In the evaluation of anime, or even any entertainment source in general (movies, games, so on), there are certain criteria that viewers use to create a sort of general idea of how good and/or bad something is.

You know the kind. The number crunchers that give games a 87.5 out of 100 in 10 different areas to come up with an overall grade of 394.32934 out of 150pi.

Even people who aren’t so stat-associated do perhaps even subconsciously put focus and ratings on various aspects of what they do. I think it’s a part of what we are to always rate and evaluate things, see if it’s worth our time. Even if you don’t think whether, say, a show’s animation is Really Good or Just OK, you compare it, see whether it Looks Better Than another show or not. Or maybe the other way around; I believe everyone does these things, if not maybe not intentionally.

The question for today is what aspect should be stressed the most in evaluating an anime. It’s a rule of thumb that some things are more important than others; generally in works of fiction the top rule is a good storyline. Voice acting is probably an integral part of this as well in conveying emotions in the story.

But, what about what’s left? The “less important”, yet still very crucial, aspects?

As you may have surmised, the two focuses of today are graphics and sound. Which of these is the more important one to making a show work? Or, alternatively, which one of these can break a show? Graphics and animation quality, how a show looks? Or sound and music (excluding voice acting), how a show sounds?

Graphics seems like the obvious choice at first. Given the choice between a solely aural and a solely graphical piece one would probably take the latter; books and manga, over, for example, audio CDs; at least for the purpose of a show/story which one actively focuses on rather than leaves running in the background (which one often does with music).

Likewise, graphics are often the first impression that a show makes on a person; it seems that we get most of our information with our eyes (again, given the choice between being blind and deaf, the choice seems obvious), and so the visual aspect should have more emphasis. The most effort and budget goes into the animation (again, educated guess) and it’s arguably one of the most obvious differences between animation studios.

If your show is a moe show and relies a lot on cute characters then obviously you can’t get away with half-hearted animation and ugly-looking characters for sure. Even in action shows, the motto is the same. We know recycled animation when we see it.

But the aural aspect of shows is surprisingly underrated. Perhaps it is the innate DDR-formed disposition of mine towards music, but the soundtrack to an anime is perhaps one of the most important parts of it. It may not break an anime if the soundtrack is forgettable, but a great soundtrack really does wonders towards raising it’s impact power.

Case in point is the recent episode 9 of School Days, with two separate insert songs in the closing quarter of the episode. The syncronization of the lulls and highs of the song with the plot of the story – even continuing on into the title screen, credits, and next episode preview – never fails to give me the goosebumps.

And that’s not just out of burning hatred for Taisuke, either, trust me.

A strong music score is great for bringing out emotions in people and setting the mood for a scene; from the light-hearted “Hazumu Kimochi” of sola to the dramatic, epic-battle-music “Justice” from Tsukihime, to the almost tear-inducing slow piano arrangement of…well, half of AIR and Kanon’s soundtrack to be honest, all are highly memorable songs to go with highly memorable scenes.

Maybe my view is biased because the song would not have as much impact without the story – and maybe, yes, the graphics – that go with it; but the songs are still very listenable by themselves, and can still on cue bring up memories of very poignant, if not spoilerific, scenes.

My views are based more on what makes a show ‘good’ then what makes it ‘bad’. A bad show is generally a train wreck that can be spotted quite a far way away, but the crop of good, or at least watchable, shows is pretty wide, and a good soundtrack can bump it up a tier, perhaps from average to good, or from good to great.

My reasoning is that a soundtrack affects you more directly. I’m not a judge of art. I can figure out basic things, like that Kanon 2006 looks better than its 2002 counterpart, but more subtle differences, like comparing sola to School Days is near-impossible. Either an anime looks good to me, bad to me, or it’s in between.

(And, as 4-koma anime may attest, bad animation may just be part of the art style.)

Soundtracks, though, do more than animation does. You can have a shot of a girl crying. You can have a dramatic, well-written text of a sad scene. But without that final, sorrowful piano piece to accompany it, there’s always going to be something missing for me.

And hey, it goes for happy scenes as well, y’know.

-CCY