Forum - View topicWhy are many *sports* anime vastly over-rated?
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1374 |
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Hi there,
I happen to pay a lot of attention to average ratings ANN database has for various anime, and since ages ago I noticed that many sport-related anime tend to be vastly over-rated -- if you take them apart on all other aspects of their merit besides sports component itself, and compare it to other anime with the same average rating. You can look at ANN Top 100 best rated anime and find a lot of sports anime there both old and new that have outstanding ratings. But when you try to watch it, it turns out to be usual self-hype-up pathos sport anime, just like many sports films, with nothing particularly outstanding beyond typical sport hype like self-building/overcoming stuff. Those anime are solid, but it mostly should be just "Very good". So, what is the mystery behind this phenomenon? One of my guesses would be that sport anime genre by default is popular, but still not universally liked by random/versatile audience, and hence mostly sport anime fans watch it and vote for it. And since they get (naturally so, I do not blame them at all) so hyped up by watching competitive virtual sports, they rate "Masterpiece" or "Excellent" nearly everything that is sport-related. Since other genres got more random/versatile/general audience, less percentage of voters are fans of specific genre, and hence average ratings is lower. Am I right with this guess, or Haikyu!! and stunning number of other sport anime with "Excellent" average rating do truly have mastery of intricate storytelling, sophisticated character development and other goodies that could be seen in many "Excellent" anime of other genres? [EDIT: Adjust the syntax of your thread title. -TK] |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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The issue is if an anime has a "demographic hit", if a show is technically over-rated then that probably means ONLY the fandom the prescribes to such series are watching and responding.
As such the viewers will likely lean in favor of such a show if that is what they are seeking and probably won't be as significantly scrutinizing to it in there quick point scale response. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1374 |
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Good addition on demographic hit aspect of the issue, it might have more specific effect here than my more general guess that sports genre is less universally watched by anime lovers versus other genres, and hence it skews ratings.
To the latter point, though, this issue maybe similar to how a lot of manga here ANN get "Excellent" and "Masterpiece" ratings, even though in reality the writing can be sloppy, so, as result, story can have a lot of plot holes. Situation with manga might be even worse than with sports anime since usually much less people rate manga than anime, so the sample gets ridiculously unrepresentative. Though this is to be expected since this site is called Anime News Network, not Manga News Network. Most of people here like anime, not manga, so voting for manga is always super low and inadequate. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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"Overrated" is totally subjective.
The question in the title of the thread is really "why do so many people like something that I do not like?" I do not have an answer for that. If you put aside the concept of sports anime being overrated you could ask why it has average ratings that are higher than those of other genres, assuming that is true. If I understand the situation correctly, the North American anime companies believe that the sports genre is not very popular here. Because of that they are more selective when licensing the sports genre and will take a chance only on shows that they expect to be hits. If that is true then the sports shows are sort of pre-selected and weighted towards higher popularity. Given the nature of ANN, shows that are licensed in North America will have more votes, all other things being equal. I cannot give a more insightful opinion because I have no personal interest in sports anime. Last edited by Touma on Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18527 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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It's pretty much the same reason why some sequel series end up with improbably high ratings. For instance, the second series for Clannad and Code Geass are still rated as Top 10 titles on our site, IMO largely because of the "you're only watching if you're already a fan" phenomenon.
And you're right, sports anime is not popular at all with American anime fans. (They fare far better in many other countries.) |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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What sports anime offer is easy entertainment. Fans of both genders have something that appeals to them. Men enjoy the action and crazy superpower moves, while fujoshi appreciate the multitudes of handsome guys in close proximity to one another they can ogle and ship.
As to why fans of sports shows are so lenient in their ratings, well, the types of people who watch sports shows are also the types of people who don't get too critical towards what they watch as long as they are entertained. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1374 |
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Thanks for replies, though it would be also great to hear from someone who is fan of Haikyu!!
@Touma: Good point on licensing aspect, but even with that limitation incredible number of sport anime has lots of highest rating on ANN, the site mostly visited by USA citizens. @Key: Also on point addition to the picture with sequels voters sample auto-focusing. Besides couple of anime you mentioned, I see that giant Aria anime franchise gets "Excellent" average ratings, even though not a lot happens in the story there, and plot events are incredibly naive and can not stand critique. @dtm42: I watch Kuroko's Basketball, but this is unhealthy, guilty pleasure because I am almost embarrassed of myself for spending time on this super goofy, ridiculously overblown fantasy version of the sport. (I would not be so harsh at myself if the show admitted that it was overtly magical.) But I kind of proud of ANN voters that they did not put this to "Excellent" rating category, unlike PlanetAnime, where voting process is much simpler and hence lesser-nerds vote in more quantities -- they made Kuroko's Basketball the best rated show of winter season. Last edited by MaxSouth on Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1261 |
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"Touch" and "Cross Game" are sports anime I dearly love because they're well-written coming of age dramas. I'd love to see more like that. I enjoyed "Princess Nine" when it came out, but I wonder how it would fare now in comparison to those two. Probably not so well. "Ace of Diamonds" I dropped quickly. "Major" I dropped after a couple of seasons -- just got too ridiculous. What I've seen of "Ashita no Joe" (the movies) I like. What I saw of "Slam Dunk" was not the show the cool art suggested; the comedy and SD stuff just grated. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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The implication of the original posting was that sports anime only draw strong ratings because they appeal to a small, intense, but not very discriminating group of viewers. I beg to disagree.
That "site that may not be named" (AS) allows its members to vote for awards each year. Though most people on the site are not fans of sports or sports anime, Cross Game nevertheless received the "Best of the Year" award in 2010 because it really is that good. It had a broad following in Japan from adults to preschoolers, some of whom entered their drawings in the "Draw Nomo" contest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNvsOC6tyE). |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18527 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Cross Game is an exception much more than a rule, though. It's also an "amongst the best of the past decade" series rather than just a good sports series (I rated the official subbed stream of its first 2/3 #2 for 2010 and the last third in my top 5 for 2011) despite unimpressive artistry. It also has both one of the finest first episodes and one of the finest last episodes that you'll ever see.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15580 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Well I have largely not been a anime sports fan, so I would say the reason you often get high numbers is because those type of fans already rate shows high. I have taken up watching Yowamushi Pedal, and at times I find it almost unbearable, indeed I rated the first season low and I will rate the second season low. I also watched Baby Steps which was fairly decent but had some problems. But more importantly is what you mentioned here is the Haikyuu. I was going to give it a go actually know that since I was not a fan that I would dislike it. But then Haikyuu actually turned out to be amazing. I am not a sports anime fan, yet I ended up giving that series "Excellent", in my opinion at least that single show is one that made me totally love the tropes that I might normally dislike or not be interested. There is the chance that I might have been in the right place of having watched certain shows that I open to a new genre, but as someone who was not a fan of sports anime yet became a fan or Haikyuu, that show was great. |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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I don't like this post's title. It's like me making a post called "Why are so many *romance* anime vastly overrated?". This leaves little room for discussion. Like, you called people "lesser-nerds" for voting KuroBas highly on Anime Planet. But moving on.
I take these ratings with a grain of salt. People have different criteria and number systems don't offer a way to explain your rating. As mentioned already, if people are very much into a genre/show, they'll be more likely to vote, skewing the numbers. This isn't unique to sports series. However, on ANN's top 100, we only have Cross Game (27), Fighting Spirit (33, 53), if-you-count-it Chihayufuru (79), and Ping Pong (96). Haikyu doesn't show up until 136. Other current series--KuroBas, Free, Yowamushi Pedal, Baby Steps--don't even make the top 500. As for writing, the vast majority of sports series are not particularly complex. It's not a knock against them; to be honest, I don't think they need to be. Character interplay is more a deciding factor when I watch them (and no, I don't ship). Haikyu doesn't do anything particularly new, but it uses its tools effectively, has fluid animation, fun character dynamics, and can keep itself moving. For most series, that's great. For a sports series, it's almost all you need. Cutting a series into its components takes away from the picture as a whole, and this is especially important when you're comparing between genres. Lastly, I find it a bit weird to focus on just one genre. Sports isn't even that huge when compared to some other genres, and plenty of series (Giant Killing anyone?) are pretty much forgotten. What makes someone rate Haikyu as excellent when it's not complex is probably because of what I described above. It's a very competent, enjoyable, pretty-looking sports series. If you're able to enjoy a sports series, you'll find it a good one. Similarly, I don't watch the vast majority of ecchi or harem series. Someone who likes them may rate a super competent harem highly. I'm likely going to find the series totally unappealing, but for ecchi fans? Complete opposite. Last edited by RestLessone on Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:13 am; edited 2 times in total |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I've found that people who like sports anime really like sports anime. So it could be that the fans rate it highly for that reason.
Cross Game is a coming of age drama that happens to have baseball as a theme as is Chihayafuru but with karuta as a theme. They're far more than just sports anime. I am a Brit who doesn't understand baseball, and Cross Game is in my top 10 anime, as is Chihayafuru. I don't class them in the same category as things like Kuroko no Basket and Haikyuu. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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I really don't like the implication that sports anime fans are somewhat less discerning than other fans. That is horribly stereotypical and not true.
My personal top 3 are Cross Game, Chihayafuru, and Hikaru no Go. I found all 3 of these series inspiring and true to life (despite the supernatural element of Hikaru) While not my absolute favorites, I would also put Oofuri and. Haikyuu in the top tier because of they are filled with pure fun and great characters. However liking sports anime doesn't mean I love them all. I couldn't get into Prince of Tennis or Kuruko no Basket. And while I am enjoying Ace of Diamond, it has too many issues for me to rate it beyond just good. I should also add I am not at all a sports fan in real life. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18527 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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That's fair. Although baseball is an integral component of Cross Game (to the point that the original broadcast included shout-outs to actual Little League baseball players of both genders), it's really more the setting, the means to frame the relationship aspects, than the true story. Most true sport series are the other way around. |
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