Anime Blog Carnival Merry-Go-Roundup – “What makes a 10/10 anime?” by @fkeroge

Badum tsssh!

Please ignore the stupid wordplay that I used.

The anime blog carnival project organized by du5k was nothing short of success. It brought many new perspectives and ideas that I would have never considered if I haven’t read them.

One of the most interesting posts I have seen is from Yumeka, whose scoring system is a combination of two important criteria: the head and the heart. I, for the most part, score anime with a very subjective approach – with pure heart, if we take Yumeka’s system into consideration.

Some of us rate our anime in accordance with certain criteria, and some simply just give the score based on personal preference. I now understand that rating solely based on numbers isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As SnippetTee said, numbers give us a scale that helps us overcome the vagueness and ambiguity of pure words. But then again, as much as numbers seem to give reviews an objective edge, they can still be kind of deceptive if we consider these numbers to be so.

So that’s where the words come in. Words can help us strike a balance between supposed objectivity, and hidden subjectivity disclaimers. Words reflect the author’s tastes, standards and preferences. Good use of words can take the numbers and give them a more personal touch. In a way, good use of words separates the people who score, say, Madoka Magica a 1, a 4, a 7, a 9, and a 10, but also make their arguments more reasonable and agreeable than a rampaging hater or a hopeless fanboy.

Another great post is Yi’s take on the subject. She believes that we, the veterans of anime watching, have an edge that makes us more credible than the casual watcher. We are connoisseurs, masters of the trade. This, again, exemplifies my first point, which is subjectivity. Like art or food critics, we can regard highly acclaimed anime as crap and vice versa, provided that we give legitimate reasons to do so. An extreme example is one for myself – I think that Shin Seiki Evangelion is a horrible show, and Yi agrees with me, but Eva is a highly acclaimed title, known to sell merchandise in the hundred thousands scale. I believe that Clannad After Story is the best anime of all time, but people like Scamp would argue otherwise. We have our reasons, and the connoisseur’s reasons are far more highly regarded than some anon on 4chan or a person who only watches one or two anime series.

Some people, however, regard the 10/10 score to be perfection. As the number suggests, nothing can be higher than a 10/10. It is an anime that is perfect in every sense of the word. As such, some of the participants of the carnival, like AceRailgun have never given that coveted 10/10 score. Although I have a bit of trouble understanding this mindset, I guess I can see their point. Maybe it is to make a point that there will never be an anime worthy of being deemed as perfection.

All in all, the anime blog carnival was a very informative and enlightening experience for me. I’d like to thank du5k for organizing this wonderful event (and letting me join). The way we see our ideal anime may be different, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that our opinions are of different values. That much I have learned.

The people who made all of this possible:

Sam, Marina, Nopy, Mira, AceRailgun, Leap250, Yumeka, SnippetTee, hoshiko, Kai, Overlord-G, Draggle, Marrow, EphemeralDreamer, Yi, Valence and Flomu