I have a lot of doubts surrounding this topic, like, what even is the purpose of a review? Are reviews recommendations or are they intended for people who have already wachted/read? (or is there more than one kind of review?)
Second, what level of spoilers is considered acceptable, if its something greatly enjoyable and unexpected but it happens on the first 10 chapters, should that be mentioned?
Third, what are the areas that should be focused on? Are there any kind of common templates or is it pure freestyle?
I understand there should be a level of freedom involved as in when one writes an essay, but Im having trouble grasping on what the actual objective of a review is and thus what the limits are.
In case it helps, I would love to write reviews on anilist or MAL about small manga Ive been enjoying, but I just have no clue how to treat it or what to write, some help would be greatly appreciated even if its not answering any of the questions directly.
Related, if someone has any guides on hand, or books, even if they are for other kinds of media, could you please tell me about them?
Think a lot of it comes down to personal preference, but for me, reviews serve two purposes - 1) give me an overview of what the manga is about and its attributes (eg the art is detailed) and 2) whether the reviewer recommends it.
I don’t think reviews should include major spoilers, and if it does, make sure it is tagged as such. I don’t think any “twists” should ever be included tho (eg it was actually person A who murdered him!). I would sum it up as “the story is very interesting” instead.
I wrote a few reviews a long time ago, I would typically write it in this format:
I just want to add something regarding twists, saying a story has a twist without going into detail is still wrong.
As you’ve said, the only thing you should say about a story with a twist is that it was interesting or something to that extent but never explicitly mention the word twist.