MyAnimeList rank inflation and anime that stood out in their time

About a week ago on [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1q97ddt/are_folks_using_mal_or_al_more_these_days/nyxrr4i/?context=3) post [I saw a comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1q97ddt/are_folks_using_mal_or_al_more_these_days/nyueyxo/) by /u/lordposedyon that made an interesting point:

> The sad and bad thing is that if an anime is lets say from 2008 and is an anime which I know I would love but have no knowledge of its existence ... List is dominated with recently released anime

I never really considered that. I was curious in two things:

1. How much rank inflation is there? (Inflation may not be the right term, but you get the right idea)
2. What are anime that may be undervalued because a 7.0 rating for that year is really like a 7.5 today, etc.

Of course, it may really be that anime has just gotten better over time and the ratings map onto reality pretty well. Not entirely sure but just a fun day project I ran in the background while I did stuff.

[Ranks over time for anime with >= 100 ratings](https://i.imgur.com/BMnQcEB.png)

[Same thing but for >= 1000 ratings](https://i.imgur.com/vqRZpnX.png)

Pretty clear indicator imo things have gone up over time, but it balances out a little the more popular stuff is. Don't really care to run statistical analysis on it.

That being said, what I'm interesting in is what anime may be overlooked because of when they were made? I'm using [z-scores](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_score) just as the easiest way to measure this AKA which anime were positive outliers the most in their year.

## Top 10 Outperformers for Their Year

I'll put in bold actually interesting results

| Z-Rank | Orig Rank | Title | Year | Score | Z-Score |
|--------|-----------|-------|------|-------|---------|
| 1 | 41 | [**Ashita no Joe 2**](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2921) | 1980 | 8.77 | 4.20 |
| 2 | 43 | [Spirited Away](https://myanimelist.net/anime/199) | 2001 | 8.77 | 3.64 |
| 3 | 175 | [**Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho**](https://myanimelist.net/anime/392) | 1992 | 8.46 | 3.56 |
| 4 | 10 | [**Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu**](https://myanimelist.net/anime/820) | 1988 | 9.02 | 3.48 |
| 5 | 19 | [Gintama](https://myanimelist.net/anime/918) | 2006 | 8.93 | 3.45 |
| 6 | 2 | [Sousou no Frieren](https://myanimelist.net/anime/52991) | 2023 | 9.29 | 3.43 |
| 7 | 36 | [**Hajime no Ippo**](https://myanimelist.net/anime/263) | 2000 | 8.78 | 3.42 |
| 8 | 4 | [Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood](https://myanimelist.net/anime/5114) | 2009 | 9.10 | 3.40 |
| 9 | 25 | [Monster](https://myanimelist.net/anime/19) | 2004 | 8.89 | 3.36 |
| 10 | 5 | [Steins;Gate](https://myanimelist.net/anime/9253) | 2011 | 9.07 | 3.36 |

Most of the next 10 is gintama so lol

### Biggest movers using z-score

Honestly this one is always just anime from the first year you filter by --- like if I set the earliest to consider to be 2000, they're all just 2001. Not very interesting imo

### Hidden gems?

Arbitrary picking anime that were in the top 500 z-score wise, but were below 500 on MAL rankings. It gave the kind of results I wanted where there's a lot of shows I've never watched but some of them seem somewhat interesting. Some of them are junk though I don't think I want to watch a kids show

| Title | Year | Score | Z-Rank | Orig Rank | Z-Score |
|-------|------|-------|--------|-----------|---------|
| [Lupin III](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1412) | 1971 | 7.62 | 28 | 1597 | 3.04 |
| [City Hunter](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1470) | 1987 | 7.90 | 78 | 878 | 2.67 |
| [Touch](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1065) | 1985 | 7.98 | 80 | 747 | 2.66 |
| [Kurenai no Buta](https://myanimelist.net/anime/416) | 1992 | 7.96 | 97 | 775 | 2.55 |
| [Oniisama e...](https://myanimelist.net/anime/795) | 1991 | 7.87 | 107 | 965 | 2.52 |
| [Kidou Senshi Zeta Gundam](https://myanimelist.net/anime/85) | 1985 | 7.90 | 113 | 894 | 2.50 |
| [Candy Candy](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2800) | 1976 | 7.60 | 120 | 1669 | 2.48 |
| [Ie Naki Ko](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2828) | 1977 | 7.89 | 127 | 900 | 2.46 |
| [Ginga Nagareboshi Gin](https://myanimelist.net/anime/589) | 1986 | 8.01 | 156 | 697 | 2.40 |
| [Meitantei Conan Movie 05: Tengoku e no Countdown](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1364) | 2001 | 8.11 | 169 | 556 | 2.37 |
| [Uchuu Senkan Yamato](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1650) | 1974 | 7.54 | 172 | 1905 | 2.37 |
| [Dragon Ball](https://myanimelist.net/anime/223) | 1986 | 7.98 | 179 | 742 | 2.35 |
| [Kidou Senshi Gundam 0080: Pocket no Naka no Sensou](https://myanimelist.net/anime/82) | 1989 | 8.00 | 191 | 708 | 2.31 |
| [Hokuto no Ken](https://myanimelist.net/anime/967) | 1984 | 7.95 | 194 | 787 | 2.31 |
| [Hikaru no Go](https://myanimelist.net/anime/135) | 2001 | 8.07 | 202 | 608 | 2.30 |
| [Macross: Do You Remember Love?](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1089) | 1984 | 7.93 | 209 | 826 | 2.28 |
| [Princess Tutu](https://myanimelist.net/anime/721) | 2002 | 8.14 | 220 | 504 | 2.25 |
| [Crayon Shin-chan](https://myanimelist.net/anime/966) | 1992 | 7.81 | 221 | 1076 | 2.25 |
| [City Hunter '91](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1473) | 1991 | 7.74 | 228 | 1258 | 2.24 |
| [Mazinger Z](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2253) | 1972 | 7.28 | 230 | 3080 | 2.23 |
| [Giant Robo the Animation: Chikyuu ga Seishi Suru Hi](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2321) | 1992 | 7.80 | 232 | 1114 | 2.23 |
| [Lupin III: Part II](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1425) | 1977 | 7.77 | 242 | 1177 | 2.21 |
| [Hadashi no Gen](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1824) | 1983 | 7.77 | 243 | 1188 | 2.21 |
| [Igano Kabamaru](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2762) | 1983 | 7.77 | 243 | 1170 | 2.21 |
| [Interstella5555: The 5tory of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem](https://myanimelist.net/anime/731) | 2003 | 8.13 | 250 | 506 | 2.20 |
| [Haha wo Tazunete Sanzenri](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1663) | 1976 | 7.47 | 258 | 2196 | 2.18 |
| [Fullmetal Alchemist](https://myanimelist.net/anime/121) | 2003 | 8.11 | 265 | 542 | 2.16 |
| [Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Arata naru Tatakai no Overture](https://myanimelist.net/anime/3016) | 1993 | 8.07 | 270 | 605 | 2.15 |
| [Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S](https://myanimelist.net/anime/532) | 1994 | 7.91 | 271 | 871 | 2.15 |
| [Yuusha-Ou GaoGaiGar Final](https://myanimelist.net/anime/1382) | 2000 | 8.09 | 273 | 575 | 2.15 |

> Isn't this just going through the top ranking animes and just finding the old ones?

Yeah pretty much

Voir le contenu lié

Commentaires

Dinoswarleaf2026-01-18 07:25

I could make more stuff digging into useful things like per year (2008 per OP's request -- this is kind of going super hard into older anime which may be a bit strong in stuff aging for some people for hidden gems) or make a website to make it easier to dig through but as a software dev I feel it'd kind of be a dick move to repurpose MAL's data for that without asking idk

Souvik_Dutta2026-01-18 08:39

Interesting post. But I have few queries on the analysis

1. Did you consider anime ratings go down overtime due to many factors like recency bias, season hype or even quality of animation and direction as it becomes old? Would be good to take the ratings of the anime let's say 5 years from its release and see the trend instead of current rating

2. How does popularity factor come into play here? As more people start watching a anime the ratings generally go down as everyone may not enjoy the genre or type. Currently more people watch anime so popularity ranking wise it surpasses old anime but if we take % of total anime watchers watching an anime it might be lower than before as a lot more anime are coming out now than before. So in that sense the diversity of people watching and rating old anime might be higher than today causing a lower but more reliable rating for older anime.

naliem12026-01-18 10:51

What you say about taking the score 5 years after airing just makes so much sense to me rather than trying to adjust every score to today's standard, albeit there would be no anime more recent than 2020 with this method, but would definitely love to see the data.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-18 15:38

I think its fine, MAL has a ton of derivatives using its database and I never once saw a complain from MAL about that

WhamBamTurkeyHam2026-01-18 07:36

Incredible post

BuhSlider2026-01-18 07:39

Wtf is this gem doing on my engagement bait website?

Please explain in "About Me: Revised Edition" terms.

YellowAppleCinema2026-01-18 09:51

"Wtf is this gem doing on my engagement bait website?"

Don't worry if you were expecting to see engagement bait, Mushoku Tensei comes out soon, so prepare for another 5 years of daily baits "Is Mushoku Tensei a hidden gem?", "Why do some people dislike Mushoku Tensei?"

instant 500 comments where 250 people refuse understanding the opinion of the other 250 people

Kuramhan2026-01-18 16:38

Any advice of where to find this kind of discussion? All the reddit alternatives seem to be worse for anime.

johneaston12026-01-18 07:44

I'm honestly a bit surprised to see Galactic Heroes as such an outlier when 1988 also had Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Akira, Gunbuster, and Patlabor.

Always happy to see Ashita no Joe get recognized though.

ValiantNaberius2026-01-18 08:45

Doesn't really surprise me; even with how long it's been and what released around it, it has a niche but *really* strong and lasting fan following.

cosmo3212026-01-18 10:06

Also, the way MAL calculates weighted averages favors long shows, as only people who watch more than 1/5 of the show are added to the score. For LOGH that means you have to watch 22 episodes for your rating to count. If you already watched 22 episodes you like the show at least somewhat. Similarly, for One Piece you have to watch more than 200 episodes. This will 100% favor the rating of One Piece. I've watched 117 episodes, rated it an 8, which is below average for the show, but it doesn't count because my watch count is too low. You will have a similar bias towards sequels, because only people who enjoy the first season will watch and rate the next one.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-19 15:56

the sequel bias is also a good sign for something to have gone wrong massively if the score is lower than the original

Acidian2026-01-18 10:30

What I associate Galactic Heroes the most with, is that it was SomethingAwfuls favorite anime. It used to be a huge forum back in the day (probably still is), reddit before reddit, and it was consistently the most recommended on that forum.

Tomahawkist2026-01-18 11:07

it IS really good though

0neTwoTree2026-01-18 14:52

I'm shocked Touch is that high. It's a masterclass in storytelling but it does drag

rachellsoft2026-01-18 15:27

1988 was absolutely stacked with legends, but it just goes to show how insane the writing in Galactic Heroes is for it to still tower over literal masterpieces like Akira!

themadweaz2026-01-18 19:12

I mean, LOTGH is probably the best space opera ever written. So.. yeah, it should be pretty high on the list.

Worth_Dependent65322026-01-18 07:44

2007 - 2015 is the golden age of anime, you can pretty much watch everything.

Joseki1002026-01-18 07:50

MAL scores are another anecdotal evidence that as a society we collectively are shifting to an ever increasingly polarising narrative of reality.
Things stopped being good or decent, everything is either the new best thing ever or sucks ass.
We lost nuance, the acceptance to something being just good.

Dinoswarleaf2026-01-18 07:59

Interesting note! [In a given year, the range of scores on MAL have gotten "wider" in rating over time](https://i.imgur.com/nXUves5.png). Why that is I'll leave up to others. I'd be curious to see if shows individually have gotten wider in their ratings overall haha maybe another day

IcyEmployment52026-01-18 08:35

I'd say the loss of nuance is pretty true but only for the most popular things. It's either the best show of the year or overrated trash.

Statistically speaking since we see both a slight increase in std dev and an increase in mean, it just suggests that we give more varied high scores. Without seeing medians and percentiles we can't really tell what's up with extreme ratings. But it does suggests rating inflation.

My interpretation is that we have more ratings in general, anime is much more common and popular today than it was 20 years ago, this means that we got more people giving good ratings to popular shows and also more people watching everything a season has to offer, so more people to voice which animes are just bad.

The increase in people watching only the popular stuff should be higher than people watching just about everything and giving varying ratings, so we see a higher mean. Add to that the few haters of popular shows and you get your higher std dev from the haters + the people that watch everything.

goffer542026-01-18 09:05

Personally, I feel like the gulf between the "good" anime and the "bad" anime has been getting wider over the past decade or so. There's more money in anime than ever before, but the actual industry isn't much bigger. So you have production comities putting all their eggs into fewer and fewer baskets hoping for that big payout. This season had, what, 4 shows with 40+ minute pilot episodes? An extra long pilot used to be very rare. But for every Frieren, we get half a dozen barely animated isekais.

MisawaMahoKodomo2026-01-19 08:41

Like everyone has said I think its a combination between

* 1: Theres a lot of backlog anime to choose from and new anime
* 2: a lot of crappy new anime
* 3: new viewers
* 4: old ("salty/jaded/disillusioned") viewers (emphasis)
* 5: and/or people who bing anime in one day and then give it a 5/10 or force themselves to watch just because

ValiantNaberius2026-01-18 08:54

It's a much bigger ask, but this makes me wanna see the distribution of scores by year to see if the polarizing effect has pulled the spread away from the 'mid' scores.

Rude_Tough4852026-01-18 11:56

Partly, I'd guess it's because more anime is produced per year? So it's just plain likely more crap anime and more good anime is produced. But I'll leave you to tell me if I'm right or wrong.

Sant2682026-01-18 08:34

this. it has also been detrimental to some shows which didn't \*need\* to be perfect. my example on that would be *Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie*
The only real reason to label it as trash was "too slow" or "didn't compare well to other shows ", but since everyone just marked it up as trash-qual people overlooked that it was just a chill, enjoyable show

other thing i've observed is \*because\* the "peak" shows take up so much of the spotlight, some shows just go unwatched, which don't necessarily have the production quality of the larger projects but a really cool story- like Yatagarasu

dalzmc2026-01-18 09:11

I absolutely feels-rate a little bit because I think enjoyment should be a factor too. An average seasonal trash show that I look forwards to a little more should be scored higher by me than one that I don’t watch on release days even if they’re objectively both equally mid. Maybe that ruins MaL ratings but I’m using the site to keep a record for me lol

a show with a character managing to piss me off an extraordinary amount (with their actions, when it’s consistent.. think mc from school days lol) gets consideration for a bit more score because that means they did their job

But, while I was absolutely miserable watching your lie in April for a handful of personal reasons, I gave it one of my highest scores because it’s objectively pretty damn good, and as a former and serious classical violinist and pianist (yes this was one of the aforementioned personal reasons), I absolutely loved how they animated the instrument playing, since it would all match 1:1 perfectly to a professional performance; I hadn’t seen any of the other animes that do a good job with that yet.

Idk. Are mal ratings that serious lol

Sant2682026-01-18 09:23

i kinda understand this cause I didn't enjoy makeine but everyone else did, so I "get it" that ratings are highly personal but -- i think for both of us here, we're saying the same thing.
the discussion "around" MAL ratings being "collectively objective" is just meh.

My friends hated 86,Monogatari but personally I'd rate it higher than anything else I've watched. People \*loved\* Violet Evergarden's movie but I \*hated\* it as I didn't want to see Violet being back with Gilbert (that just ruined the anime's story lol)
so yea, highly personal, true.

dalzmc2026-01-18 09:51

Yeah! like of course a show with a 9 average would almost definitely be objectively better than one with a 3, but when the numbers are closer its so difficult to say it’s due to the objective quality of the show and not personal preference, the influence of “others”, etc

FassLuvr2026-01-18 09:29

It took me multiple tries to finally give Yatagarasu a chance past the first few episodes because there was such a huge cast of characters and I thought they were all incredibly boring. It also didn't help that people recommended it as a "if you liked Apothecary Diaries, you'll like this" type show, when MaoMao is such a strong lead. I assume people mostly suggested it because, hey it also looks Chinese and also involves royalty shenanigans! But it really set my expectations the wrong way.

Anyway I'm glad I was able to power through it because ultimately it is quite a good show. Once the main character is established, I started enjoying it quite a bit.

Sant2682026-01-18 09:50

glad you liked it! i had that same thing with hyouka initially, but once I just got used to it, slow-burn anime just presented itself really well to me. Enjoyed Shoshimin (especially Part 2) so much, just worth letting the anime "get" to you a couple episodes in.

Vertrix-V-2026-01-18 10:30

Did people call Shikimori trash though? It certainly has a lower rating than I thought it'd get but that was mostly because it was really hyped up by some people, probably leading to a lot of people watching this show that wouldn't normally have watched it and didn't enjoy it.
It should have a higher rating imo but oh well, can't change it now.
I was recently also surprised that Zatsu Tabi had a 6er rating instead of a ~7.5 I thought it would get. Was so relaxing. Nice travel anime that includes some interesting information about the places and most importantly TRAINS

myRNGisNOTGOOD2026-01-18 08:53

Everything becomes "peak" "mid" (which funny enough means trash) or "trash". With that being the only way to rate things, it really should just be a 1-3 rating at this point.

I try to keep my list using 1-10 and some of my 5's are definitely shows that are incredibly popular but didn't hit for me or what people would consider trash and it was average enough for me.

The lack of nuance makes having discussions about shows so hard today.

Academic_Storm69762026-01-18 09:39

Mid to me means "It's not bad, but there's no reason to watch it compared to better shows", which is actually a useful term.

Of course peak/mid/trash are not used consistently.

BeatBlockP2026-01-18 10:51

I look at it like actual scores on a test. "5" means you've already failed, and all the numbers below it are many levels of suck. I also do it to stay at least somewhat in line with the site itself (5 doesn't mean "average", it means "horrible").

So it's kind of logarithmic scale. It explodes near the end. The gap from 7 (ok show with serious flaws) to 8 (good show I'd recommend watching) is big. And the gap to 9 (Fantastic show that really stands out) is even bigger. I have just two 10s, for example ([my full list is here](https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Animemes_chan?status=2&order=4&order2=0) and on my flair).

It's the same thing as the 5 star system. 2.5/5 stars is basically crap for service providers, so you're left with very little nuance at the top. Similarly to the paucity of 10s, I don't have a lot of the lower scores. Just 4 "4"s, one "3" and a single "2" (which isn't even on the list since it is in the "dropped" list - Re:do of healer).

PerceptionOk85432026-01-18 11:25

Based Shinsekai Yori enjoyer

Shinkopeshon2026-01-18 13:29

People even see 6 and 7s and think they're bad scores lol

Even an anime that has a 5/10 overall rating on MAL can be a lot of fun but I guess with the sheer amount of critically acclaimed titles readily available these days, people only want to see the best of the best - and if those don't live up their high expectations, they get a more damning score, I guess

_BMS2026-01-18 10:02

MAL rankings make more sense when you just mentally shift the posts for their 10-point system to start at MAL 5.00 and goes to MAL 10.00.

* MAL 5.00 = 0.00

* MAL 6.00 = 1.00

* ...

* MAL 10.00 = 5.00

The rare entry rated in the 5s or below usually has truly awful production quality and/or incomprehensible writing.

Shows in the 6s are usually "turn off brain" time filler shows while 7s are usually decent time filler shows.

8-10 really just means a show is at least high quality in some aspect(s), but it's honestly entirely subjective in this range. Most people will enjoy most of these shows when the average community rating is up here.

Blackspearr2026-01-18 10:08

This. It's not a good thing for people not familiar with MAL but when you get used to it its somewhat ok. And you can see it in works when comparing anime with score of 9+ and anything below 8. The difference is score in not much but there will be always few aspects that one does much better over another.

ad3z102026-01-19 01:57

>It's not a good thing for people not familiar with MAL but when you get used to it its somewhat ok.

It's also fairly intuitive when you compare it to something like restaurant reviews. Anything below a 3/5 is going to have some major flaws and a 2 or lower is pretty much reserved for places actively causing food poisoning.

lan600002026-01-18 10:35

pretty much this. if a show drops below 5, i have to question why I'm even still watching the heap of garbage in the first place, and often times I can't give myself a decent answer to keep going. 1-5 is just how bad the show is for me to stop watching

NUFC9RW2026-01-18 12:12

For me if something has passable animation, art style and solid voice acting it can't go below a 5, even if I find the story boring. There shouldn't be many shows below a 5 because these shows shouldn't make it to air.

qef152026-01-19 02:02

To make it simpler for the people in the back: it's like a school grading system.

6 is barely passable.

7 is smack on average.

8 is good, a good amount above average

9 and 10 are up for debate, my personal interpretation is that 9 goes for incredible works that don't reach the absolute top and 10 means about flawless (this is all subjective of course).

offoy2026-01-18 10:12

If this were true, we would observe the same thing with movies (or anything else really), but for example in imdb top movie list this is not the case.

https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/?ref_=tt_nv_menu

XkF21WNJ2026-01-18 19:15

That, or it's simply people slowly drifting towards more tactical voting.

There's a reason a lot of websites don't bother with anything other than 'good' or 'bad'.

epik_fayler2026-01-18 07:51

Here's what I will say about the rating inflation. Animation quality has absolutely gotten better over time, there is no denying this. Animation quality clearly plays a part, maybe even a very large part in ratings. For example, demon slayers high rating can at least be partially attributed to animation. OPM s1 animation quality clearly plays a part in its rating and s2 and s3 lower ratings reflect the animation quality drop.

Now is this the only reason for the rating inflation? Who knows. Maybe people these days do just rate higher, however I do think it is at least a little fair that modern animes will have higher ratings.

North5142026-01-18 08:06

[deleted]

epik_fayler2026-01-18 08:09

No it's not. You can argue that you like older animation more due to style. But modern animation uses techniques that would have been impossible 20 years ago.

North5142026-01-18 08:11

[deleted]

epik_fayler2026-01-18 08:14

The # of frames, the things happening in each frame, the quality of background art. Just look at makoto shinkais movies. The quality of the animation in those movies were strictly not possible 20 years ago.

Also look at demon slayer. 80% of the fight scenes in demon Slayer were absolutely impossible 20 years ago. Most of the effects involve high tech cg. The crazy cinematic camera movements also involve cg. The lighting also uses modern techniques.

North5142026-01-18 08:20

[deleted]

epik_fayler2026-01-18 08:27

Maybe you don't know what quality is. Yes you can find modern animation ugly. That's totally subjective.
But animators are literally just better at animating now than they used to be. Like you can't really argue against that. How could an industry get worse as people learn from their predecessors?

Animators now aren't choosing to not animate like they use to because they can't. They don't because it's just not as good as what they can do now. This doesn't mean everyone will like it more. Some people out there like black and white movies more. But modern movies obviously have much better cinematography.

North5142026-01-18 08:31

> Maybe you don't know what quality is. Yes you can find modern animation ugly. That's totally subjective. But animators are literally just better at animating now than they used to be. Like you can't really argue against that. How could an industry get worse as people learn from their predecessors?

Well learning isn't a linear track. By this argument, all fiction now is written better than ever before, as we of course learned from our betters, yet people still promote writers like Tolkien, Herbert, Orwell or Dickens as some of the best in the English business.

Not to mention, we have more strain on animators, than ever before. JP animators have gone on record about that.

Also, yes, I am aware of what quality is Definition: the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

So again, how is a work having more frames, evident of excellence? Why couldn't someone find the process and end work of classic cell animation better than something like DS in your mind?

>Some people out there like black and white movies more. But modern movies obviously have much better cinematography.

Uh no? How is this obvious? This is a subjective viewpoint.

CuntJab2026-01-18 08:24

It's not, bro. The Demon Slayer films are factually impossible to make if they were done 30 years ago. That's not being subjective. Whereas, if modern animators wanted to recreate the style of the past, they could.... They just choose not to nowadays because it's way more demanding and less people demand it.

lalindu1232026-01-18 08:55

It's not impossible to animate the infinity castle without 3d but that would be stupidly difficult to do it for 2.5 hours

CuntJab2026-01-18 09:24

No, it is. That’s not a subject to be argued over. It’s factually impossible to replicate it with the technology back then. I’d like you to bring up an anime from the ’90s that has the special effects DS has.

brokenwingsR2026-01-18 08:13

>"Quality" is an entirely subjective discussion.

It's not. They're referring to animation, not art style.

North5142026-01-18 08:17

[deleted]

brokenwingsR2026-01-18 08:31

No, it isn't.

I don't like many modern anime, however, I'm talking about technical standards, NOT your personal taste. Draftsmanship, layouts, motion, timings, camera. They have to draw the body in motion with natural movement and weight. This is insanely hard.

It has gone up in the sense that there are more freelancers in this time doing this than there's ever been. There's more support studios to assist with background art and other things.

Many of these older anime you're referring to still had a plethora of technical skill from the best in the industry behind them. You and I prefer the way it looks. This is not what I'm talking about.

BluePoros2026-01-18 08:46

That other guy was probably just thinking in the primary art and not supporting frames n backgrounds

brokenwingsR2026-01-18 09:03

I spent time writing a nice and thoughtful reply just for them to delete their comments lol

brokenwingsR2026-01-18 09:05

Since you deleted your comment I don't feel like wasting the time I spent replying.

You can prefer it, but you can’t generalize all old anime as 'quality.' Some are great, some are mediocre. It makes more sense to associate quality with the actual staff and work done on a production, not just whether it was animated on cels or digitally.

I'm not saying modern anime is \*better\*, I'm saying the average quality has gone up enough for the broader audience to notice between the increased amount of productions. This is mostly because of digital workflows and the fact there are more freelancers, including international ones. The average bad show is a little better now than the older bad one.

The top productions are where the lines blur a little, and most people conflate the studio name with quality like every single key animator was in-house, when in reality it's the animation producer with a big network of talent, and a good director and production committee.

BluePoros2026-01-18 08:35

Animation quality really does give a huge boost; some of the good older anime can't compete when the new ones are pretty much filling almost every frame with eye candy, butter smooth effects and colors. People that started watching scenes from stuff like demon slayer or oshi no ko will have a harder time to start older anime where the animation was restrained in comparison

I'd say animation quality is where it starts snowballing, from there it's pretty much tunneled influx of viewership cuz anime is much easily available and people nowadays tend to focus on just watching what's "good" and popular cuz they don't wanna waste time on something that might not be as good

Opm s2 reflects the drop in quality s3 adds the disappoinment and rage of the fanbase both really just have mid tier animation. It's like the reverse of Kingdom, ratings for Kingdom skyrocket after s1 cuz pretty much the fandom is the only one watching and rating it

Gullible_Egg_65392026-01-18 11:19

I think this is the explanation. And also, as anime shifts from a niche hobby to a mainstream one, we will notice that scores start reflecting entertainment instead of depth and other elitist factors that most people don't really notice. Solo Leveling is the greatest example. The story for the first 2 seasons isn't that deep, but the music and animation and setting make the show really entertaining for almost anyone who wants to watch it. The same goes for Demon Slayer. Anime is being rated as a complete media right now instead of "who has the best story", and this is objectively the correct way to rate a show, because everyone watches shows in order to be entertained. Having your mind blown or life perspective changed is still entertainment, but it only happens to a small percentage of the viewers and therefore carries less weight towards the final ratings.

RetroZelda2026-01-18 07:56

navigating reddit is just digging through dog shit. op is a dog that ate a diamond ring, and we were the lucky ones to find it.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-18 15:53

ironically this is how I used to describe watching seasonal anime, most of it is generic shit but if you dig through it long enough you will find gold

CaptainFalco3112026-01-18 07:56

[removed]

baseballlover7232026-01-18 08:59

Sorry, your comment has been removed.

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- Even if it's a joke, it still can't stay here, otherwise everyone else would use the "it's a prank" defense.

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Kirbyeggs2026-01-18 07:58

So even though Frieren released in 2023 it still outperformed its year by that much? Insane.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-18 15:32

I guess a 9.0+ show will just do that, getting 8.5+ is super rare already

DrumzumrD2026-01-18 08:02

I think back in the day MAL users stuck to a bell-curve rubric, where 5/10 was passable, and scores got increasingly rare, with 9+ reserved for true masterpieces. Flipping through reviews from that era, it also seems like people were far more critical of things I'd consider secondary to a show's enjoyability--they'd call out things like the variety of outfits, or level of background detail in the art.

Now people review on the academic scale (7/10 being passing), and grade more on the show's overall impression.

I should say, in the face of OPs hard data, that this opinion is based totally on vibes

Nickthenuker2026-01-18 08:29

I remember one of the best comments from a couple years ago was someone saying we tend to use a "useful average" way of rating things, ie 7/10 is generally enjoyable, 5/10 is mediocre, and below that is actively bad, but we also probably wouldn't actually go out of our way to watch something that was only mediocre or even bad, we would really only watch anything from "above average" 6/10 to "masterpiece" 10/10, so the average of what we would actually watch to completion and be willing to give a rating for ends up being around a 7. It's not an average show, but it's the average of shows worth watching.

epik_fayler2026-01-18 08:46

This might have been me. I strongly believe it's extremely stupid to have your own average be in the 5s. This means you are somehow watching as many animes in the 1-4 range as the 7-10 range which means you are actively looking for bad anime to watch? Like most of the anime you watch should be stuff you think are good or will enjoy.

redwingz112026-01-18 09:08

Anecdotal, I usually just update my list on smtg I finish. If I drop it under 3 episodes I cant be bother to do it.

Charming-Loquat37022026-01-18 09:22

This. I'm watching anime for decades now. I know what I like and I don't have as much time as I used to have. Why would I watch stuff that I know ot will be 5/10 or lower? Sure, sometimes there is a disappointing anime that originally looked promising that ends up in -5, but those are mostly outliers.

One thing to remember is, that we get more shows today than 10-15 years ago. So even if you have time to watch a lot, you can still fill that time with stuff that's still okay, while back then, people would watch every anime they get their hands on.

quaker_otis2026-01-18 10:25

For my anime list my average is around 7 because I only dedicate my full viewing attention to stuff that's already recommended to me so it's almost all good.

My manga list is closer to 5 because I read a lot of garbage and just buy or click on covers that look interesting.

Exolve7082026-01-18 16:25

But you don't have to have the average quality of the shows you're watching to be the middle of your scale.

If I were to only eat at michelin starred restaurants that doesn't mean I'd rate my least favourite a 1 out of 5.

laapintamies2202026-01-18 19:39

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. Like, imagine a new viewer looking for shows to watch. He asks around and ends up with a list that resembles the MAL top 50. Then he watches the shows and rates them. The new viewer would have to be clinically insane if he ended up with a 5 in the middle bell curve, since most of the stuff he watches is good and should rightfully end up in the 8-10 ballpark.

As many people have already said in this thread, it is important to realize that the context in which anime is rated is never just the shows one has watched, but it includes those that have not been watched. We rate them subconsciously to the 1-5 ratings, and after that, leave them unwatched, thus invisible in MAL ratings. Even with hundreds of shows under the belt, it would be wrong to assume that 5 would be the middle ground, since the selection of shows is always biased towards shows one would propably like (and as people have pointed out, no one has the time or interest to rate shows they drop, skewing the curve even more).

cosmo3212026-01-18 08:58

This is me. I don't really have the time to watch anything I feel is a 6 or below, and after a couple of episodes I will move on. Why waste time on that when I can prioritize a 7 or higher. There's too much to watch anyway.

That being said, I've gotten pretty good at spotting shows I do enjoy personally, regardless of MAL average score.

PendragonDaGreat2026-01-18 09:00

Yeah, I think my MAL has 2 3's, 2 4's and like 5 5's (and no 1's or 2's) in the scores of things I've scored, because if I drop something early I don't feel like I've given it enough time to give it a proper score this ends up skewing my mean to right around 8.

Ok-Chest-79322026-01-18 09:17

I have 1 1 just as a benchmark for what the worst thing I know of is. It might one day become a 2 if I discover something even worse.

nsleep2026-01-18 12:19

Sometimes, the dropped list tells more about what's actually bad than the completed low scores. The latter were barely good enough (or short enough) for someone to last through them.

DerWiedl2026-01-18 09:15

With so many shows releasing every season we have the luxury to only pick out the good ones.

Nickthenuker2026-01-18 09:17

Yeah even just picking the shows I am interested enough to watch to completion from the premise alone (and thus are probably 6/10 minimum unless it's _particularly_ bad) I can get a couple dozen or so shows per season.

Ok-Chest-79322026-01-18 09:16

Exactly. 7/10 is the average for things people actually tried watching. If you force people to watch everything including the things they know will be shit, their average rating will drop to around 5.

Ekyou2026-01-18 09:16

That’s absolutely the case for me. I usually don’t have any reason to keep watching a show that scores below a 7, but I also tend not to rate shows I drop because I don’t feel right assigning a score to a show I didn’t finish. The vast majority of 6s and below I have are movies or shows that I watched with someone else.

Sibula972026-01-18 09:53

Related to that, I'm pretty sure part of this "score inflation" is really just people having more information available and watching fewer shows blind, which of course leads them to pick shows they like more often.

Back in the 00s we just watched whatever we could get our hands on. Now I read the synopsis, check the ratings, and maybe the staff as well. Not to mention I compare it to the other 300 shows on my PTW list.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-18 15:34

Good call. 6 is something which I still enjoyed but also wouldnt miss not having watched, I always wonder if people with low averages just dont filter? or if they actually enjoy watching a show they rated 3 or 4

MonaFanBoy2026-01-18 08:50

I’ve used MAL for a decade and back in the days users have always, always been of the opinion that “7/10 is mediocre”

dalzmc2026-01-18 09:23

Man I’m just a sheep or something and follow what I’m told to do. I always assumed most people were like me, and rated per MaL’s description of the scores. It’s hard for me to see the words next to the numbers and not assign my numerical scores based on how well the words matched my opinion. So 5 is “average” and 7 is “good”

APRengar2026-01-18 09:08

I'm still a 5/10 is average kind of person. I don't understand why we'd have a scale that no one uses the bottom half for.

And I've never gotten more shit than calling OPM S2 a 4/10. Because on a 5/10 is average scale, it's below average and I think it deserves below average (it's not just animation, but storyboarding, direction, audio, compositing, I still think it's below average). But for 7/10 is average people, a 4/10 is an abomination on the scale of Mars of Destruction or Pupa and they get real mad.

I wish I could mark myself as a 5/10 is average person and be around other 5/10 is average people. Likewise for 7/10 is average people.

Academic_Storm69762026-01-18 09:53

To me 5/10 is halfway making it average. Everything higher is magnitudes of giving me reasons to watch.

So 6/10 has some reason to watch and can be enjoyable but I probably wouldnt recommend it. 7-8 are good/great, while 9-10 are reserved for shows that are actually my favorites.

If it's any condolence, it means our ratings will have slightly higher impact on the algorithms.

Sibula972026-01-18 09:55

Is your 5/10 the average of what you've watched or what has been produced? Because I try to set my 5/10 to the "true average" while the average of my watched shows is more like 6.5-7/10 because I'm trying the pick the best shows to watch.

rancor12232026-01-18 09:10

I think it doesn't make sense for content score be anywhere close to a bell curve with middle at 5/10. It just doesn't make sense.

Simply because most people will only score things they watched - and they will mostly only watch things they enjoy - which are in general going to be at least decent. Majority isn't going to watch 3/10 shows for fun.

And on top of that, it's not like there is defined criteria for what each score is. Without which it can't be even remotely objective.

I'm probably guilty of giving out too many 8s and 9s too, but at the same time I feel like I recognise what I like about a show a lot more now then when I was younger, and because I have less free time, I cherry-pick the really good shows and drop even <8 shows. Makes me want to pull the raw data from MAL and try to plot the score progression on a chart for my scoring habit.

carenard2026-01-18 09:52

> I think it doesn't make sense for content score be anywhere close to a bell curve with middle at 5/10. It just doesn't make sense.
>
> Simply because most people will only score things they watched - and they will mostly only watch things they enjoy - which are in general going to be at least decent. Majority isn't going to watch 3/10 shows for fun.

I am with you on this, there is a 98% chance anything I watch to the end is at least a 6/10... this is not a good score... but there was enough there for me to finish the show.

Ionkkll2026-01-18 09:41

>I think back in the day MAL users stuck to a bell-curve rubric, where 5/10 was passable, and scores got increasingly rare, with 9+ reserved for true masterpieces.

No, this was never true. I am a former MAL database moderator and my account was registered in 2007. Most MAL users back then were American and rated anime on the American academic scale. There were users griping about most people not using the entire scale back then too.

In fact, [here is a snapshot of Xinil's (the creator of MAL) anime list](https://web.archive.org/web/20071013022951/https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Xinil) from October 2007. You can see his mean score in On-Hold was 7.0 and the deviation was -0.95. There are some decent shows in that list but an average of almost 7.95 is still very high.

ghostpickleonastick2026-01-18 08:13

Ah, Interstellar, the anime that is literally a Daft Punk music video.

BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-18 08:16

Princess Tutu better not be what you’re dismissing as a kids show because that one is fantastic.

Dinoswarleaf2026-01-18 08:19

Haha that one actually interested me when I saw the PG 13 -- I was actually saying that because of Candy Candy

Also because `Biggest movers using z-score` failed partly because kid shows felt over represented for some reason

sora_sky132026-01-18 08:18

This is why I like to search anime by year. I'm interested in the year of my birthday and beyond because I grew up with 90s anime so I wanted to slowly check each year for top popular anime and slightly lesser known to give a chance.

Maccaz152026-01-18 08:20

When you see a lot of longer term anime watchers having mean scores of around 6 or below, compared to new watchers which are at 7 or 8 or above, it's no surprise new things are more highly rated - they don't even watch the older stuff to score it either. If everything is scored highly, does anything actually stand out anymore?

Everything these days is either 'peak' (by god I hate that term's usage) or shit. Somehow even a 'mid' (another terrible word) is no where near what I would rate a mediocre show

Vipertooth2026-01-18 13:22

New fans will obviously have a higher rating as they're just going around the community and asking for all the good shit to watch.

Older fans will have ran out of popular anime and look into more obscure shows if their list is in the 500 or even 1000+ completed shows.

Kuramhan2026-01-18 17:11

>When you see a lot of longer term anime watchers having mean scores of around 6 or below, compared to new watchers which are at 7 or 8 or above

As an older fan, the majority of people rating stuff have always had averages in the 7s or 8s. Ten years ago, people were complaining about exactly the same thing. The older/more critical fans have always been a minority.

If you think about it, most fans first 100 shows are usually pretty fucking great. Their friends/the community is feeding them classic after classic and they're watching almost exclusively great stuff. My avg rating would be an 8 too if that was my only exposure.

Another angle is that generic stuff seems better when it's brand new to you. Your first generic isekai might actually pretty great. Because isekai is a pretty fucking cool premise. The tropes are tropes for a reason. They're good angles to explore isekai from. If someone thinks all of that is novel ideas to the show they're watching, they probably end up loving that generic isekai. They have to go watch Mushoku and Re:Zero to realize that generic isekai isn't as good as they thought it was.

So new people will have high scores. And most anime watchers do not stick around. They watch a hundred or a couple hundred anime between middle school and college, and then they stop watching or become occasional watchers. So, most anime fans never reach that veteran fan phase. I am curious if anime becoming more popular leads to more retention of viewers than we used to have.

Maccaz152026-01-19 06:27

To add on to your points. There's more new watchers now than there was in the past because of increased popularity and accessibility to watch. So it makes sense to have an increased average score.

dfiekslafjks2026-01-18 08:22

I love older anime but even I have to admit that is a terrible list. Listing random kid shows certainly isn't what people are looking for when they ask for hidden gems. Also you can tell a huge part of the score is based on the number of episodes released, which isn't a good indicator in my opinion.

CranberryDistinct9412026-01-18 08:23

Considering that a 7/10 is "mid" these days, and that "mid" is one step above AI slop, I would say that there is a significant amount of inflation for the ratings.

Fisonnra2026-01-18 08:34

This post in itself is a hidden gem. I have always suspected there is an inflation on MAL score. Many animes who were top 100 are now lower in rank (A Place Further Than the Universe, Showa Genroku, etc), but that may be because of two reasons:

1) The increase of anime viewers after 2020
2) There may be really an inflation. People, especially casual viewers/reviewers, tend to mindlessly give a perfect score than a 6-9 score. Thus, inflation is a function of x amount of viewers.

Thanks for your contribution to this investigation!

Whendfield1232026-01-18 09:42

There have released a lot of high score anime after 2018. Just because an anime is in the top 100 list at one point, doesnt mean it will stay there forever.

Most people arent gonna rate something they completed a 6 or lower. At that point, they have either dropped the show without bothering to score it, or dropped it while also giving it a 6 or lower. No one in their right mind will subject themselves to watch a show they have no interest in and find boring, just to rate it a 5 or lower.

CMDR_potoooooooo2026-01-18 10:37

Clearly we have different definitions of what a 5 is because taking a look at my list now, I have over 40 completed titles ranked 5 or lower 🙃

https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Lord_Tachanka?status=2&order=4&order2=0

In a lot of cases it looks to be shows that are widely liked, so even though they didn't appeal to me personally, there was some value in finishing them to be able to participate in the discussion. But also, anything that I'd rate a 4 or a 5 still has *some* appeal... though it sees very little use, hypothetically there's a whole third of the scale below that.

StupendousMan362026-01-18 12:02

The issue is that people tend to look at review scores on the scale of school grades (I'm going by US grades here, though I know they can vary by country). So 7 is now average and a 6 is kinda bad with some appeal, though it absolutely shouldn't be how it's viewed. It's the same thing that happens with video games, movies, and restaurants once you leave the 5 star system.

By using that scale, giving something a 5 good enough for most people to say something sucked because 0-59 is still an F. That ends up eliminating an entire half of the review scale.

We should actually view things more like when a doctor asks you to rate pain on a 1-10 scale. If you've broken a bone and that's your 10, you're not gonna say your achy foot is a 6 because it's just below average. You'll tell them it's a 2/3 because it's mostly just uncomfortable and annoying.

But since most people don't view it like that, they use 1s and 2s to be vindictive because they were disappointed in something and not because it was truly abhorrent.

It would be much nicer if people viewed a 5 /10 as average in entertainment. We'd get better representation of the differences in shows/movies.

NegativeAccount2026-01-18 17:31

Especially interesting because US grade scores have inflated massively as well. How often are kids held back a year these days? ...They aren't. And many have reading levels far below their age

When straight A's are handed out like candy and 5/10 or lower means "fail" it's no wonder a teenager would rate their favorite shows 10/10

Krisix2026-01-19 01:14

I feel like there are some misconceptions about how to look at ordinal data like review scores here.
There is no strong reason to believe that the mid point of the range should be mean of the sample. That is, should 5 (5.5 really) be the mean review score as average for entertainment?

That really asks the question, what is the range of reviews actually representing. If its a measurement of quality (bad to good) then the answer *should* be no, 5.5 is unlikely to be the midpoint. If the total mean review score of anime was 5.5 that would imply that roughly half of all anime produced is bad, not just mediocre or "average" but actually bad. While we might bemoan that that half of the scale from 1-5 is rarely used, that's not necessarily a bad thing, that means that most anime is not bad, as we would expect from a well developed professional industry. What matters isn't really what individual scores are but the meaning we assign them to. Most people look at review means to answer the question "Is this anime good?" and not "how much better or worse then average is this anime?"

To make a fictional example where this pattern is a little more obvious... Imagine a theoretical project to improve civil safety, a company is hired to rate bridges on a 1-10 scale based on how likely they were to collapse where a bridge at a 1 will collapse imminently, a bridge at a 5 will collapse during a major disaster but is generally stable, a 7 will collapse during a "once in a century" event, and a bridge at a 10 will only collapse only under truly cataclysmic events. What should the average (mean) bridge score be here ideally? Probably a 7+. There might be some bridges at a lower score, the foot bridge on the hiking trail near me has a decent chance of being destroyed during a flood so its probably a 5. But, as far as this civil safety board is concerned there should be no bridges that are collapsing at random. Further, bridges made as part of major civil projects should be in the 9-10 range of safety. Beyond that, an accredited civil engineering firm should not ever be building bridges that are likely to fail. Is this rating system a mistake because the mean rating isn't in the middle of the range? Absolutely not, it is very valuable to know the specific safety score of a given bridge. Even more, it is exceptionally valuable to the civil safety team to know about bridges in the 1-5 range, even if those bridges are exceedingly rare.

Generally speaking, unlike bridges, no one dies when a studio puts out a 2/10 anime. But anime is still being made by large, funded, professional studios that have large incentives to put out good work. We should expect that if we want to rate things on a scale from bad to good that the average rating should skew towards good.

If we wanted to create a measure that has a mean review score in the middle what we should be asking is "How much better/ worse is this anime then average?" and not "How good is this anime?"

If we really wanted a better representation of the differences in shows/ movies just shifting the mid point to the middle of the range isn't really that useful, we can already do that with simple statistics anyway, just measure anime by standard deviations. From a practical perspective we could get the much better results by moving from a 10 point scale to a 20 point or 30 point scale. What matters isn't where "average" sits in the range or potential scores, but what meaning we ascribe to those scores, and how granular those scores are.

stonekeep2026-01-18 11:43

I rate a lot of shows I finish 5-6. That's an average rating, it doesn't mean that it was bad enough to drop, but it didn't particularly stand out either. I even finish many of the 4s because for me that score means that the show was below average, but it still had some redeeming qualities (like some funny jokes, cool fights or good voice acting).

I pretty much always drop the shows I'd rate 3 and below, because that's getting into bad territory on my scale. But I don't rate shows I drop after just 1-2 episodes because I don't think that's fair criticism (so in reality I rarely give out those low scores).

I find this "5 is bad" mentality most people seem to have pretty insane tbh. For me "it was okay" is a 5, but lots of people would give an "okay" show a 7 instead.

ExpansiveExplosion2026-01-18 12:29

It all depends how much room you want to have on your scale. If you want to use your 1 for a YouTube video of a guy using a laptop microphone to dub over a PowerPoint presentation, then it's almost impossible for something made by a studio of professional animators and VAs to go below a 3.5. it's also harder to give super low scores if you want them to mean something is objectively bad, rather than "I didn't like this"

DirtyTacoKid2026-01-18 15:49

> I rate a lot of shows I finish 5-6. That's an average rating, it doesn't mean that it was bad enough to drop, but it didn't particularly stand out either

This is really unreasonable for people who have interests, hobbies, or commitments outside of anime. When I was in high school I was like this too. But then life happens and you don't have time to watch stuff you would rate 6 or below. There's plenty of anime out there and you don't need to commit to something you're rating a 6

Careless-Spare8972026-01-18 16:28

5 is can be considered bad on a scale of 1-10, 5.5 is the average, rounding up gets it to 6. 5 is for below slightly below average/not okay 6 is for okay/slightly above average/average (since mal doesnt allow for decimals)

Kuramhan2026-01-18 16:47

When I was younger, I also used to finish and rate a lot of shows in the 5-6 range. I had a lot more free time back then and was a lot more dedicated to the completionist angle of list making. Now I have more responsibilities, more hobbies, more interests, and less free time. Even if a 6/10 is a show I technically enjoy, it's still not worth my time. Why finish a [current year] 6/10 anime when you could be watching an 8/10 anime from your backlog? Or just doing another hobby entirely.

In a world now filled with so much media, average is simply not worth consuming anymore.

stonekeep2026-01-18 18:52

Well, let's start with this - if I knew from the get-go that something is a 4-5 for me, I just wouldn't pick it up at all. But I can't know that. I gave 5s to many shows that people have rated much higher and hyped up because I simply didn't enjoy them as much in the end. But I can't possibly know that before watching it. If I know that something is bad (for me) from the get-go, I don't watch it. But when I decided to watch something and I'm already 8 episodes in (out of 13), I'm just gonna finish it, because I feel like not finishing it is an even bigger waste of time. There are many things that were average at the start and got better later, or vice versa - I enjoyed them at the start, but the ending sucked.

Second of all, that's ALREADY after sifting through the anime and then still dropping some stuff that's clearly not for me after 1-2 episodes. Your comment sounds like you think that I just watch all the slop every season, but that's not even close. I watch maybe 5-7 shows per season on average. That's about 2 hours per week. I end up liking most of them, but there are still some averages or (more rarely) below averages among them. I've been watching anime since the early 00s, so I've managed to accumulate A LOT of ~5s I finished during that time.

And finally, my main point is that tons of people still watch those shows they think are okay, not great, but not bad either. They just rate them 7. I rate them 5-6. If you ever read through the "mixed" reviews on MAL you know what I mean. There are a lot of "7s" in there after reviews that describe perfectly average shows. I feel like if that person said "I end up finishing a lot of 7/10 shows", then no one would bat an eye and talk about wasting precious time they could spend on other hobbies.

Kuramhan2026-01-18 20:32

> But I can't know that. I gave 5s to many shows that people have rated much higher and hyped up because I simply didn't enjoy them as much in the end. But I can't possibly know that before watching it.

Not with 100% certainty, but I've gotten a lot better at knowing over the years. I know which staff/studios to be more or less skeptical of. I can look at at trailer and have a pretty good idea how much I'm going to enjoy the art style, character designs, and generally how animated the show is. I know what questions to ask someone recommending a show to have a better idea if it's doing the things I actually like explored in a genre. And, while this does require watching a premier, I've gotten a lot more adapt at identifying character chemistry I enjoy in just the first episode or two.

The other angle I've embrace is that my taste is not as special as I used to think it is. Sure, there's plenty of popular shows that I didn't enjoy and plenty of mixed reception shows that turn out to be my favorite in a season. But I'm never alone in those opinions. The less popular shows always have their cheerleaders. After 6-12 episodes are out, I seek out those cheerleaders. See what mixed reception shows are still being championed at the end of the season. It saves me the trouble of checking out a lot of shows that start promising and nosedive.

>But when I decided to watch something and I'm already 8 episodes in (out of 13), I'm just gonna finish it, because I feel like not finishing it is an even bigger waste of time.

This is the biggest thing that changed for me. I used to have exactly your mentality. But as my free time became more limited, I realized I'd rather use it to check out promising new shows than finishing shows that I've already resigned to being mid. I'll drop a show on 10/12 episodes watched. My time is too valuable to chase middling shows, unless they're experiencing a trainwreck effect.

>our comment sounds like you think that I just watch all the slop every season, but that's not even close. I watch maybe 5-7 shows per season on average.

Yes, I definitely thought you were watching a lot more than that. I was usually at around 10-20 per a season when I had more ambitious watching habit. Even with my more reserved habits, I still watch more than you in a good season.

>And finally, my main point is that tons of people still watch those shows they think are okay, not great, but not bad either. They just rate them 7. I rate them 5-6. If you ever read through the "mixed" reviews on MAL you know what I mean. There are a lot of "7s" in there after reviews that describe perfectly average shows. I feel like if that person said "I end up finishing a lot of 7/10 shows", then no one would bat an eye and talk about wasting precious time they could spend on other hobbies.

You are correct. By using the scale as intended, you do out yourself as explicitly finishing okay shows. Which isn't some kind of cardinal sin. It's fine if you're enjoying it. But someone with a more top heavy scale could say they finish a lot of 7s, and I would just be like "yeah, me too." 7s are pretty damn good shows.

Not trying to shame you. You do you. I honestly kind of need people like you to stick out some of the middle of the road shows and discover they actually improved by the end.

falsefingolfin2026-01-18 18:06

5 is technically the average score, but if you actually want your rating to match with MAL, 7 is the average score

stonekeep2026-01-18 18:34

Sure, that was my point. But I'm rating stuff for myself, I don't particularly care to match with the others.

TorchThisAccount2026-01-18 18:22

MAL ratings are on a different scale though. The way anime gets rated there the scale is really 4 - 10.

- 4 or below is awful.
- 5s are usually trash, but might have niche appeal.
- 6s are okay, maybe better if you like the subject matter.
- 7s are usually good.
- 8s are are either really good or really popular. Mid 8s to mid 7s can be a gamble if they are actually that good or just something that was popular and has an inflated rating.
- 9s are usually masterpieces

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-18 15:30

I think MAL did actually have a score readjustment to filter out bot accounts a few years ago, I noticed a shift of ~ 0.5 downwards for average shows.

Now figuring in the corona inflation definitely explains why anime ratings now just feel "different" to say 10 years ago

A Place Further Than The Universe is so incredibly GOATed, I refuse to believe its not in the top 100 anymore

DependentOnIt2026-01-18 16:19

Recency bias since COVID + more normies

maxpolo102026-01-18 16:41

New viewers definitely give more perfect scores. When I started I seemed to enjoy everything, mainly because everything was just too new and too interesting to not enjoy.

I literally watched the whole Baka to Test and it was fun (thank you hideyoshi). This is the kind of genre that I wouldn't even consider watching nowadays.

I usually go back and look at my rankings and change them based on how I remember the anime and so some scores would be rebalanced.

HanekawasTiddies2026-01-19 03:23

Sekirei was my second ever anime and I gave it a 10 lol. I thought it was peak cinema at the time. Same thing with both Nagatoro and DxD, which were numbers 3 and 4 I believe.

Fisonnra2026-01-19 03:50

Yes, true to that. Back then, I gave almost everything a 10/10 haha, but I would be wary of changing the scores now. When reviewing an anime, I factor the plot, characters, the execution of the story, central theme, and finally emotions. I can't remember every single detail and emotions of an anime I watched 10 years ago so now changing the score of those animes would also give an inaccurate judgement. For me, the best thing to do is to rewatch the old animes and give an honest, personal review with 10+ years of experience of being a weeb, I mean, watching anime.

The one anime I'm glad to have rewatched is Oregairu. The first time I watched it I considered it a generic romance story, but after 3-4 years on the second time, I actually understood the actual plot of this story, and it's more than a generic shipping war. The anime has so much depth and applies to everyday relationships. Without those years of experience, Oregairu would have sit with a 6-7 score in my list, but after rewatching and analyzing it, it has now become my favorite romance. It definitely has flaws (with the third season), but I gave it a 10/10. To this day, no romance story has moved me so much.

srjnp2026-01-18 08:34

what if u only take the top 10 shows of each year?

Classic-Box-39192026-01-18 08:36

Also the fact that more good anime is coming out, u only hear about the big old shows not the garbage that was also made.

Queue_Jumping_Quack2026-01-18 08:39

I'm reminded of this Youtube video where someone tracked the top 10 changes through the years: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVw8JZ0O2Uk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVw8JZ0O2Uk)

Makes for a fun companion piece to this analysis.

Interesting read by the way, OP!

EDIT: Looking again through the list, it would be an interesting exercise to have this sort of "inflation adjusted" top 100 (or top 250 etc.) available as a "shadow MAL" for all us snotty elitists on Reddit. But certainly even one off analysis like this is a fascinating read...

zool7142026-01-18 08:39

That was an interesting read and post though I don’t think I’m smart enough or have woken up enough to fully comprehend it. But I think I can grasp the concept of rank or score inflation between older and newer shows.

So now I’m wondering, since we’re on the topic of MAL as well, if anyone else is also sitting on a big score revision for their list ? While not religiously, I do like to keep my MAL updated and also as earnestly as possible score it. I started in 2019. I was a bit more bored, anime was new and exciting to me. Anything that I enjoyed I’d give it an 8. Now, with more shows to compare, I’d probably give that same show a 6 or 7. The problem now is, I have 600-700 entries now and I’m sure the first few hundred is overscored if adjusted to my current standards. So I have a daunting task of re-evaluating that many shows and re-scoring them. I know it’s not anything serious but as someone who likes keeping records and keeping it true, it’s something that’s been bothering me and haven’t had the time to tackle lol

SSjjlex2026-01-18 08:53

Nowhere near as big of a list as yours, but I do agree with how having more shows seen makes the desire to drag down the average to ensure "fair distribution" between scores. It can feel bad to drop scores, but at the same time though, having more "good" shows at lower scores can effectively redefine those lower scores to being better than they previously were and likewise increases the worth of shows in the higher brackets. Which I think is worth doing a revision for as long as you stay within the realm of reasonability.

Also funnily enough, this lowering is sort of the opposite of what OP is observing. Though the other comment about the modern culture of scoring (the peak - mid dichotomy) more or less answers this, with watching more being effectively one route to graduating from this idea.

Meem02026-01-18 09:09

I just embrace how my ratings have changed over time. I can look at a show that I watched in 2014, and just accept the rating as what I felt about it at the time, not necessarily how I would rate it if I were to watch it now. I'll only update a rating if I rewatch the show.

carenard2026-01-18 09:47

only time I would adjust a score is if I actually do rewatch a show and I feel my score from my original watch is off, I rate mostly off enjoyment so none of this comparing 2 shows scores and adjusting based off that is just something I would never do.

zool7142026-01-18 09:50

So are there shows in your list now that have the same score but in actuality you feel one is better than the other ?

MegaAltarianite2026-01-18 10:14

I did this in early years because I was judging shows more harshly at the time. My absolute favorites were barely breaking an eight. Sometimes nowadays, I'll see a show and wonder about its score. But it's usually because a 6 or 7 show will pop up and I won't be able to remember a single thing about it. Like, why did I like it? I'm not gonna go back and rewatch it just to find out why.

Then sometimes when I do rewatch a show, I'll change it depending on how I feel after a second time.

Vipertooth2026-01-18 13:20

It's a herculean task to go through my 600 shows and re-evaluate them with my new opinion on anime.

I'm sure if I re-watch a lot of the highly rated shows on my list I'd just ruin my nostalgia for them, so I'd rather allow my past self to enjoy them in my stead.

Comprehensive_Dog6512026-01-18 08:40

Was about to say some kids shows are actually really good, but then I saw you included shin chan

Arthewinner2026-01-18 08:51

Thank you for the really beautiful visualisation!!!!!

How did you calculate the Z-score? Using mean of the ratings over 20 years? How did you take the number of members of each anime into account?

MegatonDoge2026-01-18 08:58

I'm not backing this up with data, so this is just based on my observations.

10 years ago SAO was one of the most popular shows while also being one of the most hated ones. A thread that used to be posted occasionally was "Why is SAO rated so high?". This was when SAO was rated between 7-8.

Now, a 7-8 would be completely acceptable for a mediocre series. It would definitely not be considered overrated.

Ok-Chest-79322026-01-18 09:08

That's an interesting thing to look at.

The most plausible explanation I can think of is that as more people are becoming interested in anime, the average standards of an anime viewer are decreasing, and a higher proportion of people are rating relative to western media rather than relative only to other anime. We all have that phase where every anime we see seems amazing because we have nothing to compare them to yet.

spunlikespidermike2026-01-18 09:29

T the

Lain-J2026-01-18 09:30

I generally think anime has gotten better in general, and older shows still being watched and scored in the present is a major contributor to the "inflation" your measuring, that recent views without the nostalgia or lack of options gets scored and is calculated in the total. A 7.0 then probably isn't a 7.5 today its probably a lot rougher around the edges then a 7.0 today.

Chiptoon2026-01-18 09:46

I love Hikaru no Go and Interstella 5555. Please watch them if you haven’t already.

MegaAltarianite2026-01-18 10:04

I do think anime quality has improved over time. But I think it's also really important that ease of access has been the highest it's ever been. Yes, I remember needing to buy a VHS tape of an anime with three or four episodes on it for way too much money. Nowadays, streaming means anyone can watch any show seasonally and keep up every week, with language options for English for many shows, and a high majority of popular ones. This will absolutely affect scores of recent shows, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Reactionary media has become way too prevalent, and we see it on MAL all the time. Hell, just right now, the highest rated show on there is Frieren season 2. There's no way that one episode of a show's sequel is the best thing ever. That's mainly on the site though, for even allowing that as a possibility. I personally don't rate shows I don't finish (I've been burned by bad endings before), which is apparently not as common as it should be (with some exceptions, like Black Clover. I don't see an issue with rating a 170 episode "season" 30-something episodes in. It was pretty interesting to see its average score go from like the mid 6's to over 8 by the end). People can easily just lie and say they finished something they didn't though. Between that and my belief that it's just not possible that hundreds of thousands of people all rated a show with an average score over 9, I don't tend to look at the score ratings and go with my own feelings. It's not like a show's rating means it's gonna be good.

One thing MyAnimeList did right though was adding your anime statistics section with lists of shows you loved despite its score, and most obscure shows you enjoyed. If there weren't people to suggest these kinds of shows, I'd be missing out on some things definitely worth watching. And hope I can be one of those that offers up those hidden gems. I don't want to be like that one person many years ago who said they only watched anime that MAL has listed on the top 500. If I did that, I would have never seen a bunch of what ends up being my favorite shows, like Hyouka, Tamayura, ReLIFE, K-On, Bamboo Blade, Yona of the Dawn, Snow White with the Red Hair, Arte, Sansha Sanyou, New Game, the Love Live series, I could go on. Actually, looking at that list, I can see a pattern. These kinds of shows are rarely popular, even more rarely rated really high (like Fruits Basket 2019, which is an amazing show, but I feel got a nostalgia bump). Even if you sort by "most popular" instead of rating (which I feel is better overall), you're not getting any of these. So I guess if you want to watch the Chainsaw Mans and the Solo Levelers, by all means, but these kinds of lists will always be biased in some way, not just recency.

Admirable_Dig6462026-01-18 10:27

Indeed, MAL scores are always to be taken with a grain of salt. As you amply explained, there is quite a bit of recency bias. Additionally, a niche fanbase can push their favorite anime to be highly ranked, even though the anime's score does not reflect the common consensus.

MAL is a good resource to keep track of the anime you have watched and keep you up-to-date on upcoming anime, but the ranking system is far from infallible.

Bajington2026-01-18 10:34

Great read! Even those so called kids shows are worth watching the hidden gems list, the World Masterpiece Theater in particular is still highly regarded.

Katlima2026-01-18 10:42

In all your calculations you forgot a really important factor: how many users MAL had in the year the show was airing. Because naturally people will focus on the current shows.

alotmorealots2026-01-18 11:38

OP's analysis is also not accounting for something rather critical - score drift over time: https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/15x1ucy/an_overview_of_mal_ratings_for_some_anime_over/

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-18 15:50

actually interesting to see that some shows drifted upwards, usually I only notice shows drifting down

silmarilen2026-01-18 16:56

> Provided that the anime has a source manga, its adaption's quality could heavily determine its rating among those fans. For example, a manga which was 7/10 gets an impressive anime, the emotional response would be +ve ; a manga which was 9/10 gets an OKAY adaptation, the disappointment relative to expectations will drive its score lower than what it could've been had it been an independent production.

This line is so insanely relevant to the beginning after the end. The anime was disappointing, but it's still easily better than 90% of the isekai slop that gets released every season (even if just for the story). And yet, because it had a popular manga it's now rated as one of the worst isekai anime ever.

lordposedyon2026-01-18 11:36

Great read OP. Thanks for your time and effort.

No_Ad96182026-01-18 13:09

I believe that anime has gotten better over time just like movies, tv shows. games etc. Though, I mean the highs are high, lows are lows and the volume of good content has also increased.

Raicooof2026-01-18 13:23

I mean jjk fans online are crying about the recent episode getting a 7,7/10 rating calling fans illiterate cus they don't think 20 minutes of rule explaining is peak fiction 10/10. 7,7/10 is a good rating but to them it's bad.

LightningRaven2026-01-18 13:30

Nowadays with social media, not to mention society at large, it has become more common for large amounts of people to overrate and underrate something, to the point of the for the vast majority of people it has become a binary situation. It's either an 1/10 (1 star) or a 10/10 (5 stars), no in between, no critical thinking, no space for criticism of a story's flaws. You either love it as a "masterpiece", a term that has become meaningless given how often its thrown around, or you hate it as if it personally offended you.

This, in turn, makes recent popular anime have far higher scores compared to earlier times, in my opinion. Things like Attack on Titan, Frieren, Re:Zero, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Solo Leveling, Tower of God and even one of my favorites ever, Chainsaw Man, which are works that are good (some in this list much more complete than others), but also have some significant flaws that are common in any story.

I also will come out and say it: The high production quality of many anime has been pretty much overshadowing an anime's flaw with characterization, storytelling and world-building. Good animation has been responsible for a good chunk of the positive reception in modern anime. Flashy, well produced and animated stuff overshadows productions that don't get the same investment put behind them, even if, overall, these "lesser" productions have more going on for them.

It's like AAA games and Indies. The AAA games always sweep the awards (thankfully the trend has been changing), because they had better graphics, larger worlds and overall higher production quality (VA, cutscenes, animation, scores, etc).

Infodump_Ibis2026-01-18 14:06

Would Absolute vs. relative be important to consider (e.g. wouldn't being top 1000 when there's ~30k entries^(*) be more impressive than when there were 3k) except that more anime doesn't equal more time to watch them. I think this is why other anime databases tend to be more granular and include year figures (Anilist also splits TV, film, OVA, ONA; problem with that is classificition where Baan is a movie but Cosmic Kagua is an ONA when the opposite makes as much sense).

One thing I notice about Outperformers for Their Year is many of these were released across multiple years, was only the release year considered? Personally I don't think it would make any difference if you counted every year it was released as those scores look like Outperformers compare to **any** year (which is a bit off-topic).

Personal feelings on great content is getting people to watch is the challenging part depending on the barriers present so things that are more established have a tremendous advantage.

A drive-by/things I wanted to say about some hidden gems:

- **Haha wo Tazunete Sanzenri** (3000 Leagues in Search of Mother). [World Masterpiece Theater, directed by Isao Takahata](#micdrop). Anne of Green Gables is the usual go-to for that sort of thing (plus 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother doesn't have the best of subs) but I guess the statistics for 1979 don't play kind for Z-score (I notice the figures early in the post start at 1980, was there a lot of noise before then? no OVAs and fewer TV shows is less statistics after all).
- **Oniisama e...** (Dear Brother)/**Ie Naki Ko** (Nobody's Boy Remi). Works directed by Osamu Dezaki, the latter is also a World Masterpiece Theater (it's almost like these were the cream of the crop in the 70s or something, popularity these days is lack of accessibility and marred by the episode count being high compared to the page count of the source material)
- **1985+**. When did the OVA boom start? Does it have an impact? I had the impression these are pretty low ranked and scores on MAL but that would make the Z-scores higher which is not the effect I observed.
- **Crayon Shin-chan**. People fret over what will happen to One Piece on MAL if it "finished" but this one you can make a case for lacking legitimacy. If it were to end now what's your options for watching 263 eps? It comes down to watched it when it was TV in the past (e.g. amount of time it was on in Hawaii as a subbed release should have enough episodes) or going raw.
- **Mazinger Z**. For the countries that got this in 70s it was a smash hit. In Spain mecha=mazinger and I remember Spanish news TV coverage of the 1:1 scale Gundam referring to that as a Mazinger (it's like how an older relative might refer to all games consoles as Nintendo or PlayStation). As it's a lot of MOTW stuff might be best to see how you get on [with a curated selection of eps](https://www.toei-video.co.jp/special/nagaigo-ikki/).
- **Hadashi no Gen** (Barefoot Gen). If you've watched Grave of the Fireflies and want something similar, this is it.
- **Interstella5555**. An album long music video. It's shame all the releases are flawed and the latest was an AI upscale (it was a digital production but all releases work off an interlaced and blended frames source, [recovering full frames is non-trivial to impossible](https://github.com/sttng/Interstella5555?tab=readme-ov-file#infra-frame-movement) [artists impression of Toei asset preservation](#criticism)).

^(*)-[This one is ~3 days old](https://myanimelist.net/anime/63306/Osawaga_Super_Baby/stats) and 29551th in popularity.

AdvancedPlayer172026-01-18 16:42

Frieren is absolutely rank inflated. Don't get me wrong, it's good but I don't see why it's so high.

dbk031202026-01-19 04:32

Anime drawing quality went up
But storytelling went drastically down compared to older animes.
And yes. I think that inflation is a fact.