Ditto.
Yeah the animation's improved a fuckton compared to 1980s/1990s shows/movies, but they don't seem to have the same heart or effort in them storywise. Hell I'm tempted to say that even the shit made back then is better than the shit made nowadays.
I'm more inclined to agree with Miyazaki's assessment that anime today is being created by people who don't like looking at other people. More like, they're creating/recreating characters they like. It's anime by otaku, for otaku.
VOTOMS has an arc based on 'Nam, BTW.
I once started an argument between two guys on an anime forum. See, I voiced my complaint that I don't like modern anime because of the increasing amount of fanservice and how it's pandering to the otaku demographic. Guy "A" jumps in and starts bitching about how he hates people with this attitude, saying the fanservice has always been there along with anime for otaku. Guy "B" counters with how we shouldn't have to dig through a mountain of anime to find any gems. These two guys go at it while I sit back and watch the drama I unknowingly created as these two go at it.
I just wonder how many American otaku realize what the situation is like in Japan. For the uninformed, here are two ways you can classify anime in Japan.
First, there's the stuff for the general crowd that airs at reasonable hours. Usually this stuff is trying to sell merch or tied to an already existing manga. Stuff like Gundam and PreCure. Then you have the stuff that airs late night, like 11p.m. to the early morning when children can't be exposed to it. That stuff relies more on DVD and figure sales to make a profit. This includes anime like Sword Arts Online and more for the otaku crowd.
In Japan, the latter is being over-saturated. Companies produce so much of it it's having a negative effect on the business. Animation is being moved to Korea or done by people making roughly about the same as the average McDonalds worker in America. The Japanese government has even went as far as condemning the overabundance of otaku anime.
