Reviews; Episode, DVD or Series

H

hopeful_monster

Thousand Master
Having finished collecting GitS; SAC I started looking through various reviews to see which series I’d like to start collecting next. The problem I came across was trying to find what to start on was the fact that most of the reviews are for single DVD’s, and while the contents of a DVD may be excellent the entire series may be lacking or the true genius of a series may not be apparent by looking at the DVD’s, as several story arcs have been butchered to make it 4 episodes per DVD cutting them off in mid flow. Some fan sites got all the way to give reviews to individual episodes, which is only really useful if you already are interested in a series, or watching it one episode at a time.
My person taste is for whole series reviews, or for whole season for longer series. This is because while individual episodes can really stick out, it is the series as a whole which is remembered.
So how do like reviews, series or DVD, does it matter?
 
I only read reviews on the techincal aspect of DVD releases. I make my own opinion about the show itself. So reviews by DVD.
 
Although I appreciate recommendations from people with greater knowledge than I, I like to find out things by myself and don't tend to look at personally written reviews. If it has a star rating I would take a general glimpse at that just to see which titles to avoid, but still it's only somebody's opinion.

However, in answer to the question, if I was judging a series as a whole I would pick a series review. If, like WTFDaveMustaine I was interested in the technology of a DVD or if it came with special features etc, I would pick a DVD review. Or if I wanted a spoiler :)wink:) I might even choose a per-episode review. They're all useful (if written properly), but it depends on your interests at the time.
 
I follow a lot of different review styles; I like to use series reviews for some quick reading and recommendations, while for the newer (fansub) anime, there are several anime blogs that I regularly haunt (these usually include many interesting screen caps too). I don't care about DVD specifications, so detailed DVD reviews aren't important to me.

With regards to this very site; we mostly try to actually review, explain and recommend a series rather than present a running commentary of a story.
 
Series reviews to get a general feel for what I'm interested in looking at. Volume reviews to (hopefully) pick up on the technical flaws.

Generally I come here more to see reviews of the content, and usually use dvdtimes.co.uk for technical reviews. So I guess overall content review is what I prefer from dedicated anime sites (Although if there are serious / obvious technical glitches, then I think they ought to be mentioned as well).
 
I only really look at reviews for the entire series, since most of my purchases are complete boxsets bought on impulse. I rarely buy one volume of a series on it's own because of how incomplete I feel watchig it knowing that if the need to binge should arise I won't have that luxury.

However, now that I own a lot more of the "must-see" series I'm opening up to changing my ways. With this in mind, I think I would prefer to go on a review of the content of the individual disk rather than the entire series -but it all the depends on what series it is in the end, and how long it is...
 
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