Kessen

⚡ ELO Rating

Rankings use the ELO system from chess. Beating a higher-ranked anime gains more points; losing to a lower-ranked one costs more. More battles = more reliable ranking.

🏷 Tiers

Calculated dynamically from your ELO rankings: S top 10% · A 10–25% · B 25–55% · C 55–80% · D bottom 20%.

● Confidence

Uncertain — fewer than 3 battles, don't trust this rank yet.
Settling — 3–9 battles, getting more reliable.
Confident — 10+ battles, stable.

〰️ Fuzzy & ✗ Not Seen

Fuzzy — can't judge an anime fairly because you don't remember it well? Mark it fuzzy and it'll appear far less often until you've refreshed your memory.
Not Seen — removes the anime from your ranking pool entirely. Re-add it any time from the Excluded section at the bottom of Rankings.

↩ Undo

Changed your mind? Undo reverts your last battle result, restoring both ELO scores. You can undo up to 5 battles in a row.

⚙ Battle Modes

Tap the mode button in the battle screen to switch between:

⚙ Standard — default matchmaking, pairs chosen to maximise ranking accuracy.
🎯 Settle — targets uncertain matchups first so shaky rankings lock in faster.
🙈 Blind — hides ELO scores so you pick purely on instinct, without being anchored by numbers.
🎲 Trio — three anime at once; drag or tap to rank them 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
⚡ Tower — pick a champion and pit it against 10 opponents spread across the rankings. A fun way to stress-test how highly you really rate a show.

≡ Battle Pool Filter

Tap the Filter button in the battle screen to exclude formats (TV, Movie, OVA…) from matchmaking. Useful if you only want to rank one type at a time. Your filter is remembered between sessions.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

← left wins  ·  → right wins  ·  S skip  ·  U undo

📋 Rankings

Filter by format (TV, Movie, OVA…) and episode length (≤12 · 13–24 · 25–70 · 70+ · Unknown). Use the Fuzzy filter to show only fuzzy-marked entries, or Franchise to group sequels. Sort by ELO, Title, Win Rate, Battles, AniList Score, Tier, or Confidence. Toggle grid or list view. All filters and sort are remembered between sessions.

⛓ Franchise Mode

Groups sequels and seasons together in the Rankings view so you can see a franchise's overall standing at a glance. Toggle it with the Franchise button above the rankings list. Individual entries keep their own ELO — franchise mode is a display filter only.

📊 Tabs

Battles — stats, biggest upsets, rivalries, and full battle history.
Profile — two sub-tabs: Taste (your archetype, genre & era breakdowns, studio affinity, taste vs the community, score distribution) and Achievements (milestones and badges earned through ranking).
Discover — personalised picks (✨ For You), airing anime (📅 This Season), mood-based recs, and tier predictions (🔮 Predict).
Social — multiplayer modes and taste comparison (see below).
Manage — backup, export, sync to AniList or MAL, appearance, and reset.

👥 Social

🤝 Watch Together — co-op picker for what to watch tonight. Nominate shows (or pull from this season), then vote head-to-head until one wins.
🎮 Challenge Mode — solo guessing game. Type any AniList or MAL username and guess which of two of their anime they ranked higher. No signup or invite needed for your friend.
🌐 Live Challenge — together, real-time. Each round you both pick a winner and predict each other's pick — bonus points for reading them right.
Taste Compare — enter any AniList username to see how your rankings overlap, where you disagree, and get cross-taste recommendations.

🔮 Predict

Search any anime you haven't ranked — Kessen estimates the tier it would likely land in based on your genre preferences, era affinities, and how your taste compares to the community. The more you've ranked, the more accurate the prediction.

🔔 Notifications

The bell icon in the header shows alerts for newly added anime on your list, cloud sync events, and other activity. Tap it to open the notification centre and review or clear alerts.

☁️ Cloud Sync

When logged in with AniList or MAL, your rankings automatically save to the cloud after each battle (with a short delay). Opening the app on another device will prompt you to load the cloud save if it's newer than your local one. You can also push or pull manually any time from Manage → Backup, Sync & Export.

🔵 AniList Integration

On first load — your AniList scores seed starting ELO values (10→1500 · 7→1200 · 4→900), so rankings begin close to where you already know they should be.

Sync to AniList (Manage tab) — push your ELO rankings back to AniList as updated scores. You'll see a preview of every change before confirming.

Re-seed from AniList (Manage tab) — re-pull your current AniList scores and replace ELO values with fresh starting points, without erasing battle history.

📋 MAL Integration

On first load — your MAL scores seed starting ELO values (10→1500 · 7→1200 · 4→900), giving your rankings a head start based on what you already know.

Re-seed from MAL (Manage tab) — re-pull your current MAL scores and replace ELO values with fresh starting points, without erasing battle history.

Discover & Stats — fully supported. Recommendations are powered by AniList's public database, which is also where cover art and metadata come from.

Social features (taste comparison & friend recs) use AniList usernames — enter any friend's AniList handle to compare.