too hard to find good anime

[TTaberis]

I rate my anime from A+ to F, most end up the the B- area. Most anime is mediocre garbage, anyone who has seen at least 50+ shows will know this. Good anime is rare, my solution is find mediocre anime that fits your niche.

[anoligarh]

I rate my anime from A+ to F, most end up the the B- area. Most anime is mediocre garbage, anyone who has seen at least 50+ shows will know this. Good anime is rare, my solution is find mediocre anime that fits your niche.

I rate my anime 1-10, most anime end up receiving a 5. http://myanimelist.net/animelist/anoligarh&show=0&order=4

[kamuixtv99]

Maybe anime is no longer for you. Try to change the type of genre that you prefer. You might want to visit the sites of Subdesu and erobeat  . Then cycle pick another genre of anime of your choice.

[meauntienora]

I'm with you 100% OP, I adore enough anime to be actively interested in more.  But I loathe so much that it becomes tedious and frustrating to as well. 

Most of the big websites are dated and clumsy, and cater to target demographics.  The communities can be helpful and well-meaning, yet ultimately provide recommendations that are way off-base.  The internet also has a way of layering superlatives.  Give users anonymity and a vote and they love to diminish or magnify the value of something.  Such a sheer volume of content is available that it becomes impenetrable.  With anime sites, it's almost as if I forget what I was browsing for in the first place. 

The worst part, in my experience, is that the sites seem hard coded to sap individuality, any true identity.  In this clumsy white wasteland, regimented walls of text abound, and algorithms tirelessly crunch user click data, and spit out... more data!  Those 3 digit values that every site seems to love nowadays... it reads like the Dewey decimal system.  Limitless artistic expression, flaunted taboos rubbing elbows with cultural traditions, action set-pieces that handily match or top Hollywood, awkward puberty, historical fiction, speculative science fiction, tragic failure, boobs, the spirit endeavor, valid social commentary... effing.... THIS: http://i56.tinypic.com/9qzbdf.gif

Yet all the controversy, fun and thoughtful discussion happens backstage it seems.  Forums serve a valid purpose, but the frontends of the biggest database sites seem lazily compiled from design docs of yesteryear.  An unholy union of Livejournal and IMDB circa 1999.  I'm no web designer, I don't have any better ideas.  But I know in my heart we can do better.

[5Cats]

Limitless artistic expression, flaunted taboos rubbing elbows with cultural traditions, action set-pieces that handily match or top Hollywood, awkward puberty, historical fiction, speculative science fiction, tragic failure, boobs, the spirit endeavor, valid social commentary... effing.... THIS: http://i56.tinypic.com/9qzbdf.gif

ZOMG! WTF was that piece of crapola? (in the clip?)

While I think several of the things you cite as problems are OK, that clip would make me lose my lunch! Blerg!
I... fell unclean for having watched it...

[zherok]

THIS: http://i56.tinypic.com/9qzbdf.gif

I think they do a fine enough job depending on how you go about it. An anime database isn't going to magically divine your personal preferences and be able to sort them in an order you'd perfectly agree with. But it really doesn't matter so long as it filters good stuff towards the top and bad stuff towards the bottom.

So while something like Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood stands at the very top, I don't need to agree with that so long as things like Black Lagoon (95th!) stand high enough to get noticed. Filtering from the top certainly has a lot of quality shows pop up. And likewise, the vast majority of 3-5 average score anime are terrible.

And using it to look up stuff before I get it can help see if it's worth the bother. A 7 or 8 average score isn't going to be ordered in any meaningful way to me, but it's probably a show worth looking into whereas a 6 or lower is something that should give you some pause.

I'd agree that a more robust way of finding things similar to what you know you already like would be awesome (something like Pandora radio for anime or something.) But they certainly have their own uses as is.

ZOMG! WTF was that piece of crapola? (in the clip?)

While I think several of the things you cite as problems are OK, that clip would make me lose my lunch! Blerg!
I... fell unclean for having watched it...

Well, it doesn't have any cat girls in it, but I can assure you that Black Lagoon is pretty awesome.

[CappinHoff]

If you have trouble finding good anime to watch, you're not trying hard enough. Try to expand your likes. Experiment, try out different genres. Not all good animes are the ones most people are talking about. Take recommendations with a grain of salt. For a while I only liked a certain few genres, then I started to just watch anything and now I have so much to choose from.

[Hadouken]

Best thing to do is accept mediocrity and don't have any preferences.

[newtype711]

This is the problem: 
When you watch, read, experience things that you enjoy you consume those until your idea of good becomes "those things that I thought were good then" those become your standard as you go on things like those become harder to find thus you utter lines like "I am out of the good stuff." The solution is to find stuff that others like and ask yourself Why?
Either you will find what they liked and relate, you will find what you like about it that you have never seen or thought about, or you will find things you hate about it so much that you may start to enjoy them for a change of pace.

How do I know?  I am in a fifth instance of that in the 15 years that I have been watching anime since the old tapes of Speed Racer and Robotech since I was 6/7 years old

[megido-rev.M]

Sometimes people look for attributes in new shows they watch related to what was watched before, even when these don't really exist because they're not related. Perhaps it's because they want the things they watched before to keep going to some degree.

[Zalis116]

Not saying this applies to you, OP, but a lot of the time when I see people saying "there's no good anime left," they usually have one or more arbitrary self-limiting standards, such as:

"Nothing made before/after <some random year>"
"Nothing that's not available <above or below some resolution>"
"Nothing that's in <whatever aspect ratio doesn't perfectly fit my screen>"
"Nothing that's targeted at demographics other than my own"

If people are going to eliminate large classes of anime in this fashion, all the database sites and personal recommendations in the world aren't going to help them that much.

[jaybug]

Not saying this applies to you, OP, but a lot of the time when I see people saying "there's no good anime left," they usually have one or more arbitrary self-limiting standards, such as:

"Nothing made before/after <some random year>"
"Nothing that's not available <above or below some resolution>"
"Nothing that's in <whatever aspect ratio doesn't perfectly fit my screen>"
"Nothing that's targeted at demographics other than my own"

If people are going to eliminate large classes of anime in this fashion, all the database sites and personal recommendations in the world aren't going to help them that much.

Might as well add, must have Mickey Mouse in it.

Me, I'd like to see Dirty Duck animated. But that would not be an anime.

I will say there is not enough good new anime to be watching non-stop 24/7. And what there is, just goes way too fast!

[Fish13]

yeah, when you have watched hundreds of anime till the end, and even more hundreds only 1-3 episodes all you can do is wait for new ones to come out... it's the same for everything tv series / movies / games, ect...

[fokker001]

i have an old one, and i think a rare one, harmoney golds pilot for Robotech, it's on vhs though

[xShadow]

Yes, anybody who has seen a few 100 animes will have the same problem....all you can do is wait for new animes to air...or just force yourself to check out all the average shows

It's more that once someone has watched 100 or so shows and formed opinions on all of them, they start to get more closed-minded. You start to think that this certain subset of the stuff you've watched was probably the best ever, and there's no way you'll find anything better. It might just be a different experience. That's also a bullshit way of thinking. You're painting the "good" shows as being much better than they actually were in your mind.

At some point, just stop and, after a lot of experience with watching, try to rewatch some of the stuff you've considered good. Do it with a completely open mind. Unbiased. Pretend you're doing it for the first time. Reanalyze everything, don't just assume it's good. It will probably still be enjoyable to watch, but is it actually "good"? There's a line between those two qualifiers.

You'll probably find that not everything you've watched is as good as you thought it was in the past. It may just be shit that you thought was "good", but it's actually just "enjoyable" based on your preferences. You'll probably also come to the realization that there's just as much value in watching something for being "good" as it is for it being "enjoyable" to watch.

Well, that's a theoretical schedule of events.

For instance... I've watched all of Haganai and Acchi Kocchi. Were either of them particularly amazing? Hell no. I enjoyed watching them, though. Just get your head outta your ass.

That's not to say I think that anime isn't worse than it was before, in general. Even looking at it objectively, I just can't find as many things that are seriously "good" these days. Best thing to do is to just go with what you can enjoy watching. I think part of what's ruining anime is moe. Not because I hate moe in general, but because it seems to me like studios realized that appealing to those goddamn type B's makes them a hell of a lot more money than appealing to type A's (who probably manage their financial assets better). Even stuff that can be considered "good" these days will probably still put a bunch of ecchi and/or moe shit into it because it sells.



Why do I type this fast?

[AceD]

Yes, anybody who has seen a few 100 animes will have the same problem....all you can do is wait for new animes to air...or just force yourself to check out all the average shows

It's more that once someone has watched 100 or so shows and formed opinions on all of them, they start to get more closed-minded. You start to think that this certain subset of the stuff you've watched was probably the best ever, and there's no way you'll find anything better. It might just be a different experience. That's also a bullshit way of thinking. You're painting the "good" shows as being much better than they actually were in your mind.

At some point, just stop and, after a lot of experience with watching, try to rewatch some of the stuff you've considered good. Do it with a completely open mind. Unbiased. Pretend you're doing it for the first time. Reanalyze everything, don't just assume it's good. It will probably still be enjoyable to watch, but is it actually "good"? There's a line between those two qualifiers.

You'll probably find that not everything you've watched is as good as you thought it was in the past. It may just be shit that you thought was "good", but it's actually just "enjoyable" based on your preferences. You'll probably also come to the realization that there's just as much value in watching something for being "good" as it is for it being "enjoyable" to watch.

Well, that's a theoretical schedule of events.

For instance... I've watched all of Haganai and Acchi Kocchi. Were either of them particularly amazing? Hell no. I enjoyed watching them, though. Just get your head outta your ass.

That's not to say I think that anime isn't worse than it was before, in general. Even looking at it objectively, I just can't find as many things that are seriously "good" these days. Best thing to do is to just go with what you can enjoy watching. I think part of what's ruining anime is moe. Not because I hate moe in general, but because it seems to me like studios realized that appealing to those goddamn type B's makes them a hell of a lot more money than appealing to type A's (who probably manage their financial assets better). Even stuff that can be considered "good" these days will probably still put a bunch of ecchi and/or moe shit into it because it sells.



Why do I type this fast?

Was that directed at me? i haven't seen just "100 or so", i've seen over 600 and try pretty much anything that seems moderately appealing to me, or is been hyped up on a forum i use. Not "closed-minded" in the slightest.

But i do have a preference of genres. I like Action, Fantasy, Drama, Seinen, Ecchi...therefor i can enjoy even the so called "mediocre" shows of them genres. Where as something like Magical Girl, i only enjoy certain things..."mediocre" shows like say Precure (in my mind at least) suck, so i can eliminate any show like Precure.

If thats having my head up my ass then so be it, the only other option is claiming all anime is watchable, which would be the same as all TV shows, all movies are worth watching, all games are worth playing....na.

[xShadow]

Not really, no. I was aiming it at that entire mindset in general. I just quoted you because you brought it up first.

[rivel0121]

i only started watching anime Christmas 2011 but Ive seen easily around 200 - 300 shows with 142 unwatched on my hard drive but i still find it hard to find them i usually just go through forums myanimelist and other sites just keeping my eyes out for any i haven't read about every so often i stumble upon some good ones i haven't really got a specific genre so i guess that makes it easier the first anime i watched was Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan and from then on i was was hooked when i brought my first terabyte i filled it in a month anyway i know what your saying that its hard to find good ones even for me i think all we can do is keep scouring until we hit the jackpot   

[occasional]

i only started watching anime Christmas 2011 but Ive seen easily around 200 - 300 shows with 142 unwatched on my hard drive but i still find it hard to find them i usually just go through forums myanimelist and other sites just keeping my eyes out for any i haven't read about every so often i stumble upon some good ones i haven't really got a specific genre so i guess that makes it easier the first anime i watched was Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan and from then on i was was hooked when i brought my first terabyte i filled it in a month anyway i know what your saying that its hard to find good ones even for me i think all we can do is keep scouring until we hit the jackpot 

Here's a tip: If you can't read a sentence in one breath without pausing, then it's probably too long and requires punctuation.

[BowlofRice]

Here's a tip: If you can't read a sentence in one breath without pausing, then it's probably too long and requires punctuation.

Hahaha, my high school english teachers would have a ball with my essays and my tendency to run on...

Back on topic, I think the problem with anime nowadays is that a large portion of it is some combination of high school moe, or high school ecchi, with some action thrown in for good measure and in the end get something like a pizza flavored cake...not that good. That's not to say that overall it wasn't satisfying, but at the end there isn't much substance. This reminded me of something my sister told me yesterday as I was watching Rideback; she said "Wow, you're not watching one of those all girls' high school anime" in reference to To Aru Kagaru no Railgun which I had just seen the other day (and liked) and exemplifies my point about what some anime studios feel they have to put into their work in order for it to sell.

Another problem is that most of the time, anime adaptations aren't done well. So what's an anime fanatic to do?
Become a manga/LN/VN/eroge fanatic! /s

Anyway, the solution in my opinion is to not limit yourself to what you think is good. Broaden your horizons and who knows, maybe you'll find you like something you never thought you would. (My personal example is Clannad, I never thought I would enjoy that show, but here I am now, recommending it to people.)

PS: I recommend reading more manga if you're not already doing so, you'll find things you'd never seen in anime form like Sun-ken Rock, for instance.