This is a post consisting of a collection of tips in writing review posts, more specifically anime reviews. This post was inspired from the recent Anime Realm Contest where I reviewed the submissions and picked a winner. There's no standard on how reviews are made because it's an expression of the author's opinion about the subject but the least your could do with your reviews is make it worthwhile.
Disclaimer: I don't think my reviews are the gold standard because I'm just a random shitposter online with no credentials to back it up. There is no guarantee that applying these will bring results you want as it's just an opinionated guide on improvement. But if you find this guide helpful, great, go on your merry way.
I'm constantly experimenting with how to format my blogs so you may notice the occasional alterations with the flow of how I post, it's that or I'm actually just lazy and write stuff as they come into my head, whichever is believable.
Setting the Mood:
The parts I don't like about reading review posts:
When the post is more about a summary than an actual review.
Spending more than half of the content retelling the plot/story in short form isn't a review, it's a dragging to read retell of the show. It's a review and not a recap post of the show.
When it's all looks and lacking substance.
You can put fancy blog formats and images on a blog but that isn't enough to carry the post. Visuals help but that's no substitute for putting in the effort to think about who you're writing for.
In no particular order of importance:
Summarizing the plot without giving away the whole gimmick
I've lost count on how many anime reviews I've read here that details the plot twists when sharing a simple plot was all it took to get a review going. Think of any anime right now and try to tell the plot in your own words with a max of 4 sentences.
Naruto: A story of ninja boy from the Hidden Leaf Village who dreams of becoming the ninja village's leader one day.
For those of you who already knows Naruto (assuming most), you know there's more to this plot than just one sentence. But this is taking the plot at its bare bones.
Naruto: The journey of an orphaned boy who trained to become a ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village.
I changed some parts but didn't lose the linear goal of what the show is about. I could include parts like Hokage, team of ninjas, school and political strife here and there but too much of those will drown out the core of the show's plot, Naruto is training to become a ninja and this is his journey to become the village chief. Don't complicate your plot section of the review by mentioning too many specific details where the reader will get spoiled and confused.
Write as if the reader doesn't know what it's about
Because you're featuring a mainstream show like Demon's Slayer or Attack on Titan, people are going to relate to whatever you're writing right? I never watched Game of Thrones, I don't know what's up with the characters of that show but when I read fan reviews about it, it's alienating to read bits that assume you already had prior knowledge to understand whatever reference pops up in their writing.
Introduce the show like it's the first time people heard about it. If you've seen the show and saw a review about it, there's a less chance you're going to stick around because you already saw the show and have formulated your own opinions about it. But for people that haven't got the slightest clue what the show is about, it's bad writing to make references that only those that have already seen the show can get.
You're writing a review to sell the show and you're doing a bad job at it because you're framing the post as if the audience already got to see the show.
Trim the details without losing the message
Introducing Demons Slayer with a Plot: The Demon Slayer Corps is an organization that fights the demons. Slayers are trained with unique elemental sword breathing techniques that help them pew pew demons with sword swings and make believe special effects. There's a hierarchy among the slayers with a Hashira sitting at the top next to the head of the Corps.
The only thing I find usable for a plot summary is mentioning what the Demons Slayer Corps is. Avoid being too technical so that you don't spoil away majority of the gimmick unless you purposively made a disclaimer that you're going to spoil some of the gimmick on the first place. The technical details on a review post is like an exposition. If you had to say something about the gimmick then do it halfway.
Nobody cares about how cool the show is if their first encounter with the title is seeing it from your review. So the least you can do is avoid putting up a litany about it.
If the show is an isekai anime that incorporates the gaming elements like a leveling system, character inventory, and unique windows only the main character sees, you can sum it up as a character that interacts with the new world with a role playing game mechanics. You don't drag the details on and mentioning role playing game mechanics gives the reader a reasonable expectation of what they are getting into.
This part has no purpose but I'm writing it here cause I can.
Forget format and try experimenting
There's no golden format on expressing an opinion about something. A standard format that everyone uses is safe because it works and gets a coherent opinion out, intro, body and conclusion. You've seen some anime posts going around Anime Realm. It works and it gets votes but if everyone posted the same way, it becomes bland.
I don't think my shitposting review format is the best out there because I've seen reviews that are more visually appealing and good to read here. But I think I've made a point that if anyone ever visited my post, they'd recognize it unconsciously and say, yep, Adam definitely wrote this shitpost. So what's stopping you from figuring out your own voice on your blog?
Here's an old post My Lazy Format to Posting which simplifies the process of getting a post out.
If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.
//reminder: I should probably put an image or slide dividers on this post just to avoid making it a wall of text.
