Thread: NewType's Top 25 Anime

Originally Posted by Drizzt

From what I gather, Newtype asked people to send in their votes for their favorite shows.

This in itself is faulty - first of all, the type of people who would actually write Newtype to cast their votes are biased themselves...I mean, who would spend the time to write and mail back their votes? (assuming they don't take e-mails, which I don't believe they did)

Okay, why if you take the time to write a vote are you biased? Please explain that conclusion to me because I just don't get it. I know for a fact how they accepted submissions since I'm one of those "biased" people who took the time to send them votes. I am NOT a newbie to the scene of anime either so don't even start there.
Newtype accepted snail mail and emails - email is how I voted. However you had to do more than just vote, you had to write why you voted for that show otherwise it would be thrown out. And out of the three shows that I voted for two of them made the cut. Fruits Basket and Escaflowne. (My other was Slayers.)

Secondly, yes, I admit that there is some bias on what shows made the cut. Things that are insanely popular *cough*Inuyasha*cough* might as well been given a slot on the list. Others I was surprised about. Ranma I thought was a surprise just because I don't hear the hype about it from the newbies that I uaually do about shows like Inuyasha. So I think that the poll should be given some credit for accuracy.

And now I want to toot my own horn. One of the comments that I submitted got printed in the article so let it be. I stood up for the not insanely recognizable shows.

Can't really believe Evangelion made it to the top really... I mean nice animation and all just the story completely sucked when it got to the end. Just my opinion so don't kill me those that are Evangelion fans. O_o

Originally Posted by Elves

Okay, why if you take the time to write a vote are you biased? Please explain that conclusion to me because I just don't get it. I know for a fact how they accepted submissions since I'm one of those "biased" people who took the time to send them votes. I am NOT a newbie to the scene of anime either so don't even start there.
Newtype accepted snail mail and emails - email is how I voted. However you had to do more than just vote, you had to write why you voted for that show otherwise it would be thrown out. And out of the three shows that I voted for two of them made the cut. Fruits Basket and Escaflowne. (My other was Slayers.)

Secondly, yes, I admit that there is some bias on what shows made the cut. Things that are insanely popular *cough*Inuyasha*cough* might as well been given a slot on the list. Others I was surprised about. Ranma I thought was a surprise just because I don't hear the hype about it from the newbies that I uaually do about shows like Inuyasha. So I think that the poll should be given some credit for accuracy.

I am not questioning the accuracy of the poll...wait, thats exactly what I'm doing

Don't get me wrong...I agree with around 80 percent of the shows that made it to the list.

But what I'm primarily saying is that, as you mentioned, this was a POLL for the best, and being a poll/survey it has inherent faults in it, as does other research methods (focus groups, etc).

One thing about polls is that people think that they are the holy grail when it comes to getting a pulse of society in general...or in this case of anime fans in the US. Several points to consider:

1) Newtype, while admittedly one fo the better and more popular anime magazines, isn't read by ALL, or I even daresay, a majority of anime fans. So they are basing their results on their readership base...

2) People who participate in surveys/polls ARE in general biased...what do I mean by this? Simply put, they have their own motivations for taking the time out to send in their votes, and as you said, write an explanation. :P Agreed? Be it from a casual fan who buys the mag occassionally and watches on Adult Swim who just had some spare time at the moment, to the die hard fan-boy who loves Mecha or Shojo, and spends all his money and time buying R2 discs and statues.

I'm not saying this is wrong...far from it! Another way to look at it is that everyone has a bias for something - be it Shojo, Mecha, Shonen, etc. Now...do the readers of Newtype happen to be mostly Mecha fans? NGE made it to the top after all...Can this poll actually be a base of what their READERSHIP really likes watching?

3) For that matter, what criteria was used in determining a "Junk" explanation or not? If I voted for Chobits and simply put down that "I think its cool...CHii is SOOOO cute!" and several more sentences to that effect, would my vote be counted, or discarded? What criteria was used in judging (as mentioned by other posters)?

4) Also, voters were biased in the sense that they were/are only primarily limited to shows that were/are released in the US...I think thats painfully obvious from the results.

5) The thing about mass polls is that they turn into a popularity contest - whats to stop a die hard FLCL fan from using his 6 email accounts to cast 6 votes for FLCL? How can you prevent this from happening (even with safeguards)? And then there are anime clubs, etc....

Originally Posted by Elves

I am NOT a newbie to the scene of anime either so don't even start there. .

LOL - farthest from my mind...but now that you mentioned it, it seems that you have a bias against newbies?

I have been watching anime since the 1970's...ah yes the Voltes and Daimos days - and as such, I have a tendency to consider a lot of people as newbies, particularly when I disagree on the best anime ever

To summarize, I think Newtype did a nice job...just don't take it as a TRUE and CONCRETE pulse on what the TOP really are.

Originally Posted by Drizzt

2) People who participate in surveys/polls ARE in general biased...what do I mean by this? Simply put, they have their own motivations for taking the time out to send in their votes, and as you said, write an explanation. :P Agreed?

3) For that matter, what criteria was used in determining a "Junk" explanation or not? If I voted for Chobits and simply put down that "I think its cool...CHii is SOOOO cute!" and several more sentences to that effect, would my vote be counted, or discarded? What criteria was used in judging (as mentioned by other posters)?

4) Also, voters were biased in the sense that they were/are only primarily limited to shows that were/are released in the US...I think thats painfully obvious from the results.



LOL - farthest from my mind...but now that you mentioned it, it seems that you have a bias against newbies?

As for:
1) Yes, people's own motivations for sending in votes can be seen as biased. Yes, I agree that this is true, but everyone can't be totally nonbiased either. Though I know it's probably really far from the truth I hope that many of the votes weren't based soley on favoritisim.

3) As for criteria for junk explinations - I have no clue. I was just wanting to make it clear that in order for a vote to count you had to do more than just send in a list of show titles.

4) Only U.S. releases to make the cut. For me personally, I find this a tad unfair. Because there's many a fan who has read about shows via the web that are only available in Japan and said fan has never seen them though they desperately want to, as in doesn't have a way to download fansubs (like me!). I really wanted to believe that Chrno Crusade and Fullmetal Alchemist were everything that I was reading about - I always leave the benifit of a doubt due to what I now think of Evangelion - so to cast a vote for a show that you have yet to see just doesn't seem right. Anyway, that's just a personal opinion.

As for having it out for the newbies - totally untrue, UNLESS you're an uninformed newbie that claims to know everything. You are the only one's I have it out for. Otherwise, I'm not hostile towards newbies I want them to absorb and enjoy anime to the fullest extent. Based on the your first post I thought it might be someone that was almost out of diapers - so to speak.

Out of diapers? I still wear mine...

It's okay, Drizzt... we all have problems. I mean, look at Hassun!

Originally Posted by Eriadd

It's okay, Drizzt... we all have problems. I mean, look at Hassun!

heheh, you're funny guys