Tracking Sites: "limited series" aren't movies
Part 3 of my various thoughts on media tracking and the various sites I've used - this section dives into the ones I've tried regarding to anime, TV and movies. This section will be lengthy, as nearly all of these sites are ones I've used quite extensively for years or are some of my absolute favorites to use. For help contextualizing these thoughts, here's some quick notes:
- I use these sites for tracking my taste & consumption, less so my collection.
- A site like this excels when it has a strong community, intention in its UI & UX and is clearly passionate about the medium it is about.
- I don't own subs to any of these websites, so I'm ignoring those (but I might still complain if something locked behind it and shouldn't be)
- These are just my opinions - if a feature or website's approach sounds exciting to you that I disliked, give it a shot!
Anime
MyAnimeList - 👎
Talking about this site alone could be its own post. I used to adore MyAnimeList (or MAL, as I'm calling it for the rest of this) but there's only so long you can use it without noticing its age and its flaws. Ignoring the long site maintenance period in 2018, MAL feels like it suffers from 'design debt' in a sense. Most of its pages are filled with too much stuff, an excess of tabs and info displayed at the same level of importance - fine for something like AniDB where you need a database, but in its case it doesn't do the best job of making things feel like they have a heirarchy. Even despite these issues and complaints... I still use it pretty often, solely because I think their Anime Watching Challenges and community events are creative and well managed. It's "the OG", sort of, for anime tracking and says a lot how much a site can coast along without offering a ton versus the other options available, solely because everyone is there.
Anilist - 👍
Thanks to that 2018 maintenance period I brought up, I found myself wanting to search out for a better MAL alternative - with Anilist providing that and more. It's a site that rides the thin line of being "too light" on info for some of its pages (akin to GG.app, in my last post) but it gives just enough to feel like you can add some detail to your entries or gleam enough about a show from its page. Its layout is rather well made with some flexibility for profile creation, its forums are actually pretty damn welcoming and it's just a delight to use. Simply put, I enjoy Anilist over MAL so much more that I just naturally recommend it over the other when asked - the only reason against this being if you have a group you chat with that uses MAL actively already and don't want to switch.
TV & Movies
Serializd - 👎
I appreciate the intent of trying to make "Letterboxd for TV" (a site I'll get to near the end of this) but I think Serializd goes about it the wrong way. It makes an honest effort that I still want to see more of, but it feels so limp in its design and usability. The layout is rather boring and I personally find it doesn't do much to showcase the medium in its best light, but its major flaw is its handling of reviews. Being able to review not just whole shows but also individual seasons and episodes feels like a good idea to give users options but also potentially gives too much. Others might feel differently but being given the option for all three make me feel encouraged to write for all three and when I eventually stumble in keeping with that output, I just become uninterested in interacting with reviews period. My alternative idea would be allowing reviews for entire shows but also show forums & feeds for users to express their thoughts, with those tied to Seasons or Episodes directly. Ultimately, the site just never grabbed me and feels like a worse Letterboxd with some TV-focused features - instead, I wish it was a site addressing and improving the way people talk about television, inspired by it.
Trakt - 👎
Before I attempted Serializd and started using the final site in this post, Trakt.tv was my primary account for tracking my cartoons, TV and movies. What has always confounded me is that while it handles them all, it never felt well tailored to any of them - particularly odd, since I always thought both MAL and Anilist handled TV and movies fine. It has always felt like a tool that just "gets the job done", but never a site that I wanted to use or even chat with people on. It also highlights a big problem with some of these sites - sticking too close to their database sources and not curating its data well. Much of my Trakt experience is being confused why a show is treated as a season for something else or why a movie is listed as a TV special. I don't believe Trakt is truly awful - if you just want one account, it truly does cover everything - but I never loved it either. One more thing - I get you have to pay the bills somehow but locking down CSV data exports behind a subscription fucking sucks. Don't do that.
Letterboxd - 👍
This is it. This is the cream of the crop of this entire section of websites and my favorite one. I've only started using Letterboxd within the last year, but at some point in their development they nailed the exact niche, design principles and feature set a website of its ilk needs. It's not without its flaws - being the 'premiere movie tracking site' means you attract a certain type of audience and reputation to others. (I also think movie reviews should not remove notes of said movie in a list, but that's nitpicking now) Everything else? Perfect. I could talk for hours about how incredible Letterboxd's specific combination of the usual 10-point rating system and the Like button is genius, how its growing feature set is always tailored specifically to helping the user with their engagement with cinema or even how great their growing Youtube presence is. If there's one specific thing that shows how glowing of a review LB deserves, it's the one site I've used that not just helped with tracking what I've watched but really reminded me why I enjoyed discovering and watching that stuff to begin with.
And that's every website! Almost. I still have a quick fire section I'll write up in its separate post with a conclusion, but these are my major thoughts on the big ones I've actively used. Please check out the other posts too if you're curious on using any not listed here or just want to see my thoughts on them!
Part 1: Preface & Music Thoughts
Part 2: Game Tracking
Part 4: Quick Fire & Final Thoughts