Choosing an Anime to Watch: things I look at when choosing series to watch.

Takagi and Kaya watching SKET Dance.

Each season there're always a new set of anime made by different producers; came from different manga, light novel, game or visual novel; have different genre and a lot more… Sometimes we choose specific set of anime but most of the times we try most of them. Personally, I choose a lot of series every season but don't watch all of them at the same time but I do watch everything my time can handle(: I set priority series so depending on my reasons for watching them.

~yeah, I said I'll be on hiatus but I also said that I might work on some posts although they won't be episodic posts. For some random notes, I just opened a twitter account and facebook page. I would really appreciate it if you guys would follow and like them(:

ANYWAY, the point of this post is to just share my criteria of choosing the anime I watch in general. Well probably 'criteria' isn't entirely the right word to use but rather these are the things I consider in choosing the anime I watch. I'll cite some anime that I watched based on those 'criteria' and one anime may fall on multiple criteria. Now, here I go:

Story/Plot/Synopsis

Bakuman.

The story has got to be one of the most important thing in an anime. There could be a lot of reasons why we want to watch but sometimes it all goes down to the story. Is it interesting? Is it unique? Have you ever watched something like this before?

In my case, I always try to read the synopsis even though I've ready established to myself that I'll go watch the anime due to other more reasons. Although in most cases, the synopsis would actually catch my attention which makes it the number one reason why I'll go watch the anime. In most cases, series that I watch due to the synopsis turns out pretty good :D

Here're some anime that caught my attention through the synopsis:

• Bakuman. - anime about making manga = EPIC!
• Ben-to - why is fighting over a half-priced bento such a big deal? Is it because it's half-priced?
• Ao no Exorcist - Satan has a son and his son is raised by an exorcist? Now his son wants to become an exorcist and fight him? Oh the irony of life! o.O
• Kokoro Connect - body swapping arcs = EPIC comedy. An anime about body swapping? Count me in! :D

Cast/Voice Actor

Mamo-chan as Fushimi in K

There's a huge fraction of anime fans who don't give a damn about voice actors while a small fraction would fangirl/fanboy over voice actors and their oh-so sexy and beautiful voices. I happen to be one of those who fangirl over voice actors just because it's so good to listen to them :3 I know it's so petty but yeah, this reason has gotten me into so much trouble. In some cases, I get disappointed at myself for wasting my time on generic, uninteresting or disappointing series just to fangirl over voice actors.

The voice actors that always catches my attention and will always land a sure watch for me has got to be Miyano Mamoru, Sawashiro Miyuki and Okamoto Nobuhiko. Although a huge cast with a set of familiar and amazing voice actors will also land my watch list.

Here're some anime that caught my attention through the cast:

• DOG DAYS, ZETMAN and Uta no Prince-sama 1000% - because Miyano Mamoru's a main character and there's no way I'll let that pass.
• Arcana Famiglia - seeing familiar and pretty good voice actors in the cast made me want to watch this + the reverse-harem idea. The VAs that caught my attention are: Fukuyama Jun, Yoshino Toshiyuki, Sugita Tomokazu, Nakamura Yuuichi.
• K - the cast is really amazing. The last time I saw a cast list as amazing as this was in DURARARA!! (but of course it wasn't really the reason why I watched DRRR).

Art/Character Design/Animation/PV

TARI TARI's beutiful visuals.

There aren't really much anime under this category since the art is usually just something to boost things up. I don't usually watch solely because of the art and no, I never really do that without at least looking up at the genre to make sure that it's okay to watch. So here're some of the series that somehow convinced me through art, etc.:

• Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - the PV looks so great. Thriller and Horror atmosphere. AND I saw this series when I was at my peak of liking Another.
• TARI TARI - yes, that PV also convinced me. Damn you PV! LOL. The character designs reminded me of HanaIro immediately and the animation and background art is just so beautiful I can't help but watch.
• Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate - the promotional poster's character designs definitely caught my attention. Seriously. From there, I checked out the synopsis, genre, cast and the production company.

Genre

solving the mystery.

This is seriously one of the most important things for me to checkout before watching because I get caught in traps way back then when I started watching seasonal anime. The genre would usually strengthen my post on watching a series but there are times that this could be the main reason why I'm watching.

• Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse - quoting myself, Although I haven't really watched a lot, I actually like the mecha x military genre. I've written this in my Summer 2012 watch list.
• Hyouka - quoting myself (again), Mystery is one of my fave genre. This has pushed me into watching Hyouka. Mystery. The synopsis said that the kotenbu will be investigating the mystery that happened years ago and this will include the kotenbu's anthologies. Hmmm… School mystery anyone? :D
• Hiiro no Kakera - you know I'm a girl. It's very typical for me to look for a reverse-harem series and look what I found. An Otome-based anime :3

Production Company/Staff

Baccano!, a must to watch.

The production company plays a huge role in how the series will go. Also, there're times that certain companies have distinguishable styles such as Shaft, Silverlink and P.A. Works - at least I distinguish them. Also the staff members are an important part of the production. There're times that we'd want to see a series because the director of our favorite anime is there or the character designer of an anime you fell in love with will be taking over. OR maybe this is just me talking about myself and how I look at the staff. HAHA.

• Little Busters! - I'm not letting the hype get to me. The real reason I'm watching Little Busters! this Fall Season is because of the company and the people behind this VN - Key and Maeda Jun.
• TARI TARI - yes I did mentioned this before but as I have said, one anime may fall on multiple criteria. Another main reason why I was so sure that I'll like this series was because of the production company handling it - P.A. Works.
• Baccano! - I guess watching Baccano! was more of on the creator's side. Since I watched DURARARA!! first, seeing another work by the same author (Narita Ryohgo) pushed me into trying this one out as well.

Recommendation/Review

misdirection o.O

Recommendations played a huge role in my discovery of more anime. It hasn't been long since I returned to watching anime series. I usually drop by a couple of blogs to read reviews (even long ones if I find them interesting). Also, I enjoy reading first impressions of seasonal series to see if they're good or anything (if I initially decided not to watch certain series). If I read a number of people saying it's not worth the time, I won't make an effort to watch them and when a number of people say that the series is great or such, I'd go check it out. As simple as that. Now here're some of the series that I found through recommendation/review:

• Tiger & Bunny - Super heroes. Pshh. No, I'm not a fan of them. But hey, a number of people has been fussing around about how good this is but this review has surely convinced me to try it out.
• Kuroko no Basuke - sports = major no for me. But after reading through Rei's impression as well as Guardian Enzo's impression, I just have to check it out :D

Sequel/Prequel/Spin-Off

onii-chan

I'm a sucker for trying out sequels, prequels and spin-offs. It's not that we want to see more of the series but it's more like some people just need to see what happens next (or so). I've watched a number f sequels not because I actually like them but I just watch them because I feel like I want or need to because they are connected to this particular series. Some series that falls under this reason are:

• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's and Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal - the main reason I decided to watch these two is because it's a spin-off of my fave anime back then at elementary which is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.
• Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? OF THE DEAD - I certainly disliked how the original series ended but that doesn't mean that I hated the series. This is more like me wanting to give the series a chance to redeem itself after I got pissed off with the last episode and the first episode of the OVA.

Source: Manga, Game, VN, LN, Original

amazing actions on shounen series.

I'm not really the type to look at the source material of a series. As long as I'm good with the story, it's already a go but after knowing that ruoani actually sees LN as his second resort of knowing which series to watch, I got interested in looking at this reason. AND here's my point of view on the mentioned source materials:

• Manga: I personally think that manga is a good source of action and battle series. I think that series that are based on manga most especially shounen series such as BTOOOM!, Gintama and HUNTER x HUNTER have pretty good action and battle scenes Although the main problem about manga adaptation is when a series has a limited number of episodes which usually happens on non-shounen series but is not limited to it. Some rushed series are: Sakamichi no Apollon, Deadman Wonderland and Ao no Exorcist.
• Game/Visual Novel (VN): I think that I haven't really seen much series under genre but I can't really comment much on this since I don't really play so much games (Japanese games in particular). Pointing out a series, Persona 4: the ANIMATION was a pretty interesting game turned anime series. It was looked forward to by fans and the overall feel of it was pretty nice. As for VN-based series, I don't really know much about them but some series that are based on them are Uta no Prince-sama 1000%, Hiiro no Kakera and Little Busters! which I am not really a fan of.
• Light Novel (LN): what I noticed about LN-based series is how dialogues tend to be very interesting and how much they are more character-driven compared to manga-based series. Some good example of this are: DURARARA!!, Baccano! and Hyouka.
• Original: what's interesting about original series is that the creators/staff have a freewill in doing what they want in the series. Original series' advantage is that the flow and development of both the story and characters can be well executed because the staff isn't following an established story.

Hype/Popularity

SUMMER2012's most anticipated series.

Most people want to watch series which most people are talking about so that they won't be left out in any way. And yeah, I'm one of those typical people who watch series due to popularity and hype. In most cases, the series I watch due to this reasons turn out pretty good but there are times that I'll just get disappointed. An example of series which I watched because of its overwhelming popularity and got disappointed was Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. Other example of series which I watched because of popularity are: Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch, Gintama and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. As for series which I watched due to hype (only when watching seasonal series. DUH!): Sword Art Online and Guilty Crown.

Similarity to another series

There are times that when we see a series, it just reminds us of another series we've watched before. When we actually liked the other series we've watched, we'd just go stick our heads out on this other series which is seemingly similar to it because we want to see more. Some series I watched due to the thought of similarity are:

• Dantalian no Shoka - seeing Dalian, the series' setting and the genre of mystery instantly made me think of GOSICK which obviously led me to watching this series.
• Tsuritama - for seasonal anime series viewers, remember the time when high school boys/male slice of life was a trend (but yeah, if you watch Tsuritama, it won't totally be slice of life)? FALL2011's Kimi to Boku --> WINTER2012's Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou --> SPRING 2012's Kimi to Boku. 2 and this, Tsuritama. Ahh~ I want another male slice of life series.

How about you readers, do you have any specific reasons for choosing series to watch? OR do you basically just watch everything that is offered each season and filter then out based on the first episodes? :)