Forum - View topicHow you rate 'My Anime'
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undeadben
 Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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This is an interesting topic and I wanted to start a thread about this for two reasons. I'm honestly interested in knowing how everyone rates the anime they've seen, and secondly, there have been some rating debates that have interrupted some of the other threads. So I figure with this topic I can get to read how everyone rates their lists, and, people who want to have it out over ratings can use this thread instead of interrupting another existing topic. (Although I suggest not posting/linking someone else's list without asking first.)
First of all I know that a lot of people have different ways of rating their anime and I am very interested in them. Recently I spend a lot of time looking through random public lists to get ideas to add to my 'want to see' list and I have seen a lot of interesting ratings. I'm not calling anyone out and I won't post anyone's list without permission, but I have seen people with just over a hundred shows in seen all and almost half at Masterpiece level, and likewise I have seen lists with only 50 or so titles and the majority at bad or worse and generally a lot of these titles are well rated by others overall. Seriously, why does someone like this even watch anime? I know these are the 'extreme' cases but still interesting to look at. I have also seen people who list several titles at 'worst ever', I know this is basically a 'no ranking', but just from the words, the label of the rating, I keep saving this particular rating for the one anime that will truly make me say, "now that was the worst piece of crap I've ever seen." So that is one of the quirks that I have. My lowest rated show so far is Eiken and I have that rated as Awful, because I'm still holding out for that truly horrible show. (Boy, I'm an optimist, aren't I?) I tend to rate series on just my own entertainment. This can be affected by several factors which are, (starting from the most important to me and downward): - How much I enjoyed watching it. This is the gist of anything to me. It doesn't matter how well a series is written or how good the concept or animation is, if I don't like it, it will not be among my favorites. Or vice versa, I can love a show with a weak plot if it can still entertain me. The biggest example of this for me is my favorite series, Ranma 1/2. It's not my favorite because of the writing, plot, or animation; I love watching it because it is incredibly fun and the characters are fabulous. So I rate it a masterpiece and my favorite despite that it breaks some of my other factors. - How much I like the characters. Everyone likes to see people they like and I'm not different. Here sometimes I'll rate a story with a good plot or concept very poorly if I hate most of the characters or especially if I dislike the leads. I can't reach my enjoyment goal if I don't like the characters. An example for me here is Love Hina. Absolutely love the characters here, all of them. The series has a lot of problems in other areas but they are not distracting to me because of the wonderful cast of oddballs. - Plot and storyline(s). If the storyline really draws me in to what it's trying to portray or do I'm very likely to be entertained and sometimes even love a show above my preferences. Example: I usually prefer comedies and romance, but Gunslinger Girl, which I just recently watched, broke open my top ten favorites without excusing itself on the way. This story drew me in and grabbed a tight hold, barely letting me come up for air until the last episode ended. I thought it was very delicately written and really lets the viewer follow the lives of its characters. - The overall flow. Or, if I'm not bothered by weird pacing, timing, or continuity issues; the problem with these, of course, is that they are distractions to my number one goal of being entertained. An example of how this can be bad for me would be Kiddy Grade; this show had a terrific concept and wonderful characters but there were just some breaks where a story would be continued out of nowhere, or where it looked like something was about to be developed and then went in an opposite direction, and they were a big distraction to me. I still liked the show, but I couldn't rate it above good with those and other issues. - The voice acting. Just like with other things something that can distract me while watching a series is a bad voice actor, someone who is over the top when the scene doesn't call for it, or one that has a monotone voice in the middle of the big action sequence. My favorite voice cast is the Ah! My Goddess cast which lists somewhat like an all-star cast, including many of my favorites, and this does nothing but help this show, which has likable characters but usually weak plots. - The Music. I don't notice it often if the music is very generic but this can definitely be a positive thing for me if it is something special. FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Cowboy Bebop movie, Elfen Lied, and Gunslinger Girl are among the shows that have very memorable music to me, and though I rarely pay attention to this in other shows, helps me enjoy these more and so I may rate them a bit better. - Artwork or animation quality. This is probably the last thing for me. I can enjoy an older show or a poorly animated one if other things like the story and characters work, but occasionally I am impressed with the visuals I see and if I am already enjoying a show, it's just one more thing. Examples where animation kind of made me say, "Wow." are Full Metal Panic TSR, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Air TV, and Gunslinger Girl. So those are most of what I really tend to see when I watch an anime. Of course as with anything there are sometimes other factors involved, like I can also be Genre biased, I'll rate something higher if it has good comedy or good romance, but since I usually pick what I watch based on this anyway it really doesn't factor into my ratings very often. And then there is the very rare occasion when I like a show "just because" but this is even less common. As for my comments in my lists, I usually just write a few lines about what I thought of the series. No summaries or breaking a series apart by category, just personal thoughts, which is enough for me as it is 'My Anime' after all. Ok, in case anyone is interested here is my seen all list, and my seen some. And my question of course: How do you rate your anime? Now nobody really needs to go into exact details, I didn't, but I would not only like to know what different factors you consider in your ratings but also some reasons why. Last edited by undeadben on Wed Aug 16, 2006 3:50 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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First off, I'm leery of extremes. Both positive and negative.
I've seen a lot of anime (453 titles from the Encyclopedia, and there's doubtless some stuff that I've seen which for some reason we haven't listed yet), but my list of those I've rated "Masterpiece" is fairly short -- just 31 titles, or 6.84%. And even so, I'm always debating with myself whether the list is too long as it is. As for anime rated "Worst Ever" -- I have none. In fact, the poorest rating I've applied is "Awful", and only one anime (Weiss Kreuz) gets that distinction. I can usually find something worthwhile in even the worst anime, if for no other reason than that they provide the perspective that allows you to appreciate the good ones. Without darkness, light has no meaning... In general, when rating anime, I deliberately err on the side of caution, preferring to deviate towards the average, rather than assigning extreme ratings. Although, of course, I do believe that certain anime are deserving of those extreme ratings, I also think that overusing the highest ratings devalues them. In this, I am not alone. Although I am not privy to all the details, I do know that the ratings system in the Encyclopedia operates on a complicated set of trust heuristics, evaluating the overall voting tendencies of each user, in order to assign him a trustworthiness index. If you look at the ratings graph, you will sometimes note that two bars with exactly the same number of votes will have different lengths. This is because the length of the bars is a reflection of not just the number of votes, but also the overall trustworthiness of those votes. This also applies to the ratings averages and hence, to the positions in the Top/Bottom lists. Bottom line: users who spam the database with tons of "Worst Ever" / "Masterpiece" ratings are essentially engaged in a self-defeating exercise, since they are only serving to destroy their own trustworthiness index. I don't believe there are more than a handful of users with an index of zero, but I am certain that there are many that come very close to it. These people, really, are accomplishing nothing when voting, because their mathematically-determined trustworthiness is nonexistent. The system records their votes, but pays them almost no heed. Isn't that interesting...? Incidentally, the corollary is that no user has a perfect 100% trustworthiness rating. I was told once (by our Esteemed Bytepusher and Encyclopedia Wrangler, Dan42) that the highest trust index percentage was 94.4%. I suspect that only a small group of users are in the vicinity of this level of trustworthiness. - abunai |
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undeadben
Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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Thanks for the great information, abunai. The trustworthiness index that you mention certainly explains a lot, and I am sure is a lot more complicated than I could ever hope to understand, but hopefully will put many who are concerned about spam ratings at ease somewhat. I was wondering if it was possible to have something like this and it turns out it is a reality and in use.
I also wonder if this has something to do with the drop of SHnY to the 8.96 bayesian estimate rating, where it once held the number one spot overall at about 9.08, or higher I think. Last edited by undeadben on Wed Aug 16, 2006 3:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ironwarrior
 Posts: 151 Location: Under Clare's armor, Lewisburg, WV |
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Nice list. I wish I had the time to write comments for everything I’ve seen, but I’m still in the midst of compiling everything. The current state of my list is here:
The LIST Your summarization of variables is fairly concise, so I’ll start with that and elaborate as needed: 1)How much I enjoyed watching it. I enjoy anime for entertainment and escapism, period. As a former artist in the fantasy/figure/manga/anime genre, I like an anime that lets me live vicariously either through direct association or 3rd party observer, as it was with my art in the past. This is also analogous to my voracious reading of literally thousands of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror novels—again the facets of entertainment and escapism prevail. My enjoyment, though, is not necessarily genre/theme specific. Although I consider myself a “bad-ass, hot, anime action chick otaku,” I’ll watch almost anything. 2)How much I enjoyed the concept. This also is not genre specific. If you peruse my list, you will see a large amount of hentai as well as some romance/drama oriented anime, action and even some mecha. By concept, I mean the “hook” that grabs me and keeps me watching episode after episode, and the more bizarre the better! As an example, Bondage Game (hentai) is in my Top Ten. Normally, people would consider the content disgusting, but I enjoyed watching just how far the sexual absurdity was pushed. This same reasoning applies to the ever-argued lolicon anime, which I find amusing, particularly given the ridiculous pro-con arguments. Theme is arguably more appropriate than genre for a type of anime since the genre itself is “anime” within the art realm, but such thematic elements as location, time period, environment, etc. are not decisive factors—back to entertainment and escapism. I can provide one thematic example other than listed in #1, and that is dark, distopic anime such as Texhnolyze. 3)How much I like the characters. This area allows specific examples. I primarily prefer dominant female characters such as those in Elfen Lied, Burst Angel, Appleseed and notably Black Lagoon. The actual list of such is too extensive to remark here, but you can see the underlying personality type derivative I prefer. Foreboding male leads who act decisively such as in Samurai 7 are another favorite. Still, these are not absolutes—I’m willing take the time to step into about any character’s shoes, if for no other reason than lack of previous personal association. The only characters that I abhor are the mass-marketed “kiddie” characters such as those in Naruto or Dragonball Z—may they burn in the deepest pits of hell. As an aside, I am planning on a thread related to characters that might be fun. 4)Animation quality. My discernment for animation quality has increased proportionate to technology. While “soft cell” animation was fine in the 70’s and 80’s, I have a hard time watching it now. I prefer as much digital cell work that can be thrown my way, and the more realistic the better. Appleseed is a prime example that sets a standard for me. I like the colors vibrant and brisk, the lines sharp and defined and the breasts heaving. I want my weapons exquisitely detailed as in Gunslinger Girl. I’ll chug through an anime that I cannot relate to purely on animation quality alone. 5)Plot and storyline(s). As I said, I’ll watch almost anything! Plot and storyline are fine touches, but not as important as animation quality. In actuality, if I was going to make a definitive statement regarding these aspects, the more convoluted, completely incoherent and absurd the better (perhaps why I like hentai). I call this the “Japanese WTF-weirdness” factor. The only themed anime where a cohesive plot may be important is the distopic anime I mentioned. 6)The Music. This is only important in the opening credits and can hook me immediately. Three examples are Black Lagoon, Texhnolyze, and Elfin Lied—regardless of the content of those, after the opening music in the first episode, I was smitten (and thankfully so). Texhnolyze’s opening music, “Guardian Angel” by Juno Reactor, I took to the extreme and listened to about 60 times (I like Juno Reactor). I’m sure I could elaborate more, but I better do some work. Pardon any typos or grammatical errors. |
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undeadben
Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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I probably make more typos than most so I'm not one to complain. Thanks for the feedback. I noticed you actually rate a fair amount of hentai well, this is another thing I don't see often. The only one I list with even a decent rating is Kite which I think wasn't originally hentai. |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1818 Location: アメリカ |
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MyAnime
Well, for me, the main factors in my rating decisions are how much I like the story and characters. Anything beyond that doesn't really affect my ratings unless the other elements are particularly bad. If it looks pretty and story and characters are weak, as in Voices Of A Distant Star (I'm sure to catch some flak for that), I would call it a polished turd and it would be rated accordingly. Out of 200+ titles that I've seen in part or in whole, I've rated two Masterpiece, Cowboy Bebop and Legend Of The Galactic Heroes, and less than 20 (less than 10%) Excellent. My lowest rating is a Bad which went to Big Wars and I've also given two Weak ratings which went to Lupin III: Return Of Pycal (a bad Lupin movie? I didn't think it could be done!) and Big O. My default ratings are Decent and Good, and a title has to do something particularly exceptional to earn a higher or lower rating. Now, the Masterpiece rating is not something that I consider lightly. A title has to have some sort of qualities beyond simply whether I like it or not. I believe Cowboy Bebop and Legend Of The Galactic Heroes exhibit these qualities. Even my favorite series, the Full Metal Panic! franchise, I have not deemed worthy of a Masterpiece rating.
That's some interesting information. Do you suppose I could find my trust rating by sending a message to Dan42? Last edited by one3rd on Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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selenta
 Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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The first thing I do, is a list of questions that I go through, and the number of questions the show gets "right" (and how right it gets them) the higher the score it usually gets.
1.) Is the main character (or a really important character) a flake, an a-hole or just plain one-dimensional? - I hate stubborn/shallow characters like Naruto or Shirou (F/SN). There's nothing fun about watching a chauvenistic pig like Shirou (a basically normal person) repeatedly try to protect a mythic warrior summoned from the past just because she's a girl. 2.) Does the show have the acting of a 50s drug propoganda video? - Part of enjoying an anime is the ability to immerse yourself in the world and the forget that you're watching it on TV or the computer. NOTHING is more distracting than watching the people make grand gestures or incredibly hoaky/inappropriate sayings as if they were doing a play in a theathre for 50,000. Ex. Coyote Ragtime Show 3.) Are there any severely hoaky aspects like singing that destroys ships, a camera that makes things explode, or snakes on a plane? - These can be little things, like reacting to a situation in a completely illogical manner, or big long-lasting flaws. The severity of how much it bothers me depends on how ludicrious it is, how important to the plot it is, and the style of the show. I hate to say looks are important... but they certainly can be. Great example was the transformation in the first episode of This Ugly and Beautiful World, it was just so stupid looking I could never forgive the show (why did he transform into such a non-human shape? They never explained it, it just magically was). Or the mechs in Kannazuki no Miko... why the hell did they have to be mechs? Why not just make them something far more believable and more fitting to the world (c'mon, they were trying to fight back with bows and arrows, no joke  )? On the other hand, the guitars being used as weapons in FLCL didn't bother me much at all because of the absolutely insane style and intent of the show.
4.) Did they do it? Did the writers wimp out and press that damned "Reset Button"? - Everytime I see this gimmick used, I die a little more inside. It's not impossible to build a story that incorporates a happy ending, but if they show is headed down the path of despair with no way to turn back, DO NOT JUST MAKE ONE UP OUT OF THIN AIR BECAUSE YOU WANT A HAPPY ENDING. I will never forgive any show that does this, period. 5.) Does the animation befit the style of the show? - Most importantly, if there is action, is it terrible low-quality still frame animation like in Tokko? Or is it fluid high-quality (if often interupted  ) stuff like in Naruto, Eureka 7, or Tenjou Tenge?
Once those questions are answered, then everything else is addressed. How much I enjoyed watching it - Of course this will always be the biggest factor in rating a show. This is usually a culmination of the characters and the mood of the show, but occasionally something like the depth and/or storytelling ability of an anime like Haruhi or Mushishi will draw me in on a single factor. How much I like the characters - I totally agree, a terrible cast can ruin anything and a good cast can make anything interesting. Gundam SEED for example, it had many many glaring problems... but an absolutely insanely large cast of some of the most likable characters I've ever seen. From Kira to Lacus to Athrun to Cagalli to the 20ish other extremely good characters here, nearly every one of them was a favorite. Plot and storyline - I don't really care if it's fiction or fantasy, but it's important that it's an interesting plot with twists and turns, and makes me care about what is going to happen in the end. GunXSword, a great example of a show with a plot that I absolutely didn't care about. I could not have cared less about the show or anything that happened in it that did not directly relate to Carmen or Fasarina (sp). FMA on the other hand is a show that did exactly the opposite, I cared very very deeply about how the show was going to end, and didn't finish the last 5 episodes for literally 6 months because I was afraid of how it was going to end. Storytelling ability and dialogue - Witty dialogue or a master storyteller can make anything interesting. Kino's Journey, Mushishi, Twelve Kingdoms, Air, Monster, Gankutsuou, Haruhi... I can tell you this is one thing these all have in common. Grab Bag - Includes things like voice acting, animation style, artwork, character designs, and music. These things aren't really a huge factor in how I rate a show, but should not be confused with the fact that they don't influence anything. Really nice artwork (ex. Mushishi) can draw me in with that alone and keep me coming back for more with just that. Or like the music from Hack Sign was the ONLY thing that kept me watching at times, I still listen to the soundtrack all the time. Or the voice acting in Saiyuki... wow... just absolutely abominable. I can not watch that show for that reason alone. These things can make or break a show in my book, but it usually takes something far above or below the norm to make me truly notice and care about something here. I try to be stingy with the masterpieces, and I normally refuse to rate anything a 9 if I didn't at least briefly consider giving it a 10. |
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Riyousha
Posts: 817 |
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You know, I remember when I rated Final Fantasy: Advent Children as Masterpiece. Because I saw the whole movie and it was the greatest. It was the bomb. Probably the best Final Fantasy movie of all time.
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Kilgamayan
 Posts: 275 Location: Location, Location. |
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Oh hey it's me.
I don't see the big deal behind avoiding extremes. If I enjoy a show enough I'm going to give it credit as such, and, as my ratings reflect, this has happened several times. My ratings are almost entirely positive - this is because I aim for shows that I'm fairly sure I will like based on what I hear about them beforehand (Haruhi is the only show so far that I've watched because I thought I "had to watch it"). Occasionally I'm unimpressed, disappointed or even disgusted (sup Dokuro-chan), but for the most part I like what I pick. I also try to ignore "objective quality" and give stuff ratings based on how much I liked the show, which is why you'll see me rate MSNegima ahead of Haruhi. Haruhi may be the "higher quality" show, but I enjoyed Negima more, and as far as I'm concerned that's all that matters. One of these days I'm going to get around to giving everything on my list a comment... |
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Riyousha
Posts: 817 |
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So how do I get comments on my "My Anime/Manga" list?
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bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
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Seen all
Seen Some I haven't rated almost any of them, I will get around to it eventually. I think some people take the term "masterpiece" too lightly. For it to be a masterpiece for me it has to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as possible, in every way:animation, character design, story, etc; more importantly, a masterpiece is supposed to be considered the crowning piece of a creator's entire body of work. Out of all the anime on my lists, there are only two series that I wouldn't give a second thought to naming a masterpiece: Gankutsuou and The Big O (Noein may be on it's way there when I finish it; and there are probably a few movies too, but I haven't really thought about which, most likely the 1st Patlabor movie and Mind Game), for any other series I would have to give some thought to it to list it as a masterpiece. Most of my favorites I would list as excellent despite how much I love might love them, I know that they aren't quite at the masterpiece level. Some come really close (Last Exile, among others), but lack a certain something be it the conclusion or inconsistent quality(to be a masterpiece it has to be good throught it's entirety, meaning a boring first half and an amazing second half, or vise versa, wouldn't cut it). Anything I would rate as Good would mean that it was entertaining enough to hold my attention, but in the long run will not be memorable. |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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I have a feeling Dan is going to be sooo pleased with me when he gets his inbox spammed with PMs from hundreds of users wanting to know their trustworthiness index.... 
I'd say: don't ask. If the answer is important to you, you might not like the answer you get. And if it's not that important, why bother with it...? Just be happy that the ratings system isn't indiscriminate, even if it isn't perfect. It doesn't exactly see with equal eye a hero perish or sparrow fall, but it's pretty smart for a dumb piece of software. - abunai |
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Kilgamayan
Posts: 275 Location: Location, Location. |
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Like this. 
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18466 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The "My Anime" heading is really just an afterthought to me, so I'm not particularly diligent about maintaining mine; I've probably rated less than half of the titles I've actually seen (a third or less if you include "seen some" entries) and haven't put in comments on any of them.
When I do give ratings on My Anime, I don't put as much thought into them as I do for my full reviews. They more reflect my gut reaction to a series, although I try to base them on a combination of production quality, writing, and sheer entertainment value. To get a Masterpiece rating from me a title either has to be top-rate in all three categories (such as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke) or be so overwhelmingly good in two of them that minor deficiencies in the third can be overlooked (such as Koi Kaze, whose artistry never impressed me but which I regard as one of the best-written anime titles ever). I'm also generally a little more liberal on assigning ratings for them than I am with my reviews. Even so, I've only given Masterpiece ratings to 16 out of the 69 titles on my list as of this writing and never given a rating lower than Not Really Good. |
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PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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"My Anime"
The number one factor in my ratings is how much I enjoyed watching the show. Even if the show has horrible artwork/story/music etc. I will still rate it high if I enjoyed watching it. This is basically what all my ratings revolve around. I do take other things into account, but only if they really stand out to me. If the music, plot, writing, or artwork really amazes me I will rate it higher. Just an example; I would have rated Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children lower if it weren't for the amazing CG work on it. But then again... I really enjoyed AC mainly for the cool graphics, so that kind of brings me back to my first point. Sometimes there are anime that I didn't particularly enjoy, but had such a powerful meaning behind them that really got through to me that I will rate them high. Now and Then, Here and There is a perfect example. I didn't exactly enjoy watching this and I wouldn't consider it to be one of my favorites, but it had such incredibly powerful and emotional scenes and messages that I rated it "Masterpiece". My normal ratings seem to be between "Good" and "Very Good". Out of the 200 something I've seen I've rated six "Materpieces", zero "Worst Evers", and two "Awfuls". I like to think I'm a somewhat harsh rater and I don't just throw out "Materpiece" ratings, but I don't think I'm as harsh as some others I've seen. Last edited by PantsGoblin on Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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