Superstars111

Greetings! My name is Jared. I'm not the best at profile pages, but I'm sure I'll improve this over time.

Technically speaking, my first anime was Pokémon, but I was young enough at that point that I just thought of it as another cartoon. Pokémon introduced me to manga as well, when I found Pokémon Adventures at my local library. I found reading the opposite direction to be odd, but strangely easy. I still enjoy Pokémon (though more as a game than as a show), but I now know that a wide variety of stories exist in this art form.

My first experience with non-Pokémon manga was Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Again, I saw it lying around at the library and picked it up. The first volume was decent, but nothing special. I wasn't planning to continue, but a friend saw me reading it and got excited. I told her my thoughts, and she agreed, but said that it picked up after volume one. I took her word for it and continued. I didn't regret it. After finishing that series, I looked into the anime. I didn't know anything about "subbed" and "dubbed" at that point, so after figuring out what they meant, I swapped back and forth to see which I preferred. I ended up dropping the anime after the first season because I'd already read the story, but not before learning that I prefer subbed anime over dubbed. I also learned that I will tend to either read or watch a story, but not both. (There are, of course, exceptions to this rule.)

My first completed anime was Sword Art Online. Personally, I liked the first fourteen episodes, but wasn't crazy about it after that. (Of course, I'd been reading manga since Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, but not really watching anime.) Since then, I've been watching and reading more anime and manga. I haven't read and seen all of it, or even a lot by most standards, but I have learned that I enjoy a broad range of styles and genres. Sometimes I like adventure stories, sometimes I like comedies, sometimes I like dark stories, and sometimes I like slice of life... It really depends on my mood at the time. As a writer, I tend to judge a story by what it does, rather than by what it doesn't do. For example, some stories have characters simply to advance the plot. But other stories have a plot simply to help us get to know the characters. Because of this, I tend to judge an anime or manga (or any story, for that matter) by its strongest points, rather than its weakest. Of course, some stories do more than others, and can be better because of it (though, it technically depends on the story). Other stories may try to do something specific, but not be able to pull it off, and end up consequently not having a strong point.

Because of this, I rate anime and manga on a scale of one to ten. Unfortunately for my personal tastes, Anime Planet uses a five star rating system instead, so I transfer my ratings to the star system, with one point becoming a half star and ten points becoming five stars. I use one through five points for anime and manga that I didn't enjoy, and six through ten points for anime and manga that I did enjoy. Most stories will receive a rating of seven or eight points, which means that I enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything special. Nine and ten-point stories are more rare. If a story reaches that level, it's one of my favorites.

Thanks for checking out my profile! Feel free to send a message if you want to talk, and fare thee well!