Anime Blog Carnival – “What makes a 10/10 Anime?” by Valence.

While my laptop’s at the shop for the next few weeks days thanks to an unfortunate coffee spillage, I guess I can only write meta for now. Seeing as how @fkeroge invited himself to this ‘Anime Blog Carnival’, I guess that I can, and should, do the same too.

Du5k’s original post (Singapore FTW) was about how he (?) rated his own anime, and categorized by how he changed his methods over the years, as he tried to rationalise and explain his reasons behind changing the way he reviewed anime on his blog and on sites like MyAnimeList. @fkeroge’s post expounded on that concept by going as far as to explain that his own reviews were ‘Super Subjective’, explaining that his 10/10 anime based on his own intepretation of the show and subsequent enjoyment of it, rather than on other factors such as plot, art and production values.

Depicted: related

As bloggers, I suppose we might , always, keep the readers in mind. Du5k’s post brought the reader and audience into perspective, concluding that the score should ‘reflect how much the anime meant to the target audience’. Other bloggers like Marow and Flomu emphasized the idea of a ’10/10′ anime being about perfection. Sam and Marina, on the other hand, have a strict criteria that they stick to when they rate anime. SnippetTee even has a chart.

The thing is, in my opinion, there really shouldn’t be a hard and fast way to review anime. There really shouldn’t be a strict way we review anime, or judge scores to me.

All of these methods in which we review anime, should we stick to them, have a direct impact on our readers, especially if they did not watch the series in question. Calling an anime 10/10 implies that it’s perfect, something we don’t really want people to enter shows with it in mind, because it makes the show seem better than it should be, and hinders the viewer from making their own judgement.

For instance, professional reviewers like Rolling Stones magazine editors can have a profound impact on the audience. When I read a poor review for an album before I listen to it, I often keep the reviewer’s criticisms in mind. Yet are these thoughts my own? What we write directly impacts the reader in a similar fashion. But is this our aim? Maybe so.

Du5k’s original post included the question, “How would you justify their scoring methods”, referring to a hypothetical someone who might have rated 3 out of 200 anime at 10/10. I’m sure many bloggers must have realized the problem in trying to come up with criteria for what makes a 10/10 anime, such as:

1. How does one define 10/10? This is the first issue we must tackle. It’s really impossible to come up with a definition for 10/10 because not only does a full score imply perfection, it’s impossible to also justify point differences. What makes a 10/10 anime and a 9/10 anime?
2. Upon what grounds should one really, rate anime? I’m sure you can’t use the same methods to rate Nichijou and Neon Genesis Evangelion on the same point chart.
3. Why do we, as bloggers, have to justify other’s methods of reviewing anime? The question surely implies that we can, and we should, while in actuality we simply cannot. It also implies the existence of a universal , true method of reviewing anime where other methods deviate from the norm.

Mira wrote about this at length:

“Just because I enjoyed it doesn’t mean I have to give it a 10/10. 9 is a reasonable number and it acknowledges that no anime is without fault. I just don’t feel it’s right to give just any show a 10/10 just because it managed to do the fundamentals right.”

Similarly, trying to come up with one way to review anime and trying to stick to it is difficult enough alone, much less trying to come up with a universal method. Reviewing solely based on factors such as storyline and art is impossible as well – how then would one rate shows like Azumanga Daioh? Hence, in my opinion, there isn’t, and shouldn’t be, an established method of reviewing anime by scoring system alone.

So what? What does a ’10/10′ anime mean to you then, Valence? And how then, would the score matter?

I suppose I follow @fkeroge by rating anime on MAL solely by enjoyment value. How much did I enjoy the show? I just rate it there. And it’s usually just for my own reference, and not for professional review. I gave B Gata H Kei a high score, and Katanagatari slightly lower, although it is clear that Katanagatari is usually rated to be the better anime. Does this scoring system reflect my thoughts of how ‘good’ a show is? No. Hence, would this scoring system then represent my whole review and evaluation of the show? No.

However, should I have to review a show on AOIA and give it a score, I suppose the best way to go about it would be to still, give it a score based on my own judgment, and then explain my rationale for said score. And that’s how the score matters- to me, it merely represents your thoughts and judgement of the show, rather than the show itself: it is the post in its entirety that is my focus.

I don’t intend on remembering shows as perfect or 10/10, and neither have I ever done so, but I do intend on remembering which shows entertained me the most, and which shows could entertain others as well. If I ever do use the point system in my reviews, I hope that if my reviews do sway the readers’ opinions, it is not the score that matters, but the explanation.

So there you have it: To me, the score on its own is not important. To me, it is your rationale behind giving the score that matters: how you rated the anime, how you enjoyed and thought about it, and your evaluation of it. This number alone represents a myriad of thoughts and opinions- such is the beauty of the system. It is these opinions and thoughts that truly matter to me. Without these opinions, to me, the number represents nothing.

Hence, in my opinion, I don’t have a method in which I rate an anime to be 10/10. On MAL, my numbers merely represent my enjoyment of the show, and not my review of it. I rate anime solely based on my thoughts, and not by a list of factors and scores. To me, it’s near impossible to rate an anime by numbers fairly. I doubt I’ll ever find a 10/10 anime, at least, not in this lifetime, but I’m content.

Other participants of the Anime Blog Carnival:

• One Minute of Dusk – Read du5k’s article
• Ambivalence, or is it Ambiguity– Read @fkeroge’s article
• Anime B&B – Read Marina’s article
• The Otaku’s Study – Read Sam’s article
• Anime Viking – Read Marow’s article
• Draggle’s Anime Blog – Read Draggle’s article
• Hachimitsu – Read Mira’s article
• Ace Railgun – Read Ace Railgun’s article
• Leap250′s Blog – Read Leap250′s article
• Mainichi Anime Yume – Read Yumeka’s article
• Lemmas and Submodalities – Read SnippetTee’s article
• Ephemeral Dreams – Read Ephemeral Dreamer’s article
• World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko – Read Hoshiko’s article
• Listless Ink
• Nopy’s Blog – Read Nopy’s article