There is no “best” method. Anyone who claims otherwise is usually trying to sell you a number out of ten so they do not have to think. Most reviews you see are either shopping lists or diary entries. “The graphics were pretty.” “I cried at the end.” One tells you nothing useful. The other tells you only about the reviewer. Neither is criticism. We will do our best to do better than that.
A piece of work a company or studio puts out such as a film, game, anime, it hardly matters in the real world, its as though it must be judged in four steps. Miss one and you are simply announcing your taste and calling it a verdict.
First, decide what the thing claims to be.
A loud summer spectacle is not a quiet character study. A competitive multiplayer game is not a novel you play with a controller. An anime that wants to be comfort food should not be scolded for failing to be The Godfather. Look at the genre, the audience it is aimed at, the budget, the length, the obvious limitations. Judge it against its own ambitions, not against whatever masterpiece you happen to prefer that week. This is not kindness. It is basic competence.
Second, look at the craft.
Did the story hold together or did it fall apart the moment you stopped being generous? Were the characters consistent or did they change personality whenever the plot required it? Did the images, the sound, the animation, the feel of playing it actually serve the thing it was trying to do? In a game: do the systems work, or are they merely busy? Does it run properly? Does it respect the player’s time or treat them like a wallet with thumbs? Be specific. “It was well made” is the sort of sentence that should earn you a detention.
Third and only third, record what it did to you.
Did it hold your attention? Did it linger? Did you want to return to it? This is the personal part. Keep it separate from the last one. A work can be skillfully made and still leave you cold. Another can be rough and still matter to you. Pretending those two facts are the same thing is how we ended up with the current mess of scores.
Fourth, say who it is actually for.
Not “everyone.” Not “fans of the genre.” Be precise. Who should spend their evening on this, and who should walk past it without a second glance? If you cannot answer that, you have not finished thinking.You may attach numbers if you must. Two is better than one: how well it was made, and how much it meant to you. A single score is a blunt instrument. People treat a seven like a curse and a nine like a coronation. That is not evaluation. That is superstition. Do the work properly. Finish the film. Play a sensible amount of the game, including what it became after the patches, if that is relevant. Take notes while you are in it, not three days later when memory has already started lying to you.
State your biases at the start so no one has to guess. If you generally dislike open-world collectathons, say so. Honesty is not the same as apology. That is the method. It is not complicated. It is merely inconvenient, which is why so few people use it.