AAP > Reviews > Handbook

Okay so if you haven't noticed the scroll bar on your browser yet, you can probably tell that this page is pretty damn long. When I first drew out the plan for the new reviews site I had like 7 to 8 pages of different junk. Well I've like almost gotten religious with the simplicity mindset, so about 6 of those pages got consolidated here. As there is so much content, I sort of abbreviated it. You can get the simple summary in the first paragraph, and the details in the "show" link.

Ratings: The 1 to 10 stuff

So what are these numbers and categories? The categories basically point out specific attributes of an anime. For instance an anime could have terrific animation but a horrid story. If you simply have an overall rating, it's hard to gather much about a title. What if you simply didn't care about a story and wanted to see great animation, or the opposite? So with that in mind I graded individual elements. Typically these grades will be about as unbiased as I can get. My general opinion is usually reflected by the overall rating.

So the first thing to keep in mind is that some things are slanted. Most anime will qualify as average, or a score of 5 in one category. But keep in mind that the scale is skewed towards the higher end. I can't recall scoring much of anything at a 2, and I don't think I've ever scored anything as a 1. This may all sound silly, but it's something to keep in mind. You could say that it's a quirk of how I do reviews. I guess my opinion of anime by it's very nature will never actually hit the bottom.

Now how about those categories? Stuff has changed a bit from the way the old system worked, since it just didn't quite cover things as well as I wanted. Therefore new categories were added to the old list

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Animation: - This is pretty much self explanatory. Covers overall movement. Grades on regular movement usually grades around 5 on average (with a variance of 1). Action grades at a 6.5 on average. Abstract sequences with high action are typically the only way to achieve anything above an 8.
Design: - This covers overall design of characters, machines, cities and pretty much everything in between. Note that this is not the same as animation (which is why I added this category). An anime may have great design and terrible animation, and the reverse is also quite possible. Typically where budget cuts go is either against Animation OR Design. Sometimes it goes against both in a bad anime.
Characters: - This is the do-all character rating. Is the character likable? Is she a good villain? Does this character make the anime stand out? Good character development can play a critical role in most anime. After all if you don't care about what happens to a character, or what they do, then you take a back seat instead of really being drawn in. Characters are vital to this role, which is why I added this category.
Depth: - This is sort of an abstract category. It basically entails things such as originality, and intricacy in some story like aspect. That may not necessarily be the same as the story. For instance if the main character has a great well thought out background but the story sucks, then it would have high depth, but a low story score. Depth covers many things such as characters, the overall plot, or even just something like history that is especially well thought out in detail. That all falls under the blanket of depth. I guess you could say it's a cross between complexity and being well thought out. Is that still confusing? Sorry - it's the best that I can do ^^;
Story: - General plot line. Was it interesting? Was it unique or innovative? Probably not much to say about this as it's typically the major point in any good anime. And oddly enough there are more than a few titles out there that do good in all other aspects but totally blow it as far as the story goes.
Music: - That noise in the background that no one is making. Typically I'm not too hard on this. Mainly graded on relevance and quality. Easily loses points for being obnoxious.
Dub/Sub: - Yeah, it's still in. Dubbing has improved, but it's still an ear-sore to me. About every time I wonder why I grade subtitleing I go and watch some Pioneer anime and remember that I have to keep this category around for every time they fuck it up. Sad to say fansubs are still far superior to many commercial companies in this aspect. An 'x' represents unrated - which happens quite often where I may have viewed a title but didn't recall much about the dub or sub.

Archen's Overall Ratings

The overall rating: yes this is my personal feelings about a given title. Regardless if you trust my individual ratings on various aspects, the overall rating is completely based off of my own opinions. While the old system only had three ratings, the new system has a whopping FIVE. The old system with [cool, good, sucks] just didn't quite get a good feeling since the vast majority of titles ended up in the "good" category. The new system has five ratings that correspond to the old ratings as such. [sucks, not-so-good, average, good, excellent]

Sound too complicated? Need pictures to assist your visualization of how a title is rated. Then worry no more! Behold the new Archen patented Sazuna rating system!™ Suzuna is a rather moody girl, and you can get a good feel for what a title entails by her expression... well sorta considering the icons have to be a bit small and it might be hard to see. If that isn't good enough for you, then the word description is also provided with the icon. And if you're still confused you can always click on the icon to get the help window to get a reference. If you are still confused, then go away =P

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	sucks: Suzuna is very unhappy. This is the all out "don't watch this title" rating. As the lowest possible opinion I can have, I've reserved this rating for the select few titles I just can't stand. You'll actually find very few titles land in this category, because usually titles have at least one or two good things about them. Not so in this category. Chances are I'll get blasted by people for putting some titles in here, but well that's the way my reviews go.
	not so good: Suzuna wasn't all that impressed. Titles in this category weren't all that great, but had some redeeming values. I wouldn't say this is the same as me recommending that you don't watch a title entirely, but I'd say that this would describe a title that is average at best, and your time could be better spent watching something else. I had a hard time thinking of a description between average and really bad, so "not good" was as close as I could get -_-;
	average: Suzuna seems indifferent. Nothing really made this title stand out, but there was nothing particularly bad about it either. It's probably worth watching, but don't get your expectations up. The title isn't particularly recommended or not recommended. I wouldn't however say I'm indifferent about such titles, because if a title can't at least get SOME response out of me, it's going to land in the "not so good" category. In theory most titles should end up here.
	good: Suzuna is blushing with wistful gaze - magic 8 ball says good things are bound to happen! There were some particularly good points about this title that made it worth watching. Either that, or just about all ratings were just slightly above average. Even though most titles should in theory be "average", many of them end up here as well. If there is some sort of bias I have, chances are it'll show up in this category. It's the sort of title that I would recommend to you.
	excellent: Suzuna is very happy. Titles that score as excellent are certainly worth watching Almost all points about this anime are good, and those that aren't are negligible. As the only "this is an awesome anime" category I have, I use this classification sparingly. This isn't just "my favorite" type of category, but my opinion that it's a title that not only I liked, but feel is one of the best anime titles out there. I guess this sort of title would qualify as highly recommended.
	unknown: Suzuna doesn't know what the hell is going on and looks at you puzzled. What was with this title anyway? Who knows. Perhaps judgment couldn't be made based off of what little was seen, or perhaps the title was viewed in raw Japanese so that many story elements were lost due to lack of understanding. It seems like a dumb category but honestly there are times my reviews aren't so much about recommending much of anything, or I'm not in the position to recommend anything anyway. In such an instance it's unrated. Not to be confused with the movie "it's a porno" term of unrated.

Anime Terminology

Well honestly if you're this new to anime then I'm not sure my reviews will be much help to you. But hey, I'm making this page for everyone not just veterans. So with that in mind I'll explain some of the terms that come up in my reviews. This list isn't comprehensive and I'm probably omitting a bunch of stuff, but I'll try to add anime terms as I find them in my reviews

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OAV / OVA: Original Animated Video, or Original Video Animation. For some reason the first form, which is what I commonly use - lucky me; has ended up with this sort of bad stigma as some idiots think the 'A' stands for adult. These two acronyms are equivalent. Basically this is a series which is direct to video. Often it has multiple parts, but typically less expansive than a TV series. The budget is often also higher than a TV series. OAVs are becoming slightly less common as the Japanese anime industry is attempting to cut costs more now days, so TV is considered a more viable path.
Manga: I've written a lot about what manga is before, but here I'll keep it short and simple. Manga is basically anime on comic book form. Usually Manga has distinct styles varying by artist. The source of many (if not most) anime is from Manga. The anime / manga industry is often referred to as a whole as they go hand in hand in the mind of anime fans.
Mecha: One of those things you can say about the Japanese, it's that they love their giant robots - and that's basically what Mecha anime is. Over time it seems to have been expanded past just robots to all "big machine" oriented genres. Tanks and jet fighters can also qualify an anime as being mecha under the right conditions. Usually mecha anime is futuristic in its orientation. Gundam is an example of this type.
Eye-catch: That little ditty before and after the commercial break. Some series have them, some don't. Often the eye-catch is left on DVDs.
Otaku: Crazed anime fan. Most Americans don't know WTF this means, but in Japan it has negative connotations. Some male otaku can be referred to as fan-bois.
Shoujo: Anime / Manga targeted at teenage girls. Series of this sort typically chronicle social ordeals of teenage girls - hey, imagine that =P. Shoujo is typically quite emotional and melodramatic. The vast majority are interwoven with some sort of romance as well. Shoujo is also often introspective from a female standpoint. A perfect example is Hana Yori Dango.
Shounen: Anime / Manga targeted at teenage boys. Shounen series are typically action packed ass whooping fests. More often than not they involve super over-the-top fighting techniques. Usually all other elements (which may or may not be present) are sidelined for action. This is often hard to class because so much anime can be classed as Shounen for various reasons - thus usually it's reserved for "spot on" titles characterized by what teenage boys would be interested in. Rurouni Kenshin is a good example of this type.
Harem Anime: The dictionary definition of harem is "a group of women associated in any way with one man or household". While this concept isn't new to anime, it has become more common in series. The term itself came into common use for anime sometime after 2000. At that point I think it picked up popularity as a term, not only because there are so many series that do this, but also because it accurately sums up something so neatly in one term.
Con: Short for anime convention. Same as pretty much any other convention but with anime fans. Not to beconfused with your normal fantasy alternate reality where guys walk around pretending to be able to shoot fireballs, and girls walk around in ultra skimpy outfits.
Cosplay: I'm not sure about the source of this term, but it's short for "costume playing". While in anime convention land this is usually used in context of dressing up as your favorite anime character, it can also refer to dressing up in any sort of outfit - nurses, stewardesses, etc.
Meganekko: Literally translate to girl who wears glasses. In anime this is a phenomena where there is typically a (one) character who wears glasses as a destinctive trait. Sometimes thought to pander to guys with a fetish for glasses.

* Review Index *

Ratings: The 1 to 10 stuff

Archen's Overall Ratings

Categories

Anime Terminology