IMDb for Anime: Why Are Fans Using the Platform to Rate Episodes?
An interesting phenomenon has been spreading through the “otaku community.” Several “anime-focused” profiles have started using IMDb for anime, sharing the scores that episodes receive. Even worse, many people seem to enjoy commenting on ratings, something I honestly thought had disappeared.
One tweet received a lot of reactions after asking the same question. “Back in the day, nobody used IMDb for anime…” commented Linaqruf.
IMDb (Internet Movie Database) is a website where you can find information about movies, TV series, streaming content, and apparently anime as well. It allows users to rate everything, and now newer anime “fans” are giving scores and sharing them on social media.
Why Are People Using IMDb for Anime?
For some, using IMDb for anime is clearly an effect of TV series fans who only recently started watching anime. Many longtime fans are unhappy about it as well. Here are some reactions:
“Original anime fans didn’t care about ratings at all”
“I have no idea why ratings are so important to people nowadays”
“Why does everything get a 9 these days? Frieren is a good anime and all, but I think I could make an anime about going to the bathroom every day and still get a 9”
“I refuse, MAL forever”
“Nobody cared about episode-by-episode ratings either”
“I’m against IMDb’s rating system. The primary users of that site are teenagers over 15, so the system will always favor what appeals to them”
“I always use MAL and I’ll never use IMDb and probably never will”
“Yeah, I have no idea why IMDb scores suddenly matter to people”
“Only retards use IMDb for anime”
“IMDb is a platform for anime tourists”
Another user compared the number of ratings Frieren received on IMDb and MyAnimeList, a site dedicated to rating anime.
While Frieren’s first season has a score of 9.28 on MAL with a total of 799,397 users, on IMDb Frieren has a score of 8.9 with 66,000 users. In other words, MAL has a much larger voting base.
One of the main reasons IMDb ratings are being discussed so much is because large pages are pushing them aggressively to generate views. But what do you think?