Real world: I'm in my 50s and born and living in my northern German state's capital, doing IT related stuff for which I've formal higher education. Male, single, meeting more nerd clichés than I like to at times. Dealing with sensitive data for ages I grew cautious about privacy. So please don't ask for random personal details. Once warmed up with a group or person, change will come and I'll become more trusting.
Anime: My anime exposure divides into three distinct phases. First, in the 1970s when I was exposed to a lot of dubbed kids' anime on TV. Second, in the 1990s, after the Akira bug had bitten. From there on I've included anime movies in my regular diet of movies (I'm a movie buff). This way I watched many 1990/2000s anime movies at release time. And finally now. I return to anime to finally embrace TV anime.
Taste: My taste leans towards well written, heady and dark, with sprinkles of feel good, slice-of-life, and iyashikei. In movies I love dark comedy, sci-fi and fantasy, and arthouse; in music I'm in jazz-funk, indie rock and some hip-hop. But I'm fairly open minded. While prefering quality and art over trash and fast food, I'm not do-or-die at it. A regular dose of trash is something I can enjoy the doki-doki hack out of. The other way around, not every pretentious arthouse labeled thing is good. The genre is just like any other and just being obscure is not sufficient to be good or even art.
Genres and Picks: Favorite genres according to MALgraph are seinen, mystery, supernatural, and dementia/psychology,. I'm again no purist, CGDCT is just so typical for anime (and enertaining too, sometimes), that it makes no sense to ignore and hate it. My plan-to-watch hasn't popcorn level anime in it, but seasonal and spontaneous watches should ensure enough supply of that. However, life is too short to build a history of popcorn anime retrospectively. This in return means I focus on old shows more than on seasonal anime.
Rating and Friends: I'm invested into rating using the full range of MAL grades and Gaussian distribution over them. This is relevant for friend requests, I'm grooming my friend list to be a comparison tool by adding people I know to follow a similar approach. If you care about fair full-range rating, I'd love to be your friend. I don't consider friends a facebook style "nice guys" list.
Growing up in the 1970s there were shows on TV which at that time had no association with Japan or anime. Unaware of their true nature I watched and loved Jungle Taitei (1965), Chiisana Viking Vickie (1974), Alps no Shoujo Heidi (1974), Mitsubachi Maya no Bouken (1975), Pinocchio yori Piccolino no Bouken (1976), Arabian Nights: Sindbad no Bouken (1976), Captain Future (1978), and Nils no Fushigi na Tabi (1980) as a kid. These got buried deep inside of my unconciousness, only to resurface much later.
Along with my first DVD player, rather accidentally, I bought a bargain priced copy of Akira (1988) for testing purposes. And was impressed, this was not the kid stuff. I've been a fan of anime movies ever since and watched many of Ghibli's and Satoshi Kon's creations when they were released. The cinematic masterpieces, that are Mononoke Hime (1997) and Perfect Blue (1998), were the most influential.
Still a cinematic snob for most of the 2000s, I refused to watch any TV series in a long time. The opening up happened when the golden age of TV series took off in mainstream, with Battlestar Galactica (2003) being the gateway drug. Later on this also opened my eyes for adult audience animation series, with Archer (2009) serving as the starting point.
Finally, in 2019 I decided to expand my horizon into the quirky world of 'Chinese cartoons'. For much of my life I had exposure to anime, but never completely embraced it as an independent art form. Until now. I came for the boobs of Shinmai Maou no Testament (2015), got hooked by the suspense of Death Note (2007) and stayed for the art that is Mushishi (2006).
My approach is rather systematic, almost archaeological. I'm trying to broadly cover periods, genres, and classics quickly, while at the same time witnessing the evolution of current seasonal anime culture. Speaking of which: Holo best waifu and Monogatari best franchise. Fight me.This is how far I got by now.
Categories: I'm aiming to use the full rating range and have an approximately Gaussian distribution over it.
10 - Perfect: Given infinite resources, I couldn't realistically suggest changes to improve this anime. It's a 9 which resonates with me in a special way. Kami.
9 - I love it: God-tier anime transcending it's genre and style. Watch it even if you hate the genre, which it probably innovated or perfected. Aishiteru.
8 - I recommend it: Anime I'd recommend to be watched by everybody. Skip only if you really hate the genre. Sugoi.
7 - I like it: Outstanding material within it's genre and style. Daisuki.
6 - Above Average: Entertaining and well-rounded, with minor flaws you can't fully ignore. May be a 7 of a genre I hate or a 5 of one I love. Ii.
5 - Average: Run out of the mill mainstream anime you will not regret watching, but forget later on. Maa maa.
4 - Boring: Still worth watching, but major flaws become visible. Don't fall asleep. Lowest I'd watch as a fan of it's genre, except for campy stuff. Omoshirokunai.
3 - Painful: Serious flaws in more than one of the compartments characters, animation, plot, sound, or enjoyment. Tried to be average and failed at that, or is exceptionally well-done camp material. Hidoi.
2 - Trash and Camp: Trash and camp material that at least tries to be a real anime. Only die hard genre fans can enjoy this. Kuso.
1 - Seek Medical Help: Gives you eye cancer, requires mind bleach, or makes you want to clean your toilet instead. Saitei.
Fine Tuning: Anybody's anime rating is influenced by her world view, genre preference, runtime, and the media format. I am not trying too hard to hide those advantages and disadvantages a particular movie or series has. However, I'm really trying hard to resist impulses such as fanboy upvote and genre/format/plot subject/SJW-ing downvote punishment. Nevertheless, formats such as short and genres such as ecchi by their very nature have it harder to deliver complex plot and character development. So it's hard for them to break the grade 7 ("fun") glass ceiling. Movies typically have higher per frame production values than TV and OVA, and this shows as well. Longer series have an advantage over short ones at plot complexity, but it's also harder for them to maintain top-tier quality over the full runtime.
Examples: The examples are picked to ease comparison to your own preferences in each format. Given I'm a completionist and can compare all seasons of the Monogatari Series, many of those were included to showcase quality differences within a single francise. For TV shows I've tried to pick widely known examples, with a bias on controversial ones to showcase my ideosyncratics. A feature film length movie is included where available to cover that format as well.
When possible I've included shorts, which are usually easy to find on youtube or vimeo. Those are underlined for quick reference, just look them up and judge by yourself. See the section on my profile page for direct links for those available on youtube.
10: Monster (TV), Monogatari Series: Second Season (TV), Nana (TV), Mononoke Hime (movie)
9: Mushishi (TV), Bakemonogatari (TV), Steins;Gate (TV), Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (movie)
8: Made in Abyss (TV), Nisemonogatari (TV), Kanamewo (short), Akira (movie)
7: KonuSuba (TV), Tsukimonogatari (TV), Daicon Opening Animations (short), Kimi no Na wa. (movie)
6: No Game No Life (TV), Nekomonogatari: Kuro (TV), Furiko (short), Mimi wo Sumaseba (movie)
5: Angel Beats! (TV), Rain Town (short), Koyomimonogatari (TV), Gake no Ue no Ponyo (movie)
4: DanMachi (TV), Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? (TV), Inferno Cop (TV), Shelter (short)
3: Bikini Warriors (TV), Eromanga-sensei (TV), Violence Jack II (OVA), Cipher (short)
2: Corpse Party: Tortured Souls (OVA), Sleeping with Hinako (OVA), Tenshi no Drop (short), Ame-iro Cocoa (TV)
1: Shinmai Maou no Testament Specials (OVA), Nami (short), Pupa (TV), Hametsu no Mars (OVA)
My Monogatari Series: Beginner's Video Guide moved to it's MAL fan-club. These videos are a good starting points for the journey. Wish me luck, and godspeed yourself!
Top 20 TV anime songs of all time, according to inim's ever evolving opinion. Only one song per show to keep it compact. No movie OST pieces. Listed shows tend to contain some more good music because of either other songs by the same composer, or because the production just put higher emphasis on the music. Your mileage surely will differ, I'm no big fan of hyperactive shounen anthems, mainstream j-rock, or of drowning mediocracy in violin sauce. Sorry, Attack On Titan and Sword Art Online.
The single, highly subjective criterion is that songs are good compositions, independent of style or function in it's show. A catchy funk bass line helps as does a sweet voice. I'd be willing to put this list on my heavy rotation playlist without getting tired of it.
Neon Genesis Evangelion「Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis」(1995, Yoko Takahashi) ▶ 📺
No Game No Life「This Game」(2014, Konomi Suzuki) ▶ 📺
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu「Kadokawa」(2006, Aya Hirano) ▶
Captain Future「 Auf Wiedersehen, Captain Future」(1978, Christian Bruhn) ▶
Paniponi Dash!「Roulette☆Roulette」(2005, Momotsuki Gakuen Ichinen C Gumi) ▶ 📺
Random good music from Japan in no particular order. Just one song per artist, except for a few favorite anime song live performances not related to anime.
Ahaha, for a moment I thought we were getting a new anime. I do like Nekopara, but not quite enough to play the game. I have checked out some of the saucy parts online though, just to see, and it's pretty rubbish tbh, minimal motion and lots of dialogue of screen. Char designs are just so good.
Mononoke looks interesting and I'm not as averse to horror and gore as I used to be. Have added Requiem for the future, thanks for the rec. See you're watching Hakumei and Mikochi, lovely little show. And Vinland Saga, that is one great show, even better than S1 imo. One of those shows where all the secondary cast work perfectly.
Have you seen The Expanse? We're watching it atm, the Game of Thrones of sci-fi, and it might be the best live action sci-fi show I've seen, characters are brilliant and sets and cgi stand up very well.
It was Aria's 3rd bday the other day so we've had a busy week. I need to chill and finish Gaiden.
Hi, I'm trying to start a club for critical and knowledgable anime fans. I came across your account in the "arthouse anime" club and you seem to fit the bill. The two purposes of the club are to foster community via the club Discord server, and to create a robust poll of the "greatest anime of all time", voted on by members in a thread on the front page of the club. Each member would post their personal top ten list in the thread, titled "Post Your Top Ten", and then eventually I will compile all the lists into a final aggregate. Here's the link to the club if you're interested: https://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=92948
I decided on a whim to up my score of Frieren from 8 to 9. I could to that for the music alone, the score is great.
What dragged the show down slightly for me was the later parts of season 1, which took a slight detour from the earlier theme of the oh so wonderfully crafted and executed story.
Just to let you know.
The idea of including meta text is a good one, if applied properly, and that is a good example, albeit fan made.
Agree, I never fully understood the inclusion of so much text in Monogatari series, to the point even a fluent native Japanese speaker would have to pause the show to read it all. Think it's an artsy thing, something that LN readers can connect to, pause and read sections of the inserted text. I used to pause and read the text in Bakamonogatari then gave up and just let it play. I've got the next season of the franchise to pick up soon, Owarimonogatari. Am trying to pick up the better quality shows with my reduced time constraints.
Wanted something light so tried Milky Holmes, which you recommended a few years back, it's very good and completely the sort of show I really enjoy.
Lol, I haven't seen BB, it juts looks too intense and the whole world of meth doesn't appeal as a background setting to me. I have been dipping into Better Call Saul, the spinoff, which is very good.
We exchanged messages a few times before I disappeared from here, you may not remember me. We talked about cinema and my interest in exploring that art form, I suppose that's the reason for that. I also migrated to anilist, which I prefer.
Any anime highlights lately? I'm completely unaware of the industry's state in the last 2 years or so. Any cool experience?
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Have you seen The Expanse? We're watching it atm, the Game of Thrones of sci-fi, and it might be the best live action sci-fi show I've seen, characters are brilliant and sets and cgi stand up very well.
It was Aria's 3rd bday the other day so we've had a busy week. I need to chill and finish Gaiden.
Enjoy your Sunday.
As far as voting, you can post your top ten now in the sticky thread.
https://anidb.net/tag/1101
https://anidb.net/tag/8051
What dragged the show down slightly for me was the later parts of season 1, which took a slight detour from the earlier theme of the oh so wonderfully crafted and executed story.
Just to let you know.
Agree, I never fully understood the inclusion of so much text in Monogatari series, to the point even a fluent native Japanese speaker would have to pause the show to read it all. Think it's an artsy thing, something that LN readers can connect to, pause and read sections of the inserted text. I used to pause and read the text in Bakamonogatari then gave up and just let it play. I've got the next season of the franchise to pick up soon, Owarimonogatari. Am trying to pick up the better quality shows with my reduced time constraints.
Wanted something light so tried Milky Holmes, which you recommended a few years back, it's very good and completely the sort of show I really enjoy.
We exchanged messages a few times before I disappeared from here, you may not remember me. We talked about cinema and my interest in exploring that art form, I suppose that's the reason for that. I also migrated to anilist, which I prefer.
Any anime highlights lately? I'm completely unaware of the industry's state in the last 2 years or so. Any cool experience?
First, if you were to have Myanimelist Premium to be able to favorite 20 works, what would the other 10 be?