Honestly, I get many of my best recommendations by word of mouth. I don't think any website can beat talking to your friends about what they're watching.
Haha I was afraid this was going to be the answer, 'cause I don't know anyone who watches anime. Ok well I know a few, but they're more like, friends of friends thst I don't really know or keep contact with. The same applies to pretty much anything though. You can't beat actually talking to other people who know who you are and what you like.
I also find the MAL recommendations to be very hit or miss. The way I tend to use it is to look up what studio made the things I like, and then sort their list by rating. That's how I found one of my favs, Golden Kamuy. Doing that keeps it consistent with your liked of art styles and there voice actor selections if nothing else.
Most things I find though are from seeing what gets repeatedly mentioned by other people, either my friends or on Reddit,/Lemmy. If people are regularly posting them, then they're good enough that someone is taking their own time to promote it. That's how I got into Sakamoto Days. It always is in the top manga lists, but otherwise I never seem to see people actually discussing it. But because I always saw the name, I checked it out and enjoyed it.
And keep in mind, there will always be some stuff that is just not for you. It doesn't make it bad necessarily, we just all have different taste and our own tastes are always evolving. If you would have told me a few years ago I'd like things in the romance genre I would have laughed, but then I watched Fruits Basket, and now I have a big back catalog of things I want to check out.
Personally, I just look at the currently airing things and make note of what I think might be good.
Outside of that, the good things tend to resurface in anime communities.
I use 4chan's anime and manga recommendation charts. Found a lot of hidden gems from there.
Discovering good stuffs by yourself is fun too. This is how I learned great mangas by Ryo Ikuemi and Takako Shimura.
I just ask for recommendation and then been going off the comments like on lemmy. So I've been watching old stuff mostly rather than searching out seasonals, since there's of completed series I haven't seen yet.
I seem to just pick up things I'm curious about rather randomly -- usually my interest is inspired by some art or music I think seems neat, so then I later go check it out and if I don't mind the premise I throw it into my want-to-watch list.
For recommendations, I find recommendations from friends and with some description (what it is or why it's relevant to me) are the most effective.
Nowadays though my want-to-watch list is just so gigantic I am a little afraid to check out more stuff.
I never use automated recommendation systems, I just look for stuff manually or go by word of mouth. If you want a steady supply of recommendations, find an anime blog with similar tastes to yours and follow it.
Every time I try to find something good to watch I end up frustrated, because all the recommendations systems on these sites are just filled with whatever is “in” or popular right now. Like I don’t care if it’s popular, but I don’t really care about the popularity I just want something good to watch.
Tags are your friends, play around with them and look for stuff that picks your interest.
It's exactly what it says on the tin. Anime, manga, and other forms of Asian entertainment like them.
Please don't post links to pirated media sites.
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