ColumnAnime
How to Read a MyAnimeList Score (Without Letting It Read You)
If you spend any real time in anime comment sections, you already know the shorthand. It's an 8 on MAL. The score's still climbing. You probably keep a list there yourself. But it's worth pinning down what that average actually measures, where it quietly warps, and the genuinely odd fact that Japan has nothing equivalent to it. Here's the whole picture from someone who reads these numbers on both sides of the water, every day.