Forum - View topicTips and Suggestions on Writing Anime Reviews?
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10円
Posts: 605 |
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This is actually the second time I've made this request, but I don't seem to be wording it correctly or perhaps my reputation is just preceding me again. I want to start writing some reviews of various anime that I found particularly entertaining or otherwise exceptional and I would like to hear what people have to say about which reviews/reviewers they've enjoyed the most and/or found the most helpful. My first attempt at writing a pseudo-review can be found here...
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34870 The main problem is that I'm just not much of a writer and I don't know what makes a good review appealing or a bad review dull and boring. All suggestions are welcome; you can bash my comments on GE999 to your hearts content, but please try to keep it at least semi-constructive. Thanks-in-advance. |
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Mephistophilus
 Posts: 200 Location: Fresno, CA, United States |
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Humor is always appreciated in some degree in reviews, as long as you can keep the review somewhat serious. I'd also suggest hitting directly on certain deciding points provided that it's a review for a legitimate purchase, as my favorite feature of ANN reviews is that they tell you what the quality of various things is, such as the review of the dub and description of things such as extras and characteristics of the anime. A general score at the end would be good as well, whether it be a letter grade or a point score.
I suppose the most important thing is, don't make it boring. On the review linked, though, I actually quite liked it. Try not to go into the synopsis so much, as I see that happen a lot in reviews, but I liked the story and the synopsis went well for that topic. It would be fine for an "overall experience" in-depth review, but not all reviews need to be like that. Also, the story was great for the experience thread, but could be shortened a bit to only provide a short intro in an actual review. I think if the synopsis was shortened a bit to only touch major things in that "review" and more attention was paid to other aspects (replace some of the explanation perhaps with a description of the music, etc.), it would have been a good one. Telling people where to buy things if they want to after reading your review is always good, as is telling them why it's worth their money. Even if someone likes the idea of something, they might not buy it if they don't know whether or not X quality will be good (This, of course, is if you want them to buy it-if you feel that it was crap, do the same and describe why it is not worth their money). |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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General Pointers:
Humor is always good, but not so much that you lose credibility or the whole thing seems just silly. Know what to make jokes about and what to be serious about. keep it interesting. Easier said than done maybe? Try and think, does anybody wanna hear about this aspect? There are some things that nobody cares about. Be specific, explain. Nobody wants to read a review that says: Well...the animation was good.....I guess the story was okay.....the characters werent very good...Eplain why you felt different ways. Use a balanced amount of detail. Like I said above, you wanna back up and explain your oppinions, but nobody wants to read an 8 page review. know what to include and what to omit. Try and keep it balanced. obviously youre gonna feel good about some and bad about others, and thats fine. But try and provide an arguement for both the good and the bad. Even if its terrible, try and mention a couple good aspects. and ofcourse Vica Versa. Dont be biased. Dont let your personal preferences or oppinions influence you. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the average fan. Spoilers arent the end of the world, but should be avoided when possible. If you must, pick stuff that really doesnt give anything major away. |
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Mylene
 Posts: 2792 Location: Indiana |
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You might want to consider reading Anime Academy's Art of Reviewing Anime. It may not be the best, but it certainly seems to give someone a decent starting point for writing reviews. I need to reread it again sometime soon myself, as my own reviews flat-out suck. I tend to go off on tangents a bit too much or focus on one detail and forget the rest as I ramble on and on.
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Master_M2K
 Posts: 127 Location: UK, London |
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There are some things I have to say about your review.
1 - It was way too long, and most people including me, wouldn't bother reading that review you just wrote. 2 - Your review seemed way to opinionated. It's best to that your review sholdn't be biased, but don't be afraid to add some of yur own opinions. 3 - When writing anime reviews, it's best to talk about the sort of stuff that makes animes, anime. Stuff like: Animation, Music, Voice actors, Plot, Storyline, Genre, etc. 4 - Don't talk about stuff that is irrelevant to the anime you are talking about, that's what you started to do in the beginning of that review. I've writing quite a few anime reviews which anyone can check out on my profile on TV.com 
http://www.tv.com/users/Master_M2K/profile.php |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11406 Location: Frisco, TX |
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I think I referred you to this thread once before, but I'll do it again. I feel it's good way of getting a general assessement for how people rate/review their anime in terms of technicalities and stuff. Writing style, however, is completely subjective and can vary from person to person.
I thought about becoming a reviewer here at ANN, once. I've got lots and lots of old and new DVDs that I enjoy a great deal and that I'd like to review (and get paid for  ), but I'm afraid my nitpickiness on dubbing (especially ADV's stuff  ) and personal inclination towards the Japanese tracks might not sit well with "the average fan" or whatever mold we're supposed to appeal to, and thus be interpreted as bias. As a result, I use My Anime as an outlet for this  , though I keep the voice acting stuff strictly towards the language I prefer and only on the positive side, which is usually for the Japanese unless I feel the need to personally commend the dub. I'm not sure if I could maintain the "proper balance" for every DVD I own, though..
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kolibri
 Posts: 712 Location: Vancouver |
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Good advice here. Something I would add: like with every piece of writing, it should have a beginning, middle and an end. Tell them what you're gonna tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them. Introduction, the business, conclusion.
(Oooh, this was my post number 300  )
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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Would you like some tips from an actual ANN reviewer?
(No! No, I would not! ANN reviewers are BIASED and CRAPPY and they HATE CUTE THINGS and blahalskdfhalkjsdfINTERNETRAGE) Re: The Galaxy Express 999 review: I can definitely see your passion for the work. I mean, it's obvious that you love it. That's good. You've got to love anime in the first place to care enough to review it. BUT... The only paragraphs which I felt were really "review-ish" were the last 4 or so ... maybe the 5th before the end. The rest felt like just a fancy story summary. Usually you can do that in one paragraph, and bring up other story points as needed while discussing the mechanics of plot and character. And there was also that human-interest aspect at the beginning, which was interesting enough, but you blew too many paragraphs on it. If you must speak about personal experiences in an anime review, keep it to maybe a few sentences. Remember, you're reviewing anime, not talking about your life. As for me personally, my philosophy of reviewing is: State your opinion, JUSTIFY your opinion, and in doing so, give readers enough information to decide whether THEY would like it. Example: I don't like Death Note ... [stating opinion] ... because it's too full of yaoi bishie gayness ... [justification of opinion + informing the reader. This reviewer just isn't into yaoi bishie gayness. However, other readers will see this and, based on their taste, might decide that they want to check out Death Note.] ... due to the main characters always staring intensely at each other. [FURTHER justification of opinion, by example.] And then you just do this for like seven paragraphs. I actually have a very specific formula, which works better some days than others, depending on whether I've done my Brain Training or not, and how long it's been since I last went bankai, but generally boils down to: 1. Intro. <- this is where I would put any personal stories, social commentary, etc. 2 & 3. Story/characters/plot/themes. Usually takes two paragraphs because story is the center of most mainstream animation. 4. Art, animation, design, visual technique. 5. Music. 6. Translation, voice acting, product packaging, extras. 7. Conclusion. I handle manga about the same but minus the music paragraph. Finally, about BIAS: everyone's gonna say, reviewers MUSN'T be biased, or they MUST be biased, or they gotta go ballin' up in heaven with Len Bias, but ultimately, you will ALWAYS show a bias. If you're not biased, you're not human. It's called having personal taste, having an opinion. But it's still possible to be objective at the same time. When you state your opinion of whether like something or not, that's the bias showing. And when you justify that opinion with concrete examples and reasons, that's the objectivity showing. And that's how you write reviews. |
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10円
Posts: 605 |
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Thanks for the comments everyone, all suggestions are greatly appreciated. The one thing I'd like to point out is that the 'review' linked to was also part of a 'first anime' thread and was meant to be more about my initial experience with anime than a true, formal review. As such it has a lot of commentary that has no business being in a review and is missing lots of details you would expect to be in almost any review. But, other than that I'm still interested to hear what everyone has to say about it. Many of the anime titles I've enjoyed most don't get much airtime here on the ANN forum, so I'm always looking for ways to bring them into the picture without breaking any of the myriad of rules and I can't think of any better way than writing a set of reviews from my perspective. Anyway, thanks again for all your comments and suggestions.
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DKL
 Posts: 1957 Location: California, USA |
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Tony:
Wow, that's weird... I always made you out to be some kind of Ocean fan. Oh, and I'm actually a staff reviewer for some site somewhere... I stopped writing though (since I got lazy... I mean, more than I use to be). But, anyway... uhhh... Just make sure to really take into consideration what people tell you... Also, taking writing classes actually helps (as my English 1A class kinda hardened me... but man, it was hard... I ended up with the "snobby Bekeley graduate" as a teacher, and it wasn't fun going for the A) |
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Iwatch2muchanime
 Posts: 1291 |
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Well I'm a viewer, for website/podcast show (you all know which one, the one where it's mostly talking and funny music) and NEW and I know that no matter what I say, I can't give ot good advice on this.
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ryokoalways
Posts: 562 |
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Many things has been mentioned. Another tool to make use of is talking about the visuals: the character design, the backgrounds, the overall production value, etc. That is probably the most objective point that could be mentioned in the review, and something that would be of interest to anybody that's reading it.
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Being a reviewer myself, as I started reading this thread I started formulating what I would post, and then Patachu came along and perfectly summarized it for me so I didn't have to.
Hear hear! The one thing I always strive for in my reviews is to make sure anyone reading it can decide whether they would like it or not, regardless of whether I like it or not. It really pays to be descriptive, especially if you have a good eye for comparisons. Though I do a lot of comics reviews, the main bulk of my journalistic experience has been writing music reviews, where I find that comparisons are easily the best way to communicate. It's a little harder with anime than music, but it's certainly a good way to put images in people's heads when you can say something like "The character design style in Gasaraki has the look of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's designs from Evangelion, but the mecha designs are in the more real world, militaristic style of Armored Trooper Votoms." |
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jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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I also try to review all animes I've watched in totality. You can check out My ANN for my reviews, but they're not that good, especially my first reviews (technically all of my reviews are new since I just started a month ago)
Here's what I try to accomplish when I make a review. I make it a point to comment on most aspects, if not, all aspects of the anime I'm watching. I focus on character design, other visuals, music, etc. I tend to miss some points so I keep a notebook handy when I watch anime. Anything that pops into my mind is recorded, so that I make sure to include every single opinion I have about an anime is in my review. |
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Lord Dolmus
Posts: 97 |
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How about write what you feel? It's your opinion so go for it.
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