Hmmm, my checklist of "clue" meter and discriminators:
I try to avoid political checks... but if they've read Noam Chomsky and William F Buckley thats a clue they're listening to diverse arguments. Do they read any non-fiction? Keep up with the sciences at all?
"Shakespeare is stupid" or "Mark Twain is boring" immediately springs to mind as a downcheck. Have they read Kurt Vonnegut's stuff... Douglas Adams can be silly and absurdist but does the reader see the skewering going on?
Musically, is their range diverse and well beyond the "trendy" channels of corporate product? I find music of value from almost any culture, time period, or part of the world and my collection reflects it. I'm fond of certain types of music but its not all I'll listen to.
Film-wise .... there''s some great film from the 30s and 40s -- will they watch it even though its black and white?
Do they like the Marx Brothers?
If they've seen Animaniacs, do they spot the connections?
Have they seen any foreign films outside of the few breakthrough items? (Crouching whatever. Das Boot ... in the original language with subtitles?).
You'll notice I haven't mentioned anime yet. That's not a prime discriminator for me though I may put them on a conversion track. If they're familiar with anime,
1) Do they admit that they may love an anime and its still a messy pile of dreck? (good Naruto check there... it is fine to like Naruto, its questionable to assert it has lasting value or is the "greatest" anything...) <shrug> I like Negima but its certainly a messy manga and produced a lousy anime ...
2) Do they understand that there really isn't a single anime that is "original" but they all borrow from themes, motifs, and archetypes found elsewhere? Many people argue that KoR is on some lofty perch and jewel. I had mixed opinions - it was unusual for its time (spending a lot of time on character development) but I'm not fond of the "fat cheek speed racer" style of art so its a bit hard for me to watch. I also thought the magical aspects were kind of silly and distracting. Is it original? no..... but it was a mostly well told story.
2) This is just a personal discriminator: do they like romance anime? I just prefer to spend more time with such folk... though I find that the "my girl must win no matter how sucky the plot" crowd fall into the religious zealot slots and are no fun to talk to. I tend to like romance with comedic tones ... though I prefer it when they take the archetype characters and twist them up a bit. Haruhi is one of those shows.
Haruhi may end up on my list simply because it combines well-known aspects of science fiction, romance, music, and comedy in a way I've not seen before. Its not the *best* of any one of those things, but cumulatively it adds up to some excellent packaging. It certainly has spurred a lot of people to research physics, pseudo-sciences, other fiction, the definitions of anime archetypes....
The Haruhi anime has enough simultaneous layers of information being presented that I can use it to tell how well someone picks up on details or processes multiple streams of data. I've seen a few reviews that write the show off ... usually they're just looking at one facet of the show (>comedy >romance >action >ooh look stereotype characters (missing the deviations) ) ... so that gives me some clues about their care or abilities in observation. The show doesn't take the *easy* route to popularity - it remains true to the novels (though it does add in a lot of cultural reference and homage bits, those are not key to the story).
In the end, the purpose of anime is to get people to buy the products (novels, figures, dvds, manga, etc) ... sometimes accidently along the way the staff creates something that matters that has lasting value for a lot of people. The true test will be, can I sit down two or twenty years from now and watch this series and enjoy it? I'm thinking I can so far.
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