Maximize your Anime Dollars!

Welcome to the guide! This site should be useful for individuals starting their anime dvd collection, or anyone who can't decide what title to buy next. This is not a review site, it is a Ratings Guide, which rates anime dvds by Content, Price, Technical Merit, and Total Score (an average of the previous three ratings). It will help you get the most, and the best, anime for your money.

Fun with Spreadsheets

I first got the idea for this website while reading the Anime On Dvd forums last October. Anime newbies kept posting "what DVDs should I get?" while the more hardcore fans argued about the pricing and technical merit of the latest releases. I decided to plug all the anime titles into a Spreadsheet and figure out which titles were the least expensive, and hence the best buy. But a low price point doesn't mean much if the content is horrible, and neither price nor content matters if the DVD isn't technically sound. So, I ended up creating several more spreadsheets, with ratings for Content, Technical Ratings, and Total Score. After figuring out how to convert these Spreadsheets to HTML Tables, this website was born...

A three month delay...

Or I should say, stillborn. You see, I ran into a little snag. I wanted to create tables with a fixed header, where the column headings would stay in place as you scrolled down the table. The only way I knew to do this was to place the header in one frame, and the table body in another. All I had to do was to make sure the columns stayed aligned. This sounds pretty easy in theory, but in actuality it was a nightmare. Different web browsers have different default sizes and fonts, and this was adversely affecting the column widths. I even tried using images to fix the column widths, but this was only partially successful. I thought my problems were solved when I stumbled upon the HTML tag "THEAD", which supposedly does exactly what I want... create tables with fixed headers. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that not a single web browser currently supports this function. So, after several weeks of work, the best I could do was create a table that only worked on 50% of the browsers I tested. I could get it working on Mac browsers, but it wouldn't work on the PC. I could get it working in Explorer, but it wouldn't work in Navigator. So last week, I finally did what I should have done a long time ago... I gave up. No fixed headers. My solution works, it just doesn't look as cool.

When did I learn how to Draw?

The delay wasn't a total waste... I used that time to create some fan art for the Main Page. About 6 months ago, I made the surprising discovery that I can do fan art. I've always been a big fan of anime and video game "fan art", but my own attempts have always turned out pretty horrible in the past. But last year I figured out how to get around my drawing limitations. You see, my drawing ability may be pretty bad, but my graphic editing skills are pretty damn good. So I do a very rough sketch, scan it into the computer, and spend the next three days editing it until it actually looks half-way decent.

A crappy sketch evolves into a pretty decent piece of art.

About those updates...

Because of the large amount of work involved with creating and colorizing these tables, I can't update the site every time a new title is released. I will try to update the site every 4-8 weeks, depending on the number of titles released in that time. You can check Anime on DVD for the latest releases.

Ratings Explained

Titles

I've included most every anime title released on DVD, but it's important to note that I only list the first disc in a continuing series, unless something happens in later volumes to change the scores. For example, I've listed Cowboy Bebop #1 and 3, because the 3rd disc (and every disc afterwards) contains fewer episodes, and therefore has a lower price rating than the first two discs. And since I don't list each individual disc, content ratings rate the entire series, not a specific disc.

Content Rating

How good is the anime? Does it have a good story? Is the animation reasonably well done? Does it have a good soundtrack?

Points taken off if the show is really crappy! ^_^

For titles I haven't seen, scores are based on reviews posted at Anime On Dvd and various online retailers.

Please note that reviews are fairly subjective, mainly because individual tastes vary. I've tried to be as fair and objective as possible, with one exception.... tentacle porn. Yeah, I can appreciate a little titillation as much as the next guy (in the form of gratuitous panty shots, bouncing breasts, shower scenes, etc.), but I find the whole genre of tentacle porn quite disturbing. Besides, I refuse to support a genre that single handedly gave anime a bad rap (those "sex and violence cartoons"). I gave all such titles a failing grade for content, but if you like this genre, add 25 points to my content rating for these titles, or 8 points to the total score.

Technical Rating

Rates the quality of the DVD, and how well the American company handled the release. Covers DVD video and sound quality, as well as the quality of the menus, the number of extras, the readability of the subtitles, the quality of the translation, etc.

Points taken off for: poor or glitchy menus, lack of extras, grainy video, sound clipping (ex: Evangelion, Lost Universe, and Sailor Moon R Movie), ugly subtitles, which are too thin and/or borderless (a pet peeve of mine, which affects most AD VISION and PIONEER releases), removal of opening/endings/previews/eyecatches (ex: Battle Athletes), censorship of any kind (ex: Kite, Lost Universe), poor, or even over-zealous translations (ex: Rurouni Kenshin TV), and placing commercials of any kind before the main feature (fortunately, only AD VISION is currently doing this).

I don't rate the English Dubs, as I'm not a dub fan and try to avoid them when possible. I do recognize that dubs have their place (they've proven invaluable at attracting newbies and "casual fans" to anime), but I'd encourage anyone who cares about artistic merit to choose to listen to the original Japanese language track (with English subtitles) over the English dub.

Finally, any DVD that is released without a Japanese language track and/or English subtitles will receive a failing grade, regardless of any other technical merit. Anime companies take note!

Price Rating

This is NOT some arbitrary number I choose, rather this grade is calculated using a mathematical formula based on the price per minute of a given title. Using this formula, the least expenive anime titles (Dragonball: Saga of Goku, Phantom Quest Corp, and Eatman Collection) all score around 100 points. The most costly anime titles (including Blue Submarine, Legend of Lemnear, and Grappler Baki) all fail miserably... as they should. Titles priced between $24.98 and $29.98 for 75 minutes of content receive an average grade.

Note that these ratings are based on retail prices... you should be able to find the DVDs considerably cheaper online. And if you'd like to see more low-cost anime released, I'd encourage you to vote with your wallets, and avoid buying titles with poor Price Ratings.

Total Score

This score is the average of the Content, Technical, and Price Ratings. The table sorted by Total Score is the main "Anime Guide" and is probably the best place to start. This is the only table which lists all ratings at once.