It comes down to identifying what I dislike about the anime I dislike.
I find I don't like "fanservice" (boob jokes etc.), or at least find it to be a signifier of poor quality. So I use animefeminist.com for recommendations, since it's pretty effective at filtering out (or at least warning of in advance) that kind of red flag, and also for their ranking of seasonal anime. (If you use this method, make sure to look for their "recommendation," "digest," and "three-episode check-in" articles specifically). This improves things from about 1% chance of enjoyment to probably 1-in-15 chance of enjoyment. On average, each season has an anime I find is not bad, but only every 2-3 years or so is there an anime I unabashedly love.
(Of course, there may be shows the site rules out which I really loved -- for instance, my all-time favourite anime is Attack on Titan, which is blacklisted on anifem because someone once wrote an article on polygon about how its overtly pro-jewish anti-fascist allegory is anti-semitic somehow. I think that's a load of bull, but probably not enough of a problem for me to stop using this method of finding anime.)
It comes down to identifying what I dislike about the anime I dislike.
I find I don't like "fanservice" (boob jokes etc.), or at least find it to be a signifier of poor quality. So I use animefeminist.com for recommendations, since it's pretty effective at filtering out (or at least warning of in advance) that kind of red flag, and also for their ranking of seasonal anime. (If you use this method, make sure to look for their "recommendation," "digest," and "three-episode check-in" articles specifically). This improves things from about 1% chance of enjoyment to probably 1-in-15 chance of enjoyment. On average, each season has an anime I find is not bad, but only every 2-3 years or so is there an anime I unabashedly love.
(Of course, there may be shows the site rules out which I really loved -- for instance, my all-time favourite anime is Attack on Titan, which is blacklisted on anifem because someone once wrote an article on polygon about how its overtly pro-jewish anti-fascist allegory is anti-semitic somehow. I think that's a load of bull, but probably not enough of a problem for me to stop using this method of finding anime.)