Now, the ratings done here at RedQStudios have been done more or less on my whim's, though I decided that in the future I want everything I've reviewed as of today to follow an organized and defined rating system. I've spent an immense amount of effort in creating and contemplating this new rating system, as of today I can only provide one for anime series. But keep in mind that many of these categories for rating an anime can translate into rating a film as well, I'll also make a separate criteria for other mediums I'll review in the future, so this is what some of them may look like from now on. Keep in mind from production to production, the stories they're trying to adapt, and how they go about interpreting, envisioning and applying their skills will differ. I tried to create a system that will work cohesively with all genre's so nothing will get misrepresented.
Since all anime are different and are meant for different audiences and try to different things, I'll be judging on a series to series basis, which means when I tick off categories, I'll judge the particular series for what it's actually trying to do and whether or not what we received from the series actually fit what it was trying to do or if it wasn't and it was bad for the type of genre or story they were trying to tell. This is the only practical way to do it since going from series to series won't always be relative enough to rate two or three things under the same standards and mentality. For example, I'm not going to judge the dialogue pacing of Tatami Galaxy the same way I would judge the dialogue for Clannad, that would just be a ludicrously stupid. Also keep in mind I'm also judging it upon the year it was actually produced. For example it's unfair to judge the original Dragon ball series with the same standards you would judge Hyouka, since their is such a gap in the era's they were made as well as the stories and emotions they we're trying to convey.
As you can see below, this is how I'm going to weigh different general categories. Production quality is a infinitely important, since the production, the medium, which is an anime, is how the story is actually being told and can either enhance or heavily degrade the text it's trying to portray. A story's quality is heavily dependant and influenced by the medium which it is told. Which is why 12 episode adaptations of a 50 hour visual novel can have horrible pacing and screen time for different characters. It also has to do with general sensibilities regarding Film Grammar, Sequential art sense, shot flow & how detailed the world is rendered and depicted in. Be it the voice acting quality, good cinematography or the general pictorial quality. Having a good story on paper is one thing, be able to tell it and sell it is another. A good story teller, can make a horrendously simple and crude story interesting and captivating. This is done through good shot flow, sequencing and staging action. Production quality, be it through a video game, novel or feature film goes hand and hand with the actual story, because in a sense, it also is a part of the story. A story alone is the premise, the potential, the details, events and information - The medium however, is how it's told, and it's the creators job to fully realize the potential of the original story, which I believe is a somewhat more important aspect in storytelling. Production quality doesn't only have to do with the animation, pretty backgrounds or wonderful colours, it's also how a story is produced, created and told. Pictures can tell a thousand words, which is why it's so important because it IS the story in a sense.
This is why it's easier to adapt a Manga than a novel, in the sense that capturing the original vision from the author is easier to do, due to the fact that key shot sequences, frames and characters designs are already established on the visual level. This is because both mediums, Anime and Manga are pictorial based storytelling devices. So when I talk about production quality, it may also inevitably talking about the original manga creators influence on story boards and in how the author originally staged and sequenced action and events. Another example would be silent film of the early turn of the 19th century, no sound and often no words at all, however directors were still able to make very enjoyable experiences and were still able to sell out theatres. This is a prime example of how film alone can tell a story and can very much BE the story. Directors were especially creative regarding facials, body language and framing since it was the was the only way to actually get the story across, the film and it's production literally had to become the story to actually tell it on a visual only basis. Also keep in mind that Characters and stories very much go hand in hand, I could even lump the to categories together and have Characters under story category. a large margin that's bigger than the production weight grading. Creating a character also spawns the lore of the character, how they are and what they do and what they say is a storytelling process within itself, which is why they are so easily intertwined aspects. I simply separated the two to make it less cluttered and more organized, however I won't discourage you from looking at it this way either.
Characters are the one's the drive the story and make a storytelling experience interesting. If Canada was nuked tomorrow, no one would actually care or have a meaningful reaction if people and animals didn't live their in the first place or if it was already a desolate wasteland. This is the reason why expository dialogue with no other purpose than to explain the plot can be immensely boring. The dialogue and story is supposed to reveal character, not the other way around. The plot has many jobs, however it's most important job is to drive things such as character progression and have characters react and guide the hands of the production team responsible for visual aspects behind the scenes, it's also it's job to provoke character reactions. Though you wouldn't be able to have that meaningful provocation if you don't have characters at all or at least characters people care about. You can literally have no overarching narrative at all, and have a completely barebones premise and still have a fun to enjoy and quality series if Characters are great, interactive and have good dialogue. You can have even the stupidest stories continued if you have great characters carrying them.
Think of a series such as Keijo, which has a ludicrously stupid story, yet can be ridiculously entertaining as well. Point is, not every story needs to be life encompassing, intuitive and impactful to make an enjoyable novel, video game or anime, if you ever played Borderlands 2 you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Whearas bad characters can really ruin a good story, though it's not the same effect if the situation is reversed. This is why sit coms are so popular, since you can literally watch at random any episode and not feel continuity issues at all whilst still enjoying yourself, entirely for different reasons not pertaining to the story at all. Many anime in fact follow a similar trend or recipe yet still thrive. However there IS such a thing as hybrid series that incorporate both aspects and make out some of the most successful anime, films and T.v series, and there's also such a thing as productions that are heavily linear and heavily story driven. However, If the story was much more important to an anime or film like people believe, things such as sitcoms wouldn't exist today, which they number in the thousands. I absolutely value a great story, which is why an anime such as Clannad is so highly regarded by me, so the story category will still be weighted so it can still have a large impact on my ratings. In anime, characters are particularly dependant (Though not entirely so) on the production and animation aspects, since good voice actors, choreography of body language and facial expressions and a good character design can sell a character instantaneously on a lot of occasions.
Since I've just written these guidelines, I haven't yet applied it to existing series as of today, but will work on it in the near future. Series that haven't been reviewed yet will not have the most accurate rating since I wouldn't have looked at the series in depth yet, they will solely exist to give a rough idea of what I think of the series. Due to the fluctuating amount of genres and the general purpose and intent of a what an anime or film perhaps is actual trying to do, I've decided that no mathematical grading will be applied to the rating criterion, due to the fact that different creators as well as different viewers prioritize different things, it would be a nil dumb down argument to weigh every anime series under the same umbrella of priorities, because you don't walk into a heavy drama with the same mindset as with when you walk into a slapstick comedy - It's the same on the creative end as well. So rating priorities will be modular and very flexible from production to production.
Anime Series Criteria - Click Here
