Anyone Enjoy an Anime they Think was Overrated?
Usually when I hear about someone saying a piece of fiction (including anime) is overrated, they will talk about all the reasons why they think it is bad. Was there any anime you watched, legitimately enjoyed, but still think it was overrated? It can be something as simple as giving a 7 on MyAnimeList ranked 8.6 since that does mean you enjoyed it, but you might at the same time be seeing a lot of reviewers gush about it more than you think the series deserves.
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A recent one for me would be Fragrant Flowers which as a romance enjoyer I definitely asked and would recommend to most fans of the genre, but it wasn't an insane masterpiece to me that really got me to gush over Rintaro and Kaoruko's relationship. And I don't think there's anything bad about that since it was still a solid experience to me and I'm glad I watched it. As an aside I actually did really like one of the supporting characters Subaru and I felt the most for her out of all the cast.
I find it interesting to compare it to Blue Box which for sure has more critics but made me feel much more intense emotions because of the risks that story took. The love there was more messy and painful yet felt more true to high school romance. Also Hina is just so good.
This year’s Uma Musume Cinderella Grey is an enjoyable sports romp, but I’m not seeing what’s so praiseworthy about it to net the overwhelming acclaim it’s been receiving, especially compared to even some of the past entries like s2 or BoaNE.
Oh, and the fact that it came out around the same time as global didnt hurt.
And I mean this relative to the other anime projects. I watched them back-to-back, and the tone shift is VERY noticeable.
It did originate in a seinen magazine, but it still contains the hallmarks of what’s traditionally associated with sports anime aimed at a shounen demographic. It’s a show much more focused on the hype moments than the psychology of its characters, unlike Ping Pong as I mentioned earlier.
I also disagree mostly with everyone having a calmer personality. Oguri doesn’t provide as much emotional whiplash sure, but that’s because she’s a dumbass type character. Surrounding characters like the trainer Jou, March, Dicta, the three bullies, and others all have lively personalities.
I also didn’t even say it was just the colours either. I’d say the two other points (I want to be the best theming and the powers) are much more customary in shounen sports manga than seinen and overshadow colouring.
And yeah, I will stick to disagreeing about the characters. Its not just Oguri, pretty much nobody in the cast matches the exaggerated zaniness level of the usual uma cast. Its not about having lively/strong characters, its a bit more subtle then that. They're less...anime if I had to put it simply, and more grounded.
The wackiest character is Obey Your Master, and even she feels pretty grounded.
It’s good but definitely not a masterpiece. Lelouch is a great MC though I have to acknowledge that.
*Shangri-La Frontier* is one I enjoyed but man does that show not know what "pacing" means. It feels like they just animated the whole series in one go then cut it into 25-minute chunks. Episodes frequently just end then the next one picks right up where it left off, sometimes with things that could have been dramatic cliffhangers just happening five minutes in and being resolved immediately. Even the last season ended in the middle of an arc (that is itself in the beginning of another arc that had just started).
But it depends on the personal system by which you rate things, which varies so radically individually and is completely subjective. On a site like MAL, a rating like a 7/10 is broadly considered kind of weak and a 6/10 basically terrible, whereas I have series in my own Top 50 of all time I have as 7/10s and some series as 8/10s even in my Top 20. And most seasonals I watch I end up rating on average with 7s and 6s and *hope* not to have to utilize any lower ratings (though it often happens).
I feel like "enjoyment" in general is a spectrum. I could say that I enjoyed everything I ever watched to completion enough to complete it, but obviously the degree varies wildly.
If I rated a series with a 5/10 or below then it's fair to say that there was more about it I liked and consider positive to the ratio of what I disliked and found annoying about it. The exception to this is something like Neon Genesis Evangelion, where it's one of my most disliked series out of hundreds completed, but I still give it a 6 in deference to recognition of its quality in other areas.
I don't watch a lot of the most popular battle shounen, isekai, romcoms, etc., and many of them would probably be 6s or lower for me.
Probably the single best example is Sousou no Frieren, which I have as a 6 and collective MAL currently as a 9.28.
Next best examples would probably be ones that are sitting at mid-high 8s, but which I gave and feel are solid 7s, like Sora yori mo Tooi Basho, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Odd Taxi, The Apothecary Diaries, etc.
I like these series definitely more than I dislike them, but I can't place them on the same level with my 8s, 9s, and 10s.
I heard the manga is much better, I plan to read that at some point
I would recommend it to people, but if someone says they dont like it, I can see why (on the bright side, Ive yet to get negative feedback from people Ive recommended it to)