|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
Grading Scale This is usually the first section that I visit whenever I encounter a new Otaku website. It is important to know how one goes about grading their animé, and what characteristics are taken into account. As I have visited several sites around the internet, I have noticed that most graders are extremely subjective, and will rate purely on opinion. Although I value the power of opinion greatly, I do wonder what it is that they actually have an opinion ON. Thus, I believe I have created a system that allows for both subjective and criteria based grading. Plot (1-10) Hopefully it is self-evident what this category hold within it. If, however, you have a lack of standard brain function, I will elaborate. Plot is BASICALLY the 1) Development of the Story 2) lack/presence/relevance of filler, and 3) Quality of Ending. Of these, I personally value the quality of the ending above all else, for an anime that doesn't close up it's loose ends is, for the most part, not worth watching (note that I say for the most part because there are a few exceptions). Character Development (1-10) This too, I hope, is a painfully obvious category. One of my biggest concerns about modern animés is the complete disregard for character development. To truly draw its viewers into the animé, the characters must be loveable, appreciable, and have an incredible sense of pathos. One must be able to paralell a character to events or people in one's own life for them to truly be incredible. The word development also implies that the characters need to change, be it in their personalities or their actions. Static characters that provide cliché comic relief are not only redundant bul also completely banal. When watching an anime, we, the raters that is, are always on the lookout for something new or something more. Animation (1-10) Now this is a category that I was deliberating whether to include or not. It is difficult to grasp the true importance or rateability of animation because or the infinite assortment of styles and genres. I finally decided, though, that the category is valid, but will be rated in a somewhat different manner. Although eye-candy and crisp animation will recieve a bonus in this area, it is truly rated on the relation between attitude and animation. You may ask what exactly this means? It means that we try to justify the appropriateness of the animation used to the genre that is trying to be depicted. A comedy should have bright crisp and contrasting colors while a more mellow bounty-hunter style anime should elaborate its use of symbolism and shading. Thus animés are rated against themselves, not eachother. Music (1-10) What is a good animé without good music. This category is also extremely simple, and thus will not require enlightenment-caliber description. Good music is just that, it's good. I'm tired of hearing the same crappy-ass 16bit quality FFI music repeated with slight variation in every aspect of Japenese mass media. If it's good music, it's good music, there's nothing else to it. BIG bonus for originality. Premise (1-10) This category would have (probably) been more aptly named background, but that title is a bit decieving. This category rates how well an animé presents its background information and how interesting a background the characters have. Cliché animés lose big time in this category for we all want to see something original. Surely the creators can follow a predetermined theme or template, but if they do, they better bring something new to the table. It is important then to realize that when grading on an actual scalar system, the average grade for the average animé will be 25/50. That is to say, anything about a 25 is above average, and below 25 is, respectively, below average. For a more concrete paralell, allow me to phrase it as follows: 42-50 - A, 33-41 - B, 22-31 - C, 15-21 - D, anything below 15 - not worth your money, time, or eyesight. |
||||||||||
|
|
