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Monday, January 24, 2011

Anime Roundup #3:

A fundamental flaw in my anime rankings is my inability to include good anime short series and movies into the overall rating system. I think I've found a clever answer for this problem, by listing the number of episodes/movies each series has to its name, and then dividing the series' quality by its length, thus giving us a 'quality density' measurement. Just as GDP numbers are divided by population, to produce the more important GDP per capita measurement of wealth, anime quality can be divided by length, to produce 'entertainment per minute' measurements. Long epics can tell stories short stories can't, so there's no suggestion that entertainment per minute is the authoritative measurement of an anime's quality. However, it is a good companion measurement. The 'overall' quality and the 'entertainment per minute' quality of various works should be weighed in tandem. Therefore, making two separate scales according to the two measuring methods makes more sense.

As always, let's start with my newly updated, all videos working (for now) great anime openings:







Next, let's redo our ratings, this time with 70 slots, so that we can include more series, even the short ones/movies.


1. Clannad
2. One Piece
3. Code Geass
4. Naruto
5. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni
6. K-On!
7. Dragonball
8. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
9. Haruhi Suzumiya
10. Crest of the Stars
11. Tengen Toppa Gurrenn Lagann
12. Kanon
13. Fairy Tail
14. Katanagatari
15. To Aru Majutsu no Index/ To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
16. Angel Beats
17. Cowboy Bebop
18. Inuyasha
19. Record of Lodoss War
20. Sailor Moon
21. Vandread
22. Full Metal Panic!
23. Hayate no Gotoku
24. Toradora!
25. Da Capo
26. Kobato
27. Sora no Woto
28. The World God Only Knows
29. Ef
30. Kiki's Delivery Service
31. Card Captor Sakura
32. Galaxy Angel
33. Air
34. Evangelion
35. Ranma 1/2
36. Samurai Champloo
37. 12 Kingdoms
38. Battle Athletes
39. Working!
40. Uuchuu no Stellvia
41. Rurouni Kenshin
42. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
43. Basilisk
44. Utawarerumono
45. Saki
46. Prince of Tennis
47. Major
48. Ore no Immouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
49. Zero no Tsukaima
50. Bakuman
51. Pretty Cure
52. Mononoke Hime
53. Berserk
54. Summer Wars
55. Claymore
56. Bastard!
57. Valkyria Chronicles
58. Mahoromatic
59. Guyver
60. Akane Iro no Somaru Saka
61. Kimi ni Todoke
62. Amagami SS
63. Negima! Magister Magi Negi.
64. Angelic Layer
65. Macross +
66. Read or Die
67. Martian Succesor Nadesico
68. Fatal Fury
69. Spice and Wolf
70. Alien Nine

Now that we have these rankings, we need to find out how many episodes/movies of animation belong to each one.

1. Clannad: 49 episodes + 1 movie.
2. One Piece: 483 episodes + 10 movies.
3. Code Geass: 50 episodes + 2 movies.
4. Naruto: 418 episodes + 7 movies
5. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni: 55 episodes
6. K-On! 40 episodes
7. Dragonball 600 episodes + 17 movies
8. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha: 52 episodes + 1 movie
9. Haruhi Suzumiya: 28 episodes + 1 movie
10. Crest of the Stars: 39 episodes + 2 movies
11. Tengen Toppa Gurrenn Lagann: 27 episodes + 2 movies
12. Kanon: 24 episodes
13. Fairy Tail: 65 episodes
14. Katanagatari: 12 episodes
15. To Aru Majutsu no Index/Kagaku no Railgun: 64 episodes
16. Angel Beats: 14 episodes
17. Cowboy Bebop: 26 episodes + 1 movie
18. Inuyasha: 193 episodes + 4 movies
19. Record of Lodoss War: 43 episodes
20. Sailor Moon: 200 episodes + 3 movies
21. Vandread: 26 episodes + 2 movies
22. Full Metal Panic!: 49 episodes
23. Hayate no Gotoku: 78 episodes
24. Toradora!: 25 episodes
25. Da Capo: 80 episodes
26. Kobato: 24 episodes
27. Sora no Woto: 14 episodes
28. The World God Only Knows: 12 episodes
29. Ef: 24 episodes
30. Kiki's Delivery Service: 1 movie
31. Card Captor Sakura: 70 episodes + 2 movies
32. Galaxy Angel: 139 episodes
33. Air: 15 episodes + 1 movie
34. Evangelion: 26 episodes + 5 movies
35. Ranma 1/2: 174 episodes + 2 movies
36. Samurai Champloo: 26 episodes
37. 12 Kingdoms: 45 episodes
38. Battle Athletes: 32 episodes
39. Working!: 13 episodes
40. Uuchuu no Stellvia: 26 episodes
41. Rurouni Kenshin: 101 episodes + 1 movie
42. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: 13 episodes
43. Basilisk: 24 episodes
44. Utawarerumono: 29 episodes
45. Saki: 25 episodes
46. Prince of Tennis: 205 episodes + 2 movies
47. Major: 154 episodes + 1 movie
48. Ore no Immouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai: 12 episodes
49. Zero no Tsukaima: 38 episodes
50. Bakuman: 16 episodes
51. Pretty Cure: 340 episodes + 9 movies
52. Mononoke Hime: 1 movie
53. Berserk: 25 episodes
54. Summer Wars: 1 movie
55. Claymore: 26 episodes
56. Bastard!: 6 episodes
57. Valkyria Chronicles: 26 episodes
58. Mahoromatic: 31 episodes
59. Guyver: 38 episodes
60. Akane Iro no Somaru Saka: 13 episodes
61. Kimi ni Todoke: 28 episodes
62. Amagami SS: 25 episodes
63. Negima! Magister Magi Negi: 36 episodes
64. Angelic Layer: 26 episodes
65. Macross +: 4 episodes + 1 movie
66. Read or Die: 29 episodes
67. Martian Succesor Nadesico: 26 episodes + 2 movies
68. Fatal Fury: 3 movies
69. Spice and Wolf: 27 episodes
70. Alien Nine: 4 episodes

This list may not be perfect. In addition, many of these series are still ongoing and thus the list will become obsolete within days. Even so, this is approximately correct and thus we can derive the statistic we've all been waiting for. I am going to count a movie to equal 6 episodes for purposes of length. Two hours per movie seems about right. This is also slightly inaccurate but the margin of error is statistically irrelevant.

The next task is to set up a new ranking system, with entertainment per minute in mind. The arbitrary system I plan on using is multiplying the ranking from 1 to 70, where a ranking of 1 multiplies your entertainment by 70, and a ranking of 70 multiplies your entertainment by 1. Then I'm going to divide that number by the number of episodes and get an 'entertainment per episode' ranking.

First, let's just crunch the numbers:

1. Clannad 70/55 = 1.273
2. One Piece 69/543 = .127
3. Code Geass 68/62 = 1.097
4. Naruto 67/460 = .146
5. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni 66/55 = 1.2
6. K-On! 65/40 = 1.625
7. Dragonball = 64/702 = .091
8. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha = 63/58 = 1.086
9. Haruhi Suzumiya 62/34 = 1.824
10. Crest of the Stars 61/51 = 1.196
11. Tengen Toppa Gurrenn Lagann 60/39 = 1.538
12. Kanon 59/24 = 2.458
13. Fairy Tail 58/65 = .892
14. Katanagatari 57/12 = 4.75
15. To Aru Majutsu no Index/ To Aru Kagaku no Railgun 56/64 = .875
16. Angel Beats 55/14 = 3.929
17. Cowboy Bebop 54/32 = 1.688
18. Inuyasha 53/217 = .244
19. Record of Lodoss War 52/43 = 1.209
20. Sailor Moon 51/218 = .234
21. Vandread 50/38 = 1.316
22. Full Metal Panic! = 49/49 = 1
23. Hayate no Gotoku 48/78 = .615
24. Toradora! 47/25 = 1.88
25. Da Capo 46/80 = .575
26. Kobato 45/24 = 1.875
27. Sora no Woto 44/14 = 3.143
28. The World God Only Knows 43/12 = 3.583
29. Ef 42/24 = 1.75
30. Kiki's Delivery Service 41/6 = 6.833
31. Card Captor Sakura 40/82 = .488
32. Galaxy Angel 39/139 = .281
33. Air 38/21 = 1.81
34. Evangelion 37/56 = .661
35. Ranma 1/2 36/186 = .194
36. Samurai Champloo 35/26 = 1.346
37. 12 Kingdoms 34/45 = .756
38. Battle Athletes 33/32 = 1.031
39. Working! 32/13 = 2.462
40. Uuchuu no Stellvia 31/26 = 1.192
41. Rurouni Kenshin 30/107 = .280
42. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 29/13 = 2.231
43. Basilisk 28/24 = 1.167
44. Utawarerumono 27/29 = .931
45. Saki 26/25 = 1.04
46. Prince of Tennis 25/217 = .115
47. Major 24/160 = .15
48. Ore no Immouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai 23/12 = 1.917
49. Zero no Tsukaima 22/38 = .579
50. Bakuman 21/16 = 1.313
51. Pretty Cure 20/394 = .508
52. Mononoke Hime 19/6 = 3.167
53. Berserk 18/25 = .72
54. Summer Wars 17/6 = 2.833
55. Claymore 16/26 = .615
56. Bastard! 15/6 = 2.5
57. Valkyria Chronicles 14/26 = .538
58. Mahoromatic 13/31 = .419
59. Guyver 12/38 = .316
60. Akane Iro no Somaru Saka 11/13 = .846
61. Kimi ni Todoke 10/28 = .357
62. Amagami SS 9/25 = .36
63. Negima! Magister Magi Negi. 8/36 = .222
64. Angelic Layer 7/26 = .269
65. Macross + 6/10 = .6
66. Read or Die 5/29 = .172
67. Martian Succesor Nadesico 4/38 = .105
68. Fatal Fury 3/18 = .167
69. Spice and Wolf 2/27 = .074
70. Alien Nine 1/4 = .25

Now let's set up our new top 70 list by 'entertainment per episode'. Obviously a different calculating system would have yielded different results, this is just a stab in the dark:

1. Kiki's Delivery Service
2. Katanagatari
3. Angel Beats
4. The World God Only Knows
5. Mononoke Hime
6. Sora no Woto
7. Summer Wars
8. Bastard!
9. Working!
10. Kanon
11. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
12. Ore no Immouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
13. Toradora!
14. Kobato
15. Haruhi Suzumiya
16. Air
17. Ef
18. Cowboy Bebop
19. K-on!
20. Tengen Toppa Gurrenn Lagann
21. Samurai Champloo
22. Vandread
23. Bakuman
24. Clannad
25. Record of Lodoss War
26. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
27. Crest of the Stars
28. Uuchuu no Stellvia
29. Basilisk
30. Code Geass
31. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
32. Saki
33. Battle Athletes
34. Full Metal Panic!
35. Utawarerumono
36. Fairy Tail
37. To Aru Majutsu no Index / Kagaku no Railgun
38. Akane Iro no Somaru Saka
39. 12 Kingdoms
40. Berserk
41. Evangelion
42. Claymore
43. Hayate No Gotoku
44. Macross +
45. Zero no Tsukaima
46. Da Capo
47. Valkyria Chronicles
48. Pretty Cure
49. Card Captor Sakura
50. Mahoromatic
51. Amagami SS
52. Kimi ni Todoke
53. Guyver
54. Galaxy Angel
55. Rurouni Kenshin
56. Angelic Layer
57. Alien Nine
58. Inuyasha
59. Sailor Moon
60. Negima! Magister Magi Negi.
61. Ranma 1/2
62. Read or Die
63. Fatal Fury
64. Major
65. Naruto
66. One Piece
67. Prince of Tennis
68. Martian Succesor Nadesico
69. Dragonball
70. Spice and Wolf

Whew! And that's a wrap. Now if people are hard pressed for time but still want to watch anime, they can consult this secondary ranking system and watch their anime in this order instead. This might also be a good list to pull from when trying to get others interested in anime, who won't keep an open mind long enough to enjoy the less 'entertainment per episode' series. The next anime roundup will have to include anime out to 80. Now that I can include movies or series, it shouldn't be too hard. :).

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