Forum - View topicif only we can stop criticising...
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sinclair713
Posts: 18 |
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did anybody notice that anime are generally being criticised more now?
alot of people did not watch 'berserk' and 'wolf's rain' because too many people were complaining about their horrible endings. online reviews seldomly commented on the good points (story, plot, characters, etc.) but only the bad ones. I myself am also affected by reviews such as,"??? is a good story but the ending was just too dumb" or "don't watch this if you hate cliff-hangers". Now I'm unsure whether I should read reviews before I buy the anime 'coz the only thing that people point out is the bad points and thus drive me away from the anime. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11433 Location: Frisco, TX |
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My approach to watching new anime is a little more simple. I look at ANN's Encyclopedia for plot summaries, user ratings, and sometimes production credits.
If all of it looks intriguing enough, I'll usually be swayed to take a chance. However, I wouldn't say I have particularly picky taste. It just seems that when I check out a lot of these titles, I seem to find more good points at the beginning of a series or movie and work my way down. For each aspect I find unenjoyable or even annoying, I downgrade the title's overall rating and label them in accordance with ANN's rating system. I seldom look at reviews, unless I've already seen the entire thing, and use them more as a way to reinforce or compare my opinion to someone else's, rather than having it dictate if I'll actually end up liking the said title before I can even judge it for myself. |
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remember love
 Posts: 764 Location: Germany |
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His way is a goo dway of doing. But I never look a reviews I normally see what I want in stores... What I mean by this is I look at the box read what it says and see if I'm willing to buy or watch it on tv if it's on. I like to take chances specially with anime... ALot of times I find anime I really like with poor rating on ANN.com not that I completely find people wrong it's just I have a very different taste then many people. For example, most people love the Ghost in the Shell (first movie)...I disliked it I went out and bought it figuring that it would be good not only because of ratings because it looked like some thing I could really like. Well, I loved the graphics, dubbing wasn't horrible, but the story just wasn't there for me to like. Action scenes weren't that great in my opinion and the movie could of been longer. But anyways, that's my personal opinion...right now I'm sure people who just read what I wrote are wanting to write something to disagree with me....So to me anime is chances you can find great ones and you can end up with horrible ones but that doesn't mean what my or other peoples opinions are right it's determined by what you yourself think. |
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Berselius
 Posts: 106 |
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I just look at the synopsis. If it looks interesting (regardless of ratings) then ill check it out for myself. I dont trust ratings very much anymore because there are too many people who nod their heads to what everyone else says, and too many people that rate certain anime bad or wont even watch them because they are popular.
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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People actually read reviews? For help on deciding whether to watch it or not? hahahahahah!!!
I'm sorry, it's just that I've never actually read a review. I go by summaries provided by animenfo, ann and if it's talked about (good or bad) a lot in the forums, that means it's an anime getting attention and worth giving a try. |
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Berselius
Posts: 106 |
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Reviews are actually ok as long as you listen to someone creditable, such as Chris Beveridge. I only have problems with ratings, even the ones on this site. When only two eps of mai otome were out, 1 person rated it a masterpeice, and another claimed he saw it in english dub >_>. Also gundam seed's ratings like 10 times better (on this site) than the original gundam, when most peope (on forums) are claiming the original was better (i actually like seed just a tad more than the original).
Back on topic though, i dont think an anime should be based soley on its ending. Contrary to what Mr. Depp says, the ending is not the only thing that matters. IMO as long as a production (movie, tv show, video game, anime) has good characters, good music, engaging storyline, and the occasional awesome camera angles, than i'm happy. |
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Keonyn
Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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I read reviews from several different sites. I take it with a grain of salt because they are reviews based on an individual opinion but I still read as it still gives you some idea what to expect. I mean, if an anime is talked about is that not the same as reviews in a sense? More or less it's just people tossing opinions about and a review is just another opinion from someone who is usually putting a little more thought into it.
I read reviews, look at the ANN ratings and ratings on other sites and read basics about the story and see what, if any, buzz is out there for the title. Other times I'll just see a title that looks interesting and pick it up which is how I came about buying 12 Kingdoms. |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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I'll also try to read reviews from different anime sites to see what different people think about it. Just because one person didn't like the ending to a series doesn't mean another review won't. If I'm still uncertain about if I should invest in a certain anime, sometimes I'll ask for friends' opinions or post a topic at a message board askin if something is good or not. But I find that in most cases, if I think an anime looks interesting, I usually will end up enjoying it, but if I only have a mild interest in it, I'll usually walk away slightly disappointed, so most of the time, I tend to just go with my instinct.
The only type of anime reviews I really avoid are those reviews at sites like Amazon.com. Now those reviews are completely unhelpful because they usually amount to nothing more than people either raving constantly about how good the anime is without pointing out any of the negative points or people ranting about how bad an anime is without pointing out any of the positive points. The only time I read reviews from that site is when I'm bored. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6897 Location: Kazune City |
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Not only that, but Charles Solomon, one of their "official" reviewers, seems to hate everything. But to address the OP's post, criticism is necessary in a review. It's inaccurate to not mention the flaws or problems with a show. You could call Ichigo 100% a laid-back, fun high school comedy/romance show, but if you didn't mention the rampant fanservice and harem anime clichés, the review wouldn't be accurate. |
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Nani?
 Posts: 632 |
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Good reviews are not totally personal opinion. Quality reviewers can recognise quality, how people will react to a show and realise to a point even if it's his type of show, it's not for everyone. For example, I'll love a show like Kino's Journey, but I also I'd recomend it only to certain people. I'll give it a great review because it deserves it. I also love Gasaraki or Shrine of the Morning Mist, but if I were writing reiews for them I can recognise the flaws that don't turn me off but realise that hey, there flaws. I give them high ratings on ANN but if I were writing reviews of them I'd be less enthusiastic. When I find reviewers who can do this, like Chris Bevarage or Roger Ebert, I support treat their reviews with the proper respect. Bamboo Dong is creditable in this regard but she still is does let her bias influence her too much at times. It doesn't mean she's bad. It means she's "merely" Bram Stoker in comparision to a Shakespheare in the skill of puting aside her subjectivity. I keep her percieved bias more in mind when I read her stuff.
Buzz is somewhat more subjective. A show like Blue Gender can get a lot of buzz by being on Cartoon Network but faded into the background once again after it's run is over. Simularly, a show released by a company like Media Blasters, with fewer add dollars to put behind it, will suffer in the marketplace. Figure 17 comes to mind as an example. I think a show that has high quality and distinctive like 12 Kingdoms can overcome handicaps but they are the exeption rather then the rule. ANN ratings I've found to be good, paticularly for shows that are not well known but a show that provokes strong opinion like Arjuna or is cerebreal like Gasaraki, I tend to turn to reviewers I trust. IMHO general respect for anime is going up. Reviews for shows like Wolf's Rain recognise thier qualities but point out flaws like the repeat episodes and are divided on the ending, mostly along the line of those who "get" it and those who are left scratching thier heads. All the best, Nani? |
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Keonyn
Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Alright, buzz may not have been the best term but it's the best I could think of at the time. What I basically meant by that is I'll look around forums and search for the anime and see what others may have posted about it in the past. I will also google the anime and hunt around for mention of it on other sites to get a little info about it.
Funny you should mention Figure 17 though as I only just recently(in September) learned of the show and just got done with the last episode last week. Funniest part is the only reason I found out about it was due to the fact I accidentally clicked its entry while scrolling through the encyclopedia looking for the entry of something else. So glad I stumbled upon it though as it is a great anime. |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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You definitely can't rely on Buzz from fans now a days when even crappy shows like Mai Hime and Negima getting crazy buzz among the fandon. There are tons of good series out there that doesn't get buzz until someone with credibilitiy reviews it. Like Planetes and Genshiken, both excellent series that didn't get much buzz among the fandom until it gotten good review from credible site (like ANN and Aod) and more people started picking it up.
And yes bad ending sometimes kill the whole enjoyment of the series. Genshiken's last episode was horrible but all the other episode totally made up for it, and there's definitely more to look foward to in the manga. |
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shirokiryuu
Posts: 714 Location: Northern California (SF Bay Area) |
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I can't help but reading reviews because i have a limited amount of money and if i buy too much my parents get angry...
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DarkTenshi90
 Posts: 440 Location: Nebraska |
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I don't really pay much attention to reviews, but from what I read about the story line on different, multiple websites, or just buy an anime blindly and end up loving it. If I dislike it, I just simply go to Suncoast and have them pay for my copy and sell it on the rack, or give them to a friend of mine, but that's just usually if it's for a b-day gift or something
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Like, I got Saint Tail a long long long time ago, and hated it. A lot of people liked it from the reviews I read, but it just... was too goody-goody or something for me, I mean, it wasn't the religeon prospect of it, it was just... like a very very very girly and happy version of Robin Hood. I bought Ghost in the Shell (movie, series, etc...) blindy and adore it. I love that type of CSI stuff and what not, it just pulls me in. I know many people who dislike the series at my school simply because they don't get it, but everybody has their own opinion so I just shrug and know that's what they think. Another series that got a ton of guff was Blue Gender. I haven't seen all of it, but I watched up to the 13th episode on Adult Swim when they used to show it and borrowed the movie from a friend of mine. People used to groan about the terrible plot while I was really interested. But one thing that gets me, don't get me wrong, I love Fruits Basket, but the anime... isn't as great as people say it is. The ending left me disappointed and Tohru really just gets on my nerves with the constant apologizing and what not. Other than that though, I love the series, it's just not one of my favorites. ... sorry, I kinda went off track there, but I was trying to show different opinions I have of other things. All in all, usually I just either heard the best reviews from the show or the story-line interests me.  I really am not a picky person.
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fargazer
 Posts: 29 Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee |
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I think part of the increase in negative criticism (particularly in the US) is due to the increase in popularity of anime. Warning - some cultural assumptions ahead (though they have the saving grace that they are primarily about my own).
More Americans are hearing about anime, and therefore are checking it out. The catch is, we Americans have a tendancy to like their stories with nicely deliniated beginnings and endings, all wrapped up in a nice package; any loose ends are either tied off nicely, or else deliberately left hanging for a sequel. On the other hand, Anime tends to care more about what happens between those signposts than the signposts themselves. Look at Bastard as an example - lots of background history never discussed, a final resolution never attained, but a fun story for the period the tale covers. Many people checking out anime for the first time are expecting a nicely packaged story, and instead are getting a tale with no clear start and an ending that breaks off right in the middle of various arcs. I think that's especially why you see a lot of criticism about "horrible endings". Personally, I enjoyed the endings of Wolf's Rain, Berserk, and even NGE; however, I'm more a person who enjoys the journey as a goal in and of itself, rather than a mere connection between a beginning and an end. |
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