I was perusing MAL ( MyAnimeList) and noticed a link due to a big ‘New’ icon being beside it called ‘Statistics’. Clicking on it, I saw that there was a little bit of interesting information, much more information seems to be hidden behind a paywall, but what stood out to me was a section that compared some anime that I liked that others didn’t and anime that everyone seems to love but that I didn’t. While I won’t cover every title that’s mentioned, the image is below, I thought it worth taking a look at some of these anime based on the MAL score vs. my score and explaining my thoughts behind them.
Legend of the Forest
One of the most tragic things that I see from this image is the lack of appreciation for Osamu Tezuka’s experimental anime short “Legend of the Forest”. While a score of 6.36 out of 10 isn’t exactly damning, it does seem almost insultingly low for something that I consider to be a near masterpiece. Admittedly, I can think of several elements which may have led to people’s lack of appreciation for it such as the lack of any dialogue, the decision to use classical music, the mesh of different animation and art styles and how deceptively dark the short itself can be. Nonetheless, I believe that it’s a wonderful, splendid tribute to the medium of animation with the first part in particular worthy of being one of my favourite animated shorts of all time.
Elemental Gelade
Some people might look at my score for Elemental Gelade, particularly those who managed to drag the score up to a 7.25, and think me harsh. However, I’m fully confident in my score for several reasons. Perhaps the only positive thing I can say for the show is that I love the opening song but the rest is a shonen show brimming with subpar content from the characters, story, dialogue, animation etc. I remember getting bored very quickly with the show and getting progressively more and more angry as I was forced to watch more and more of it. I guess that’s ultimately why I ended up giving Elemental Gelade a mere 2 out of 10, because I found it to be one of, if not, the most boring anime that I’ve ever seen, the gravest sin any form of media can make.
Steins;Gate
When it comes to anime that are generally regarded as being the best of recent years, thus its MAL score of 9.07, I would guess that my opinion on Steins;Gate, that it’s a 4 out 10, is probably one of my more surprising. It certainly surprised me when I watched the series. Knowing that it was a sci-fi that dealt with time travel, I genuinely believed that I would love the series. Unfortunately, what I got was one of the most frustrating series I’ve ever experienced. While some of the characters can be interesting, they also make some of the dumbest and infuriating decisions I’ve ever seen and, what’s more, when a character tries to make a logical decision, they get shamed for it by everyone else. By the time I got to the end of the series, I was raging beyond belief and the fact that the series dealt with some interesting concepts and had nice animation could only alleviate some of the pain I suffer when I deign to look back on it.
Momotaro: Sacred Sailors
I’ll admit that while the score difference is notable, 5.13 vs. my score of 7, this is probably the only anime in this article that I actually understand and sympathise with those giving the film a low score. Momotaro: Sacred Sailors was the first feature-length anime film ever released and it proves to be a remarkable work when it comes to the technical side of it. However, it’s a World War II propaganda film that depicts the Japanese as heroes liberating Asia rather than looking at any of the negative aspects such as their abuse of local populations and the disdain that they treated their soldiers with. I appreciate the film as a work of animation, the sequence where it depicts the Dutch arriving in Indonesia being my personal favourite of the whole film, and for its historical value but I understand if people object to it due to its slow and scattered pacing, political messaging or any other component that may be considered distasteful.
Taking a look at this was quite interesting for me and, of course, I’d love to know your thoughts on this look at some anime based on MAL score and my own personal score, what you think about any of the anime in this article, what your own MAL statistic depicts, what you think about this new MAL statistics section and, in particular, the area covering personal score vs. MAL score and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!