan, so picture/animation quality don't really matter to me... I actually find poorer animation quality charming in it's own strang way ;p

[Navi en Grey]

For some reason, the anime that has bad animation are always interesting to me ...

What makes a bad anime for me is how the anime's plot is. I usually give an anime 10 episodes to live. By the 10th, if the anime is not good, I stop.

Ahh ... I liked Kenshin until the 2nd season. How weird I always watched it ^^

- Navi

[Chronissz]

Character and story, but with Anime the way it is lately I judge based on how much bullshit they throw into it...

BS to me is Ecchi, schoolkids who must save the world, high-school romance, mech animes (most of them at least), 100+ episode DBZ clone shows (Where a simple plot advancement can take anywhere from 8-16 episodes), philisophical shows that go way past understanding and into the realm of idiocy with their failed attempts at examining the human psyche (maybe thats just poor translation though), and about 99% of all anime....yeah I'm picky.

If theres too much of any of that I dont waste my time on it, it shows to me that they have no creative inspiration and turn to what sells over whats good.

[Bracken33]

Story and characters are the most important things for me. The animation or the music are less relevant.

Also I like some genres more then others. It can´t be helped. Action or mecha are not exactly my favourites.

So much for theory.

Kinda wonders how most people judge an anime...

The best way of judgement is the practical one:
-How often do I rewatch it (the most important point).
-Do I visit fansites about a specific anime.
-How long do I keep an anime on my crowded HD.
-Wanting to buy the DVDs.
-Listening to songs without watching.
-Showing it to friends.
...

[Navi en Grey]

Originally Posted by Bracken33

Story and characters are the most important things for me. The animation or the music are less relevant.

Also I like some genres more then others. It can´t be helped. Action or mecha are not exactly my favourites.

So much for theory.



The best way of judgement is the practical one:
-How often do I rewatch it (the most important point).
-Do I visit fansites about a specific anime.
-How long do I keep an anime on my crowded HD.
-Wanting to buy the DVDs.
-Listening to songs without watching.
-Showing it to friends.
...

Yea, usually the anime that I rewatch are always my favorites (I guess Lain and Eva would be some of them .. and Angelic Layer).

I mostly listen to Chris Beveridge from AnimeonDVD.com now. I always agree with him (sometimes), and I also listen to that film critic Roger Ebert. Ebert gave Akira and Princess Mononoke 4 out of 4 stars. I totally agree with him

- Navi

[Kyuven]

i judge by how i feel about it
aesthetics are important, it's difficult for me to enjoy older action series (Macross being one of the few exceptions) but doraemon is difficult for me to watch, as is Lupin (he's a SQUARE with tiny little arms and legs) and Gigantor (uh...yeah) and i'll just say that Speed Racer was a VERY appropriate name...

[Lomiothiel]

It's the normally the plot and the characters... The music should be pretty decent and not annoying... I'm into the mecha stuff... especially Gundam (Gundam Seed current favourite... *is waiting patently for it to air in Canada*) If I go and back and watch it, start to download the episodes on bit torrent, download the music and tape the show, then it's considered a good anime... The quality and animation... it would be nice if it was well done!! ^-^!! and that it doesn't drag out forever... Yu-Gi-Oh.. takes forever just to finish one duel... X_x... and yet I still watch it... (probably due to lack of anime that have some sort of violence in Canada... lol...) Older shows, as long as it has a good plot, music, characters, and doesn't drag out forever.... I'm hooked!! ^-^!!

[Mugen]

i think we all agree having good characters and story is one of the key things in making a good anime, you could animate paint drying as realistic as you want, but its still gonna be boring . However im always more than happy to watch a crap anime in terms of characters and story if it has good animation, as i just love looking at the artwork etc. If the anime is animated well , it brings the characters to life more and makes it more realistic. Personally i have a limit to how crapper animation i watch, if it is totlaly rigid and they use the same cells, and have dull artwork, even if the story is amazing im gonna be slightly put off, this goes for music, direction, voice acting etc. Anyway after speaking all that shit, i think what im trying to say is if you want a good anime its got to successed in all areas

[Dhomochevsky]

At first its the looks of it. If theres a new anime series on animesuki, I check out the info sites, look at the screenshots and try to sort it in a category. If its described as "romance" and I see over-cutified girls on the screenshots for example, that anime wont ever get its chance with me. The same goes for anime that just looks ugly in my eyes. I wont take a closer look at it, unless someone recommends it.

If the anime looks somehow interesting though I download a couple of episodes and watch them. Now the next step the anime must take is, that I need a character to hook up on. If there is no such character in the anime within the first 2-3 episodes and the story is not EXTREMLY exciting (which would be a very hard thing to do for the creators.. 3 eps is too short for most storylines) Ill most likely drop the anime.
The character step is the most important one to me, I judge both books and anime that way. Books can pass it easier of course as I the characters looks and styles are mostly provided by imagination.

Full Metal Alchemist is a perfect example for good looks, good storyline anime that failed the character step with me. I continued watching it, but I never really enjoyed it.



The last step is the storystep. Even if the anime looks good and it provides some at least interesting characters it wont make it over the full 24 episodes without a good storyline (happened to Chrno Crusade for example... good start and went down all the way from then on ).
But as mentioned before, this is a long term thing most of the time. Also storyline is not the the same as plot here. The plot could be good, like.. uhm.. that one anime where a boy sees mechas that fight wars in an alternate dimension city while he walks around in his peaceful, normal city. Good plot... they could have made something great with that, but then the soryline comes into place. He ends up in one of those things "accidently" , somehow he is also a perfect mecha-pilot for some reason and, the worst thing, those mecha-wars are fought like some kind of sport. "Lets meet there, evacuate everyone and who wins scores a point."
Boooring...

[OutPhase]

I think there's already a thread like this, but I can't find it and I'm too lazy now to search.

Anyway I base an anime on this scale of imaortance:

1. Plot structure
2. Characters
3. Progress speed
4. Animation
5. Music

As you could se, I couldn't care less about the music while watching the anime, I also want an anime that doesn't go on forever with long dragged out stories. Plot is what truely matters.

[Fighter Volk]

Plot and characters are definitely the most important. I can enjoy an anime if the characters are great, even if the plot isn't so good. It's a little harder the other way around - it's more difficult for me to enjoy a really original anime with a great plot if it has no good characters.

Music comes next. I can't watch an anime with bad plot and characters, even if the soundtrack is done by, say, Yoko Kanno or Kajiura Yuki, but music is a really important thing for me in the anime that I do like. Animation is last. Lupin III is a great series - it's an old series, though, and the animations is awful compared to modern standards, but how I love it!

Boney Jellyfish and I share a lot of likes and dislikes. I posted an Avenger review up on that site, and a Wolf's Rain, which isn't up yet, under Homunculus Gluttony. He's never been wrong with his judgments, and he can pinpoint the pros and cons really well. I trust him

[Burner of Anime]

Direction and cohesion mostly. The thing is, you can have the absolute best in terms of seiyuu work and writing for the characters, throw a 100k+USD bomb at the animating and music budget and promote the thing to high heaven- it'll still stink if:

a] You cannot bring a viewer from start to the end in a clear manner. You'll however, forgive a cop-out end because that's where the director managed to finally send you. Best you can say is, "Damn, I wasted all that time for this!!!???".
b] It is not presented in a way that'll even make sense to the dumbest man on earth and his mother.
c] The direction and characters refuses to adapt when time moves on.

Case in point for the opposite to all the above: Hoshi no Koe. Had shoestring animation budget, amatuer voice acting and was probably too short for it's own good. But it's vision, establishment of setting and final whammo end should make this a must watch for film making 101. Excellent shows that do this but with extremely difficult and long material: 12 Kingdoms and the entire Crest/Banner of the Stars series. Both come from long running novel pedigrees, had complex terminology and characters to establish and grow, and a background world of epic scope. Flawless if not perfect structure in storytelling in both and I personally found this even more beautiful than it's art or music.

[Radd]

I believe that even before most people consider the merits or flaws of a show, their opinion has already been decided based on other factors. This doesn't go for everyone, as was stated by someone above there are those of us that wish to judge things on their own merits and flaws and decide for ourselves.

Originally Posted by Radd

Opinions are based on many things.

"Does this have any real merits that appeal to me?"
I believe this ranks very low for most people, as far as their priorities for deciding what they "like" and what they don't.

"Is this popular with others?"
Mob mentality is a very real phenominon. Much of our culture and society is based on this principle. If something gains popularity with enough people, others will join in simply because they are led to believe that it is "cool" to like it. On the other hand, some people will choose to dislike something, despite any merits it may have, simply because the person in question wants to stand apart from the crowd. Further muddying this principle, there are those who will see a growing number of people disliking a show because it's popular, and then they throw in with that crowd because they want to be an individual, but only if it's just like everybody else.

"Was this created by someone who has done other stuff I've ranked highly?"
For some people, there are those who can do no wrong. Perhaps there is a creator that made something they really, really liked. Many will tend to praise everything they do, regardless of how well the actual product is. The same goes for franchises. Look at Star Trek, all the shows are very different and I would argue show a huge gap in quality levels, yet there are those that will stand by all things Trek.

"How old is this?"
Sadly, there are people that will refuse to like anything older than some arbitrarily set date in their minds. Some grow out of this, others don't. Some people only like the hip and trendy flavour of the week. Let's face it, if Naruto was made 20 years ago, it wouldn't have nearly as many fans right now, even if the animation was identicle. It would be old hat.
Then there are those that will only like old anime, and claim quality has gone down considerably since some magical "golden age" that really only ever existed in their own heads.

All this is why lists don't interest me. You could make a new thread on this forum called "list 5 anime titles completely at random!" and it would serve just as much a purpose as any "what's your top 5/what's the 5 worst" threads out there. This is also why I take every review I read with a heavy grain of salt, and won't accept any opinion unless the reviewer gives me a solid viewpoint so that I can relate to their angle. If I know what a reviewer's priorities are, then even if they consistantly write reviews that I disagree with, I can get an idea from them on whether or not I will like something they reviewed.

Myself? I tend to judge different anime differently.

Overall I prefere a good solid story with some well written character developement. Macross 7 is a winner with me because of the character developement over all else. Legend of Black Heaven is the same. Both have mediocre or terrible animation, not much in the way of action, and I don't always like how the director handled the scenes, but the character developement is some of the best in anime.

I also adore a good theme. Something I can relate to that makes the series even more endearing to me. Leji Matsumoto tends to write excellent shows like that, particularly about the themes of human individuality and freedom.

Anime that can get a high emotional response from the viewer I am a complete sucker for. I'm the sort of person that loves an anime that has me sobbing by the very end. Shows like Giant Robo and the first episode of Twin Spicca, and of course Grave of the Fireflies.

Animation quality. I'm an animator myself, so I have an eye for animation and can both appreciate good animation and deplore horrible animation. Akira still stands tall as the best animation to come out of Japan, though it may be lacking in other categories. Miyazake always pleases.

Music, I love a good soundtrack. I love Macross a lot because of the wonderful music the series provides.

Voice acting. I grew up listening to radio dramas long after mom and dad had sent me to bed for the night, and enjoying the excellent voice acting of some early 80's cartoons, as well as the voice acting provided for a lot of old Warner Brothers cartoons. I think it's terrible that the anime industry in america has not gotten around to hiring higher caliber voice actors, though things do seem to be improving. Still, given a choice I'll go with subbed, and even then there's voice acting that stands out from the crowd, like Lupin III's voice actor(s).

Likable characters. This is different from character developement, as you can have likable characters that aren't too deep. A videogame example. The characters in FF6 were very likeable, but not altogether deep. Enjoyable nonetheless. The characters in FF7 are almost universally unlikable, but they're very well written and very well developed personality wise.

There's probably other categories too, but I got to shower and get to work. Suffice to say, if an anime excells in one or more of these categories, I can overlook other flaws. Different shows, by their very nature, require different balances of these elements.

[shinobi shadow*]

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How i judge an anime, well i probably look at the story first is it intruging to me. For example how the author makes it appeal to us, how is it different from what other anime we see most of the time(unique), is it clear or just saying the say thing over and over again, is the story going somewhere, are the ideas fresh and new or the same old pattern, and how it could reach out to us? these kind of question is often ask.
Then i will probably say the duration of the episodes, depending how long it could keep me entertained, also the duration of timing, like if it's too much stalling i probably will lose interest.
Next is the character, background design. Umm well it's not how it looks like it's how the character itself has some meaning to the story, like some characters could beable to tell the whole different story and others are just add on(sometimes it always the same person who needs to do this and that gets boring) Also their personalities i guess will be questioned too. Background design i say is it the same old or different or just add there so it will look more colourful... or it's important to the story(does it even make sense to the story or approprate for the story genre) , will it stick to a person's mind?
Lastly, the colours, graphic effect, how smooth is animation, voice acting and music(but in my opinion music + voice acting is as imporant as the characters for some odd reason) which makes all anime goes round. And ofcourse us the people who watches it and how populaire it is.
Well those are my opinion of judging anime. Don't know about you people out there will agree or not. Oh well.

[Ending]

Factors to me, and I guess for at least 50% of others

Animation and picture quality
It does not need to be good or even especially shiny as long as it doesn't give me a feeling of 'old.' Daa! Daa! Daa! is an example of this, and I simply couldn't bear to watch it longer than 5 minutes.

Story and characters
You can bear that annoying character only so long... If the main character is a palading with a big "P", it's another 5 minute experience to me. On the other hand, also the side-cast has to be decend and relationships flow. Inuyasha had a good protagonist, but by the time the serie reaches episode #30, they have basically scrapped it all to a new shape -to the regular goody-two-shoes with a problem towards women- and halted story. No character development, no special meaning beside the forever lasting hunt for shards of gem, no reason to continue watching it.

To me, originality is also important, as there can be only so many shy-guy-with-a-harem movies that you can watch. Love Hina ended up boringly, whereas Green Green promises something a bit more interesting -if you know what I mean.

It all comes down to how much guts the authors have -originality can also be overdone (DBZ months long fights, for example, will turn off anything older than 10).

[Imazul]

If I can watch an anime and not get bored 2 episode in a row then Ill like it. Thats usually how I judge anime.
Time is precious and I dont feel like spending it on series that cant keep me entertain each episode.

Another good thing is anime that I can talk with my friends about the plot and how its going to develop, these are always a winner.

[JubeiYamazaki]

If I watch it, and like it. I'll watch it again. I have no pre requisites before watching anime and I judge it on how much I enjoyed it. Sometimes a certain genre that doesn't appeal to you, can surprise the hell out of you.