Anime Review Guides

Brutal wrote:

ANN Review Guide

Elitist as fuck. 600-1,200 word requirement? A fair review would be 300 words or less. I use 300 as 100 higher than what would be a comfortable paragraph. This is just for people who want to boost their ego. Look at me, me can right very much. Muh writings. At the most you should top out a review at 2 paragraphs at a maximum of 600 words. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Provincial Letters: Letter XVI, 4 December, 1656. Your goal should not be to write a college essay. You are not supposed to bullshit just to add bulk. You want it to be as short as possible, that is being concise. That said, if you need to write a huge amount in order to figure out how to make it simpler for the reader and you wish to include that to show your effort, spoiler it and hide it.

Brutal wrote:

Omni Gamer Review Guide

A 3 point grading system? Who in all of the hell approves of that? Go with 5 or 10 like a sane person.

Brutal wrote:

AniDB Review Guide

Never ever use the opening or ending animation/music as a basis for your rating. They are only a few minutes and after the first viewing can be easily skipped over since they do not contain story. Only include a mention of them if they are particularly good for some reason and how it's a bonus that it was well done. It should have no bearing on your enjoyment of the actual show.

One more thing. I've seen reviews where people blast something for having no character development. What you need to understand is that some characters come out fully fleshed and do not need development. As long as the character is a good character for the show that it is in, you can't discount the series for lack of character development.
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Edit one more thing:
We have readers who want different things out of reviews. Take comedy shows for an example, one review reader may see "it's funny" and accept it. Another reader may see "it's funny" and then demand what is so funny about it. Some want the nuts and bolts while others seem to need everything related to the anime to make up a decision on whether or not to watch it. Personally I'm tired of seeing reviews the length of short stories and essays. They are filled with information that could be condensed to 1-2 sentences almost all of the time. And that's what I'd try to aim for. 1-2 sentences regarding: Storyline, Animation, Sound, Characters, and any extra thoughts you feel pertinent. This ends up being a 4-10 sentence long affair.

This desire comes also from a lesson I was taught about distilling all the information someone requires into nuggets. I had a teacher that had us read 2 pages of a hardcover textbook and then force us to summarize pertinent information into a logical sentence. This typically flies in the face of other note taking teachers who want you to write down everything there is and basically copy the text. We need to reign in anime reviews and readers the same way. 1 paragraph per section is tiring to read through because not all of the information there is necessary.

I would suggest practicing keywords as well that have special meanings so you can add a lot of information that would be a sentence long or multiple sentences into just 1-2 words. For example: Mentioning the main character's archetype. Instead of describing the main character or characters in detail and mentioning whether you like it or not, use the archetype which will give the reader all the information he needs to know about the character. (SAO follows a Gary Stu) Knowing the main character is a gary stu could be enough to turn someone away because they understand stories and despite the trope. Additionally if you describe a series as "Episodic" then the reader can expect each episode to have little to no bearing on the next episode. Boom, 1 word takes place of the sentence you would use to describe Space Dandy's story structure.


One more edit - I keep coming back to this.
Something else I think is that reviewers should wait 1 - 4 weeks after completing an anime to review it. What that does is when you recall the series from memory (which can be a personal exercise of itself) you focus on the very best and very worst of what you remember. That makes the review more authentic and accurate. If you still recall what you specifically loved or hated about a show after a month then your review will reflect the true nature of your experience. If for example, you can't even remember the main characters' names, then that just shows any reader how utterly forgettable the show is.