animenewsnetwork priority system

I’m well and truly back into anime in a big way. Several great projects are being produced as we speak, while I’ve discovered already completed series that until now I was unaware of that are also turning out to be pretty cool.

Being as pragmatic and structured as I am when it comes to anything that includes technology and organisation, I’ve started a system of ranking anime that I’m watching, and am keen to watch in order of priority.
If you think this is organised, you need to see my hard-drive or my mp3 player – I even number directories so they appear in the order of my choosing…

now viewing priority structure
1st priority
This applies to series’ I’m actively watching whenever I get the opportunity, and I’m the most committed to and keenest to watch. After each session, I’ll update the comments field with the last ep number I watched, and my impressions of the series so far. These comments are stored in the anime notelog. As new comments replace older ones, I keep a record of them all there.

2nd priority
These are secondary series’ that I watch at the same time as 1st priorities, but am slightly less committed to. Some of these start in 1st priority status, but get relegated if the series doesn’t impress me as much as others being viewed. They tend to be of a slightly different style to 1st priorities, sometimes less serious or of a genre I don’t often watch or am interested in. I also don’t watch these with the urgency that I watch 1st priorities, and sometimes several 1st priority series’ can be completed before finishing a 2nd. 2nd priorities also can be shows I’m watching with others like my girlfriend that I hold-off on until we can watch them together.
Note: all series’ that I’m watching for a second time or repeat viewing will be classed as 2nd priority.

3rd priority
These differ slightly to the 3rd priorities in the on the horizon category that will be explained next. 3rd priorities are actually 1st priorities that are relegated because of availability. This means I don’t want to watch all the episodes available, then have to wait agonisingly until the others are released. There are exceptions of-course, such as Honey & Clover II, which I’m pretty much watching as they become available. I did a similar thing with the first season, and numerous re-watches of episodes tend to happen while awaiting the newest ep.

on the horizon priority structure, this list is called ‘Want to see’ on the animenewsnetwork site.
There are a few other tags that appear in this category, as well as miscellaneous comments. The most used are (acquiring) and (acquired) which of-course are self-explanatory.

1st priority
These series will be pursued first when any priority production in the now viewing list has been completed.

2nd and 3rd priority
Basically just a scaling of interest for each production. 3rd priorities will only be pursued if I really have nothing else to watch, or if I feel like something a little different. Basically I don’t expect much from a 3rd priority production, my impressions of the themes, settings and premise tend to be that they’re quite ordinary. Of-course I can be proven wrong, but the magnificent tool that is animenewsnetwork lets us see what other works the crew of the production have done, which can be a fair indication of the type of show it will be.