State Your Purpose

Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste.

Let's get these introductions out of the way. I'm Steve, a guy who is old enough to know better than to start his own anime blog, yet dumb enough to do it anyway. I have low opinions of the state of anime reviews/criticism, and my lofty goal by writing this blog is to fix that. Be the change that you want to see in the world, or something like that. I don't know everything, nor do I pretend to. I don't know Japanese and my knowledge of Japanese culture is fleeting. This means I write everything from an American perspective, with all of the faults of an outsider looking into and analyzing another culture that entails. I am not well-versed in film criticism, which is how anime should be criticized since it is a subset of film (and not a fucking genre with that circumvents all rules of storytelling and good taste), but I do try and pick up things to look for from reviewers who are more knowledgeable than me.

What I do know, and will try to express on this blog, is why I like certain anime. I wrote for a now dead blog at my anime club for a year, I have done panels on anime at various conventions, and most importantly I have a system and a plan for how I'm going to blog, which will be revealed as I start up this site. The subtitle of my blog is my guiding purpose, one I have been following since I started watching three episodes of everything at the start of 2011. I'd rather watch a bad show than miss a good one. 

How I go about this is by following a couple simple rules for each new season.

• I will give every show that I watch three episodes, then give it a pass/fail grade as to whether I continue the show. To pass, a show must meet one of two criteria.

1. I enjoy watching the show.
2. I think the show could be good.

• I will watch every new, full-length series that comes out in Japan, with very limited exceptions (no subtitles or an obvious kids show are pretty much the only reasons I won't watch something).
• When I continue a show, I will not drop it until the quarter break, and only then if it's truly horrendous.

That's pretty much it. Sequels are handled by a simple, "did I watch the previous season, do I want more?" question. And, like any good reviewer, I have a scale, it goes from 0-10. The description is as follows:

10 - Best

9 - Excellent

8 - Great

7 - Good

6 - Decent

5 - Average

4 - Mediocre

3 - Bad

2 - Terrible

1 - Horrible

0 - Worst

Each show will get a three episode test (3ET), after which I'll pass or fail it, and if I pass it, I'll give it a proper review once it has finished running. For a list of what I've watched and how I grade shows, please see my MAL account. One thing I am adamant about doing is using my entire scale. This is the opposite of what I observe most anime reviewers doing. On a ten-point scale, the average grade should not be an eight (MAL). The other thing I want to do is use different metrics and stats to see how I compare to fandom at-large, as well as other anime reviewers. Yes, there will be math. Don't worry, there won't be a test.

Finally, I want to close with my most basic rule of fandom, not just anime but in anything. Full credit goes to the moderately insane folks at Wolverine Liberation Army for giving me this quote: "Fandom is irrational and emotional and therefore should be fun." A more complete explanation can be found in their January 27, 2009 article. Yes, it's about football but the points are relevant to any fandom. I watch all of these shows because I find it fun, even when the shows are terrible. More importantly, what's fun for me may not be fun for other people, and that's fine. I don't expect anyone to start doing what I'm doing, especially if it isn't fun for them. What I hope to develop is a blog that is both fun and informative, and if I do that, I think it will be a success.