I don't think so. I think it's definitely getting/gotten worse, but I don't think we're in a downward spiral. I think Japan has noticed the danger, and is beginning to push back, so I think we'll actually see a reversal of the trend. It will take a while, and we'll always be in danger of wokalizers, but I don't think anime is doomed or decaying.
I could be wrong, and I agree that's definitely a danger, but I just don't think it's over or crashing, personally.
The new stuff is just coming out, and there's already plenty of fantasy/isekai, multiple comedy/harem, and the like. I do see two alphabet nonsense animes, and two more female focused ones, but overall it still looks fairly standard.
And probably better than the last season or two, which were getting pretty uninteresting, in my opinion.
Sentenced to Be a Hero seems pretty dang promising, check it out if you haven't.
I did not like Fall 2025 Anime slate. I get what OP is saying but that's not why I felt the season was weak. Not many of the stories were compelling and kept me engaged.
Yup. I just ignore the ones with gay/furry shit so, while it's not a good sign, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment. But the anime I did watch had less percentage of high quality content. There was some good stuff, but a bunch that, like you, just didn't catch my interest at all, or couldn't hold it. Basically, as the kids say, there was way too much stuff that was "mid" at best.
OP is correctly pointing out that he's noticing a growth in its prevalence, and he's entirely correct that simps and low-frequency men will eat it up because "it's hot".
That's always been the wedge and it will be defended with voracious intent by many people for the aforementioned reasons.
Yes, we know that there used to be those themes in older content, but as OP rightfully pointed out, it was fringe.
I don't watch anime so I can't speak to the volumes of its prevalence, but if it's anything like the rest of media entertainment I do not doubt his observations.
when it comes to yuri, I argue it was and still is fringe, just not nearly as Fringe as lesbian content is in the West. it pops up in regular anime every now and then, but I've hardly ever seen it be the spotlight.
Yeah, yuri's pretty niche in Japan. Yaoi is FAR more prevalent and mainstream. Lesbian content there is most assuredly not the small thing pushed to get all the other degeneracy into the door.
I suppose the broader question would be: have you noticed it popping up more frequently in anime for the fall/winter seasons?
(Though to the point of other commenters, I hope they are right that maybe any additional prevalence of such material is a carryover from the Obama/Biden regime force-feeding this kind of content into global media; since the release of media is going to be three to four years behind whatever current cultural trends are taking place. So what we're seeing now is obviously the results of the woke agenda from yesteryears, but the real tell will be content released in 2028 and 2029)
This is the "chainmail bikini paradox". Women argue that skimpy outfits are not appropriate for female medieval warriors - they should wear the same protection as men! Men respond: if we're being realistic, then women shouldn't be engaging in combat at all.
Point being: we only tolerated girl bosses because they were attractive. In real life, girl bosses basically don't exist. All of the richest women in the world are divorcees. All of the best female athletes and chess players are sequestered away in their own leagues. The vast majority of women run from war and dangerous jobs, and the ones who don't are almost always a liability.
When flawless female leaders and soldiers and geniuses and heroes started showing up in our media, we suspended disbelief because they were cute or hot or otherwise compelling as women. Feminists broke that unspoken bargain when they turned all of these girl bosses into insufferable ugly cunts. Now there's no upside to enduring the incongruity between media depictions of women and our real life experiences with them.
If I want to be annoyed by some stupid 4/10 who thinks she's both a supermodel and the smartest person in the room, I don't need to spend $70 on a video game. I can just walk around outside for a few minutes.
If The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was released today then everyone here would call her a girlboss. That's all I have to say in terms of applying western sensibilities to oriental productions.
I only watch popular anime, so I haven't noticed this. As far as popular shows go, anime is in somewhat of a new Pax Romana right now. Dan Da Dan, Chainsaw Man, and Frieren are all really good, and I would argue CSM will be an all-time great. JJK is an amateurish story but has top tier animation.
If globohomo is hitting anime bad right now, this is where Trump being in office may be a good thing. We are still seeing lagging indicators of Biden's tranny paradise presidency, but the funding for that is likely curtailed.
Also, the American public's purported appetite - which is the main motivator for any changes - has massively turned against gayness. Millions of people are crapping on the Stranger Things finale specifically for the gay coming out scene.
I tried watching the first few episodes of Frieren and Chainsaw Man years back and I couldn't understand what the hype was. Frieren was just overly sentimental girls crying about not knowing what their friend's favorite dessert was, and chainsaw man, from what I vaguely remember, had a depressing MC become a submissive dog for some bossy female. Do those shows go through some radical change later on that I missed?
as a huge fan of Frieren, there were several things it brought to the table that were sorely missing in recent anime:
actual fantasy. not isekai shit, a straight up medieval fantasy world that is represented sincerely, not as a joke or wish fulfillment.
Chill. the show's pacing is very relaxed, with action interspersed. It's very pleasant to watch compared the high energy nature of other recent shows. don't get me wrong, I love a good high energy anime. Gurren Lagann is my favorite anime of all time. but the chill nature of Frieren is a nice change of pace.
an actual episodic show. most other seasonal anime have one or two self-contained episodes, then the rest is cliffhanger bait that draws out one Arc over 10 episodes. Frieren actually has self-contained episodes, with a few three episode arcs sprinkled in. of course, the last ark at the end of season 1 takes like seven episodes which was way too long, it is my biggest demerit against the show, but it at least wrapped The Arc up.
perfection of the Rei Ayanami archetype. for me, the draw of this archetype is watching someone essentially become human, developing a personality and learning to appreciate life. in most other shows, this archetype is so robotic that the character feels unrealistic. Frieren, on the other hand, is very animated. there are things that make her excited, and there are things that make her angry, even if she is extremely apathetic.
additionally, I'm a connoisseur of orchestral scores, be they from movies, games, shows, or anime. Frieren's score by Evan Call is one of the best scores I've heard in a long time, up there with Christopher Larkin's Hollow Knight score and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score.
Frieren's score by Evan Call is one of the best scores I've heard in a long time, up there with Christopher Larkin's Hollow Knight score and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score.
You sold me. The songs in the link are great, gunna have to give it a go now, and it was already high on my list for the anti demon stuff.
I love these scores too, usually the more 'epic' battle songs.
It sounds like you stopped before the dragon arc. One of the best drawn dragons I've seen in ages. The battle scenes in Frieren may be few, but they are EPIC. Gobsmackingly good.
Frieren is story-based, with the main (today) story and a flashback story of 50~odd years ago. Both are really engaging & endearing.
A third storyline deals with a much younger Frieren and her teacher, the greatest human wizard to have ever lived. She literally "writes the book" for human magic.
Yet she & Frieren aren't "girl bosses" at all. They're just the very best at what they do, which is killing demons. Because demons are pure evil & deserve nothing less than instant death.
Se.02 on the 16th!
Frieren starts slow, but in my opinion does live up to the hype. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I personally think it's great...but I can see why the first few episodes might drive some people away. It definitely picks up as it goes. Frieren is peak.
As to Chainsaw Man, I haven't read the manga or anything, but I know some of what's coming just from happening upon chatter online. Part of the whole point is that the MC is being abused; it doesn't seem glorified, he's just constantly beaten down and taken advantage of. And, as the other response said, a big part of the hype is the action/animation.
I'm a bit of a snob and don't watch much anime anymore. I actually watched the first couple episodes of Frieren, thought they were great, but was satisfied. It was a nice little self-contained story, with exactly the number of characters it needed and ran for exactly as long as it took. I can't imagine they're considered the weak point.
I can't imagine they're considered the weak point.
Not weak, per se, I just get why they wouldn't be to everyone's taste. A lot of people are going to want more action, and that doesn't pick up for a little while. A bunch of people want to see Frieren blasting demons, and that takes a little bit to ramp up. Intro isn't bad, but some people just won't have the attention span for it, I think.
That's why they released 4 at once: the first 2 are uneventful... until later you realize just how important they are!
Frieren is filled with "understated" things, pay attention to be rewarded!
The battles come later and they are EPIC. No standing there yapping while the enemy powers up, that's so idiotic. They fight "for keeps" and it's literal life & death.
Demons are bad & the critics didn't like that, it seems. Tough! They're literally animals that can talk. They can also become insanely powerful & kill lots of humans (their favorite food) unless stopped.
Frieren deserves a re-watch (in Japanese and the Dub is excellent too!) to fully appreciate it all. The art, the music, the characters are all God-Tier. The stories are "only" SS-tier 😄 But generally short & sweet.
If you get filtered by the first four episodes of Frieren, you don't deserve the segment where Frieren explains how demons use human language purely as a weapon. It's just that simple.
As far as CSM, if you don't like watching a broke-down kid try to figure things out then you're not going to enjoy it. The writing and animation are amazing though.
Frieren can be a little boring/slice of life and it has its problems, but it has some really nice meditations on the passing of time and an interesting take on the nature of evil. There isn't a lot of action until the demon arc a few episodes in, but it's pretty good.
The first few episodes of Frieren were all worshipful reverence of the ones who came before. I think the concept of demons is a useful rhetorical tool to have and is definitely the big draw. But even a quiet, slice-of-life tour of the statues commemorating civilization's greatest heroes was a breath of fresh air compared to something like "let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
There are some good signs to suggest that this is at least not a spiral. Japan seems to be withdrawing from the west in studios, localisers and even transaction companies. They now realise people around the world COME to them so there's no need to dilute the product.
However it does mean that we'll have a slow period as this shift happens.
there's definitely more pandering to female degeneracy, though the pandering to male degeneracy is still there.
last season was kind of a bust, but I think that's because everyone was expecting Sentenced to be a Hero to air last season. since it got moved to this season, this season is an absolute banger for fantasy fans between It, Frieren, and Fate SF.
You do realise these animes where done in the Biden era? A new era is upon us and Japan have a new PM that is anti woke and pro Japan, animes in 2027 will be very diffferents. Japan was shakled by the Obama/Biden administration to slowly weaken their society, that why the emasculation of the japanese man was pushed non stop since 2014.
Japan is accepting more nonwhites than ever before.
Ha, not any more.
Oh fuck, I instinctually wrote ‘nonwhites’ as though I care about the genocide of the other species of humanity…
Pff, you have this seething envy of the Amish and even the honorary aryans for some reason. Instead of whining about it, why not earn the title through hard work and effort?
Oh wait, you can't. Your MIDF/JIDF contract's slavery clause commands you to spam demoralization propaganda all day everyday on whatever small forums that dare refuse their moderation demands.
Finally? I've seen it crater for a couple years now. There are a few bright spots but they're fairly far between. Animation quality has really dropped off hard imo.
That has been one of anime's (and Japan's) growing weaknesses for a very long time. Their general resistance against unnecessarily idolizing women started dying somewhere in the 90s. Having a harem of cute flawless girls was an easy way to sell manga/anime and all the production companies leaned into it shamelessly.
There's a tiny fraction of negatively portrayed female failure characters compared to male ones. They took shitty women out of the stories and only left the badass ones or the cute angelic ones. There's a reason the audiences in Japan were so eager to embrace stories like Shield Hero and Redo of a Healer before even the West got to them,a piece of media finally unabashedly showing shitty women getting their comeuppance was as long overdue a catharsis there as it was here.
"They're making anime gay now" Just last season we had Gachiakuta, Sanda, Ninja vs Gokudo, four or five different fantasy isekais including Isekai Quartet season 3, a solid titty show with Hands Off, Kotesashi, and May I Ask For One Final Thing which was definitely not targeted towards older American men but was still really good.
It was needed! Japanese high-school girls look VERY much alike. Anime had to give them different coloured hair to tell them apart more easily.
Look to "Rascal Dares Not Dream Of Bunny Girl" series (which is 10/10) for girls with normal hair & man do they look the same! Still adorable though, but one needs to squint now and then and wonder "which girl is this? Oh the student". 🤭
I can definitely vouch that there's some major low quality shit coming out. I just watched two downright awful "Rejected adventurer actually has strongest skill" fantasy shows this season. It's so bad, the yuri stuff (No Freakin Way) is getting appealing. I can only be so glad Umamusume- Cinderella Gray was going on this season as well.
I can definitely vouch that there's some major low quality shit coming out.
That has been true for at least 20 years running. There's a lot of bad and forgettable anime out there. I should know, I've watched and forgotten more of it than most people can name.
"This Monster Wants To Eat Me" looks like yuri, is entirely girl-focused and is God-teir in story, characters, art & especially music. Massively under-appreciated because too many people dismiss it based on looks.
The manga loses some of this power for a while, but has started a new arc which has great promise. The anime took everything good in the manga and put it front & center! The bubbles, the darkness, the underwater scenes & the blood! So good.
Oh, it is filled with all kinds of angst (and depression). If that's repulsive to you it may not be your cup of tea.
I actually think we're in a "Golden Age" which brings not only high quality but a HUGE variety too! It may be slowing down, but every season ahs some pure gold in it. Like "This Monster Wants To Eat Me" last season. Under-appreciated!
I disagree. I think we're in the middle of "A Golden Age" of the greatest anime made.
That implies it will end someday, and it may be slowing down it's true. But I think it could be a decade away before it ends.
Last season had "This Monster Wants To Eat Me" which people dismissed as "yuri" but it isn't. It' character-drive story at its finest. And angst, and depression... but so delicious! Under-appreciated God-tier anime.
Cinderella Gray was fully appreciated though! I love that series!
Fall '25 was slow I agree. There were lots of trash I skipped even though it was slow! I'd usually watch 1-2 of them, but my backlog is gigantic & I intended to catch up a little, but didn't :/
Winter, Spring & Summer '25 were PACKED with goodness. 2026 is looking good too.
I don't think so. I think it's definitely getting/gotten worse, but I don't think we're in a downward spiral. I think Japan has noticed the danger, and is beginning to push back, so I think we'll actually see a reversal of the trend. It will take a while, and we'll always be in danger of wokalizers, but I don't think anime is doomed or decaying.
I could be wrong, and I agree that's definitely a danger, but I just don't think it's over or crashing, personally.
The new stuff is just coming out, and there's already plenty of fantasy/isekai, multiple comedy/harem, and the like. I do see two alphabet nonsense animes, and two more female focused ones, but overall it still looks fairly standard.
And probably better than the last season or two, which were getting pretty uninteresting, in my opinion.
Sentenced to Be a Hero seems pretty dang promising, check it out if you haven't.
Yup. I just ignore the ones with gay/furry shit so, while it's not a good sign, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment. But the anime I did watch had less percentage of high quality content. There was some good stuff, but a bunch that, like you, just didn't catch my interest at all, or couldn't hold it. Basically, as the kids say, there was way too much stuff that was "mid" at best.
Grrlbosses are very common in anime I've noticed. Only they typically are attractive enough to balance it out
Yeah. One way of accepting girlbosses is to make them cute and pretty. And wrap it in a comedy too if possible.
Yuri has been in anime for as long as most of us have been alive, just look at the original Japanese Sailor Moon.
OP is correctly pointing out that he's noticing a growth in its prevalence, and he's entirely correct that simps and low-frequency men will eat it up because "it's hot".
That's always been the wedge and it will be defended with voracious intent by many people for the aforementioned reasons.
Yes, we know that there used to be those themes in older content, but as OP rightfully pointed out, it was fringe.
I don't watch anime so I can't speak to the volumes of its prevalence, but if it's anything like the rest of media entertainment I do not doubt his observations.
when it comes to yuri, I argue it was and still is fringe, just not nearly as Fringe as lesbian content is in the West. it pops up in regular anime every now and then, but I've hardly ever seen it be the spotlight.
Yeah, yuri's pretty niche in Japan. Yaoi is FAR more prevalent and mainstream. Lesbian content there is most assuredly not the small thing pushed to get all the other degeneracy into the door.
I suppose the broader question would be: have you noticed it popping up more frequently in anime for the fall/winter seasons?
(Though to the point of other commenters, I hope they are right that maybe any additional prevalence of such material is a carryover from the Obama/Biden regime force-feeding this kind of content into global media; since the release of media is going to be three to four years behind whatever current cultural trends are taking place. So what we're seeing now is obviously the results of the woke agenda from yesteryears, but the real tell will be content released in 2028 and 2029)
This is the "chainmail bikini paradox". Women argue that skimpy outfits are not appropriate for female medieval warriors - they should wear the same protection as men! Men respond: if we're being realistic, then women shouldn't be engaging in combat at all.
Point being: we only tolerated girl bosses because they were attractive. In real life, girl bosses basically don't exist. All of the richest women in the world are divorcees. All of the best female athletes and chess players are sequestered away in their own leagues. The vast majority of women run from war and dangerous jobs, and the ones who don't are almost always a liability.
When flawless female leaders and soldiers and geniuses and heroes started showing up in our media, we suspended disbelief because they were cute or hot or otherwise compelling as women. Feminists broke that unspoken bargain when they turned all of these girl bosses into insufferable ugly cunts. Now there's no upside to enduring the incongruity between media depictions of women and our real life experiences with them.
If I want to be annoyed by some stupid 4/10 who thinks she's both a supermodel and the smartest person in the room, I don't need to spend $70 on a video game. I can just walk around outside for a few minutes.
If The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was released today then everyone here would call her a girlboss. That's all I have to say in terms of applying western sensibilities to oriental productions.
I only watch popular anime, so I haven't noticed this. As far as popular shows go, anime is in somewhat of a new Pax Romana right now. Dan Da Dan, Chainsaw Man, and Frieren are all really good, and I would argue CSM will be an all-time great. JJK is an amateurish story but has top tier animation.
If globohomo is hitting anime bad right now, this is where Trump being in office may be a good thing. We are still seeing lagging indicators of Biden's tranny paradise presidency, but the funding for that is likely curtailed.
Also, the American public's purported appetite - which is the main motivator for any changes - has massively turned against gayness. Millions of people are crapping on the Stranger Things finale specifically for the gay coming out scene.
I tried watching the first few episodes of Frieren and Chainsaw Man years back and I couldn't understand what the hype was. Frieren was just overly sentimental girls crying about not knowing what their friend's favorite dessert was, and chainsaw man, from what I vaguely remember, had a depressing MC become a submissive dog for some bossy female. Do those shows go through some radical change later on that I missed?
as a huge fan of Frieren, there were several things it brought to the table that were sorely missing in recent anime:
actual fantasy. not isekai shit, a straight up medieval fantasy world that is represented sincerely, not as a joke or wish fulfillment.
Chill. the show's pacing is very relaxed, with action interspersed. It's very pleasant to watch compared the high energy nature of other recent shows. don't get me wrong, I love a good high energy anime. Gurren Lagann is my favorite anime of all time. but the chill nature of Frieren is a nice change of pace.
an actual episodic show. most other seasonal anime have one or two self-contained episodes, then the rest is cliffhanger bait that draws out one Arc over 10 episodes. Frieren actually has self-contained episodes, with a few three episode arcs sprinkled in. of course, the last ark at the end of season 1 takes like seven episodes which was way too long, it is my biggest demerit against the show, but it at least wrapped The Arc up.
perfection of the Rei Ayanami archetype. for me, the draw of this archetype is watching someone essentially become human, developing a personality and learning to appreciate life. in most other shows, this archetype is so robotic that the character feels unrealistic. Frieren, on the other hand, is very animated. there are things that make her excited, and there are things that make her angry, even if she is extremely apathetic.
additionally, I'm a connoisseur of orchestral scores, be they from movies, games, shows, or anime. Frieren's score by Evan Call is one of the best scores I've heard in a long time, up there with Christopher Larkin's Hollow Knight score and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWFeSl4hhIg
You sold me. The songs in the link are great, gunna have to give it a go now, and it was already high on my list for the anti demon stuff.
I love these scores too, usually the more 'epic' battle songs.
excellent taste!
there are several Grand moments throughout the show, but do keep in mind it is more chill than grand.
It sounds like you stopped before the dragon arc. One of the best drawn dragons I've seen in ages. The battle scenes in Frieren may be few, but they are EPIC. Gobsmackingly good.
Frieren is story-based, with the main (today) story and a flashback story of 50~odd years ago. Both are really engaging & endearing.
A third storyline deals with a much younger Frieren and her teacher, the greatest human wizard to have ever lived. She literally "writes the book" for human magic.
Yet she & Frieren aren't "girl bosses" at all. They're just the very best at what they do, which is killing demons. Because demons are pure evil & deserve nothing less than instant death.
Se.02 on the 16th!
Frieren starts slow, but in my opinion does live up to the hype. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I personally think it's great...but I can see why the first few episodes might drive some people away. It definitely picks up as it goes. Frieren is peak.
As to Chainsaw Man, I haven't read the manga or anything, but I know some of what's coming just from happening upon chatter online. Part of the whole point is that the MC is being abused; it doesn't seem glorified, he's just constantly beaten down and taken advantage of. And, as the other response said, a big part of the hype is the action/animation.
I'm a bit of a snob and don't watch much anime anymore. I actually watched the first couple episodes of Frieren, thought they were great, but was satisfied. It was a nice little self-contained story, with exactly the number of characters it needed and ran for exactly as long as it took. I can't imagine they're considered the weak point.
Not weak, per se, I just get why they wouldn't be to everyone's taste. A lot of people are going to want more action, and that doesn't pick up for a little while. A bunch of people want to see Frieren blasting demons, and that takes a little bit to ramp up. Intro isn't bad, but some people just won't have the attention span for it, I think.
That's why they released 4 at once: the first 2 are uneventful... until later you realize just how important they are!
Frieren is filled with "understated" things, pay attention to be rewarded!
The battles come later and they are EPIC. No standing there yapping while the enemy powers up, that's so idiotic. They fight "for keeps" and it's literal life & death.
Demons are bad & the critics didn't like that, it seems. Tough! They're literally animals that can talk. They can also become insanely powerful & kill lots of humans (their favorite food) unless stopped.
Frieren deserves a re-watch (in Japanese and the Dub is excellent too!) to fully appreciate it all. The art, the music, the characters are all God-Tier. The stories are "only" SS-tier 😄 But generally short & sweet.
If you get filtered by the first four episodes of Frieren, you don't deserve the segment where Frieren explains how demons use human language purely as a weapon. It's just that simple.
Those are the people that need to be driven away. The first several episodes of that show were far and away the strongest of the whole season.
As far as CSM, if you don't like watching a broke-down kid try to figure things out then you're not going to enjoy it. The writing and animation are amazing though.
Frieren can be a little boring/slice of life and it has its problems, but it has some really nice meditations on the passing of time and an interesting take on the nature of evil. There isn't a lot of action until the demon arc a few episodes in, but it's pretty good.
Ah gotcha, maybe I'll try watching those shows a little further sometime.
Officially, Frieren is regarded as a shonen anime simply because the manga was published in Shonen Jump.
That's retarded.
If it walks like a seinen and quacks like a seinen, it's probably actually a seinen.
The first few episodes of Frieren were all worshipful reverence of the ones who came before. I think the concept of demons is a useful rhetorical tool to have and is definitely the big draw. But even a quiet, slice-of-life tour of the statues commemorating civilization's greatest heroes was a breath of fresh air compared to something like "let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
There are some good signs to suggest that this is at least not a spiral. Japan seems to be withdrawing from the west in studios, localisers and even transaction companies. They now realise people around the world COME to them so there's no need to dilute the product.
However it does mean that we'll have a slow period as this shift happens.
there's definitely more pandering to female degeneracy, though the pandering to male degeneracy is still there.
last season was kind of a bust, but I think that's because everyone was expecting Sentenced to be a Hero to air last season. since it got moved to this season, this season is an absolute banger for fantasy fans between It, Frieren, and Fate SF.
I don't really keep track of what's coming out, outside of a few exceptions but...yeah, things are looking good this season.
Really enjoyed the first episode of Sentenced to be a Hero.
Kunon is probably going to be a bit slop, but is still entertaining so far.
You do realise these animes where done in the Biden era? A new era is upon us and Japan have a new PM that is anti woke and pro Japan, animes in 2027 will be very diffferents. Japan was shakled by the Obama/Biden administration to slowly weaken their society, that why the emasculation of the japanese man was pushed non stop since 2014.
Japan is accepting more nonwhites than ever before.
Oh fuck, I instinctually wrote ‘nonwhites’ as though I care about the genocide of the other species of humanity…
Ha, not any more.
Pff, you have this seething envy of the Amish and even the honorary aryans for some reason. Instead of whining about it, why not earn the title through hard work and effort?
Oh wait, you can't. Your MIDF/JIDF contract's slavery clause commands you to spam demoralization propaganda all day everyday on whatever small forums that dare refuse their moderation demands.
Finally? I've seen it crater for a couple years now. There are a few bright spots but they're fairly far between. Animation quality has really dropped off hard imo.
That has been one of anime's (and Japan's) growing weaknesses for a very long time. Their general resistance against unnecessarily idolizing women started dying somewhere in the 90s. Having a harem of cute flawless girls was an easy way to sell manga/anime and all the production companies leaned into it shamelessly.
There's a tiny fraction of negatively portrayed female failure characters compared to male ones. They took shitty women out of the stories and only left the badass ones or the cute angelic ones. There's a reason the audiences in Japan were so eager to embrace stories like Shield Hero and Redo of a Healer before even the West got to them,a piece of media finally unabashedly showing shitty women getting their comeuppance was as long overdue a catharsis there as it was here.
Are you sure you're not a tourist?
I figure it began its spiral in 2017, and that's why it's vital to preserve the old masterkeys and episodes.
"They're making anime gay now" Just last season we had Gachiakuta, Sanda, Ninja vs Gokudo, four or five different fantasy isekais including Isekai Quartet season 3, a solid titty show with Hands Off, Kotesashi, and May I Ask For One Final Thing which was definitely not targeted towards older American men but was still really good.
The irony is that those shows popularized strange hair colors.
It was needed! Japanese high-school girls look VERY much alike. Anime had to give them different coloured hair to tell them apart more easily.
Look to "Rascal Dares Not Dream Of Bunny Girl" series (which is 10/10) for girls with normal hair & man do they look the same! Still adorable though, but one needs to squint now and then and wonder "which girl is this? Oh the student". 🤭
I can definitely vouch that there's some major low quality shit coming out. I just watched two downright awful "Rejected adventurer actually has strongest skill" fantasy shows this season. It's so bad, the yuri stuff (No Freakin Way) is getting appealing. I can only be so glad Umamusume- Cinderella Gray was going on this season as well.
That has been true for at least 20 years running. There's a lot of bad and forgettable anime out there. I should know, I've watched and forgotten more of it than most people can name.
"This Monster Wants To Eat Me" looks like yuri, is entirely girl-focused and is God-teir in story, characters, art & especially music. Massively under-appreciated because too many people dismiss it based on looks.
The manga loses some of this power for a while, but has started a new arc which has great promise. The anime took everything good in the manga and put it front & center! The bubbles, the darkness, the underwater scenes & the blood! So good.
Oh, it is filled with all kinds of angst (and depression). If that's repulsive to you it may not be your cup of tea.
I haven't really watched anime since the final ones were hand drawn in the early 2000s.
Has it really gone downhill that much?
This looks like bog standard female romance fantasy with an anime werewolf.
Basically just standard bodice ripper airport paperback trash but with an anime skin.
I actually think we're in a "Golden Age" which brings not only high quality but a HUGE variety too! It may be slowing down, but every season ahs some pure gold in it. Like "This Monster Wants To Eat Me" last season. Under-appreciated!
Anon, I...
You can't be a vassal of America and not have your culture turn as shitty as ours eventually.
I disagree. I think we're in the middle of "A Golden Age" of the greatest anime made.
That implies it will end someday, and it may be slowing down it's true. But I think it could be a decade away before it ends.
Last season had "This Monster Wants To Eat Me" which people dismissed as "yuri" but it isn't. It' character-drive story at its finest. And angst, and depression... but so delicious! Under-appreciated God-tier anime.
Cinderella Gray was fully appreciated though! I love that series!
Fall '25 was slow I agree. There were lots of trash I skipped even though it was slow! I'd usually watch 1-2 of them, but my backlog is gigantic & I intended to catch up a little, but didn't :/
Winter, Spring & Summer '25 were PACKED with goodness. 2026 is looking good too.
I think that these are still made from US money for DEI. Agencies like USA.ID were sending billions around the world.