How do you use your ratings?

[Sheex]

A 9 isn't the highest possible score in this case, though; a 10 is. I harken back to my example correlating anime to writing: writing is an ever-improving skill based upon reaching an unattainable goal. By your logic, writing would be meaningless since writing can never attain perfection.

Also, by rating in accordance with a "universally perfect anime," it keeps scores relatively objective between critical reviewers since scores are made based upon the same premise.

[Cetonis]

I consider 10 to be more of a "highest rating I can give" rather than necessarily "perfect"... it's nice to have a hypothetical perfect score to judge all series by, but I'd rather be able to distinguish a bit better between varying levels of good. (without resorting to .5s since we don't have that in the animelist)

1 - unbearably bad; should never be watched unless duct-taped to a chair with eyes clamped open.

2 - painful to watch, but can be withstood if you absolutely must watch it.

3 - zero redeeming factors, but can be sit through without being actively painful

4 - generally bad, but has a few small pieces of enjoyment

5 - can't call it "good," but can be an enjoyable watch provided one doesn't expect anything from it

6 - good, but nothing special; casual / non-critical fans will probably enjoy this

7 - recommendable; has some things going for it that make it worthwhile

8 - very good; series has its flaws, but all in all there are plenty of good reasons to watch it

9 - excellent; issues are few and generally minor, a great watch.

10 - masterful; I have to actively look for things to complain about in order to find them, and said issues are either very nitpicky or somehow justified.

[Escaflowne]

i think 10s are ok with personal enjoyment,not from a critic point of view.
for example,i'd say to everyone that flcl is a perfect 10,but in a review it would probably go down to a 9.7,lol.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

m3h, lets just have it this way - if I can't think of any flaws in a show, I'll be giving it a 10. I couldn' justify taking off points if there's nothing wrong with the show. Which is why my ef review (that I ought to post) gives a perfect 10, I cannot see anything wrong with it, period.

[rockenroll4life]

As for me I use the 1 - 10 scale, but I don't use decimals. I prefer sticking with the whole numbers them self.

> 7 - Wasn't to my taste in anime, though still could be enjoyable to others.

7 - An average show, there was some good to it, but nothing overly compelling about it.

8 - Was a good anime. It had a few good compelling moments in it as well as a few to none bad/dry moments.

9 - Was an amazing anime but had a few to no flaws that didn't set well with me.

10 - One of my favorite shows that I would recommend to anyone who has some of the same taste in anime as I do.

[Rant]
In general I dislike rating and reviews. More times then not reviews are based off of if the person liked the show or not and not off of the actual show. I've read to many reviews in my time that gave games/movies/anime a bad rating, then I watched it and loved them. To many times I'll reviews by two different people where one hated it and one loved it. The one hating it gave it a 4 where as the one who loved it gave it a 9. How does this make sense? Reviews and critics are suppose to be un-biased and grade the show for what it is and not what it should be. As for me I say screw reviews and critics in general. People should have there own opinions on shows and not take other peoples. I've talked to people who didn't (watch a movie/play a game/watch an anime) because they read a bad review on it...What? Why? You have your own opinion to....stop being a follower and be yourself....You have a say on it too. If I just read reviews on anime the top five or even top ten anime that I enjoyed would be completely different. I probably wouldn't have seen half the anime I have because I would be concerned with..."Oh, this person said it had a poor story and bad character development", "Well......guess I'm not watching that anime."
[/Rant]

*catches breath*

Alright. I'm done. Continue. ^_^

[Sheex]

@Cetonis: Of course, and I don't see a problem with that in general. But, when it comes to performing a detailed review, it's important to note that the reviewer isn't simply writing for him or her self. Rating everything relative to your perfect 10 is certainly possible, but it's not as objective. If you were to write 6 reviews for me to read, I'd have to read your 10 first to accurately get a grasp as to what your standards of judging are, and I don't find that fair to the reader. I try to write my reviews so that anybody stumbling across them can get a fair assessment of a given series without having to compare to my idea of a perfect 10.

That said, it's certainly still possibly to give 10 ratings. Vivafruit, for instance, gave Mind Game a 10. I haven't seen it myself so I can't make a judgement on his decision. I'm just always wary of giving something a 10 rating since the next series I watch may very well be better, and rating something higher than a 10 isn't possible. This means that I'd have to change my lower my previous rating, and I don't think it's fair to my readers to have to constantly be updated with my standards of a 10. By keeping it universal, it keeps it consistent. That's all I'm saying.

Originally Posted by Deus ex Digital Boy

m3h, lets just have it this way - if I can't think of any flaws in a show, I'll be giving it a 10. I couldn' justify taking off points if there's nothing wrong with the show. Which is why my ef review (that I ought to post) gives a perfect 10, I cannot see anything wrong with it, period.

Though I've only seen 2 episodes of ef (it bores me to no end), I can find a number of issues with it right off the bat.

First, the soundtrack didn't catch my attention as anything spectacular (versus a series like Haibane Renmei) so it automatically loses points there. Very few series have truly amazing soundtracks, as a good soundtrack not only has very good music but it also shapes the correct atmosphere at the correct times. It might be decent, but it's not top notch.

Second, and much more important, are my issues with its execution of its story. It's jumbled, random, and hops back and forth at will irrespective of the viewer. While it's still coherent, in relation to other series that use this tactic (third arc of 12 Kingdoms) it's tacky. Sure it might improve later on, but the fact that it has a flawed beginning already docks it points. Hell, hypothetically the story might even turn out to be the best I've yet, but that still doesn't change the fact that the beginning could have been improved. This automatically eliminate's ef's ability to achieve a perfect 10 in its story score.

Keep in mind I'm not questioning your tastes or enjoyment in any way, but I'm simply trying to show you how I (and most of the site reviewers, in my opinion) think when it comes to scoring a series.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

You need to finish ef. Personally, I loved the soundtrack, especially the opening theme Euphoric Field, which I consider the most inspirational song I've ever heard, and the way the ending song constantly changes is also a plus.

As for the moving back ad forth I LOVED that aspect of the show, I thought it was done perfectly, and I think no time was wasted in this show because every second of it is important to the whole (same goes for Baccano or Serial Experiments Lain). It's a show that you really have to watch multiple times to fully grasp, which just gains extra respect from me. I absolutely cannot not give ef a perfect score, when I reviewed it, I kept trying to find things to complain about, but couldn't.

And unfortunetally, review scores are always going to depend on the person. There's no way in hell I'd give Mind Game anything higher than a 6, for instance.

[VivisQueen]

Originally Posted by Deus ex Digital Boy

And unfortunetally, review scores are always going to depend on the person. There's no way in hell I'd give Mind Game anything higher than a 6, for instance.

Haha! Because I'd been wondering about vivafruit's 10 score for Mind Game. Thought 'Hmmmm, that seems farfetched. Nothing can score a 10. NOTHING!' Was starting to think Mind Game must be some kind of god of anime, and then Deus writes this. Just cracked me up.

Just wondering, are people generally put off/encouraged by ratings? Like, when I'm looking for stuff, I often ignore anything below a 7 rating. It's silly on one level (basing what I watch on abstract numbers), but on another, I feel it means less chance of me being disappointed. Anything above a 7, I generally make up my own mind whether it is as good as the particular rating says.

[vivafruit]

When it comes to rating series I take the most practical approach possible. I don't think a 10 should be saved for some sort of perfect platonic form of an anime that doesn't actually exist. Rather, I'm trying to create an arbitrary scale where I can use as much of the 1-10 scale as possible and have each score have a clear meaning.

In other words, I very much score on a "bell-shaped" curve of sorts. A 10 is the best anime I have seen. If I see an anime better than Mind Game, that will be my 10 and Mind Game will go to 9.5. More to a point, I aim for having my scores roughly average around 6.5. Why 6.5? because the average anime is moderately entertaining (i.e more than "half"), which is why I watch anime. Note that this average is for all the anime I've seen - not just the ones I've reviewed.

If I saw 30 anime that were all better than Mind Game, than most likely my entire set of review scores would have to be lowered to maintain the curve. Fortunately, this seems incredibly unlikely at this point.

So do I think Mind Game is the end of all anime? Certainly not, that's absurd. It's just a really, really good one.

[Sheex]

@Deus: All in good time. I'm waiting for my reserves to dry up before going back to it, as I tend to try to avoid anime that bore me as much as ef has done so far. When I force myself through a series (ie. Fate/Stay Night) I tend to loathe it more than it possibly deserves. I've got Nodame Cantabile on my list of things to watch next at the moment, and looking forward to that one to a certain extent. I'm also hesitant about finishing e.f. since I'm slowly going through another series that I find somewhat dull (Someday's Dreamers.)

@Vivis: It depends. I will completely ignore something 5.0 or below, but anything above that I judge off the reflection of the review. Infinite Ryvius, for instance, got a 6.0 rating from me, but it's certainly a passable series. Because my tastes vary from most reviewers (Viva and yourself included), I make sure to judge your comments based on my familiarity with your interests. After all, something you don't particularly enjoy I might just like.