At its current rate, seasonal anime is becoming a deeper and deeper forest:

 

   More anime each season pulling for your attention.

   More critics pumping out content telling you what’s worth your time.

   More people on social media / in forums attempting to do the same.

   And an overall messier discourse surrounding it all.

 

The worst part?

There’s little guidance out there to “actually” navigating the seasonal anime scene.

By that, we mean beyond simply looking over airing charts, preview guides, and similar content.

So here we are today, looking to shine a little bit of light.

What follows is far from an objective list, but hopefully something a person new to following seasonal anime and interacting with that part of the community can benefit from. While pretty basic, all best practices and resources are listed with the intention to maximize the seasonal experience.

 

So without further ado, let’s get into it!

 

 

 

 

 

Stop Participating In Seasonal Anime Discussions “Looking To Be Right”

Far too many people are guilty of this both old and new, popular or not in the community so this is worthwhile to say upfront. Not everyone is going to agree with your perspective on a given anime no matter how sound you think your reasoning is or how hard you pound your fists on the table – and that’s perfectly okay.

People are allowed to disagree with you, let them. What’s a bad anime to you might not be to everyone else. How you interpret a scene isn’t a universal interpretation. Others aren’t “missing the point” or “not getting it” because they don’t share your view.

Your seasonal anime experience will become vastly less abrasive once you start approaching conversations on airing shows fully accepting that those around you may not come to a similar conclusion.

 

Put Little Stock Into MyAnimeList’s Ratings

Look, it’s no secret that MyAnimeList’s scores are kind of a joke in the community. It’s to the extent that even avid users of the site whip up comments and make threads complaining about it on a fairly regular basis. Despite that, time and time again we come across some poor soul throwing a complete tantrum that the new seasonal show they’re watching is scored too high or low.

So please, if you haven’t already, realize that MyAnimeList’s ratings are loose guidelines at best: The score’s correlation to the logical workings of the 1-10 scale that they fall on is rather murky (a “seven” can come across as average and anything below a “six” is basically considered trash on the site). Building on that, outside agendas often taint ratings; It’s not uncommon to see users try to artificially push an anime up MyAnimeList’s rankings or rip down one that’s doing well.

On a whole, strictly following MyAnimeList’s ratings during a season is a good way to miss out on a lot of high upside shows that aren’t exactly popular.

 

Ignore “Episode Rules”

Once upon a time, it was extremely common for viewers diving into a new anime to follow a three episode rule, which in short, gave the viewer three episodes to decide if the anime in question was worth their time to continue. While the rule is still relatively popular and even has a less patient variant of it that is used, it’s nothing concrete and often has pretty blatant drawbacks as you increase your possibility of missing out on an anime that simply shines later in its run length.

With that in mind, we suggest that you don’t follow any specific rule. Every show is different: Some you may drop right away, some you may drop by episode three, some deeper into the cour. YOU be the judge of that. If you’re on the fence with a particular story, don’t feel that you should put it down just because “the time limit is up” and it doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat.

 

Don’t Talk To The Trash, Just Take It Out

You may have noticed, but recently we published an article by this name on Seasonal Prattle. It’s a very short read (under a minute) but we feel it’s so damn important and fundamental for a good seasonal experience that we wanted to include it here. Give it a look if you have a second.

 

Utilize Manga Tokyo’s Hashtag Page

Every season, the good folks at Manga Tokyo unroll a list of Twitter hashtags and pages for all the current airing works. Their particular article is great for any seasonal anime viewer looking for takes/discussion beyond typical sites – especially for titles that are less popular. Combine that with its clean layout plus overall ease of use, and this is definitely an entry you should have bookmarked.

 

Don’t Limit Yourself To One Streaming Service

While I’m sure each streaming service would love to have your loyalty to just their platform, you’re closing the door on yourself if you just stick to one. Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix etc: It doesn’t matter which you pick, they alone won’t have all the airing titles, and in the vast majority of recent seasons – not even all the highly regarded ones. So do yourself a favor and expand your choice of services. You don’t want to be the person who has to miss out on a high profile anime because “oh no it’s on Amazon and I don’t have that”.

If You Pirate Your Anime, Be Smart About it

Let’s get this out of the way right now since we just talked about streaming services. People pirate anime…a lot for an array of reasons. We’re not going to sit up here and try to shame you or whatever into not doing that. You do you, we don’t care. However, if you are going to pirate, it’s clearly in your best interest to be smart about it. Make sure you have a good Adblocker or at minimum a decent one that’s updated. Yeah it seems obvious, but we still see more people than we should complain about getting viruses and similar side effects of interacting with these kinds of sites and their pop-ups. Better safe than sorry.

Utilize Sakuga Blog

There’s still a large swath of individuals who have yet to visit Sakuga Blog and that’s a shame. While it doesn’t keep up with too many seasonal shows, it’s a great read for the ones that it does, and thus a nice resource for seasonal viewers to get insight on the guts of some their favorite current works through its more production focused takes. They’re worth a visit if you haven’t already.

Try Out A Variety Of Anime Critics

There’s a bunch of anime critics out there that make solid content and deliver worthwhile opinions on the season for you to consider. Be that as it may, you’re not going to find that out if you don’t do a bit of exploring. Try checking out a few different opinions from various critics to potentially broaden your perspective on a show that much more.

Avoid The Discourse Around Seasonal “Controversies” – You Don’t Need That Stress In Your Life

Lately, every new anime season seems to bring some show that causes a tiring rift in the community. With that said, I’m going to keep this one blunt: The drama isn’t worth it. Do you, your mental health and your time a huge favor and try your best to avoid all of that. Your reward will be going through the day without a headache.

 

 

Here’s What’s Next…

Clearly, this list can be expanded on and we intend to do just that.

We’re just scratching the surface here, so keep an eye out for updates and if you have any suggestions for this list feel free to let us know below!