Yeah, a lot of it is. I think only the "big long runners" don't fall into that category, because things like Bleach or DBZ or One Piece managed to escape that and eclipse their own manga. But that's why a lot of series are just 1 season with little resolved of their own plot, they existed to pull in a larger audience rather than be their own thing.
That's not even anime specific, nearly all cartoons in the 80s and a bit into the 90s were just glorified toy commercials. It wasn't until Cartoon Network took off that Western animation broke out of that.
Yeah, a lot of it is. I think only the "big long runners" don't fall into that category, because things like Bleach or DBZ or One Piece managed to escape that and eclipse their own manga. But that's why a lot of series are just 1 season with little resolved of their own plot, they existed to pull in a larger audience rather than be their own thing.
That's not even anime specific, nearly all cartoons in the 80s and a bit into the 90s were just glorified toy commercials. It wasn't until Cartoon Network took off that Western animation broke out of that.