credentials?

[ZZalapski]

Assuming one has the prerequisite writing skills, how much anime should one have seen to be a creditable AA prof, or any anime critic that can be taken seriously? Are there any titles that should be a "must-see" in that regard?

[Apolyion]

Hard question IMO. But in theory I don't think you have to have seen that much anime to be a good reviewer. You do need to be able to recognize and judge the quality of its production, and that tends to take experience, for the sake of comparisons.

Reviewing the plot and characters and so forth, that's not something that requires a lot of previous anime experience IMO. The same reviewing criteria and skills should be easily adaptable to anime as to any other TV show or movie. It does require a degree of insight, though, and like with all things practice does make perfect.

In all I wouldn't ignore someone's review just because they haven't been a viewer for 10 years or haven't seen at least 40 titles. I also wouldn't take someone's review seriously because they have been a viewer for 10 years and have seen 400 titles. Anime is entertainment and like all entertainment what you like is a matter of opinion and personal tastes. If I were going to try and decide on a reviewer to trust, I'd read their reviews on shows I've seen and see if their opinions were close to mine. If so, I'd be more willing to listen to them about shows I haven't seen because they seem to have similar standards to my own.

Why? Because the point of reading a review for a show you haven't seen is usually to help decide whether or not you want to see it. I don't need a reviewer to tell me what I like, or what I should like, in a show I've already watched. I like what I like, nobody's gonna change that. I can, however, use one who seems to share my opinions on many things to tell me how much (or how little) he or she liked a show I haven't seen yet.

On the other hand, I think it's possible to have seen too much anime to be an objective or balanced reviewer. After enough time of watching anime with an eye towards reviewing and critiquing, most people will get jaded and find it hard to write a fair review that gets to the heart of the matter - did they like watching it, or not.

But I wouldn't care if that reviewer's been eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping anime since 1976, or if they just started watching casually in 2006, as long as their reviews served my needs.

As for shows of historical noteworthiness... yes there are some in my opinion. I don't think it's worth it to list most of them out. Not all of them are even shows that I particularly like, and some I rather dislike, but some shows have had a lot of impact on anime in general, or on anime in the West in specific.

[laborpilot86]

Being a good writer always helps.......

[soundchazer]

I have to say, as one of the few people here that has indeed been watching anime since 1976, that having watched that much content tends to make it HARDER to review anime. Why? Because eventually many plot devices and stories tend to repeat themselves and it is not as easy to review something out of their own merits. In other words, you are stuck with the "been there, seen that" syndrome.

On the other hand, it keeps you from giving derivative anime like Love Hina something over a 90%.

[Mana]

Of all the professors at AA, I've probably seen the least anime :D I don't find it to be something crippling, though. I'm not as fast to throw around names and companies as more varied profs tend to, or to make comparisons, but that's about it.

Where my strength comes in is my writing ability, and the same could be said for all of our professors. We all have the critical thinking skills needed to pick apart something (while being as subjective as possible) and the ability to write it all down in a clear, concise manner that people can read and understand, if not necessarily agree with.

But, we are talking anime here. I suppose that any Professor-in-training should see at least enough anime that she knows what she likes and doesn't like, of different genres and ages. That being said, if someone doesn't watch a lot of anime, I think she should strongly consider WHY exactly she wants to be a professor. If someone came up to me and inquired about professorship and hadn't seen a lot of shows, I would strongly wonder if she would be able to keep up with writing enough reviews, especially the 2-review-per-montn quota... no matter how slack Mugs is with it currently.