#judginganime

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: life is too short to watch bad anime. We only have so much time to spend on entertainment, and you deserve better than to spend that time watching stuff like Vampire Holmes or Luck and Logic. You need to develop a way to quickly sort the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff, the Attack on Titan from the Attack on Titan: Junior High. Fortunately, the guys from Geeknights have watched lots of anime and come up with a way, based just on the preview image and description from Anichart, to judge an anime by its cover.

I described the system in detail last year, but the short version is you need to look to where the detail is to figure out what an anime is about, look to the studio behind the show, and look at the description to see if it sounds interesting without using way too many proper nouns. If the show has a warning sign, skip it. You’ll be wrong sometimes, but if you are wrong the internet will let you know you’re wrong. Better to wait and join a good show three episodes in than to waste twenty minutes of your life watching drivel.

So with the ground rules established, which anime in the upcoming Spring 2016 season did they judge as worth trying? Four anime made the cut:

flying witch – From the preview image, this show looks like a fun slice-of-life anime, but without the zaniness of Nichijou or Azumanga Daioh. The premise sounds interesting, a young witch lives with her relatives to train her powers. At face value, it seems like a fun and charming slice-of-life show.

Joker Game – The art is serious, but, crucially, the characters are drawn in a way that makes them realistic looking but also distinguishable. Also, it’s a serious looking anime done by Project I.G., which is usually a god sign. The concept sounds military-centric, but the “don’t kill, don’t get killed” angle should add enough human drama beyond the military appeal.

Mayoiga – This kind of high concept show will either be amazing or terrible. But it’s promising, and there are no warning signs that it will be bad in the art or description, so it’s worth watching at least the first episode.

Sakamoto desu ga? – This one they admitted to cheating on, as they had already seen the trailer before preparing for this panel. But the concept of this show seems to be “One Punch Man, but instead of a perfect hero, he’s a perfect high schooler.” Should be hilarious. Absolutely worth watching.

Beyond those four, there were four other shows they identified as shows that could be good, but not enough there to be immediately sold on:

Boku no Hero Academia – The art is interesting and it’s by Studio Bones, which is usually a good sign. But the description reads like typical shonen stuff. Could be good, but there’s nothing here that makes it immediately jump out.

Endride – The long, convoluted description is concerning, but that’s not always a bad thing in a light sci-fi adventure series, which is what this appears to be. Problem is shows like this have a disappointing tendency to get bad in the last third of the series. Could be good, but wait and see.

Gyakuten Saiban – HOLY CRAP THEY’RE MAKING A PHOENIX WRIGHT ANIME. LOOK AT HOW SMUG EDGEWORTH IS IN THE PREVIEW IMAGE. But, fandom aside, it’s a video game adaptation, which can be trouble, and we can’t tell from the Anichart info just how they’re adapting the games. They really want this to be good (and so do I) but can’t say yet.

Tanaka-Kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge – This looks like a typical slice-of-life anime. They’re setting up the conflict between the main character, who does nothing, and the other main character who is energetic. Problem is this could end up being too zany. Can’t say based on the cover. Could be good, could be deeply annoying.

Which anime are you looking forward to in the Spring series this year? Disagree with their assessments? Let us know.

Nobody likes to think about it, but life is short, and each moment we have on earth is precious. Fartoo precious to spend watching bad anime. Most people who watch an episode of Garzey’sWing spend the next several hours wracked with existential doubt. So if you’re looking at what’s upcoming and want to avoid that kind of suffering, you need to learn how to judge an anime with just a glance. Fortunately, the ever-excellent GeekNights guys have come up with a few handy rules to, as they put it, judge an anime by its cover. So pull up AniCharts, keep these rules in mind, and get to judging:

Are The People Detailed, Or Are The Things? – The photos on AniCharts tend to consist of two things: people and things. Some anime are about people, and some anime are just about things. So ask two questions: Which are more detailed, the people or the things? Are the things identifiable as real world things? For example, compare Gunslinger Girl to Trigun. Both have gun in the title and feature guns in their promotional pictures. But the guns in Trigun are fairly undetailed and aren’t real guns. The guns in Gunslinger Girl are highly detailed and are identifiable as real world guns. Sure enough, Trigun is a show about people, and Gunslinger Girl is a show about guns.

How Sexualized Are The People? – Lets face it: a lot of anime now is generic schlock which relies more on sexualization than on plot or character and should be avoided. Sometimes it’s easy to tell, but sometimes it isn’t. You can tell this by looking at the promotional images. Look for the details. Are the sexual characteristics of the characters unnecessarily highlighted or detailed? If there are women in skirts, are the skirts tucked or otherwise angled away, or are they angled so you can slightly see up them? The more sexualized the image, the more likely the show is just garbage fan service rather than a show actually worth watching.

What’s The Studio? Who’s The Director? – If a show seems borderline, but it’s from an established, successful studio, like Bones or Madhouse, then it’s probably worth watching. If a show seems borderline, but it’s from an unknown studio, then it’s probably worth skipping.

How Unique Is The Style? – Again, lots of anime tend to use very similar styles, including a generic dark haired high school boy and a moe blob girl (or several) in high school sailor outfits. But if a show has a unique art style, that’s a sign that it won’t be just another generic anime, and is more likely to be worth watching.

How Many Proper Nouns Are In The Description? – The more capitalized, made up proper nouns a show’s description has, the more likely it’s relying upon forced terminology to cover up a generic plot, or worse, one which is completely incomprehensible. For example, notice the number of capitalized proper nouns and phrases in quotations in this description. Not a good sign.

Do A Google Image Search – If you need more info, do a Google image search and apply these rules to what you see. Also, if you see a relationship graph, odds are the show is fandom bait. Beware.

Don’t Be Afraid of Being Wrong – If you’re wrong about a show and you miss a great one, the internet will let you know. If you avoid a show and people keep saying on Twitter or anime forums how great a show is, then you know it’s worth a shot. No cost, and you avoid some potentially terrible anime. Because, really, your time is more important than that.