Our Rating System

Our rating system was developed with the aid of Starfleet's finest engineers.

Project Haruhi’s rating system for individual episodes of anime is a five-point scale, with points referred to as “Picards.” Please note that these point scores exist merely to provide an objective and quantifiable frame-of-reference for quality. They are not intended to replace the review proper. If you focus on the Picard score at the expense of reading the actual review, you are doing yourself a disservice.

Also note that we do not claim to write unbiased reviews. In fact, the opposite is true. Reviews are OPINIONS. They are SUPPOSED to have bias. Without it, they are nothing more than drab, uninteresting plot summaries. So if you’re going to complain that one of our reviews is “too biased,” do yourself a favor and don’t bother.

We award each episode between 1 and 5 Picards using the following criteria.

5 Picards
A superb episode. Whatever flaws it may have had did not detract from our enjoyment in any way.

4 Picards
A good episode. It was entertaining, but had some problems that noticeably lessened its quality.

3 Picards
An average episode. It had solid elements, but these were overshadowed by various problems. This kind of episode is neither good nor bad, but can still be satisfying to genre fans.

2 Picards
A bad episode. Cannot be considered good by any objective criteria, but might still be enjoyable in a “so bad it’s good” sense.

1 Picard
An unwatchable episode. The worst of the worst, bereft of any redeeming qualities whatsoever.