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Please read this first before messaging me (see below for tl;dr)

Background:
I first got into anime when I first "intensively" watched Detective Conan in 2010, a childhood favorite. After getting involved in animation communities like MAL in a Korean domain, I learned about other anime and tried them out and eventually became an otaku. It was too late to step back when I realized it ;)

I actually read more manga than watch anime because it's hard to go in your own pace. also it's easier to switch screens when someone enters the room Besides, most animes these days drag and have superfluous and the overused plots/"moes." I really don't care much for them, unless I feel like killing time or want to hear particular voice actresses like Hayashibara Megumi.

Characters:
However, I must admit, I get long-term sequelae of heart-aches for some of the characters in silly anime :( My heart goes out for characters who are bright on the outside but has some inner turmoil, like Asuka Langley from Evangelion (I can't decide if I like Soryu or Shikinami better). I love certain levels of mysteriousness in characters, as long as it doesn't fringe upon chunibyu. Haibara Ai, for example, from Detective Conan is my all-time favorite character. But I guess I do like some chunibyu characters like Kuroneko from Oreimo and Kobato from Haganai. As long as they're cute...
But my ultimate favorite type of character is noble but not legalistic or moralistic. They are admirable not because they are perfect (which is impossible) but because they are noble. They acknowledge that going against evil, protecting their beloved, or whatever ordeal they may face is hard and they need to work and train for it. It is painful at times and they cry and may even contemplate giving up, but they stand up against the challenge time and again. I am always blown away by this teary but defiant eyes. I think it is a beautiful intersection between the heroic and the humane. To give up is human and ordinary (think Ikari Shinji). To rise up from the dust is heroic and extraordinary. Saiga Masaru and Shirogane from the manga "Karakuri Circus," which you MUST read if you haven't, are very human yet very noble characters that I love. So is Ushio from the same mangaka's work. Similar for Mitsumoto and Suzuki in my favorite characters list, and more recently Illya from the Prisma Illya franchise when she saves Miyu in 2wei Herz and 3rei.

Genre:
My favorite genres are Mecha, Psychological, Philosophical, Yuri, and Romance (although it really depends on the male lead. Some like Itou Makoto from School Days and Tomoki from Soraoto are really annoying and make me dislike the anime. It's because, oddly, I relate to the male characters mostly).
I do not enjoy Gore, NTR, and overly Supernatural genre. Thus, my dislike for Key anime. I do not like their deus ex machina (cop-out) endings with miracles that deliberately force out tears from the audience. Doesn't work for me. Not my style. Even their "moe" is not very moe. The female characters have eyes too big for my mental comfort, and they all look the same minus the hair style. Kanon was painful to complete, Air was unbearable and subsequently dropped, and Clannad has been tried over and over again; I only made it to episode 5 (even that was hard).
On the other hand, Studio Ghibili, more like Miyazaki, is my all-time favorite! Starting from Heidi and Future Boy Conan all the way to Ponyo, I'm a hard-core fan. I’m sad that Miyazaki is retiring :( I'm skipping Kaze Tachinu because I have similar problems that I have for the Grave of the Fireflies (I'm Korean and cannot accept the sympathetic portrayal of Imperial Japan during war). It doesn't help that Hideaki Anno did the voice acting of the main character... yikes...

Evangelion: (because EVA deserves a heading on its own...)
I love Evangelion. This shouldn't be surprising because it has all the traits that I like: super tech-y giant mecha, extremely psychological and philosophical, all combined with nuances of romance and yuri. But I'd say Eva is in its own league. The summer of 2014 was the summer of Evangelion for me. I watched through the entire TVA, Death and Rebirth, and the Rebuild series. I also read doujinshi like Re-take, which I highly recommend if you are LAS (Love Asuka Shinji) fan, and other obscure ones about Asuka. I have every single Evangelion-related albums in my iTunes and listen to them all day. And as you can tell, I am a fanatical Asuka fan. I think she is super cute (I am going to hate Studio GAINAX and Kara forever, if anything bad happens to MY Asuka!!!). But there is one important thing: I disagree with a lot of the philosophy of Evangelion. This is ironic because I enjoyed the show so much. I guess I enjoy tearing things apart and literary criticism interests me. At first, I hated the TVA ending, but after much thought and research, I came around to liking it, as the whole process taught me so much about the work itself and general philosophy. Lastly, I am planning to write an extensive review on Evangelion (once the series ends!!!), so wait for it!- but funny that it's already 2018 and the series STILL hasn't finished...

Reviews:
There are largely 3 categories of anime/manga in my mind when I rate them:
1) Quality Anime (masterpiece-type)
Anime like Sennen Joyuu and Neon Genesis Evangelion
Manga like Monster and Slamdunk

2) Time-killing (for pure enjoyment)
Anime like Infinite Stratos and Yosuga no Sora
Manga like Citrus (Yuri) and I''s

3) Hentai- I hope this is self-explanatory...

Some anime/manga are in totally different leagues and cannot be rated on a same scale! For lack of a better comparison, if Quality Anime is like Shakespeare, Time-killing anime would be like The Simpsons. The purpose of quality anime is to give you something to think deeply about and appreciate the work, whereas the purpose of hentai is to give you guilty pleasure. The more arousing, the better score I will give. It is unusual to have a decent plot in hentai... Similarly, I don't expect much complex plot from Time-killing anime; my rating of it is proportional to purely how much I enjoyed it. Although sometimes, an anime/manga I thought would be in the Time-killing or even Hentai category pleasantly surprise me with a great plot and compelling truth about our world, such as Aoi Hana and Nightmare Maker.
So for example, a 10 for "Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo" (Hentai), which, by the way, is an amazing hentai with the best art and execution I've ever seen in its genre, is not the same as the 10 I gave for The Millennium Actress, a true masterpiece (I have never seen cinema this great). They're in a different league (category).

These are the criteria I rate anime/manga on for each category in order of importance:
1. Quality Anime: overall presentation, plot, overarching philosophy, character development, and art
2. Time-killing: personal enjoyment level, seiyuu, art, characters, and plot
3. Hentai: personal experience (very subjective), art, art, and art!

Here is the general sentiment for each score I give (for category 1, 2):
10 - definition of perfect; everyone, non-anime/manga audience included, should watch/read it
9 - masterpiece; every anime/manga fan should watch/read it
8 - superb; a few missing pieces (like subpar ending, pace, etc) that could have made it a masterpiece
====== huge gap ======
7 - good
6 - ok
5 - ok but starting to feel like I could have spent my time better
4 - it kept my interest enough that I didn't drop it, but I probably finished this in pain/annoyance, just to see it end
3 - infuriating; I definitely wasted my time
2 - trash
1 - worse than trash; more like radioactive waste; should have never been made; I have no respect for its creators


Communications:
A lot of people have messaged me for various reasons. Thank you. However, there're some things you should know before you message me. Please, please, please, do no message me about where to read manga or watch anime. I buy/subscribe to Korean copies when I can, so unless you can read Korean and are willing to pay for them, it's no use asking! Otherwise, I would love to discuss and talk to you about anime, manga, seiyuu, directors/mangaka, or even Korean stuff.