[world2vec]

Anime has never been more popular but honestly its quality has declined a lot. It's all isekai and supernatural-sexy-schoolgirl-whatever (kinda creepy) these days. Or the same old animes that go on forever.

Every year there's less and less animes that are worth the time to watch IMHO.

[idoubtit]

Of course quality is subjective, but my own stats on AniDB show no decline.

I've watch at least one anime produced every year from 1977 to now. For 2000-2025 I've watched 24 to 62 anime of each year. My average vote by year is surprisingly stable at 5 ±0.6.

My top votes also don't show any significative tendency. Out of my 25 favorite anime, 6 were produced in 2020 or later. Notably the film "Kaguya-hime no monogatari", but also seinen series like "Nami yo Kiite Kure", "ACCA" or "Eizouken".

BTW, "Eizouken" (2020) is wonderful, and it's about a young girl wishing to become an animator, and how she creates short animes with her friends. I strongly recommend it!

[kps]

Sturgeon's Law: “[…] they say 'ninety percent of science fiction is crud.' Well, they're right. Ninety percent of science fiction is crud. But then ninety percent of everything is crud, and it's the ten percent that isn't crud that is important.”

[shikshake]

The same ratio of garbage to quality was available back then, there just wasn’t the same level of exposure to the range of output so the worst ones faded into history.

[KerrAvon]

What? This is a golden age of anime.

You could count the number of anime available in the west and worth watching 25 years ago on one hand, maybe two.

Now? If you can't find something, you're not looking hard enough. Off the top of my head, current anime that do not remotely fit your categories:

- Spy x Family

- Dandadan

- Dungeon Meshi

- Apocalypse Hotel

- Yumi no Tsugai (Daemons of the Shadow Realm)

- Kaiju No. 8

- Marriage Toxin

- Steel Ball Run

- The Summer Hikaru Died

- Akane-Banashi

- Dorohedoro

edit: formatting. edit 2: added Dorohedoro, good call down below

[shikshake]

I did not know they made an anime of The Summer Hikaru Died. The manga was amazing, I need to check out how they adapted it.

[TheRealPomax]

Funny, that was already true in 2006. It's the thing people keep saying, and yet anime keeps coming out.

Right now they're stuck in the whole "ten shows from the same budget, each run by their own 'committee' and each competing for cash that runs out well before the show's over, and the poor performance very quickly get less per episode". Great for networks, shit for shows. Even worse for animators who need to get paid a living wage.

[world2vec]

A cursory glance of anime tv shows released in 2006 and there's a lot of good things I'd watch again: Honey & Clover, Kemonozume, Ergo Proxy, Code Geass, Haruhi Suzumiya, etc.

In 2026 the only thing that has captivated me, so far, was the Chainsaw Man movie and Dorohedoro S2.

[postexitus]

Is Dorohedoro S2 out? Wa wa wee wa!

Kidding aside, did you pick those 2006 releases at the time they were being released or are you picking them up from a list after years of refinement and discovery? It's completely possible that 2026 will be as fruitful from a 2046 perspective.

[HaloZero]

Higurashi when they cry does the whole concept of time reset well (2006).

Trigun sequel is coming out this year.

2026 titles have caught on that trend of a really long specific title though.

“The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life”

I think anime is a big enough category that every year there’s always at least a few good ones but it’s hard to get good signal to noise. But the whole tiny girl thing is 100% a trend that’s stuck around.

[jabroni_salad]

Those titles are a result of the webnovel -> lightnovel pipeline. Users won't click unless they like the concept so authors started to just put the tagline directly in the title.

[puzzlingcaptcha]

Akane Banashi was probably the best directed show this season.

[KerrAvon]

You're into Chainsaw Man and Dorohedero but not JJK?