ThePatches

How to Write a Site-Format Review

We've had a few applications to site-reviewership, and it got me thinking that we didn't have a CONTENT-ish guideline for people to follow. What do we expect? How can I improve my chances? Well, here's a little bit about what we look for in prospective reviewers' work.

ALL reviews need to be site-format, which means Story/Animation/Sound/Characters/Overall. Since the form for site reviews is fixed, lovely, non-structured rants can't be considered no matter how awesome (but they can draw our eye to you, so, please write them). Below, I've provided some help for people setting out on their first real, AP-style reviews.

Some General Points

• Site-format REQUIRES each section, and we want to hear something about everything. I know it's unfair that I trust cassie or sothis when they write three lines about the sound section, but I know they thought a lot about it. I don't know that you did. Show me that you've considered each aspect of the anime that you're reviewing.
• We are not evaluating your correctness, but your ability to make an argument. Do not worry about your scores or overstepping your bounds. Share what you think.
• If you neglect grammar and spelling, you will be turned down. I don't care if you say, "I can do it, but it's the internet, so I don't want to be formal." Our reviews are professional-sounding and try to maintain the best standards in their presentation. If you can't be bothered to take the time to make your review seem considered and polished, then we can't take the time to seriously examine your submission.
• You can submit a ranty entry, but at least one of your submissions should be straightfoward. Ranty reviews work really well for things that rate high or low, but MOST of the stuff you review is going to fall somewhere in the middle and rants in this zone seem forced or out of place.
• We don't really care about your scores, BUT: Your scores should match your content. If you rate a show's animation 9/10 and say merely, "It was fluid and impressive", you are not doing it service. If it's in the middle, talk about both its flaws and its strengths. If it's crap, I want you to tear it a new one. If it's the best thing you've ever seen, I want you to fellate so hard you get a jaw-cramp. 
• WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? In addition to how, we want you to judge. Why did this element work? Why do you think the plot fell on its face? Why did you want to murder Himeko (ok, that goes without saying. I think we can all agree that Himeko should die in a fire, but you get the point).

Story Section:

• Plot summaries are great, but you need not describe the entire plot of a series/movie/OVA. If I want to know that badly, I can watch it. Also, most of these in-depth summaries are very tricky to write without spoiling anything and the result is not all that more useful than the content of the synopsis.
• Tell me what you thought about the plot. You can be specific without spoiling ("The Mayori Snail arc suffered from too much repetition, and not enough action."), and the information can provide important insights to your readers (e.g. Last Exile's epic narrative certainly got my blood pumping, but the show had the tendency to squander any of this momentum in the more character-focused episodes that mostly concerned interactions aboard the Sylvana).
• Was there a plot? Did it suck? Did its lack of plot work? WHY?
• Was it funny? What parts were funny? Was it sad? What parts were sad? Again, keep spoilers to a minimum, but let your readers know what worked for the series (e.g. "The slapstick irreverence of Sora Hitoshi and Jan-puu both filled the duller moments of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl with lighthearted laughs and provided context for the characters' pointed questions that drove the story in the second half of the series"). Also: WHY?

Visuals:

Most of you do an adequate job with this section, but there are two things that can make a huge difference:

• How were the character designs? Was it a group of nondescript "anime" characters, or was the cast unique both person-to-person and in between this show and others (Kimi ni Todoke's cast doesn't stand out from the mass of shoujo romance characters on the whole. Sawako could be Sunako, Kazehaya looks like many a male lead. Pin, on the other hand, appears a little out-of-place in this show. His spiky hair and scowl could easily have gotten him a part in Fairy Tail).
• How was the motion? How were the stills? Canaan, for example isn't all that impressive in its screens but in motion it looks spectacular. Conversely, Toradora! has some of the most beautiful stills I've stumbled across, but falls apart a little in its action sequences.

Sound:

Most of you've got this one down, as well. However...

• Did you watch it dubbed or subbed?
• Did any of the VA's floor you? Did anyone's voice make you want to take a fork to your ear? WHY?

Characters:

• Was there development? Did you feel like you knew the characters at the end of the show?
• Did you LIKE the characters? As characters? As people?
• Did the cast work well as an ensemble? Did you feel the someone got neglected? WHY?
• WHO WAS THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE SHOW AND WHY? I talk about this all the time, ESPECIALLY, when a secondary character is the show's best cast member.

Overall

This section is your victory lap. BUT, sum up your points and give us something you held back about the series' as the sum of its parts. End with something cute that will stick in the readers' heads.

ALSO: WHY? Your opinion matters. How is important so you don't sound like you're making baseless claims, but why is where you get to pass judgement on the anime (and probably the most fun part of reviewing).

Formatting:

Assuming you're not writing some crazy, fun rant full of animated GIFs and YouTube clips (which we don't recommend to be your official application to site-reviewership), you should use the default font and divide your comments into paragraphs. Walls of text are intimidating and doubly so if they are hard to read. You can leverage paragraph breaks and font properties to make things a little easier on your readers. Most of you out there use bold text for headings, which is an exceptionally, super-great idea. I'd also encourage you all to italicize titles of shows/movies/OVAs, since it's just plain good style and can stave off some confusion (do you mean Canaan the character, or Canaan the show?)

General Writing Guidellines (courtesy of cassiesheepgirl):

1. Repetition – repeating the same word in a short space of time can have a jarring effect, and utilising different vocabulary also helps give extra life to the writing.
2. Run-on sentences – if a sentence has too much information or unrelated points packed into it, it can seem rambling and dull. If you have a long sentence, see if you can split it up.
3. Stop and go – in the opposite to the above, if you have a series of short, sharp sentences your piece of writing can have a very Point. Point. Point. Feel to it. Sometimes, you may be best off developing the idea in a sentence or combining it with another, while making sure not create a run-on.
4. Simplicity - Sometimes a simpler sentence is much more effective. If you have a sentence with lots of "of"s, "the"s etc., look to see if it can be simplified.

A lot of this advice is pointed and potentially overwhelming if taken as a whole. Yeah, it's unfair for me to say to you, "You know how to make your reviews better? Be a better reviewer", so I'll finish by boiling down the gist of the commentary above into the following simple guideline: Reviews should be evaluative. To be most useful to a reader, every segment of your review should contain some measurement or judgment of the show's content. And lastly: READ EXISTING SITE REVIEWS FOR INSPIRATION. Sheex, VivisQueen, KiraRin, cassiesheepgirl, therik, ALL of them have done some great work (you, too, FalseDawn, babyeinstein12, and even sothis ;)). Stealing format, flow, and clever turns of phrase (IN THE FACE!) from other reviewers is a great way to improve your own writing.

Good luck, and we hope to see your work soon!