There are many kind of otaku on the site so I simply want to talk about how Anime has changed over the years. Simply right well let's see were we can approach this matter.

Posted by... "TheAwsome"

As far as I have noticed is that Anime has become more business like in the fact that Anime is built for appeals more than on the basis of fun and orthogonality. That and Anime has dropped the plot to amplify the fan-service to bring in the dough sadly. I am still young in this subject so I don't know much of Anime's past.

By... 'TheAwsome"

I wouldn't say the number of quality of anime has dropped as much as the industry as a whole. There are still a lot of really well done anime out there. However, many companies have opted for over hashed series with cliche' content because it gets them a high return. Plus it's a lot cheaper to produce these types of series since the character designs are very simple and the stories are almost the same. 

I think a lot of it is geared toward newer fans or those who are not familiar with anime. It's not a bad thing if it gets them interested in anime as a whole, but at the same time it really puts a damper on everything. Overall the problem extends far beyond anime as even live action has the exact same problems. Attractive characters who are likable and don't really focus on character development or plot. They're fun to watch but to those who are passionate about film, anime, or even TV sitcoms will grow sick of them.

Every season I fear for the worst when it comes to new anime series. But I always end up dropping a few series just because there are still so many good and original series out there. You just learn to ignore all the "junk" out there.

I agree with you on that West. A lot of publishers produce anime with cliches and appeals (fanservice) due to easy money to make. However, this doesn't change the fact that there is a quite a number of manga  that doesn't have that much appeal in it to begin with to make into an interesting anime. I would like to see the amount of love comedies to go down each year but I doubt that will change any time soon. Also, I highly doubt that popular anime/manga are going to stop using the high-school setting.  

Additionally, I like to point out that most anime that have come out recently have only maybe 13 episodes or close to 24-26 episodes if they expect a long production. I have not seen anything longer than that in a while.

Well there's always the long-running shonen jump series.

...And Pokemon.

 There are still a few long running series out there. I've always felt the best series tend to be 49-52 episodes. Such as Gundam Wing, Eureka 7, Full Moon o Sagashite, Sailor Moon, Full Metal Alchemist,  and the list really does go on.  It's long enough to keep the series fresh and doesn't end up requiring fillers.

Sadly, it seems most series now a days can't even manage to create content long enough to last 12 episodes yet alone 4 seasons.

In my opinion, a lot of series with 12 episodes would have been better with 24 or more episodes. I hope that anime doesn't begin to get the "low attention span" standard of cartoons.
Well, off to work.

I my self watch a bunch of 12 episode series. I think if they had more episodes they wouldn't be so rushed. A good example I think could be "Elfen Lied". If it had more episodes we may have seen more character development and plot. Not to say it was bad as it did great!

By... "TheAwsome"

I can name several anime I think could have been longer which are the following: Project K, Zetman, Nyan Koi, The Sacred Blacksmith, Darker than black meteor, Omamori Himari, Angel beats, Night Raid, Black Butler 2,  Psychic Detective Yakumo, Another, C, Blood-C, No.6, Dantalian no Shoka and many more.

Granted though the only benefit for doing short anime series of 12-14 episodes or less is being able to chuck out new anime faster. However, like TheAwesome said, doing short anime make the plot feel rushed. Ideally I would love to have about 26 episode to 120 episodes depending on the anime. Anything higher than 120 episode is pushing it for me at least. I don't think anime is going to stop using 12 episodes or less unless more people complain about it or stop buying products. 

I agree entirely with Ebel. Shorter series, while very good, do feel rushed or like they do not tie up as neatly. And if I see a series that's over 120 episodes I just won't care to dedicate the time for it because I'm too busy. Then again, I'm likely not the target audience. But this is the reason I haven't even watched an episode of 'Gintama' even though I hear good things about it. Nor have I watched past episode 30ish on 'One Piece'- Blasphemy. I'm looking forward to new ideas and a new breed of anime. And I think anime has really hit the beginning of a second bell curve.

::Short rant warning::

The entertainment industry as a whole is very limited into what is releasing. We're seeing a spike of sequels, threequels, retellings, or just plain randomness. If you look at just the US releases it's been on a huge downward spiral for years. The same goes for Japan and it's animation release. There are still many gems that have come out, and I think they have succeeded due to the fact that the quality has gone down but the quantity has gone up. A good show stands out a lot more than it use to. I think they're just running out of ideas.

Now a days I see more anime about completely random ideas or third perspective story tellings that are the foundation of actually good plot lines. Meaning something that happens in your daily life but add a sort of adventure/fantasy twist on it. (E.G. Mirai Nikki and diary keeping, SOA and .Hack on playing a video game, Angel Beats and dying. Wait... Dying!?...) But it's making money, so as previously stated, for the busi- Patient walked in. Totally forgot my point.

 Anime and Manga was once something under the influence of the fans. Today I see it as a major business where as long as a strategy gets them money it is good. This is why we see so many short series they all make money with audience rather then one good 24  episode Anime that won't earn as much. Fan-service is also increasing as it has a big audience and makes to much money.

By... "SirFarts"

 I agree about the fan service. AH HAH! This is one of the things that people make fun of Otaku type groups!

Onto the topic at hand, it's true. I've seen more 13 episode series than I ever have in the past 3 - 5 years. They're just popular. Though the animation is unrivaled for the most part, it seems they're able to dump a lot more money into the series. It makes me beg the question, is it the producing company or the writer, if he or she is keeping creative rights, who choose to make it this way? In the monogatari series, well the first two, Nisio Isin wanted to keep the shorter series. He was given full creative rights to the product entirely. Then it blew up and I believe he was just contracted to make animated iterations of all his books for the monogatari series. Trying to find a link. It was something I read a long time ago.

Now if you look at his show, 'Katanagatari', the shorter series makes sense. In fact each episode is representing one of the books. But they are also an hour long. So I guess, like many things, it's that we must take a grain of salt with everything we're given now. As of now, we have no control over what happens outside of getting a potential sequel or merchandise. Really looking forward to when it's back to the writers keeping creative rights. C'mon Akira Toriyama! Well, for the first half of the Dragonball Empire.