Who are the characters in this site's header?

The couple on the left are Noriko and Izark from the manga series From Far Away, one of my all time favorites. The gun-toting nun on the right is none other than Rosette Christopher from Chrono Crusade, as seen in the anime adaptation of the same-titled series.

Do your reviews contain "spoilers"?

To some degree, yes. For film and single volume manga reviews, I generally try to limit revealing any major plot twists that occur after the first 20 minutes/chapter or so (respectively).  I will mention some initial events/set up and anything stated on the item's cover is pretty much fair game.  For anime and manga series reviews, I generally avoid mentioning any major plot events that occur after the first 3 volumes, or 1/4 of the series (whichever is smaller), beyond making any necessary vague notes to get across my opinion of the work as a whole. While I will note if I found the ending satisifying or not, I will not give it away beyond mentioning in broad terms why I liked or didn't like it.  All that said, I make no guarantees that any review will be "spoiler" free, and obviously if you read a standalone review for a later volume of work, it will spoil events from earlier volumes.

What are your reviewing criteria?

My criteria are, for the most part, subjective like most reviewers would be.  Of course, the first and foremost criteria is did I enjoy it? Was it worth my time to read/watch/play and would I want to do it again?  If its a series, how eagerly am I awaiting the next volume? Generally, I like series with a good overall compelling plot with multi-faceted and well-rounded characters that I want to know more about. If it draws out appropriate emotional reactions, such as making me laugh over a character's zany antics, or cry for another's heartbreak, its a bonus. Things I find detracting from a work: really bad translation, as in bad enough to pull me out of the story; unnatural dialog, which usually points back to bad translation; and "dumb" comedy, especially of the potty kind - I tend to avoid comedies in general, but I do like a good laugh - just not one that relies on a lot of idiocy and fart jokes; main characters that are TSTL (too stupid too live).

I'm not an art critic, so for the most part my views on how a work looks will either be "ugly", "average", "pretty", or "gorgeous", with maybe one or two highlights for things I particularly noticed. If an artist's characters across multiple series look similar, and I've read some of those series, I'll probably notice it and remark on it. Seriously out of proportion body parts, I'll also probably notice, but hands being slightly big or the like? Nah. I guess for me, if the art is distracting, I'll probably notice issues more and point them out.

As for voices in animation and video games, I will remark on them if they are annoying, seem mismatched to the character, or are otherwise badly done, especially when watching English language dubs. And of course if they are awesome. Ditto music. If a release is English dub only, you'll probably find me ranting about it. It is a major detraction for me. Ditto excessive localization or "corrections" in subtitles.  I know the difference between "Brother" and a character's name, so don't go changing it. Grrr....  *ahem*  If the series is subtitled only, of course I'm cool with it, but I will generally point it out for those who like dubs. With anime, even if it is subtitled, I will usually listen to a bit of the dub on an episode (usually the first) to give a quick impression on decency. With video games, I will remark on my response to the game play style. I hate level grinding, even if it is practically a staple of my favorite gaming genre (RPGs if you couldn't guess), particularly the sort that requires wasting hours and hours of game play time. So if the game has made it a heavy requirement, I'll probably mention it, but I'm also willing to overlook it for otherwise awesomeness (I do, after all, love the Final Fantasy series). 

Any other questions about Animania? Feel free to leave a politely worded question as a comment and I'll either answer directly or add it with the answer, to this FAQ.