Need some help in crafting your Anime Review?
Here are some helpful topics you might want to include.
Story | Visuals | Audio | Characters | Overall
STORY
The Story section should contain any comments you have about the plot. This includes ideas about the plot itself (was it boring? Unique? Generic?), and the overall flow of the story (plodding? Put together well?). Any background information you have about the plot, such as references to other cultures and ideas, should be listed here as well. Keep in mind, though, no spoilers are allowed (with the exception of the first few episodes, within reason)
List of suggested topics:
-How original was the plot?
-Did the plot draw itself from other cultures, legends, or folklore?
-Are there any series that are similar as far as the plot goes?
-What would you consider to be the few applicable genres for the anime? If it is an anime that combines several genres, did it work well? (for example, sometimes blending shoujo and tragedy doesn’t work so well)
-How was the flow of the series? Were there long boring parts in the episodes? How about flashbacks, or excessive filler episodes?
-Was the anime heavily plot based, or more focused on character development?
-Did any aspects of the plot borrow elements of other series you’ve seen? Or real life movies?
-Was the story confusing, or were things explained well? (perhaps you could add something about the subtitles not corresponding with what was actually said…)
-Did the ending fit the tone of the series, and did it work well? (VERY IMPORTANT NOT to spoil, but I think it’s always good to say if you thought the ending was fitting, regardless of how it ended)
- Any major plot holes?
-In general, did you feel the story was presented well? Sometimes series have a great way of tying episodes together…whether it is because they are slowly revealing pieces of the puzzle, or are entertaining in some other way. How did you feel when finishing this series?
-Although there is a separate character section, did you feel the characters played a part in the plot? Or was it more like an action heavy brainless viewing?
VISUALS
The visuals section should encapsulate * shocking * anything related to…VISUALS! This includes the animation and any special effects, as well as character designs. (Visual designs, NOT character types or roles, which should be discussed in the characters section)
List of suggested topics:
-Discuss the colors used in the series. What was the overall palette? Dark tones due to the anime being based mostly at night/cyberpunk? Pastels from a dating-sim series?
-In addition to the colors, discuss the brightness or other qualities of the colors. Were the colors very vivid and bright? Or fuzzy and watercolor looking? Or, for example, I’ve seen some series which have fuzzy edges around everything.
-How were the backgrounds? Sunsets, buildings, any backgrounds are fair game.
-How was the level or detail for basically everything?
-Explain the character designs. There is quite a bit to describe here. Simply saying “the designs look like cyberpunk” is inadequate and frankly- LAME. EXPLAIN in more DETAIL. Faces, for example. Do they have large eyes, non existent noses, or perhaps a more realistic look? How about the hair?
-Thickness of lines is always a good thing to point out, both for character designs (thick chunky lines on the face? Lots of little lines to show facial detail?), and background items.
-How was the shading? For character designs this could be related to if there are many layers of shading on the face/clothing, or very simple blocky shading. Shading for other things besides characters should be similar to describe.
-How were the special effects? Not just different types of animation, but were explosions and such animated well, or super cheesy?
-Were any other kinds of graphics used except regular animation? For example, was real video mixed with the animation, was CG used (was it seamlessly mixed or really cheesy?), were there lots of still scenes, or scenes that looked like they were from a manga/hand drawn?
-Were there any unusual scene changes or transitions? This might not be applicable for many series, but some series I’ve seen have very unique transitions.
AUDIO
Audio should include the music (DUH!), as well as voice acting.
List of suggested topics:
-What was the mood of the music? Light hearted? Depressing? Did this mood fit the tone of the actual series, or sound ridiculously matched?
-What was the music made up of? Orchestral instruments, singing, cheesy tracks, etc.
-How many songs were used? Did the anime play the same few songs over and over, or have a variety of songs to choose from?
-Did you feel the music was effective in making the anime an enjoyable experience, or did it detract from it?
-Did all the voice actors fit the parts well? Please specify in your review if you watched the dubbed or subbed/raw version.
CHARACTERS
There are a lot of things that can be discussed here about the characters, so just check the list below
List of suggested topics:
-Was there a lot of character development?
-Were the characters developed well? This might sound like the previous question, but it’s not. Sometimes an anime will have a great deal of character development, but it doesn’t actually work well and the characters don’t actually seem developed.
-Were the characters’ roles stereotypical, or unique?
-Did the characters fit their roles well?
-Did you become empathetic towards the character, or not care if they bit the big one?
-Explain if the character interaction was effective or not…or meaningful.
OVERALL
The overall section is usually a summary of how you thought the anime was. You might find it easy to summarize the basic points of each of the above sections, and how that fits in with your final score. Also, put information about rewatchability in this section. In general did you enjoy the series, think it’s an interesting watch, and recommend others to see it? Or not?
