Is the Quality of Anime Declining?

I was asked recently whether the quality of anime is going down, or whether he was just imagining it. He was referring to the animation itself, but I have been asked by others whether the plots are getting worse. We saw shows in the 90’s like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, but it seems like not a lot of shows are as good now.

Well I disagree wholeheartedly.

This season’s Future Diary is one of the best shows I’ve seen in this past year, and it’s almost certainly the best show this season. Also from this season, Chiyahafuru and Guilty Crown are also really good.

But then we have shows like Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janai Dakara ne, Kissxsis, and Maken-ki. And I’ve watched all of them. And trust me when I say they’re not that good.

But let’s turn back the pendulum (to take a page from Kubo). Let’s look at the Spring 1998 anime list and compare it to the Fall 2011 list. A short list of the shows that came out in Spring 1998: Ah! My Goddess: Chichaitte Koto wa Benri da ne, Alice SOS, Android Ana Maico 2010, Beast Wars Second Chou Seimeitai Transformers, Brain Powerd, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Cowboy Bebop, Cyberteam in Akihabara, DT Eightron, Eat-Man ’98, Fancy Lala, Futari Gurashi, Gandalla: The King of Burning Desert, Gasaraki, Generator Gawl, Ginga Hyouryu Vifam 13, Grander Musashi RV, Hatsumei Boy Kanipan, Himiko-Den, Initial D First Stage, Jikuu Tenshou Nazca, and Legend of Basara. Trust me, there’s more. But what do most of these shows probably have in common? They’re mediocre. Hell, even I haven’t heard of a lot of these. And Bebop and Gawl are the only ones I own. So I’ve only seen two out of these 20+ shows.

Compare this to this anime season (Fall 2011), where simulcasts have allowed me to watch as many new shows as I want. I’m currently watching: Chihayafuru, Fairy Tail, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Hunter x Hunter, Majikoi Oh! Samurai Girls, Mashiroiro Symphony, Squid Girl, Un-Go, Wagnaria’!!, You and Me, Guilty Crown, Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing, Maken-ki, and The Future Dairy. Out of those, only Fairy Tail is a continuation from a previous season. And in my opinion, 7 have the potential to be good (Chiyahafuru, Un-Go, Guilty Crown, Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing, and The Future Dairy. Fairy Tail and Hunter x Hunter to a lesser degree). That’s 50%.

Of course that’s all subjective and I have no basis for saying those 1998 shows are going to be mediocre. But I will give critics this: there are a lot more fanservice shows. Maken-ki, thanks for being there when I need an unnecessary panty shot. Why do I continue watching shows like this? Because I’m a completionist. Why did I start a show like this? I have no clue.

What are the two big differences between the two seasons? 1. Fanservice, 2. Episode count. Most of those 1998 shows have 24+ episodes, most of these 2011 shows have 13 max. And why all the fanservice? Well, there is a legitimate response to that. One that critics will hate. The birth rate in Japan is falling. That’s right, that’s the reason for the fanservice shows being so prevalent.

See, without kids to watch the kids shows, the studios see no need in making shows that target kids. While there are tons of pervy teenagers in Japan that frequent Akihabara’s maid cafes and want some panty action in their anime. Because there are actually few casual anime viewers in Japan. Most of them either think that any anime fan is an otaku (which has very negative connotations in Japan compared to here) or that anime is a bad influence in general and will make you kill people, or something horrible.

We Americans know that’s not true. It’s also true that we Americans are what are keeping a lot of these anime in production (at least that was the case just two or three years ago). The Japanese studios didn’t have the funding to keep making the show, so they licensed the show to an American licensor and then, voila, funding for the rest of the show. But I digress.

My point here is that the quality of anime isn’t going down. It’s stayed about the same. There are always one or two really, really good shows per season. They might not all be of the quality of Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell or Samurai Champloo, but they’re damn near. Hell, Baccano!, Time of Eve, and Durarara!! came out in 2007, 2008, and 2010 respectively. And those are the really great shows of the past few years, at least the ones that I’ve seen. I guess your point is that the lower shows are worse or less worthy. But that’s ok, just don’t watch those. I’ll do it for you and tell you how bad they are.