Anime-Planet review rules and guidelines

sothis

sothis

Forum Moderator
Anime-Planet Founder
Developer
Thanks for adding anime and manga reviews on Anime-Planet! Below is a set of general rules for what can and can't go in reviews, as well as guidelines for what constitutes a "featured" review.

Reviews that are meant to be first impressions, private notes or simply don't meet the below criteria should be marked with a different privacy level, such as "share with people visiting my profile". Read more about the different privacy levels and when to use them.

You can report reviews that shouldn't be marked 'everyone', or reviews that violate our rules, by using the 'report review' link.

General rules

  • Do not post reviews that are simply a synopsis or tag information about the anime/manga, without any sort of review-like content (what you thought about the story, sound, etc). Sometimes, users have added reviews with solely synopsis/tag content because our entries were missing that content. We're currently filling in all missing data for our manga entries (anime entries were all fully updated awhile ago), so any reviews with just synopsis info will be flagged. You can report any missing info in the anime thread or manga thread.

  • Do not post links to other sites, such as a link to your blog to read the review, or a link to another site where you have content, etc. If you need to link to an anime or manga entry, or a character, etc, link to the item on Anime-Planet. Linking to external sites is sometimes ok, such as linking to Wikipedia to discuss a historical event. If you really need to mention in text that you have a review somewhere (such as a video review), you can mention that a separate review exists at the end of the review. This way, the preview text for your reviews won't be filled with an advertisement while browsing anime and manga entries.

    Links will be edited out moderators if they are minimal, otherwise the review will be flagged for you to edit them out.

  • Links to, or promoting, illegal stream sites or download sites are not allowed. This includes mentions of where to go to 'get' or stream anime, except for legal sites.

  • Embedding anime videos is not allowed.

  • Content must be PG-13. Even if the review is for an ecchi anime or manga, image content and/or text must not contain sexually explicit content (whether text or images).

  • Like all site content, racial/sexual slurs or hate speech are not tolerated on Anime-Planet.

  • While some minor formatting is acceptable, reviews marked "Share with everyone" (public reviews) should not have sweeping style changes (all italic, all bold, a strange color, etc). Moderators will change these reviews to "share with people visiting my profile".


Content guidelines

  • Ideally, the first paragraph of your review should be a short summary of what you thought, or, is the beginning sentences of your review. If you put a synopsis, image, or other random text first, it's the only thing that shows up in the preview on an anime or manga page. These reviews will be usually changed by moderators to 'people visiting my profile' for that reason.

  • Reviews should clearly explain why you scored each section the way you scored it. Explain what made the story so good (or bad), why you think it deserves the overall score, etc. Just saying "I loved this" isn't enough of a reason - saying why you loved it is what matters.

  • Try to remain as objective as possible - even if you hated something, can you see any good qualities in the anime that mean others might enjoy it? Reviews that are excessively skewed in either direction (all 1s for all scores or all 5s) without text that backs up why this is literally the worst or the best anime you think exists might result in the review being flagged.

  • It's better to wait until you've fully seen the anime or fully read the manga before adding a review. If you add a review based on only a few episodes (such as for seasonal anime, ensure that you've updated it after the season is over. If moderators run across a review based on 1 episode that is never updated, it will likely be flagged. Post per-episode impressions in the specific anime or current season threads, instead.

  • Assume that the people reading your review haven't seen the anime (or read the manga), and are looking for opinions on why they should watch it or not. For this reason, try to avoid spoilers at all costs, unless there's no way around it. For example, you could talk your thoughts on the ending being successful or not ('it was unrealistic', 'it was wrapped up a bit too nicely', etc) without talking about the details.

    If it's absolutely necessary to mention spoilers, do not put them at the top of the review (so they will not show in the preview text) and put a warning. In the future we'll add spoiler tagging for these.

  • Length: Featured/"everyone" reviews can be broken into sections, or can be free-form. If section-based, a good minimum baseline is a full paragraph or two per section. If free-form, around 4-5 paragraphs at minimum.
If you have suggestions for other helpful guidelines or things to avoid, please reply here with your ideas. Thank you!
 
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Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

I think you should add a clause which states that reviews should only be written in english or at least having a translation. I've found a handful of reviews written in russian
 
Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

"Reviews that are excessively skewed in either direction (all 1s for all scores or all 5s) without text that backs up why this is literally the worst or the best anime you think exists might result in the review being flagged."

The review system used a 1-10 scale, not a 1-5 scale.

"try to avoid spoilers at all costs"

Seems a bit harsh. It's practically impossible to write a review that has any meat to it and simultaneously to avoid at least light spoilers. I'm concerned that there's going to be a lot of decent reviews flagged and replaced by content free fluff if this guideline is enforced harshly.
 
Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

I have a couple of questions. Does linking to video reviews on Youtube (as a compliment to your review) count as self-promotion? Are we allowed to link personal sites on our profile?
 
Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

TeamAvatar said:
I have a couple of questions. Does linking to video reviews on Youtube (as a compliment to your review) count as self-promotion? Are we allowed to link personal sites on our profile?
Click to expand...

There shouldn't be a problem if you attach the video on your review, but linking a video on your review as an addition would be kind of pointless. Rather make a video review and put your A-P review in the description as a ''written version'' and vice versa. I've seen a lot of review and ''top 10'' channels do this.
 
Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

sothis said:
[*] It's better to wait until you've fully seen the anime or fully read the manga before adding a review. If you add a review based on only a few episodes (such as for seasonal anime, ensure that you've updated it after the season is over. If moderators run across a review based on 1 episode that is never updated, it will likely be flagged.
Click to expand...

May I ask what exactly flagging does? I haven't found anything about it. Concerning the quoted point. In the past I have started writing a review on AP and slowly completed while watching the anime. I now just write the review in Microsoft Word and copy paste it. I have on the rare occasion, done so before finishing an anime, particularly if the rest is spoilers/if the anime has fast-story/progression or if I feel I can accurately judge an anime without having finished it. Of course, if finishing said anime changes my mind, I go back and change/add to my review. Even having finished an anime, I may remember something later on to add. (I've just got my first flag immediately upon uploading a close to complete review on an anime I've watched 16/26, no email/explanation so I'm thinking it's a glitch?).

Concerning other things not stated. the character limit for reviews is 20k characters including space, which is something like 3k-4k words. I understand the need to be relevant and concise. But (I've also reported this in the bug section of the forum) it's also apparent the counter is bugged. Other programs like character count sites and word processors list the correct number of characters, while the AP review uploader seems to count a few more characters. This seems to be roughly a few hundred characters more than there actually is. Just want to bring this to attention.

Finally, I've seen a good number of reviews of a particular style, many of which were written before this update, that don't seem to follow these guidelines. Reviews from one individual in particular pop up often, which, while popular, seem to be a joke of sorts. Full of ranting and almost always with low scores and offensive terminology. Almost as if the review isn't meant to be a serious review of the anime. What's the consensus on such reviews? I might not like somebody taking the mick and putting in a 'prank'-style review, but it does seem that these reviews are popular among other users.

Edit: I apologise if I've discussed things that would be better mentioned in the bug sections in the forums (though I have already reported on definite bug).

Cheers
 
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Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

huge apologies if by flagging you are bringing that up because you just noticed a big warning on the top of your reviews - it's a bug and we're pushing a fix for it as we speak

we're also looking into the review length situation :)
 
Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

(the flagging issue is now fixed)

note: your reviews are some of the best being added to the site atm, imo, and i have no reason to flag them!
 
Re: Anime-Planet review guidelines

TeamAvatar said:
I have a couple of questions. Does linking to video reviews on Youtube (as a compliment to your review) count as self-promotion? Are we allowed to link personal sites on our profile?
Click to expand...

Linking to your YT chan or personal site in your bio is fine, but reviews should be text on Anime-PLanet (without links to other sites)
 
I added a note about mentioning video/other reviews, stating that if you really need to mention that, it needs to go at the end of the review, not at the front. I've noticed some people bolding/calling this out as sentence 1 of all of their reviews - this then clutters up the preview text in the entries and looks spammy. Review first, then the text callout (such as 'see my bio for my video reviews link') at the end.
 
Wow, I had no idea there were guidelines for reviews. I don't do anything inappropriate, but apparently I haven't been following basic guidelines. I have a lot of writing to do...
 
OmniscientAristocrat said:
Wow, I had no idea there were guidelines for reviews. I don't do anything inappropriate, but apparently I haven't been following basic guidelines. I have a lot of writing to do...
Click to expand...

Well, it depends on the privacy level you've set. The default value is 'people visiting my profile' - if you use that value, you can write whatever you want :) however, if you change the value to "Everyone", there's a section that appears that links to the guidelines for these public reviews:

1m88g3K.png
 
sothis said:
Thanks for adding anime and manga reviews on Anime-Planet! Below is a set of general rules for what can and can't go in reviews, as well as guidelines for what constitutes a "featured" review.

Reviews that are meant to be first impressions, private notes or simply don't meet the below criteria should be marked with a different privacy level, such as "share with people visiting my profile". Read more about the different privacy levels and when to use them.

You can report reviews that shouldn't be marked 'everyone', or reviews that violate our rules, by using the 'report review' link.

General rules

  • Do not post reviews that are simply a synopsis or tag information about the anime/manga, without any sort of review-like content (what you thought about the story, sound, etc). Sometimes, users have added reviews with solely synopsis/tag content because our entries were missing that content. We're currently filling in all missing data for our manga entries (anime entries were all fully updated awhile ago), so any reviews with just synopsis info will be flagged. You can report any missing info in the anime thread or manga thread.

  • Do not post links to other sites, such as a link to your blog to read the review, or a link to another site where you have content, etc. If you need to link to an anime or manga entry, or a character, etc, link to the item on Anime-Planet. Linking to external sites is sometimes ok, such as linking to Wikipedia to discuss a historical event. If you really need to mention in text that you have a review somewhere (such as a video review), you can mention that a separate review exists at the end of the review. This way, the preview text for your reviews won't be filled with an advertisement while browsing anime and manga entries.

    Links will be edited out moderators if they are minimal, otherwise the review will be flagged for you to edit them out.

  • Links to, or promoting, illegal stream sites or download sites are not allowed. This includes mentions of where to go to 'get' or stream anime, except for legal sites.

  • Embedding anime videos is not allowed.

  • Content must be PG-13. Even if the review is for an ecchi anime or manga, image content and/or text must not contain sexually explicit content (whether text or images).

  • Like all site content, racial/sexual slurs or hate speech are not tolerated on Anime-Planet.

  • While some minor formatting is acceptable, reviews marked "Share with everyone" (public reviews) should not have sweeping style changes (all italic, all bold, a strange color, etc). Moderators will change these reviews to "share with people visiting my profile".


Content guidelines

  • Ideally, the first paragraph of your review should be a short summary of what you thought, or, is the beginning sentences of your review. If you put a synopsis, image, or other random text first, it's the only thing that shows up in the preview on an anime or manga page. These reviews will be usually changed by moderators to 'people visiting my profile' for that reason.

  • Reviews should clearly explain why you scored each section the way you scored it. Explain what made the story so good (or bad), why you think it deserves the overall score, etc. Just saying "I loved this" isn't enough of a reason - saying why you loved it is what matters.

  • Try to remain as objective as possible - even if you hated something, can you see any good qualities in the anime that mean others might enjoy it? Reviews that are excessively skewed in either direction (all 1s for all scores or all 5s) without text that backs up why this is literally the worst or the best anime you think exists might result in the review being flagged.

  • It's better to wait until you've fully seen the anime or fully read the manga before adding a review. If you add a review based on only a few episodes (such as for seasonal anime, ensure that you've updated it after the season is over. If moderators run across a review based on 1 episode that is never updated, it will likely be flagged. Post per-episode impressions in the specific anime or current season threads, instead.

  • Assume that the people reading your review haven't seen the anime (or read the manga), and are looking for opinions on why they should watch it or not. For this reason, try to avoid spoilers at all costs, unless there's no way around it. For example, you could talk your thoughts on the ending being successful or not ('it was unrealistic', 'it was wrapped up a bit too nicely', etc) without talking about the details.

    If it's absolutely necessary to mention spoilers, do not put them at the top of the review (so they will not show in the preview text) and put a warning. In the future we'll add spoiler tagging for these.

  • Length: Featured/"everyone" reviews can be broken into sections, or can be free-form. If section-based, a good minimum baseline is a full paragraph or two per section. If free-form, around 4-5 paragraphs at minimum.
If you have suggestions for other helpful guidelines or things to avoid, please reply here with your ideas. Thank you!
Click to expand...


I think you may have gone a bit too far with the changes to your review policy. A lot of people aren't looking for a long four paragraph review of a show, just some quick impressions. I watch anime on streaming sites, so I read one or two short reviews on this site to determine if it's worth watching the first episode, but I balk at longer ones. I think a lot of people do that.

Another problem with the new policy is that there are a lot of shows that have very few reviews, so even something short is valuable. Also, while it's fine to ask for positive reviews to be bulkier, often times negative reviews are fine being short. Certainly longer than "this sucked," but saying something was bad and listing a few reasons is fine. I don't want to go in depth about something I thought was awful.

I would also say that the new review policy makes it difficult for people to discover someone with a similar taste. If I find a short review that is well done, I may check out that person's profile to see their other reviews (or hope someone checks mine), but now I may never find that person. Even when I find a review helpful I very often accept it without seeking in depth information. I also am not interested in the technical analysis I see so often in reviews, for a lot of people the details about animation style (you can just check pictures) or the music are of no interest. I also leave those category scores blank when I review, because I do not usually feel compelled or even qualified to rate certain aspects of a show.

The main reason I use this site is to keep track of anime I'm watching and search out new shows, but I do not read a five paragraph review to help determine my future viewing, short and sweet is best for me and I think many others. Rather than saying paragraphs, a five sentence review minimum as well as a word count requirement would be plenty. If I want a super detailed commentary, there are plenty of other places for me to look. I currently do not even see the option to share with everyone on some of my longer reviews.

One other thought is that rather than eliminate short reviews, simply create a button to view short and a button to view long. We're not pro writers, I simply hope that someone may benefit by reading my quick thoughts and maybe find new shows because the discover that they agree with my reaction, as I know I have benefited from others. Again, if I wanted a pro analysis I would look elsewhere. Pro analyses are a turn off for many people. Shows that aren't considered good by technical reviewers are often still very enjoyable for many people.

I'm sorry this is so long, but I just feel that the new policy may negatively affect many viewers willingness to try new shows, as well as their ability to find like minded people.
 
please, id like to ask what happens if guidelines are not followed and if you even "handle" inappropiate reviews at all.
specifically, there is user andreichekov and his reviews...

Rakshasa Street: "I don't normall review an anime that I've dropped after the first episode, but this one had no others, so I figured I'd do it." rated 2/10 on 8/10 avg. anime. he still didnt watch the anime...
Pingu in the City: "If this counts as an anime, then Avatar and RWBY should be here as well." that is complete text of his review. dissatisfaction with what he perceives as anime, no explanation on how its executed. rated 1/10 on 6/10 avg. anime.
The Midnight Parasites: "You know those short silent films that make no sense at all, but people try to watch them anyway to seem sofisticated and cultured? (And it never works, they just look like tasteless idiots.) Well, The Midnight Parasites is one of those." This could even be perceived as open insult of people with certain taste in anime. I believe he is going overboard.

All those are public reviews.
Also, he is using uncensored inappropiate language quite commonly in his reviews (generally "shit" in every second review).
This person has good reviews aswell, but he has some really inappropiate reviews and when i tried to report them, nothing happened.

Conclusion:
Do these reviews comply with guidelines?
If not, what are you doing with the situation or what are you going to do to get rid of such reviews?
How does "flag review" work? Do you need certain amount of flags before you handle inappropiate reviews or do you just need some time?

edit.: also when visiting link to guidelines after setting review to public, there are 2 red links to detailed guidelines. only one of them seems to work properly.
 
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Thank you for posting this I am a newbie here and I became lost at trying to find ways on how I can read manga here lol so this really saved me
 
Dunedane said:
I think you may have gone a bit too far with the changes to your review policy....

I'm sorry this is so long, but I just feel that the new policy may negatively affect many viewers willingness to try new shows, as well as their ability to find like minded people.
Click to expand...

I agree completely and suggested very similar arguments. I get the devs wanting their site how they envisioned it, but ultimately the purpose of the site is for the users. Quite frankly, most people don't share identical evaluation methods anyway, so confining them to the the current system A) disuades reviews, B) disuades reading them, C) prevents others from reading them, and ultimately D) preventing people from finding helpful reviews. The most helpful reviews I have found are those that are concise, they say what they liked about it, and give you an idea of if you will like it, but don't do a microscopic analysis and ruin the story.

If you aren't going to fix this rather significant issue, please at least change your recommendations algorithm to the following:
Search users with similar titles, match them to those who ranked the shared titles most similarly, and average their ratings for titles unseen.
Then beneath the overall star ranking, include a "Will you like it?" star rating of a different colour. That way it doesn't matter if someone happens to find a review that aligns with them (they won't have to read four 2-page reviews and still only have a general idea as to whether or not it is worth starting, let alone the degree to which it will be liked).



ghurk said:
The Midnight Parasites: "You know those short silent films that make no sense at all, but people try to watch them anyway to seem sofisticated and cultured? (And it never works, they just look like tasteless idiots.) Well, The Midnight Parasites is one of those." This could even be perceived as open insult of people with certain taste in anime. I believe he is going overboard.
Click to expand...

The section in brackets has no place in the review, it is redundant that the author doesn't care for them, and completely irrelevant to the anime. Without that section though, I found this review helpful, it is still condescending, but it does paint a pretty solid picture (even if you like that anime style). Different reviews help different people which is why many is better than one.
 
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