The sleeping giant of nyoro power!

It can be as easy as saying, “Follow your heart”. However, nothing is that simple for the anime watcher, who often has to watch a few episodes of a series that seems to be looking good, before realizing that it’s way too late to stop. By then, you curse and swear, yet somewhat want to hope that the ending might satisfy you. Do you often have that kind of feeling and wished at the start that you have chosen a good series to perhaps watch instead of the junk that you have not really enjoyed after the fifth episode?

I have to admit that I do not have any foolproof solution, but here are some of the ways in which I prevent myself from getting overly p***ed. I must admit that I do have quite a bit of luck when it comes to watching a series that meets my expectations. Of course, I will want to see what are the techniques people use to choose, or merely grab everything and have an excellently decaying backlog that ceases to go down (or disappear for that matter).

Here are my little methods of solving the dilemma, and to make that backlog look reasonably normal rather than a mammoth tank. I have listed them in terms of when it should be conducted.

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1. Research, prepare, find out! - 3-4 weeks before anime season starts

If you are wondering, the picture makes zero sense, but dating needs research and preparation too.

The ancients used to say that preparation is the key to success and I do agree with it. Usually, jumping into a random anime to watch is not exactly the best way to find a good series. For every good series out there, there are probably four or even five rubbish/average ones that will make you twist your head in total despair, wondering what got you to actually watch the very motion that is ahead of you. A little few steps such as checking out a few pages of the manga version of the anime (always an indication to see whether you will like the artwork/story), checking the online site for the story plot. Using PukiWiki is a very good source to check out the graphics/story of the upcoming anime.

Two of the great series that I have picked are actually found via such means, and they are Seirei no Moribito and Bokurano. The first preview released for Seirei no Moribito immediately captured my attention and I was quietly waiting for the past three months for its release. Needless to say, the people who have watched this series should know how great it is. Bokurano had a huge manga following when I surfed around animesuki and other anime forums to research on this.

It helps to see comments from others to know what is good or not. Despite the many “idiots” that you sometimes see on forums (which are unavoidable because you have people like me who ask silly questions all the time), there are always a few that speak the common language of human kind and produces a great rhetoric on a certain series. That is how I find out about Hitohira from Hashihime and hence started to watch it just before I almost wanted to drop it.

Of course, without Hitohira, there will not be my fanboy moments of Mugi. Oh my Mugi-chan, the epitome of moe~!

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2. Decide the number of anime you want to watch - 1 week before anime season

Yes, get five. No, get ten. Well, just get me (I wish — Impz).

Trust me, this might seem like a totally rubbish rule that is almost ridiculous. However, the problem with backlogs is because people simply want to get every single anime that they can get their hands on. It’s perhaps a good technique if you have tons of time, but for the many of the casual anime watchers, time is of the essence. Hence, make a number that is generally 1/4 the amount of series maximum that will be shown during the season.

So, for those weak in the ability of numbers, with 48 shows out, the maximum number of shows you should watch is 12. Now, the thing is that with the additional points, you put anime into this bracket until they are filled up. When you are going to put one more in, force yourself to take another out. With that mentality, you take to create a form of quality control to actually bother which shows you will be following. You will be surprised how your choices will be changed and how the chances of getting a good anime actually increases quite significantly.

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3. Check the fansub scene - 1 week after anime season officially starts

Not that I love them, but I do like their cover page quite a bit.

As expected, fansubs are perhaps the groups that follows most closely to series. There are some fansubs that are known to pick pretty decent series of a certain genre, and it is perhaps logical to note that the more fansubs a series has, it is generally quite a watchable show. Yes, it is definitely true that the true good shows of a non-mainstream nature will generally be buried since most fansubs generally enjoy publicity and fansubbing a series that no one except the few anime watchers does not make sense at all.

You have heard of differentiation, and most fansubs like to capture the good shows (or what seems like a good show) right at the start to make sure that they get a bit of popularity. Yes, they do not get paid but everyone knows a good popular site when they see one. They generally pick up good shows way before the season even starts, which means that it is a sure hit or presumed to be a good hit. It does give you a decent shot at it, since most good fansubbers tend to pick shows that have at least some form of a standard. The details of how good a fansub is really subjective, but rely on the top ones and you cannot go wrong.

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4. Check the huge anime forums - 1-2 weeks after season starts

If you are wondering, the picture makes zero sense again, but the girl is cool

More often than not, if you are the type that waits for 1-2 weeks before jumping into the new season proper, major forums like Animesuki or fansub.tv are often good ways to find the popularity of series. If you are lazy as stated above to do that much research, which most normal people with time constraints have, it is always good to allow the masses to check it out for you.

By the second week, a look at the amount of comments and the number of views in the forum will tell you how many people actually like or dislike the series. It might be quite a risky choice but if a show can generate a lot of fandom and comments, it is quite worth the trouble to see what the fuss is about. I mean, even bad “stuff” means that there is something interesting enough for these people who flame/complain to continue watching it, no?

It is also the pre-season buzz of the series that will conjure up what might be anticipated. It’s good to see whether the pre-hype is worth the hype when you look around after 1-2 weeks later, to see whether the new show is actually good!

Well, these are perhaps 4 basic steps that most people will do. Of course, if you are lazy to do all this, you can always visit T.H.A.T Anime Blog or contact me if you have my msn. Always ready to give you advice on anime, and maybe other things!

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