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Anime Ratings
Anime are rated on 5 independent scales that are designed to be at least
somewhat rater-independent. They are also given a personal raking from 1 to 5
that indicates how much I enjoyed them (with higher numbers indicating more
enjoyment). The six independent scales are Art, Characters, Plot, Setting, and
Ideas, and are described below. Anime are also tagged with keywords to quickly
give some indication of their content. The complete list of keywords is given
below the ratings.
Art
| 2 |
Outstanding artistic quality. This is a beautiful anime. |
| 1 |
Above-average artistic quality. The anime is pleasant to watch. |
| 0 |
Average artistic quality. The visual and aural qualities of the anime didn't detract from the experience. Alternately, there was a mix of both good and bad qualities. |
| -1 |
Below-average artistic quality. The art detracted somewhat from the rest of the anime. |
| -2 |
Ugly or dissonant. The art made it difficult to enjoy the rest of the anime. |
Characters
| 2 |
The characters act with appropriate maturity and have complex responses to stimuli. They are engrossing and inspire sympathy or hatred, they might serve as good role models. |
| 1 |
The characters have complex backgrounds and motivations and inspire sympathy or antipathy. |
| 0 |
The characters have a modicum of depth, and can be sympathized with, but they do not merit praise. Alternatively, the characters do not play a large roll in the anime. |
| -1 |
The characters are 2-dimensional, it is difficult to engage with them because of their simplicity or incoherence. |
| -2 |
The characters are 1-dimensional, without particularly interesting interactions. They are not likable. |
Plot
| 2 |
The plot or flow is complex and exciting, making it difficult to stop watching. |
| 1 |
The plot or flow surprises and draws the viewer in. |
| 0 |
The plot or flow is reasonably developed and interesting. |
| -1 |
The plot or flow is childlike or forced and not engrossing, or the plot contains large quantities of poor quality filler. |
| -2 |
The plot or flow is obvious from the outset, boring, or cloyingly artificial. |
Setting
| 2 |
The setting is detailed and beautiful. It inspires the imagination and is evocative. |
| 1 |
The setting integrates well with the rest of the anime and is imaginative or inspiring. Alternately, it isn't original (it's historical or taken from some other source) but it is done particularly well. |
| 0 |
The setting is not a particularly important part of the anime, or it is mediocre. |
| -1 |
The setting feels fake or it detracts from the anime. Alternately, the setting oversteps its bounds, wasting space just being setting to an annoying degree. |
| -2 |
The setting detracts significantly from the anime, making it difficult to watch. It is constantly annoying. |
Ideas
| 2 |
The ideas expressed are well-integrated and thought-provoking. |
| 1 |
The ideas expressed are somewhat complex, and are presented well. |
| 0 |
The piece incorporates normal thematic elements but does not present significantly original ideas, or tries to present interesting ideas but doesn't succeed very well. |
| -1 |
The ideas are underdeveloped, wrong, or too strongly presented. |
| -2 |
The ideas are bad, nonexistent, or take over ridiculously. |
Setting Keywords
Dreamlike, Dystopian, Fantastic, Fantasy, Futuristic, Period, Realistic,
Science Fiction
Other Keywords
Absurd, Action, Adult, Collection, Comedy, Crude, Ecchi, Formulaic, Harem,
Hentai, Horror, Mecha, Nudity, Parody, Prodigy, Romance, School, Serious,
Shoujo, Shounen, Sophisticated, Tragedy
Keyword Descriptions
Content Keywords
| Action |
The anime contains action scenes and (almost certainly) some form of fighting. This doesn't apply to anime where the action is superficial or comedic. |
| Adult |
This anime is not suitable for children. Maybe this is because it contains adult content. Maybe this is because it would be wasted on a child and can only really be appreciated by an adult. |
| Ecchi |
This anime contains recurring elements specifically designed to generate sexual desire, and goes out of its way to do so. It does not fall into the category of Hentai, however. A sex scene does not make an anime ecchi, neither does a well-endowed main character who wears a less-than-modest outfit. Panties in every frame do. |
| Hentai |
This anime is effectively pornography, and contains regular drastic nudity and sexual acts. |
| Nudity |
The anime contains drawings of nude people. They may or may not be tasteful or excessive, depending on other tags (Ecchi, Hentai). Also, the nudity appears for more than a brief semi-obscured moment: anatomy is visible. |
Setting Keywords
| Science Fiction |
The anime's setting involves futuristic technologies to an extent that clearly sets it in a different time-period than our own. |
| Fantasy |
The anime is set in a world of its own, with fantastic elements playing a large role. It could be a medieval kingom, a sea full of pirates, or a world populated with airships, but the geography and politics are not derived from our world. |
| Futuristic |
The anime's setting involves some near projection of our current world. Things are different, but not so much that there aren't clear historical ties to our world. Technological changes are all or mostly predictable from current technologies. |
| Fantastic |
The anime's setting involves our present world or something close to it with added fantastical elements such as super powers. In large part, the setting is comparable to our own world. |
| Realistic |
The anime's setting is a realistic and relatively contemporary one. No (or very few) elements are involved that could not reasonably be encountered in real life, although the politics and specific events of the setting may be imaginary. |
| Period |
The anime's setting is historical, depicting the conditions from some past time. Some slight fantasy elements may be involved, but they are minimal, although the anime may not be historically accurate. When combined with the Fantastic tag, indicates that the setting is Fantastic but based on some past time period rather than our own. |
| Dreamlike |
The setting has a dreamlike quality where the normal laws of causality and physics don't quite apply, and normally unexpected things are frequent. Because of this, the setting doesn't fall into one of the other setting categories. |
| Dystopian |
The setting is dystopian or contains dystopian elements. Much of the settings focus is on an altered society which is in some way worse than our own. |
Genre Keywords
| School |
The anime's setting is in a large part composed of a school, or the characters spend much of their lives (even off-screen) at school, and these elements affect the anime. Some of the characters being in school is not enough: the school must be a significant part of the anime. Colleges don't count. |
| Mecha |
The anime involves some sort of large fighting robots that may or may not be piloted by humans. This includes partially biological human-piloted machines but excludes fighting beasts. |
| Shoujo |
One of the main characters is a teenage girl and the target audience includes teenage girls. This sets the tone for the anime, which takes as its focus interactions between the teenage girl protagonist and her male contemporaries. |
| Shounen |
One of the main characters is a teenage boy and the target audience includes teenage boys. This sets the tone for the anime, which includes themes of perseverance, a can-do attitude, and growing power with no bound in sight. |
| Harem |
The anime has a male protagonist who is the subject of the affections of several female characters. While not an actual harem (usually), the anime to some degree revolves around their contests for the boy (or man). |
| Prodigy |
The anime's main focus is on a particular sport, game or other endeavour in which the main character is extremely skilled. |
Elements Keywords
| Parody |
The anime devotes significant time to parodying anime, manga, or Japanese culture in general. |
| Comedy |
The anime has significant comedic elements. They may be restricted to part of the anime, or it may revolve around them. |
| Tragedy |
The anime has significant tragic elements. This means that bad things happen which are not reversed by the end of the anime. |
| Serious |
The anime has a serious side to it. This can only really apply to anime that have good ideas in them. |
| Romance |
The anime contains romantic elements, including love between two characters that develops throughout and is a main element in the plot. Rather than being a result of the story, however, the romantic elements in some way drive the story forward. |
| Sophisticated |
The anime presents sophisticated concepts and raises questions that do not have easy answers. It invites the viewer to think seriously about something. This may apply even when it is not entirely clear what questions are raised. |
| Crude |
The anime presents crude ideas. They may or may not be funny. |
| Horror |
The anime has significant horror elements. It need not end in tragedy or be horrific throughout, it just has to have sections in which it inspires fear in the audience. |
| Absurd |
The anime contains absurdist elements, which give it a detached or abstract feel. The focus may be more on the experience than on any particular plot elements or characters. |
Other Keywords
| Collection |
The "anime" actually consists of a collection of smaller works released under one name. The ratings and tags thus offer averages and supersets of their usual meanings. Alternately, the anime contains several parts with no continuity but is otherwise one anime (one set of artists, one writer, etc.). |
| Formulaic |
The anime (in whole or in part) uses a frequently used plot to the point to which the viewer can recognize the construct and know with a degree of certainty what is going to happen. Specific plot elements or character actions may be unknown, but generalities like "and then there will be a boss fight and the protagonist will win" are obvious. This tag is only earned if such a formulaic plot is used without adding any original twists or other elements to make it interesting. |