I've been thinking about this for a while, coz whenever someone asks me about my t10 animangas or t10 protagonists, they always expect every entry to be writing heavy. Some even blame me for putting tenma and luffy higher than some really well written characters.

But it's different how everyone rank their favorites.
I judge and rank my favourites mostly by the impact they had on me.

For me, a story which has relatively simple writing but still becomes something that I'll remember for the rest of my life >>> a story which is incredibly well written but doesn't leave any impact on me.

I sure was a wannabe deep anime fan who used to rank everything purely by writing. I look at character depth, themes, symbolism, narrative complexity, consistency, etc... (Yk just take every factors you see in comparison edits) and think yeah this is objectively better written, so obviously it deserves to be higher, not just in my list, but in everyone's list, that's what the real problem is.

But as I grew up i realised that fiction isn't smth where you're supposed to rate them and call it a objective fact based on how well something is written.

You can analyse a story as much as you want, but at the end of the day, your personal connection with it matters more than anything.

There are characters ik aren't really complex or perfectly written, yet I love them more than characters who are more layered than them, for ex: naruto, luffy, ippo etc...)
There are series I wouldn't even call the best written things I've ever read/watched, but they gave me memories that I'll probably carry for the rest of my life. (For ex: yotsubato) and there are masterpieces that I can recognise as masterpieces while still not feeling the same attachment toward them (ex: oyasumi punpun).

All I wanted to say is.....

If someone puts a relatively simple character or story at #1 because that character meant something incredibly personal to them, there's nothing wrong with that.

You don't have to agree with their ranking.

You don't even have to understand why they're attached to it.

And yeah you also can't even measure someone's personal experience with fiction.

For example: oyasumi punpun might be one of the most impressive manga I've personally experienced from a writing perspective but some animes/mangas like one piece, yotsuba&!, evangelion are not better than it writing wise but I'll definitely rank them higher coz of their impact on me.

That's also why I don't really understand the idea that something is objectively #1 for someone (and he expects it to be everyone's #1) just because it has better writing.

Maybe usogui has the strongest writing I've personally experienced but I can't call it peak for everyone

Maybe yotsuba&! has given someone more happiness than any other manga.

Maybe one piece is the story that made someone a better version of themselves.

Maybe Evangelion reached someone at exactly the right point in their life.

None of those experiences need to be invalidated because another series can be analysed as better written.

Maybe that's what we all are missing when we look at fiction only through the lens of writing.

We are so focused on asking how well is this story written that we forgot to ask the more important question:
What did this story leave behind in a person that they are calling it thier t1?

(Actually just don't care about someone's fav and thier opinions on your fav)

Because years from now, I probably won't remember every piece of fiction I consumed, every perfectly constructed character, or every thematic detail I analysed.

But I'll remember the moments that made me laugh, cry, think, or simply feel less alone. I'll remember the stories I discovered at certain points in my life (ex: eva, it helped me to cure my depression)

May be that's the real beauty of fiction, Because in the end, the stories we remember aren't necessarily the ones that were perfect. They're the ones that became a small part of who we were now.

Thank you for reading.