The Difference Between the Best and One's Favorites

Where is the line drawn between what’s the best, and what’s all the rest?

I’ve amassed quite the collection of favorite media over the years, between found-footage science fiction films, stories about artificial intelligence bots coming unto themselves, and anime featuring topics from magical girls to ping pong, I have a large backlog of titles to choose from, all of which I hold dearly.

Yet, I (and along with many others) have trouble exactly saying these pieces of entertainment are the very highest in their craft: after all, it’s not like these individual works are completely flawless. So, what does this mean, exactly? Does this mean that everybody on this planet (myself included) just have horrible taste in what they watch, read, listen to, or anything else?

No, and here’s why: a lot of people tend to try to justify each and every aspect of their favorite films, shows, novels, or just anything else that an individual can have a unique, subjective opinion on, but, in the end, this doesn’t really matter. Now, it sounds like I’m heavily contradicting myself here (just look at what this site is all about), but what I’m truly trying to get across here is this: if you’re trying to provide an ‘objective’ view of any piece of media, listing positives and negatives is a necessity; if you weren’t doing so, it couldn’t even be called a ‘review.’ However, on the flip side, when you’re trying to describe what makes an individual work so special to you, specifically, it can be often hard to do so, and that’s really just because of an indescribable feeling within the work itself appeals to you and you alone.

When detailing what makes a work so profoundly important to you, it just doesn’t matter if you can justify it with fancy description (that’s what reviews are for), but, instead, what truly matters is the feeling inside.