Otaku, No Video

"Fashion High School" by MADdemoiselle on Flickr

I’m tired of reading bad anime and manga reviews. I bet you are, too.

Here are a few core principles that I intend to live by in writing anime reviews. Will you join me?

No Value Words

Words like “good,” “fine,” and ”terrible” only communicate my preferences, not information about the work itself. They just say what I like.

Instead of saying that a show has “good characters,” I will describe what was good about the characters.

The only exceptions to this are elements withgenerally-agreed-uponstandards of quality, like number of drawings.

No Plot Summaries

People can read plot summaries on Wikipedia, ANN, MyAnimeList, or a number of other sites. It’s not worth their time to read my re-wording of those summaries, and it’s a poor use of my time to write them when I could be analyzing instead.

I Will Research

I will read others’ reviews of a work I’m about to review. Where possible, I will build on their points.

No Spoilers

Anything in episode 1 of an anime or volume 1 of a long-running manga is fair game. Anything after that must be described in the broadest of terms, and must not reveal who lives, dies, or is permanently changed.

Exceptions can be made for older works.

Is there anything else I should add?