The point being, is that so many series will be just plain forgettable and won’t stand the test of time. A staff can count itself fortunate if a show that it’s created achieves acclaim and popularity, even just for a year or so, before we move on to thinking about new series that have come along. Even a show which was widely talked about when it was aired can fall by the wayside, pretty quickly, the recent series Death Parade, being a perfect example.

Despite this, this model isn’t a bad one for any medium of entertainment. We should be always be looking for new series coming out which are fun to watch, and this gives studio’s a market where they can try their hand at producing a new, stand-out series every season or so.

For the last few seasons of anime, I’ve watched around 10 or so of the newly airing series each season, and always find something I’ve really enjoyed that I still remember. I’ve also watched a number of shows that were nothing really special at all, average or worse, and stuck with them for various reasons. But if there are even 3 series a season which I found to be very good, and more memorable than most, that would still amount to 12 show’s a year which really resonated with me, and those are odd’s that I’d take any day.

Overall, I really don’t see anime as having taken a decline in quality in recent years. While there are a great number of series being put out that are as bland as buttered toast, many of them are being noticed simply because they’re more widely available than before, thanks to streaming services.

Moreover, there are still a number of exceptional series being aired. Even this year, series like Shirobako and Hibike! Euphonium are total stand-outs in terms of quality, ones that I’ll remember and re-watch over the years. It’d be easy to point out that these series don’t compare with some of the all-time greats.

While it’s true that these show’s don’t match up to something like Ghost in the Shell, there isn’t much that does in the first-place and the people that swear off some newer series because they don’t match some standard of excellence that previous shows have, I think are people who cut their nose to spite their face, from an entertainment perspective. It’s like not seeing Mad Max because it’s not Citizen Kane.

While I wouldn’t say that quality has declined, it is no secret that the anime industry has changed significantly over the years. Specifically, there are two important things to note in terms of how anime has shifted as a medium.

The first, is the era where Japanese animation had an international reputation as groundbreaking, because it was really the only form of animation that had mature themes for mature audiences and not solely marketed towards children, is over now. The second, a host of market factors have made anime more difficult to produce and also, sell and make a profit out of.

It’s troubling to see so many studio’s barely treading water and Key Animators being paid meagre wages. But this has been an industry standard for longer than many have realized. A studio’s business model, methods of distribution, and the amount of money fans are willing to spend on content are all things that can be discussed at length when we talk about anime possibly being in decline or the industry going through changes.

However, while the anime market tries to pull itself out of it’s own stagnate period, I think it’s important to remember all the quality series that have come out of this admittedly tough market for the industry.

Be sure to comment below and let your thoughts be known on whether or not you think anime is in decline. Let’s get a conversation going. What anime that has aired since 2010 will stand the test of time and remembered in the top-tier of series? Is anime entering a decline, or do you see it declining in the future? If so, how do we save it? Let us know in the comments below and thank you for reading!