[Rules] Guidelines and tips for entering descriptions for anime, manga, films, and companies

DidingSupervisor

27. Feb 2023 – Thread Creator

The most important rules

[Content] Copies of texts from other sites are not allowed. (Exception: For manga, official blurb texts or Amazon descriptions are allowed; these must be marked with the correct heading! These types of descriptions are not allowed for anime and live-action).
[Content] Translations from other sites are also not permitted.
[Content] Manga blurb texts may not be copied to their respective anime adaptation. This does not apply to self-written texts – they may be used multiple times.
[Content] The plot or nature of the work should be described.
[Content] Spoilers are to be avoided if possible; in the case of sequels, spoilers to the predecessor are not always unavoidable.
[Length] An ideal description text for anime, manga or live-action titles should be no more than ~200 to 250 words. (With the exception of episodic titles or anthologies.) For character descriptions, texts of up to 400 words are ideal.
[General] A source has to be given as a reference for us to match the content! (“I’ve seen the anime” is not a source.) Not every sentence needs to be substantiated, but the rough plotline should match the descriptions of other sources.
[General] In order to find entries that do not yet have a description, several filters are available, which are named in more detail under point 7. The most important filters: Anime Filter 1, Anime Filter 3, Anime Filter 5.
[Format] Names of characters, fictional organisations, places, or groups, as well as significant plot elements with proper names, are displayed in italics the first time they are mentioned or linked to their entry here on aniSearch. This does not apply to characters, fictional organisations, places, or groups and plot items with proper names in live-action adaptations – these will not be linked to character entries from anime or manga!
[Format] The placeholder “[TITLE]” is set for the title of the described work. The title of a non-fictional work* is shown in bold and belongs in inverted commas. (* “Non-fictional” here means that the work has been published in our real world and does not merely exist in the described franchise).
[Format] Works mentioned in the text other than the one described should be linked to their entry here on aniSearch on their first mention in each case. The Boldface presentation will remain in effect.

For better understanding:

Character or fictional organisation, places, objects of action.	Title of a work
First mention: italic or linked	First mention: in inverted commas, bold (and linked if applicable)
Second or further mention: normal (not italicised, not linked)	Second or further citation: in inverted commas, bold, but not linked

Further questions should be answered by the following explanations. If you are unclear or have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact the team.

1 Basic information
2 Content guidelines

2.1 Descriptions of anime, manga and films
2.2 Descriptions of companies

3 Stylistic and typographical guidelines
4 Notes on anthologies with independent chapters
5 Special notes on blurb texts and the adoption of texts from external sources
6 Tools and aids
7 How to find entries that do not yet have a description?
Changelog

1 Basic information

When writing descriptions, first and foremost, correct grammar and spelling, as well as the correctness of content, must be ensured! The description should be as objective as possible. It is purely about describing the anime, manga, film, character, article, person, or company. The description text does not serve to disseminate one’s own opinion or attitude towards the said object. For English descriptions, British English is used.

Furthermore, 1:1 copies of texts from other sites will not be accepted, including 1:1 translations from other languages. Blurbs are excepted by this rule. Blurb texts of light novels and mangas may only be used for the respective entry. Copying the blurb to the corresponding anime or live-action adaptation is not permitted.

2 Content guidelines

Forwarding links to external websites are only permitted in the case of Wikipedia (language-independent).

2.1 Descriptions of anime, manga and films

The rough plot of the anime, manga, or film should be reflected in the description without completely anticipating the story. (Spoilers should be avoided if possible). The plot should be as accurate as possible without distorting the facts.
Characters may – and should – be linked in the descriptions of anime, manga or light novels. Links to characters in film descriptions are not permitted.
Japanese names written in Latin letters should be written in the international order, i.e. first name last name, not “Ikari Shinji”, but “Shinji Ikari”. (This does not apply to Korean or Chinese names; these remain in their original order: surname, first name).
The names of characters, places, objects, or even the titles of works now and then contain letters with elongation marks: “ē”, “ō”, “ū”. These spellings are not permitted here and must be corrected:
- (“ā” → “aa”)
- (“ē” → “ei”)
- (“ī” → “ii”)
- “ō” → “oo” or “ou” (depending on the kanji in the original)
- “ū” → “uu”
Any marginal notes on, for example, broadcast dates or publications are placed at the end of the description and separated from the actual text by a blank line. A bold “Annotation:” serves as a heading.

2.2 Descriptions of companies

All data that is not included in the basic information of the information page should be included in the description.
The description should include information such as company history, areas of responsibility and relations to other companies and subsidiaries, as well as information on the respective labels/publications.

3 Stylistic and typographical guidelines

The default setting of the editor is to be left unchanged. (Text colour, font size, alignment)
Use line breaks only when necessary.
A description does not begin and end with a line break!
Names of characters, fictional organisations, places, or groups, as well as important plot items with proper names, are shown in italics.
A character or organisation name is only italicised once in the text – the first time it is mentioned. A link to the respective info page here on aniSearch replaces the italics. If a character is linked, its name is no longer italicised.
A link is only placed once – at the first mention of the linked term – in the text.
Links between characters from live-action adaptations and their corresponding anime or manga originals are not permitted.
The title of the work described is replaced by the placeholder “[TITLE]” in the text. Another really existing work mentioned in the text is displayed in bold type each time it is mentioned and should be enclosed in inverted commas.
Correct inverted commas are to be used in the descriptions:
- “ and ” or ‘ and ’ in English texts.
For points of omission, use the appropriate sign (“…”). Points of omission are enclosed in spaces; likewise at the end of a sentence. (Example: “I didn’t know how to continue …”)

4 Notes on anthologies with independent chapters

The names of the manga chapters are not listed in the description text. The entry in the sub-item “Episodes” is intended for this purpose. An exception can be made if it can be proven that no information on the content of the respective chapters can be found in the usual sources.
If the individual chapters are only listed, a short introduction to the anthology is necessary: This describes what the book is about as a whole. (Different authors/same author, different genres and settings/identical genres and settings, etc. pp.).
The titles of the individual chapters should be underlined and bolded as simple headings.
The name of the author, if different authors were involved in the overall work, is to be placed in brackets and not in bold after the title of the chapter.
A colon or dash should be used to separate the chapter number from the chapter title.
Example:
- Chapter 1: “The Hanging Balloons” (Junji Ito)
  - short description -
  - 1 blank line -

5 Special notes on blurb texts and the adoption of texts from external sources

Since we are often presented with plagiarised texts from external sources, we would like to give you explicit instructions once again:

Texts may only be adopted in the respective language if they have been published as blurb by the official publisher. This only applies to manga.
The websites of the respective publishers and studios, as well as Amazon, are treated as reliable sources for blurb texts.
Only the blurbs of the first volume of a title are accepted as blurb texts .
If texts are taken from these official sites, they must be marked as blurb texts. For manga, the designation in English is “Blurb:”. For the designations in other languages, see the table at the end of this list.
Blurb texts for light novels and mangas may only be used for the respective manga entry in the respective language. Copying the blurb to the entry of the corresponding anime or live-action adaptation is not allowed.
Text copies from Netflix, Crunchyroll or other streaming providers will not be accepted.
Blurb texts must also be checked before submitting! It is not uncommon for these to contain errors.
After a simple line break (no blank line) the adopted description begins

Language	Description (Manga)
German	Klappentext
English	Blurb
Spanish	Sinopsis (Texto de presentación)
French	Texte du rabat
Italian	Testo della bandella
Japanese	宣伝文句

6 Tools and aids

In general, all kinds of aids are permissible when writing texts. If you feel more confident, you are free to first write your texts in word processing programmes such as Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer and use the automatic correction there.

In addition to the word processing programmes mentioned above, a few online proofreading programmes have also proven their worth. Always bear in mind that these machine-based tools do not deliver 100% perfect results, though they can make your work much easier if you use them conscientiously:

7 How to find entries that do not yet have a description?

We have several pages where you can find out about descriptions that are still missing:

Under Special Tasks, there are various filters for missing texts. Especially filter number 1 (missing descriptions sorted by year of publication), filter 3 (titles without descriptions from the top 100 of our various top lists) and filter 5 (titles without descriptions from this year and the next three months) are important filters to check often.
If you want to translate German aniSearch texts into other languages, you can also look at filter number 17 (titles that have a German description but none in English, Spanish, French, or Italian). You can use DeepL to translate descriptions. If this is the case, please always indicate “DeepL” as the source.
Individual search filters can be found in the missing data. There, titles without a description can be limited by filter settings of your choice. One possible option is to have only those titles displayed there that you have also seen or read yourself, which should make it easier to write your own text.
The calendar in the gallery view also helps here. In the calendars of the current and coming seasons, at least the categories TV series, web, and film should ideally be provided with descriptions.

The link to the special tasks as well as missing data can be found in the sidebar under Database. Accessible via the avatar above.

Changelog

27.02.2023

Creation of the English rulebook.

02.12.2023

Rules about the length of texts added.

Database Task Force