I first saw this topic raised during du5k’s blog carnival a couple of months ago. At the time I wasn’t a blogger, so didn’t have the delight of taking part and answering the above question myself but, I would now like to take the time to express my own thoughts on the matter- I thought it’d help you readers make sense of some of the choices I have made for my top 30 shows, a list I plan to publish later this week.
Firstly, despite what the title of this post might have you think, I don’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘perfect’ show, that is to say, a show with absolutely no flaws. I bestow the 10/10 ratings upon the shows that I don’t think it would’ve been possible for me to enjoy any more than I did. So, anything that scores below a 10 contains an aspect that hampered my overall enjoyment of the show. Then, what enables me to enjoy a show to its fullest potential? Well, I could go on forever about what kind of stories I like, what kind of characters I like, what kind of art I like but, even then there is so much variation amongst my favourite shows I don’t think they’d be an accurate measure of what warrants them the perfect score. The true reasons behind my handing out tens, whilst more wishy-washy and harder to describe than, say, the story aspect of a show, are something you can find in every one of my favourite shows.
One of these things being, there’s just gotta be something about it! That something’s difficult to describe as it’s not something tangible. Yeah, I told you my reasons were wishy-washy! Sometimes, at some point during the show, you’re overwhelmed by this sense of awe that what you’re watching is simply incredible; at other times it’s this incredible rush of adrenaline that hits your bloodstream like ice, cold water and has you jumping up and outta your seat. For a show to get into your head to the extent it leaves you speechless or borderline hysterical is a pretty amazing feat, something I think deserves recognition by way of that two-digit number…
But, it’s not just that ‘special something’ which has persuaded me to part with a perfect score in the past but, the long-term impact that show has had on me. If you take a look at my MAL, you’ll notice I’ve given Naruto a 10. Yes, that’s right, I’ve given Naruto, the show with three and a half series’ worth of filler, a 10! Sure, it has its flaws but, I’ve still rated it a 10, that’s because of the massive impact it’s had on me as an anime fan. I’ve grown attached to many of its character, wept many a time whilst watching it and used it as a substitute for a great number of my meals since starting it several years back. As soon as I finished it, (Naruto that is, not Naruto Shippuden) I found myself watching show after show, in the desperate search for something that could give me the same rush until, without knowing, I became hooked on the addictive substance that is anime. What I’m trying to say is, the show means so much to me I’m easily able to overlook its flaws! The same can be said for Pokémon and FMA, which, although great shows in their own right, are enhanced by the sentimental value I’ve placed on ‘em!
The impact a show has had on me doesn’t just refer to its sentimental value, how much it means to me personally but, how long I find myself thinking about it after I’ve finished it. As nice as it is to just sit back and watch a show that requires absolutely no brain-power whatsoever, sometimes it’s just as nice to watch a really thoughtful, intelligent show that gives your brain a lot to chew on! I mentioned this as being one of my favourite aspects of Chobits during one of my more recent posts and whilst Chobits didn’t warrant a 10/10 and didn’t make it onto my Top 30, (but it was close) Kino’s Journey, Eve no Jikan, (which both earned themselves a 10) Haibane Renmei, Mawaru Penguindrum and many more did for the very same reason. As I said during that Chobits post, for a show, its story and its themes to be whirring around in your mind for quite some time after you’ve finished is pretty amazing, a sure sign of masterful story-telling in action and something I always take into consideration when scoring my anime.
So yeah, that’s what, for me, make a 10/10 show. Whilst many of the shows I’ve included in my Top 30 have not earned a 10/10, the same ideas can often be applied. But, just to clarify, for a show to warrant a 10/10 at least one of these things must be present. I’d ask you readers what you think makes a 10/10 anime but, I fear a discussion such as this has become old-hat by this point! Still, I hope you’ve found this an interesting read and that it will make some of my Top 30 choices seem a little less out-of-the-blue!
Watashi Wa Bucho!! 
Your Top 30 list is gonna be a monster of a post. O_O
What do you think warrants a 1/10 score for an anime?
Oh, it is! It puts my season preview to shame!
Hmm, that’s difficult- the lowest score I’ve ever given was a 3 but, that was for not following through on a promising concept, reducing the impact of fight scenes with excessive, often jarring nudity and for not having a single character that seemed to evolve outside of their archetype.
I’m assuming that’s Freezing, correct?
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This sounds a lot like my reasons for giving 10s. I’ve actually given them to shows long after I finished them because I realized how much I still liked them afterwards.
You know what they say, great minds think alike!
That’s what I did with Kino’s Journey, I originally gave it a 9 but, upped its score a few days later when I realised I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since I finished it. It soothed my guilty conscience considerably…
Wow, you’re really not scared of rating a show a 10/10. Great article nonetheless, every one has its ways of rating shows.
I’m not scared of doing so no, but, saying that, it still doesn’t happen all that often!
Thanks, I hope you’ll continue to read my posts in the weeks to come…
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What is the anime at the top?
I like how you’ve described it looking forward to your top 30
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It’s interesting on how my take on the “10/10 conundrum” has changed since I started blogging. At one point, I just assigned them by how much I liked the show in a very…amateur fashion (this was before I started blogging). Then I started blogging, and after a while I came up with a thought process similar to yours. Since then, though, as I get more and more experience reviewing things and looking at them critically, I’ve started to get a feel for how anime (and cinema in general, and games) use artistic elements, and if I see something I think uses them really well, I feel like I can give it a 10/10 “guilt-free.” Of course, as I become more and more experienced in seeing these elements and how they’re used, my standards get stricter and stricter, but I’ve come up with a rule of thumb for that. With most of the stuff I’ve really, really liked, I’ve found that it tends to use artistic elements really well, even though I didn’t see them. The “style” of the series was communicated to me without my brain even recognizing it. So, if I find that I really like something, *and* I think, amateurish standards and all, that it tells its story really well, then it *deserves* a 10/10. Of course, when we start talking about the artistic elements, I’m a little out of my league, so my standards are actually pretty low.
The nice thing about my standards is that they still leave me a little wiggle room so if I *don’t* really like something but still feel that it uses artistic elements well enough to deserve a really high rating, I can do that while (mostly) ignoring my own personal feelings about it (I feel this way about One Unit Whole Blood (a video game), for instance).
That said, I also like your view, where a 10/10 is something with real *impact*. I think in my case it would be Rurouni Kenshin instead of Naruto. I will always remember Rurouni Kenshin and the impact it had on me, and even if I as a “critic” don’t feel it deserves a 10/10, I as an anime fan with always give it special remembrance. And I guess that’s sort of like a “10/10” kind of status in its own way.
Nice post, Ty.
Oh goodness me, no. I could never in good conscience give a show I utterly hated a respectable rating simply because it looked pretty, or featured some pretty smooth animation. Take Blood-C for example: sure, it featured the CLAMP art I so adore and the fight scenes were always animated brilliantly, but those things did little to make up for the fact it was an utter train-wreck in terms of both characterisation and storyline, which are so much more important how could I possibly give a show like that a decent rating? I guess it also comes down to the fact I feel as though I have a responsibility to the rest of the anime community to let them know just how horrific a horrific show is- I could never live with myself if someone who trusts my opinion saw I’d rated Blood-C (to use it as an example again) generously then decided to watch it based on that, only to then go on to be ridiculously disappointed- it’s happened to me when I’ve observed the ratings of others, so I can’t see why it might not happen in reverse.