Your criteria for judging anime?

Aug 7, 2014 11:56 PM

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Dec 2007

1042

One of the main reasons people's scores can differ so drastically when examining the same show is due to each individual having their own idea of which elements are most important. I've had many years to think over this subject, to think about what the core elements of an anime truly are. I've come to the conclusion that Story, Characters, Sound, Visuals, and Execution are the main components that influence your enjoyment. Any aspect of anime that you can think of can be placed into one of these 5 categories. Below is a diagram I made depicting examples of what might fall under each category. Though if you don't rate based on enjoyment then this won't be of much relevance to you.

Do you agree or disagree with how I have broken it down? It's not too different from how most reviews are categorized on various anime sites, with "Execution" being the only major addition. Or does none of this matter to you and you prefer not to think too analytically about why you liked or disliked something?

DunkyAug 8, 2014 12:15 AM

Aug 8, 2014 12:23 AM

Dunky

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Dec 2007

1042

To get a more detailed look at why everyone's tastes are so different, I wanted everyone to try listing out what they feel are the most important aspects from highest to lowest. Use whatever ranking method you like.

My ranking of importance would be as follows:
1. Execution
1. Story
2. Characters
3. Visuals
3. Sound

I find all elements to be of about equal importance. The reason I have execution at the top is because I am a bit more interested in how a story is told rather than what is being told. The directorial aspects are of greatest importance to me, and I am especially intrigued by how well all the elements come together. I place a very high importance on the pacing, for example, which would fall under the execution category.

The importance of each aspect can also change depending on what type of show it is I'm watching. Sound tends to be more important for anime centered around music, visuals for artsy anime, story for story-driven anime, and characters for character-driven anime. The importance of each aspect definitely isn't set in stone for me like it is for some others. I know some people like to assign percent values to each category as a reflection of their scoring value.

What type of anime viewer are you?

DunkyAug 9, 2014 9:41 AM

Aug 8, 2014 5:31 AM

Aeonic

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Apr 2008

1137

Dunky said:
One of the main reasons people's scores can differ so drastically when examining the same show is due to each individual having their own idea of which elements are most important. I've had many years to think over this subject, to think about what the core elements of an anime truly are. I've come to the conclusion that Story, Characters, Sound, Visuals, and Execution are the main components that influence your enjoyment. Any aspect of anime that you can think of can be placed into one of these 5 categories. Below is a diagram I made depicting examples of what might fall under each category. Though if you don't rate based on enjoyment then this won't be of much relevance to you.

I agree on some of the sub-categories, but I also think pacing and premise are important for stories as sub-categories. My sub-categories for story are the following, plot, premise, pacing, continuity, presentation, and execution of all said things; execution is the most important part. For characters I have development, depth, personality( I like characters that stand out from archetypes), backstories and the treatment of secondary characters is the most minor of sub-categories. The story comprises about 40% of my score like, while characters are about 35% for me. Then next is sound, which comprises 15% of the score. The sound can be divided into sub-categories such as voice acting, opening and ending themes, background music and sound effects. The last 10% sliver goes to animation, which can again be broken down in sub-categories that include background animation, character designs, lack of CG( Just kidding), action choreography or fluid motion ( General choreography), Well, that's my manner of judging an anime, so tell if you want anything more in depth just ask and hold me accountable for my said methodology of scoring.

Aug 8, 2014 9:20 AM

Dunky

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Dec 2007

1042

Yeah I can agree to pretty much all of those, I was running out of room on the diagram so I just put the biggest sub-categories that came to mind. Continuity was one of the words I was looking for, thank you! Some of the sub-categories would have their own sub-categories, such as character development including personality, back-story, depth, and transformation. And you listed a bunch of other good ones that could go under animation and art. The tree could go on forever really.

That's a very interesting look into how you judge anime, and exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. So for you, correct me if I'm wrong, it looks like you judge the execution (the implementation and presentation) of each category within itself, and not as an entire separate category. You also place a great emphasis on the story and characters as I expected you would, I could kind of tell based on how some of our ratings differ. I imagine most other people rate more similarly to you than they do to me.

If I were to assign percentages to my own scores, it would probably be something like this: Execution (25%), Story (25%), Characters (20%), Visuals (15%), Sound (15%).

DunkyAug 9, 2014 9:43 AM

Aug 10, 2014 9:11 AM

Aeonic

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Apr 2008

1137

Dunky said:
Yeah I can agree to pretty much all of those, I was running out of room on the diagram so I just put the biggest sub-categories that came to mind. Continuity was one of the words I was looking for, thank you! Some of the sub-categories would have their own sub-categories, such as character development including personality, back-story, depth, and transformation. And you listed a bunch of other good ones that could go under animation and art. The tree could go on forever really.

That's a very interesting look into how you judge anime, and exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. So for you, correct me if I'm wrong, it looks like you judge the execution (the implementation and presentation) of each category within itself, and not as an entire separate category. You also place a great emphasis on the story and characters as I expected you would, I could kind of tell based on how some of our ratings differ. I imagine most other people rate more similarly to you than they do to me.

If I were to assign percentages to my own scores, it would probably be something like this: Execution (25%), Story (25%), Characters (20%), Visuals (15%), Sound (15%).

The execution of the story is paramount, so that why it gets a mention there, whereas characters are more dependent on fleshing out backstories, distinguishable personalities, and genuine progress in their characterization. The execution of character designs is much less salient than lets say major plot holes the size of the grand canyon....I'm looking at Sword art online as the poster child. Execution is more a less a sub-category rather than a separate category, because you need a story, animation, character or sound to in order to execute something in the first place. You can't have a execution alone without a story or characters, that's why it's more of sub-category, but an important one nonetheless. The animation has the least bearing on the story, because it's on a reflection of how large or small a budget the studio gave the production teams. They're examples where the animation can compliment the story or enhance the characterization of certain characters, but the animation doesn't factor greatly in how a story is told or how the characters develop. Especially when you'r evaluating older shows such as Rose of Versailles that have dated animation, the animation should be a very minor detail with most of the shows emphasis on story, characters and to a much lesser degree sound; voice acting is the important aspect of sound as it can accentuate or personify the characters.

Aug 10, 2014 3:34 PM

Dunky

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Dec 2007

1042

I like to use hypothetical examples to test whether or not my rating system can account for any given situation.

Say for example you take an anime you enjoyed that has little to no dialogue, House of Small Cubes for instance, and replace all the background music with the most irritating, misplaced, poorly-composed songs you can think of. If this were to happen, personally my score would drop at least 4 full points, likely even more than that. It's not enough for me to say that this anime is poor in the sound department alone, my 15% isn't enough to account for this. In my opinion there's much more to it than that, I need to account for the decision making that goes into the music implementation as well. I would consider such an anime to be both poor in sound and in execution. It was examples such as this that changed the way I viewed my rating system for all shows in the visual medium.

While I can see how execution could be considered a sub-category of all the other categories, personally I feel separating it out allows your ratings more flexibility, and in a review would provide your readers with a much better picture of what to expect.

Aug 13, 2014 8:13 AM

Aeonic

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Apr 2008

1137

Dunky said:
I like to use hypothetical examples to test whether or not my rating system can account for any given situation.

Say for example you take an anime you enjoyed that has little to no dialogue, House of Small Cubes for instance, and replace all the background music with the most irritating, misplaced, poorly-composed songs you can think of. If this were to happen, personally my score would drop at least 4 full points, likely even more than that. It's not enough for me to say that this anime is poor in the sound department alone, my 15% isn't enough to account for this. In my opinion there's much more to it than that, I need to account for the decision making that goes into the music implementation as well. I would consider such an anime to be both poor in sound and in execution. It was examples such as this that changed the way I viewed my rating system for all shows in the visual medium.

While I can see how execution could be considered a sub-category of all the other categories, personally I feel separating it out allows your ratings more flexibility, and in a review would provide your readers with a much better picture of what to expect.

Yeah, but House of Small cubes is series that tells a story differently with no dialogue or speech and then the biggest way to enhance that experience is with the sound. The animation is telling the story of the show and the animation takes the place of the characters as the incubators or gateway holders to the story. That's an exception though and it's quite rare with the vast majority of shows not using animation solely to tell the story; I would say less than one percent.

There's no point in separating execution into it's own category, because execution is inseparable to the categories themselves, because without an animation, sound, story, or character, execution means nothing. For something to be executed there must be something to execute, execution is nothing alone or by itself. I would like to add maybe character interactions or how dialogue is handled as a sub-category.

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Your criteria for judging anime?

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