I use Anime Database websites like
Anlist and
Anime-Planet mainly to help me keep track of what Anime I have and haven't watched for my own sake. The thing I’ve increasingly noticed is how I feel compelled to score an Anime on an at least Semi-Objective out of 5 or out of 10 scaling system doesn’t correlate well to how often I feel compelled to revisit one or talk about it.
It honestly feels more useful to put them in categories rather than mathematical rankings.
First there are my Favorites, the Anime I would unambiguously start with when trying to summarize what my taste in Anime is, as well as what I consider masterpieces even when they don't entirely conform to my general tastes. You can get a taste of these by looking at what I list as Favorites on those Database websites, but on those sites I try to list only one entry per franchise, the truth is most any franchise that produces one Favorite of mine probably also has many other entries I could have listed.
Then there are shows that I like and consider worthy of how successful they are, but wouldn’t call a personal favorite and probably wouldn’t talk about as much as I do if they weren’t among the most well known Anime, a frame of reference I can be confident most people into Anime at all will somewhat understand.
Examples would include Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, Mushoku Tensei, Vinland Saga, Frieren and Delicious In Dungeon. Those are all shows from the last 15 years, certainly there are older shows I could put in this category?
Maybe the more of an Old Classic something is, the harder it is for me to even be self aware how much my own praise for it is because it has that Classic status. Revolutionary Girl Utena and Serial Experiments Lain are shows I feel like I rank higher than any of those I just listed, yet I rewatch them less often, maybe that’s just because they are such uniquely Dense and thus intellectually exhausting shows to watch. Cowboy Bebop is probably the clearest 90s version of a show I feel exactly this way about.
Then there are shows I like about as much as the second category but may seem more enthusiastic about because of how much my talking about them exists in the context of defending them against the hate they receive from the online Anime Community at large. Rent-A-Girlfriend, Future Diary, a number of Isekai. Of course some stuff in the second category does receive similar hate in certain contexts, (in fact several years ago I’d probably have placed SAO here but the intensity of it’s hate seems to have died down). But I don’t talk about them so defensively because their vocal unironic fandoms are pretty visible.
Then there are shows I like about the same as those two categories but indeed I don’t wind up talking about much because it often feels like I’m the only one even aware of them. When they are talked about on this Blog it's because I’m currently or recently watched them or they’re relevant to some specific topic I’m talking about. But even within this category there are some I’m more likely to actively recommend to others when I feel like they are the kind of show someone is looking for but hasn’t found on their own.
Engage Kiss is one example as are most shows I mentioned in
the Anime Neo-Westerns post, as well as the shows I like to recommend as Fantasy Anime that in no way feel like Isekai even though they came out during this Isekai era like
Grimoire of Zero and it’s spin off
Dawn of The Witch, or
Tales of Zestiria, WorldEnd and
Manaria Friends which are also from 2017 or the film
Maquia.
And then there are shows I have significant issues with, but also have something I find fascinating about them, about what they could have been, that has me thinking about them more than many shows in the fourth category. Wonder Egg Priority is placed here, a lot of people seem to feel this way about that show but my opinion is more overfall positive then most peoples. But arguably the show the character I use as my Avatar comes from is in this category.
And then as perhaps an Evil Counterpart to the second category are shows I failed to enjoy that I would have never thought about again at all if they didn’t become super popular, if I didn’t feel like I was the only one to watch it and not like it. I don’t want to be a person who hates on things others enjoy, but sometimes I can’t help myself and need to say my piece. The lead Anime in this category is probably Revue Starlight.
Thing is, while I’m pretty sure every Anime I have any strong opinions on at all are in one of these categories, I’m not always sure myself which one. Like I certainly can’t confuse the first two categories with the bottom one, but in between those is a lot of fluidity.