Anime

(Serious Question!) Do you turn away from animes with a low average rating

233

This happens to me often because I worry about wasting time on animes that I assume will be shit based off the average ratings. I do have exceptions but more often than not I follow this rule more than I'd like. Does anyone else do this or am I just overthinking it all and being odd?

TLDR: does audience ratings matter to you before you start an anime

WalkOnGirl 5y
Not really since scores here aren't the most reliable for determining the quality of an anime; since, its incredibly subjective. However, sometimes I check what my mutuals with similar taste to me scored it and if they collectively rated it lower I am less likely to watch it.
Schrez 5y
Yeah most of the times
reed 5y
yes i only watch stuff with high ratings like attack the tittan season 3 part 2
- GusD 5y
  bruh that's literally the highest rated anime on this site
ArguUz 5y
yes but mainly becuase lower rated anime tends to be a bit more...um.....sus
if you know what I mean lmbo. But that doesn't mean there aren't hidden gems out there that are rated lowly. This just tends to be the case for most low anime

edit: but I do find it incredibly funny the difference in myself choosing to watch something between something that is a 79% and a 80% because those two numbers feel infinitely different when they are basically the same rating
DimasRMDO 5y
It depends on how people rate it.

If it looks like this...

Then it should be alright.
This is from "Charlotte".

But if it looks like this...

It looks suspicious to me.
This is from "I LOVE Magikarp".

If it's like this...

Then it might be a controversial show.
This is from "Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi (Redo of Healer)".

I usually look at the genre and the summary first to see if it interests me, then I watch a few episodes to see if it'll hook me or not. I do read some reviews but I don't take them too seriously since there can be some biases. Same goes with ratings, it's subjective overall, but if a lot of people say it then it means something as well like from the first graph. Sometimes I even want to watch a "bad" show to see how bad it is from the rating people give.
- ReturnToMonke 5y
  this exactly what I was gonna say, thanks you for sharing my opinion
Ghostmaster6 5y
Nah, I dont really care about the ratings.
I read the synopsis and if it interests me, i watch it. If I end up watching it and it's bad as it says, I don't really mind having wasted time on it. Usually, I know if I'm going to enjoy an anime from the beginning so if I feel like it matches the bad rating it has, I just drop it
saruppi 5y
how low do u consider low? if it's below 50 then i'll probably turn it away but 50+ is fine by me
- kiwicat 5y
  i normally go for 65+ but im trying to be more mindful
AquaSenpai 5y
I used to, but I've learned time and time again that it's bullshit - so rule of thumb, if you want to watch it and try it out because it looks like something you'll like, then just do that and go for it, you really have nothing to lose.

You will find highly rated shows you hate, and low rated shows you absolutely love; the type of thing that ends up being your favorite thing is probably going to be something that someone else hates, or even loads of people hate, as it's specifically meeting your needs and interests in a show, not someone else'.

Edit: Also some shows have low ratings for reasons that won't effect you. This can range from not a lot of people actually having watched it so the rating is based on less viewers. All the way to the fact that maybe it deviated from the source material a bit, but if you don't know the source material it might not bother you at all and you wouldn't even notice and get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
- kiwicat 5y
  i generally dont read manga or light novels and such so i always forget about the bias on source material.
MustardVampire 5y
No. Ive never been one to care about things like that, just because an anime has a low average score doesn't mean I myself wont enjoy it. I like to see for myself
Senbatos 5y
Not at all. Ratings, to me, reflect how much the general audience enjoys a particular show, so if it has a low rating, I know it's not something most people would enjoy or it caters to a specific niche of preference.

In other words, I don't believe a low rating indicates a bad show. It simply refers to a show that does not cater to the typical audience.
HanaAkari 5y
I feel hesitant to watch show below 67%...
mjjewel 5y
sometimes but if they look interesting, most times no
belliss 5y
not at all; as long as the synopsis grasps my attention

there are also older shows whose ratings don't reflect how much I've enjoyed them
Kalseii 5y
yes. very much so. audience ratings sometimes make me change my own ratings lol
GusD 5y
if the mean is below 50% i probably won't watch it, average score on anime websites barely means shit though tbh, genre matters a lot too and i see bad shit rated high as fuck so i gotta give it like 3 episodes to be sure
HispanicDumpster 5y
yes
veritasnoai 5y
I used to but then I realized that some anime I enjoyed I would end up scoring low just to keep it consistent with the rest of my list and realized others are too. Now I just watch whatever seems interesting as long as the score isn't really, really low
Polar 5y
Honestly, I just go for what catches my eye, rating could be horrible and it could be good imo, vice versa. it doesn't really matter to be honest, though its a good way to find an anime you might like a lot when sorting via tags or whatever. either way, doesn't matter much to me cause I have some weird tastes.