If you take a look at the OG anime in the 2000s, you will realize we have come a long way with the quality of anime being produced. I’m not just talking about the animation quality, but all the major aspects, including storytelling, soundtracks, voice acting, sound design, etc., have seen a significant improvement. Thanks to the ever-growing anime community, studios will continue to raise the roof. However, there are some major problems with modern anime releases that fans often overlook. So, today, let’s take a look at five major flaws that are holding back the anime industry.
5. Anime Industry’s Production Crunch Is Real
There is a never-ending problem that has been ongoing in the anime industry for a long time that many fans might have become aware of during Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2‘s release. Ever wondered why your favorite anime is delayed sometimes or why its animation quality gets butchered?
It’s often a result of animators being overworked and underpaid, which results in a major loss of quality in anime production. As mentioned above, a recent example of this case is the MAPPA Studios controversy regarding the production of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2. Various animators who have worked with them made a statement to the public about the aforementioned issue and even talked about how they could have delivered a better end product if not for the studios’ poor work culture.
I mean, you can notice the difference in animation quality in the Sukuna vs Mahoraga fight, which had half-baked animation when it aired and was finished for the Blu-ray release. Moreover, we’ve seen several animators exit studios with poor work culture to either start their own studios or join studios with better environments.
This problem also extends to the distribution side, where it results in future projects getting delayed due to poor planning and scheduling issues. A great example of this is the anime releases such as Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Attack on Titan’s final season, and more. We all know how excruciating it was to witness and hope the industry puts an end to this.
4. The Curse of Rushed Anime Adaptations
Be it manga fans or anime-only fans, rushed adaptations are a BIG NO! They are even worse than poorly animated episodes. I mean, the production studios understand our sentiments and exactly know what we want from the anime adaptations of our favorite manga yet continue to butcher the source material. If you wonder why this happens, it basically boils down to factors such as budget constraints, time limitations, or inexperienced staff.
Along with these factors, the production crunch also plays a pivotal role in this matter. So, all these problems converge into one bigger mess that results in the studios condensing the source material and rushing through the adaptation.
A lot of rushed adaptations of famous manga or manhwa butchered the experience and made fans extremely unhappy. Some key examples here would include The Promised Neverland, The God of High School, Noblesse, Tokyo Ghoul: re, etc.
3. We Need to Talk About Fan Service Fatigue
In general, fan service moments are essentially extra parts added to the content to amuse and satisfy the fans. However, in the anime industry, this general form of fan service doesn’t exist anymore as it has evolved into sexualizing the characters. While it was primarily done to engage the fanbase, it has since evolved into something different and has been widely adopted in modern anime. Many studios today go overboard with fan service and ultimately ruin the experience/ character these days.
In my recent post, I mentioned the things that WIT Studio needs to keep in mind while making the One Piece remake, and one of the points definitely is the gratuitous sexualization of the characters. The unnecessary fan service has started to get more hate than love from fans and needs to be toned down in the future.
I mean, we all get that it can’t be eradicated completely, and I don’t want them to go away either as some of the scenes do take place in the source material. But they often tend to be exaggerated which results in an unpleasant experience for the fans. Food Wards, Fire Force, One Piece, Darling In The Franxx, and many more anime are victims of these fan services.
2. Anime Originals Struggle to Find the Spark
There are many anime such as Code Geass, Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Samurai Champloo, and FLCL, among others that are not adaptations of manga or light novels. These anime originals captivated fans with their special experiences and, as a result, became some of the highest-rated anime in history.
While anime studios were able to achieve this stupendous feat back in the 2000s and 2010s, studios are struggling to deliver the same magic with anime originals being released today.
Don’t get me wrong, many anime originals that came out recently such as Sk8 the Infinity, Lycoris Recoil, Link Click, Buddy Daddies, and others were good. Nevertheless, they aren’t in the league of the originals that came out decades ago. Thus, we are yearning for renowned studios to experiment with genres and characters to deliver astounding anime originals that will be talked about for years to come.
1. Stuck in a Cycle of Rehashed Tropes
The biggest crisis that is haunting the anime industry right now is the recycled tropes, monotonous stories, and cliche main characters. The majority of the anime released these days tend to rehash the same old plotline and character arcs.
Of course, based on their target demography, the anime needs to have some popular tropes such as Shonen protagonists having training arcs, emphasizing friendship, etc. However, in my opinion, the stories and characters need a massive reboot, which can be done together with the respective tropes of their type.
At the end of the day, we want an exhilarating experience instead of the bland and repetitive anime with upscaled production quality, right? Modern anime such as Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, and Black Clover among others, suffer from this issue.
Furthermore, we also got refreshing modern anime such as Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho 100, Hell’s Paradise, etc. These shows brought a unique experience to the table, which is what we expect from more upcoming anime.
I hope the points I made are loud and clear as well as appeal reasonably to anime fans reading this. I believe all these issues can be eliminated over time with necessary measures taken in due time. That said, if you feel I’ve missed out on any major issues that the anime industry needs to address, share with me your opinions in the comments below.
