Now, I'm not a huge anime fan-goer. I love anime, but I just don't have the money to buy every new series that comes out, so don't expect this to be "professional" information. It's just my opinion.

It just seems anime is getting a bit more... redundant. I see less orginal and/or well done plotlines and more ecchi and drawn out episodes to fill a more empty series. Not to say that there aren't some GREAT stories out there... just many of them seem to be recycled. Lets not forget how long the Dragon Ball series was dragged on for, live action Sailormoon AFTER a 200 episode anime series, the re-released Evangelian series, FFVII Advent Children rather lacking plotline and recycled villians (no offense to you FF fans out there), and also no offense to you Naruto fans but it takes FOREVER for anything to get done in that series. I just wonder if maybe people are starting to run out of ideas in the creative world? At least it seems tha way in the mainstream. Generally speaking, plotlines are just getting more redundant it seems. There really hasn't been any anime that's awed me and captured my heart for a while. Maybe it's just me. What do you guys think?

(Note: no fans were meant to be offended by this post. Please be nice ^^'')

There are some animes that base only on ecchi, but definitly not most of them, i agree that people maybe are runing out of ides and thus making ecchi-animes that are almost hentai. Anime with less ecchi and more story is better then more ecchi and less story, but it very well might be the case, thou i must say that, i havn't seen many the newest animes but Girls Bravo second season, was 51% ecchi and 49 % story, almost the same goes for yumeria and DearS, but Shakugan no Shana that i have been watching is compleatly (well, almost) ecchi free, i've seen comments like: "Wow did you see that pantyshot", maybe thers a high need for more and more ecchi.

Ecchi is good, but like with everything else you must implement it tastefully. Sadly, I can't understand how some people who have absolutely no design-taste at all have got a job in a industry where it is crucial for success... Clichés, fillers, and the recycling of 'same-old' is a problem in all industries, done when the authors have no idea of what to do next. Is anime becoming more standard and predictable? Dunno, haven't followed it that long yet, but what I have seen during the last three years tells me that large part of it is just that: predictable and uninteresting.

I'm sure the massed disagree, though... After all, masses like to be duped and just shut off their brains.

Most of the Ecchi full animes are the same : one guy + hundreds of girls- ALL ARE IN LOVE. sorry, but i don't remember any anime that are opposite to that example. Chopbits is Ecchi, but you can hardly see it compared to RE: cutie honey

I think most of the people who create/write these anime/mangas.. is tapping into the whole "sex-sells" prospect. I don't really mind it too much.. if they have a semi-decent story attached to it.. and it doesn't turn into hentai. [i don't mind hentai.. it's just.. i want to watch stories sometimes.]
I know/have seen a lot of animes lacking decent plot.. or the plot is just too stupid for me.
[I think Naruto is dumb. My opinion, no offense.]
I admire the storyline in FMA.. it's.. different from what I've seen.. and they don't really play on a typical "relationship" plot or side-plot. I think they just made that the relationship between the two brothers the "relationship" thing. [hope I didn't confuse anyone.]

I'll stop now. I'm not making any sense to myself right now. And I have to leave work now.

Depends, I myself prefer ecchi and harem anime anyway, I would not find it redundant, some of them are rather meaningful and fun to watch, plus, really if I am looking for serious material, I prefer reading up novels and stuff.
If however, all else fails, I always turn to drama, and truly drama anime like Air and Shuffle actually have a whole lot deeper attractiveness to it.

Eh? Well I watch a lot of anime, A lot of anime. Ecchi makes the anime funny, sometimes. But any sport anime is a bond between a team, and they're sport. Or Action and Adventure series, One Piece, Naruto or Bleach, they're plot lines are good and still going strong. I don't know what your watching, true, Sex Appeal catches my eye, but It doesn't determine if I'm going to like the series or not.

I'm definitely agreeing with this one. I guess more animes are aiming towards the teenagers because they make up a lot of the population in the world, including Japan. For example, Shuffle! was a pretty "perverted" show in the first place, even though the plot line is FAR from anything perverted. Then again, it was made from a hentai game so this fact can be argued. In any case, I think that sex appeal is a great strategy for makers/directors/creators of anime. Fanservice just wouldn't be the same without that sex appeal.

I'm not saying that i'm against ecchi, but it seems that some animes, new, remade and so on, are more out for the ecchi part, than story. Too much of it might spoil the anime.But fortunately they are still making good-polt-animes.

Shuffle used to be hentai game. Lol.

Ecchi sells, which would explain some of the shows out there. but there are still some top class anime shows that make by without fanservice

There are alot of shows in this new season tat are based on H games and thus will more than likely end up with their fair share of echiiness... but I don't think that it has gotten any worse really. Perhaps your taste is growing up, and your only now starting to notice the lack of plot and such.

As to the more drawn out episodes and redundancy... the shows you cited as redundant or drawn out are just about the only shows I know that take it to that extreme. DB sucks balls due to this drawing out of episodes to make more money. If the whole thing had been done in about 50 or so eps (DB, DBZ, and GT) then it would most likely have been a watchable show... Naruto seems to be following that same trend. They do both have entertaining plotlines, and good if not great animation, they just go on for entirely too long.

It seems to me that you don't have alot of anime experience and may be basing what you believe only on what is in the mainstream. What is in the main stream? (at least with US viewers) Echii, shounen fighter shows, (the long shows thing is more atributable to marketing... more eps = more money from an american licence) tend to be what you hear about from the average fan on the street. They generally do not have the resources alot of us have that spend time on the net and consider Anime to be more of a hobby. So considering the hundreds of show out there, I don't really think that it is getting any worse than it has been all along.

You may be right, but i'm not saying that. DBZ beeing so long didn't couse me any trouble, it's the matter of taste. I'm not claiming that new animes are ecchi-no-plot-s, i really don't hav that much expierience to say it, but some animes are better of without ecchi, and - it does not always ruin the anijme, but there are some cases

taste !!

Umm...If you all can't find anime that is based on storyline and character development then your not looking very hard. First off, theres plenty of original things in anime, the problem is that anime itself has become normal to so many people that the originalness has worn thin. Second, if you think that theres nothing noteworthy being produced right now, theres decades of anime I bet you've never seen. Go and watch some of the more esoteric and less known anime; Jin-Roh, Banner of Stars, Betterman, Venus Wars, things like that...

MythDrannor

Umm...If you all can't find anime that is based on storyline and character development then your not looking very hard. First off, theres plenty of original things in anime, the problem is that anime itself has become normal to so many people that the originalness has worn thin. Second, if you think that theres nothing noteworthy being produced right now, theres decades of anime I bet you've never seen. Go and watch some of the more esoteric and less known anime; Jin-Roh, Banner of Stars, Betterman, Venus Wars, things like that...

i have some of them in que...