I started disengaging from anime around the middle of the season before this one, so there's a lot in my theoretical backlog if I ever decide to go back. I started noticing anime trends going in directions I'm not that big of a fan of. Villainess anime started becoming the 'next thing' and I really don't like that sort of thing. And faggot anime, yaoi, and even yuri anime started becoming a lot more common as well. I've enjoyed a few yuri anime here and there because I'm a guy who likes hot chicks, but they've been really pushing that stuff into a place of primacy over the past few seasons and it's irritating. Anime goes in cycles of what's popular or marketed heavily, and the stuff they're starting to push isn't stuff I like really.

I also agree with OP that Angel Next Door was a nice change of pace from the usual romcom fare. I vastly prefer romcoms where the couple actually is couple over the constant will they won't they shit.

I feel like I'm just growing out of anime in some ways. Anime, and a lot of Japanese cultural stuff, is heavily reliant on static tropes and rigid archetypes. Yes, all media is to some degree, but Japan does it on a whole different level. They're the ones who come up with specific names for types of characters based on their personality and assign them standardized hair colors to denote what sort of character this is. A vast amount of anime is assembly line content built from prefab characters and plots.

This comes from the fact that most of it is based on LNs and manga from authors who are always looking for the next series to become a long term running serial so they have an indefinite paycheck. There isn't as much of a culture of 'Here's the story I want to tell, here's the beginning, middle, and end. I told it and now it's over' over there like there can be here. It's why you end up with manga series that lasts decades or light novels with 23 volumes that haven't actually moved anything forward since volume 4. I would love a return to the days when there were big anime series that were 50 episodes that told one complete story from start to finish and then it's over. Just enough to really tell it fully, but not dragging it out over and over to keep the money flowing in.

And I personally have started to find a lot of it boring and repetitive. Like I've had just about my life's fill of it and I don't think I need anymore. Every so often you get one or two shows a season that are trying something new, but even they still end up mostly just trying to do something new with the same tropes. A lot of anime is just the Mexican food of animated entertainment. Same ingredients combined in different ways, and at some point you've tried them all.

I think I've seen enough combinations of the same things were I can predict just about everything that is going to happen in an anime just from the first episode and seeing what archetypes are in the show. Like I watched Smoking Behind the Supermarket last week just to check it out, and while it was fine, a little better than fine, and I know a few years ago I would have really loved it, I could tell exactly what it was from the first 5 minutes. As soon as the first episode was done, I immediately though 'ah, this will be one where they constantly dance around the relationship and think of ways to delay them confronting their feelings and moving the central relationship forward so the author can get as many issues out of the gimmick for as many years as possible'. Then I looked up where the source material is and yep, that's exactly what it is. I don't like being able to call the entire plotline of an anime from the first episode based off seeing the same things done in slightly different ways so many times.

And I know it's easy to say 'just try things you weren't into before'. Except I didn't try them before because I already didn't like it. I don't go for brutal edgelord anime for instance. It just doesn't appeal to me. And getting tired of stuff I used to enjoy does not magically create enjoyment out of other things I used to not like. I still don't like the stuff I used to not like too. I think I'm just moving past anime as a medium at this point, at least for a long while until there are some real changes or if it's been long enough that I forget why I got tired of it.

I started disengaging from anime around the middle of the season before this one, so there's a lot in my theoretical backlog if I ever decide to go back. I started noticing anime trends going in directions I'm not that big of a fan of. Villainess anime started becoming the 'next thing' and I really don't like that sort of thing. And faggot anime, yaoi, and even yuri anime started becoming a lot more common as well. I've enjoyed a few yuri anime here and there because I'm a guy who likes hot chicks, but they've been really pushing that stuff into a place of primacy over the past few seasons and it's irritating. Anime goes in cycles of what's popular or marketed heavily, and the stuff they're starting to push isn't stuff I like really.

I also agree with OP that Angel Next Door was a nice change of pace from the usual romcom fare. I vastly prefer romcoms where the couple actually is couple over the constant will they won't they shit.

I feel like I'm just growing out of anime in some ways. Anime, and a lot of Japanese cultural stuff, is heavily reliant on static tropes and rigid archetypes. Yes, all media is to some degree, but Japan does it on a whole different level. They're the ones who come up with specific names for types of characters based on their personality and assign them standardized hair colors to denote what sort of character this is. A vast amount of anime is assembly line content built from prefab characters and plots.

This comes from the fact that most of it is based on LNs and manga from authors who are always looking for the next series to become a long term running serial so they have an indefinite paycheck. There isn't as much of a culture of 'Here's the story I want to tell, here's the beginning, middle, and end. I told it and now it's over' over there like there can be here. It's why you end up with manga series that lasts decades or light novels with 23 volumes that haven't actually moved anything forward since volume 4.

And I personally have started to find a lot of it boring and repetitive. Like I've had just about my life's fill of it and I don't think I need anymore. Every so often you get one or two shows a season that are trying something new, but even they still end up mostly just trying to do something new with the same tropes. A lot of anime is just the Mexican food of animated entertainment. Same ingredients combined in different ways, and at some point you've tried them all.

I think I've seen enough combinations of the same things were I can predict just about everything that is going to happen in an anime just from the first episode and seeing what archetypes are in the show. Like I watched Smoking Behind the Supermarket last week just to check it out, and while it was fine, a little better than fine, and I know a few years ago I would have really loved it, I could tell exactly what it was from the first 5 minutes. As soon as the first episode was done, I immediately though 'ah, this will be one where they constantly dance around the relationship and think of ways to delay them confronting their feelings and moving the central relationship forward so the author can get as many issues out of the gimmick for as many years as possible'. Then I looked up where the source material is and yep, that's exactly what it is. I don't like being able to call the entire plotline of an anime from the first episode based off seeing the same things done in slightly different ways so many times.

And I know it's easy to say 'just try things you weren't into before'. Except I didn't try them before because I already didn't like it. I don't go for brutal edgelord anime for instance. It just doesn't appeal to me. And getting tired of stuff I used to enjoy does not magically create enjoyment out of other things I used to not like. I still don't like the stuff I used to not like too. I think I'm just moving past anime as a medium at this point, at least for a long while until there are some real changes or if it's been long enough that I forget why I got tired of it.

I started disengaging from anime around the middle of the season before this one, so there's a lot in my theoretical backlog if I ever decide to go back. I started noticing anime trends going in directions I'm not that big of a fan of. Villainess anime started becoming the 'next thing' and I really don't like that sort of thing. And faggot anime, yaoi, and even yuri anime started becoming a lot more common as well. I've enjoyed a few yuri anime here and there because I'm a guy who likes hot chicks, but they've been really pushing that stuff into a place of primacy over the past few seasons and it's irritating. Anime goes in cycles of what's popular or marketed heavily, and the stuff they're starting to push isn't stuff I like really.

I also agree with OP that Angel Next Door was a nice change of pace from the usual romcom fare. I vastly prefer romcoms where the couple actually is couple over the constant will they won't they shit.

I feel like I'm just growing out of anime in some ways. Anime, and a lot of Japanese cultural stuff, is heavily reliant on static tropes and rigid archetypes. Yes, all media is to some degree, but Japan does it on a whole different level. They're the ones who come up with specific names for types of characters based on their personality and assign them standardized hair colors to denote what sort of character this is. A vast amount of anime is assembly line content built from prefab characters and plots.

This comes from the fact that most of it is based on LNs and manga from authors who are always looking for the next series to become a long term running serial so they have an indefinite paycheck. There isn't as much of a culture of 'Here's the story I want to tell, here's the beginning, middle, and end. I told it and now it's over' over there like there can be here. It's why you end up with manga series that lasts decades or light novels with 23 volumes that haven't actually moved anything forward since volume 4.

And I personally have started to find a lot of it boring and repetitive. Like I've had just about my life's fill of it and I don't think I need anymore. Every so often you get one or two shows a season that are trying something new, but even they still end up mostly just trying to do something new with the same tropes. A lot of anime is just the Mexican food of animated entertainment. Same ingredients combined in different ways, and at some point you've tried them all.

And I know it's easy to say 'just try things you weren't into before'. Except I didn't try them before because I already didn't like it. I don't go for brutal edgelord anime for instance. It just doesn't appeal to me. And getting tired of stuff I used to enjoy does not magically create enjoyment out of other things I used to not like. I still don't like the stuff I used to not like too. I think I'm just moving past anime as a medium at this point, at least for a long while until there are some real changes or if it's been long enough that I forget why I got tired of it.