Anime How do you research your anime?

Hey, everyone. I've been visiting this site for about a year and watching anime for a little more than that, but I still consider myself an anime newbie. Why? Because I've only been able to watch five or six shows all the way through. The reason for that is, like a lot of wanna-be otakus I know, they don't know what anime to try out. Anime is a big umbrella with hundreds of shows, and it can get overwhelming trying to pick out what to watch. Some of the methods I employ are:

1) Simply watching any anime that I see on TV. The most obvious answer.

2) Word of mouth from real-life friends and lovely people like you all.

3) Sites such as Anime News Network and AnimeNfo, which have capsule descriptions and let visitors rate and rank shows.

4) Doing a bit of research and finding out which shows are selling the most and getting the biggest ratings.

Those methods are all okay, but each of them have distinct flaws. So my broad question to you all is: How do you go about finding out which anime is worth your time, effort and money?

 

A lot of people will probably say whatever they can download. I, for one, disagree. If everyone downloads fansubs of licensed shows and movies, companies will stop bringing the stuff over here. That would Ubersuck. Anyway, you didn't ask for a rant, so I'll just answer the question.

Generally, my choice of anime is limited to whatever a local store has in stock. When I actually have a choice, though, I mostly talk to one friend of mine, who has impeccable taste in animated works (although terrible taste in just about everything else). Otherwise, I ask my sister what's good, and whatever she says is the worst is what I watch.
Also, when it comes to anime I'm a sucker for name-dropping. If there's an actor I like in something, I'll probably pick it up. Or, if I like the creator or director, I'm more likely to watch that too.

 

Actually, for new coming anime and fansubbed ones, I read previews and reviews from sites such as these:
Jascii
Besides the wonderful thing about animesuki is that is has detail links to sites that have brief synopsis of the plot. SO it's like taking out a book, if the title impresses you, read the synopsis first and then decided on whether to download or not.


I'd agree, Anime News Network to my surprise, has information about fansubbed, licenced, unlicenced, old rare anime all in their database which made me happy :anime: not only the they summarize the plot, they also give information about the number of episodes, the case, the studio, the director etc. Ofcourse not all of the old animes have this.

 

In general, there are three main ways I find new anime (and manga) series.

The first and foremost is by introduction to a series from friends. I would have to say that 80% of the stuff I've seen/read falls into this category on some level. My friends know what I tend to like and they'll introduce me to things that fall into those categories.

The second is paying attention to which series are being talked about a lot in the various online communities I frequent. This also involves paying attention to reviews, whether in magazines or on message boards. If I think something sounds interesting, I'll try to find out more about it. First step there tends to be asking my friends if they know anything about the series in question.

The third, and smallest, way is random browsing. In general this affects manga more than anime, if only because I can usually flip through a volume of manga somewhere before deciding to purchase it or not. At the moment there is only one anime series I can think of that falls into this category, and that is Aquarian Age.

I refrain from making random purchases in the anime department if only because of the cost involved. As a college student my income is rather limited, so I can't waste money on something I don't like. As a result, nothing I currently own was purchased without prior viewing. The most common method for my previewing was (and is) the fansub market.

My personal view on fansubs is rather ambivalent and should probably be addressed in full in a different thread. Unless, of course, people want to turn the topic of discussion in that direction.

~Shadrach Anki

 

I've never bought anime before, so I just watch whatever my brother has, or whatever my friend has (he has a lot of complete series). If I did choose to buy something, I'd buy something that I already know is good... either from having seen the first episode for free (fansub or from someone else) or from sheer research. I barely rely on what review sites say, or what my friends say, cuz I found out that lots of review writers suck at writing (or they're just plain favoritists), and people like my friends get super excited over the most plain anime.

 

I chose wat my friends happen to like or what I can get the best deal on, I personally try to go for anything on sale, i need the money...

 

I only check out new animes two ways.

One is that someone recommends it. This is the way I've seen most of the animes I know. A friend will recommend something, I'll D/L a funsub or two of it, and if I like it I go out and buy it.

The other way is just watching Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Whenever they advertise a new anime, I usually watch it to see if its any good.

 

Google. And Kazaa. Love those things...

Basically I hear about most animes from other people. Then I'll probably try and look up more about it on google. THEN I'd go looking for some music from it on Kazaa (I can't download episodes. My computer won't let me). If it seems good enough, next time I go to the city I'll purchase the manga or the DVD.

That's if I got cash...

I also watch as much anime on TV as I can, and buy Shonen Jump for manga. Shonen Jump... the blessing for broke manga fans everywhere.

 

I'm definitely big on 'word of mouth' and if I see a title, I'll do some research on it before renting or buying. I generally go to information sites much like the ones listed, or ask a trusted friend.

 

I generally sometimes listen to this guy from another board. He shows and tells us about new upcoming animes so then I buy them when they are out and are most of the time great.

 

well i usualy get the review from magz and i buy a year of magz so i know which one i should watch