my two categories of anime rec are “it’s okay if you don’t really like anime, you’ll probably like this” and “this will not make any goddamn sense to you if you have not wasted years of your life on trash”
y’all took about five minutes to turn this into some kind of contentious madoka post when i was just sitting here innocently contemplating the spectrum from miyazaki to the bread anime
Okay, so, I feel like I should explain the greatest invention of the modern age…that was produced by my apartment. We call it, the Weeb Ass Shit scale, after our traditional method of asking what anime somebody was watching (”What Weeb Ass Shit is this?”) It grades a given Anime from 0-10 on three different methods: Weeb, Ass, and Shit. An individual will have different degrees of tolerance for various levels on the different scales. 0 is low, 10 is high. Weeb is the degree to which the show assumes a familiarity with japanese pop culture or anime tropes in general, not only in terms of the actual content of the show, but occasionally at a conceptual level. Hyperspecialized high schools with all-powerful student councils, for example, add a couple points to the Weeb scale. Same goes for the presence or use of tropes that would be bizzare and off putting if you weren’t used to seeing such things in other anime.Â
A zero on the Weeb scale could be enjoyed by somebody who doesn’t even know that Japan exists, a 10 assumes the audience possesses a PhD in japanese cultural studies with a focus on animation. Something like Cowboy Bebop comes in at a 1, while I’d put Kill-La-Kill at a 6. Anything of the form “These Girls are anthropomorphic versions of something else” rates at least a 7 in my book. Next comes the Ass Scale. Put simply, how much Fanservice is in the show. busty character design, male-gaze camera angles, skimpy outfits, hot spring episodes, character A tripping and landing in a compromising position on top of character B, all that nonsense. At a 0, you’ve got something you would watch with your Grandmother after church (Miyazaki’s stuff comes in at a 0). Finally, the Shit scale, which covers general overall quality. A 0 indicates that the show is flawless, a 10 holds that you would rather sandpaper your own face than watch it. It should be noted that the Shit scale should be judged independent of the others. Too much T&A shows up on the Ass scale. Proper use of this scale is in the form W/A/S. For example, Shokugeki no Soma (Aka Food Wars) would come in at W 4/ A 6/ S 3
