This is the deal behind my anime, manga and manhwa reviews. I will review a series I have watched or read. In some cases, I will even put reviews of series I have seen just by looking at one episode or volume, but I will edit them, if I have the opportunity. I know it's not good to grade a series like that or have first impressions before starting on a series, but...how can I say this? Having a first impression or viewing the first part of a series helps me what to expect in a series. It just does. It's hard to explain why.
The pages of reviews will have a table showing the titles, the synopsis, the score and some notes. Notes are rarely shown. Even if there are notes, I won't say much there. Most of the time, I will either say that it is my first review, it is a new review or that the review I placed up is actually a semi-review. Semi-reviews won't have as much detail as a review and they will show that.
Each review will be in the layout I will show below.
Title written in Japanese calligraphy - This will give you what the title looks like if it is written in Japanese caligraphy.
Title - The original title name of the series will be shown here and I will indicate if I am reviewing the anime or the manga. If there are macrons, I'll type the title with them and without them.
Alternative title(s) - Usually, a series would have a second name. In this case, I type them up here.
Genre(s) - The genre or group of genres will be given in this section. Examples include action, ren'ai, comedy and so forth.
Details - Here, I will give an explanation of the series. I will mention the story, the author, the year it was created and such.
Scores - I will give scores here. More details will be given shortly.
Summary - I will just give the positives and negatives about the series.
Date of creation - This shows the date I first placed the review up.
Last update - This shows the date I made my last update on the review, if I made one.
Notes - Notes will give out explanations of the word or set of words with an asterisk.
There are five categories shown as I give out scores. Each category will be given a score out of ten. The order of the categories vary from review to review because each review has a different focus. Then, I give out an overall grade. The scale is below.
1 - It's yucky! This is as weak as it can get.
2 - Very weak
3 - Weak
4 - Below average
5 - Average
6 - Above average
7 - Okay
8 - Good
9 - Very good
10 - It's perfect! This is as good as it can get.
Down below, you will see the set of categories.
Fun - I will talk about many subjects like, how fun the series is as a whole, how interesting are the characters and so forth. This will always be first.
Life - Is the series worth watching or reading again? A high score means that the series has a lot of value and you will view it over and over again. A low score means that it's a one-time view series, or it's a series you'll put down quickly. This will always be second.
Story - How amazing is the story? If the anime or manga is based on a game, is it sincere to the game? Game to anime/manga shifts are really important to me. Generally, you will see this after the first two categories.
Audio - I grade the anime's music, seiy, sound effects and the dub, if there is one. If the dub is bad, I will take away points here. I judge real carefully on dubs. You will usually see this towards the end.
Art - This focuses on the presentation of the series. Is the art wonderful? Is there an overuse of shortcuts in the anime or manga? Does it look outdated in terms of the year it was created in? I will usually grade this last.
Overall - This is the final score and I give a general view of the series.
There is one last subject I want to say here. Each series will be reviewed based on the series as a whole. In other words, if I review "Love Hina's"
anime, I will review "Love Hina's" anime. There will not be different reviews of the television series, the specials and so forth. Doing that will really wear me out. There are exceptions though, like the various "Gundam" series.
, sound effects and the dub, if there is one. If the dub is bad, I will take away points here. I judge real carefully on dubs. You will usually see this towards the end.