How do you pick the anime you watch?

As much as I love anime, I don't have nearly as much time to dedicate to it as I'd like.  That includes all aspects of my anime interest.  I don't have the time I'd like to put into this site, I don't have the time to watch as much as I want, and I certainly don't have the time to be truly up-to-date on what the next big thing could be.  While my anime passion is truly deep, my daily day-to-day activities keep my interactions on the casual side.

All these time restrictions mean that I have to use free time I do get wisely.  When it comes to anime, I want to make sure I'm jumping into an experience that I'll most likely enjoy.  I'm completely open to all types of anime experiences, but I need a few nudges in a direction first.  Since I'm mostly into localized releases, that means I don't have too many resources to make decisions from.

Lately, I've been taking reviews into account a lot more than I used to.  I've been keeping track of certain reviewers and outlets that seem to fall in line with the content I like.  Now I keep an eye out for reviews from those people to see if I should consider a purchase.  I really think looking at review averages is going to skew things in a bad direction for most people, myself included.  That's why I find specific reviewers to align myself with.

While I read some reviews online, I'm a bit old-fashioned with my approach.  I actually prefer the reviews I find in print, such as with magazines like Otaku USA.  There's just something about the style that I appreciate.  Again, the reviewers on staff at Otaku USA seem to be pretty easy to please, which fits well with my tastes.  It doesn't take much in an anime to make me happy.

I guess my newest method of learning about which content is worth my time would be Twitter.  I've been very active on our Twitter account, and it's lead me to hearing a lot about new/old anime from all sorts of sources.  Word of mouth is always a good way to at least get news on what seems to be striking a chord lately.  After hearing about a certain anime a number of times, I'll reach out to specific Twitter users to get more info. It's actually been very helpful!

What do you guys do when it comes time to choose an anime?  Do reviews matter to you?  Do you have a certain approach that you always stick to?