How do you use your ratings?

[Omurqi]

Originally Posted by alexander

What is the purpose of ratings? If you don't disregard that they're public and will be averaged in the future, a coarser scale is better. What do you use them for yourself? To assess a rewatch you only need a few shades of good/bad.



To rank shows relatively you should use a list and move things up and down, without any scores.

From another thread:



I never have that urge because I don't compare apples to oranges, and it's very rare that similar shows are similar in quality.

BTW this entails that I sometimes rate a series highly even though I dropped it because I hate the genre. Also I'm allergic to apples.

Ye, it's not something we badly need. It's just something that's sometimes bothering me slightly.
But it's not like everything we rate will be 100% accurate to what we actually thought about the series even if we get to use decimals, unless we review everything throughly.

[CrazyAce01]

Good question.

1-3 - Excruciatingly horrendous. After ranting about and insulting this anime repeatedly in the review, I slam it with one of these numbers, matching whatever mood I happen to be in rather than the quality of the anime, a distinction that matters little if it deserves any of the three. Avoid.

4 - Terrible. This anime was a waste of time. Only recommended to the extremely bored, or extreme fans of the genre searching for anything at all.

5 - Bad. This anime had ocassional good points, but overall it stunk. A lot.

6 - Ok. Not good, but not bad either. It had some good sides but many bad sides as well. Recommended to fans of the genre and the bored.

7 - Good. Recommended to anyone looking for something to watch, but not particularly earth-shattering.

8 - Great. This anime is entertaining and moving, and should certainly be high on the list of any fan of the genre. Also a definite strong pick for any anime viewer.

9 - Fantastic. This anime is not only technically flashy but carries with it an sense of uniqueness - these don't come around often. They always have a meaningful message and carve out a unique take on old stories. The realm of classics and top 20 lists.

10 - Masterful. This anime is beyond outstanding in multiple categories and should be considered a classic work of animation.

I can't really see myself giving out a 10 overall for any anime. Nothing is perfect, and there shall always be one complaint, one plothole, one off-key note, or one poorly drawn moment. I never say never, but it probably won't happen. However, I can certainly see myself giving it in specific categories. The music to Cowboy Bebop or the animation of Death Note are what come to mind here.

I'm a big fan of decimals, and I use them liberally. Oftentimes my opinion isn't as straightforward as a single, whole number, and I want to convey that a complex set of ideas averaged out generated it. Putting a whole number on everything reduces your ability to be flexible in your judgments. You eventually get trapped in the situation of killing a fly with a sledgehammer or just letting it buzz around without doing a thing.

[ThePatches]

Thinking about my Toradora! review caused me to come up with a realization.

It seems to me that 9 is an extremely personal score. This anime in addition to being at least 8 in quality touched you in some way IN EACH OF ITS CATEGORIES. I reflected hard on my Toradora! rating, since many might consider it inflated, but my first time through the show, I was held captive. Amusingly, the other shows in my "Top 5" are not 9's, so I'm aware that one's enjoyment of a show can outstrip its quality (Penguin Musume Heart and Kyou no Go no Ni stick out for me in this regard).

While a 9 is personal, a 10 is objective. Masterworks transcend taste and predilection. This is where it gets hard. I need to see more of the Kon films before I can make any kind of declaration, but let's take Princess Mononoke as an example. It's in the 1001 Must See Films book (and is therefore considered one of a handful of animated films on the same level as live-action film by people who are clearly biased), it's fantastic. It might be my favorite Ghibli film, tied with Howl--I love fairy tales. But then, I had friends who couldn't sit through it. They found it violent in an upsetting way (one of these friends loves to watch horror movies with me). So, clearly the film's masterful nature didn't get through to her. I plan to force this movie on my parents (who have been working through the 1001 Movies book). I imagine, they'll appreciate it visually, but feel that the plot is a little specious. Once you can't get begrudging acceptance of overall excellence, the work no longer falls into the Masterwork category and therefore short of a 10.

[cassiesheepgirl]

Hmm I think I'd say that I use my ratings as follows:

1 or 2 - Dear God, this is horrific. Get it away from me. NOW!

3 or 4 - Pants. But at least it's better than some of the shit I've seen.

5 or 6 - Average. My review equivalent of "could do better".

7 - Good. Not amazing, but a commendable effort.

8 or 9 - Very Good. Not quite perfect but certainly worthy of much praise.

10 - Holy mother of crap this blew me away!

These count for my overall ratings and the individual sections. However, they have nothing to do with my star ratings on my anime list, which come from how much I enjoyed the series, not if it's actually good. XD

[AirCommodore]

This is how I do my 0-5 star ratings (which is fairly inconsistent)

.5- This either made me really angry or put me to sleep
1-2- Not really my thing. I can definitely see the merits, and why other people would like it, though
2.5-3- Overall I enjoyed it, but there were a bunch of annoying/inconsistent things
3.5-4- Somewhere between the abutting categories
4.5-5- LOVE IT. I could get nit-picky and find a bunch of annoying things, but I don't want to because I enjoyed it too much. Makes me smile.