I followed a link through North Cave, and found this: Stripey discusses the question with his readers: Has animé stagnated?
Well, my feelings are understandably a bit strong on that matter tonight, given that I’ve just finished watching Misaki Chronicles, and am looking forward to the expected licensing announcement for Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimaya:
HELL NO!
I need say no more.
Indeed. 2006 has been a great year for anime; aside from Haruhi, I’m also digging Higurashi no naku koro ni, Death Note, Kanon, and Hataraki Man–that’s five different series for which I’ve religiously followed fansubs. Rescue Wings was an under-acknowledged gem during the winter season, and Simoun combined a great soundtrack with great characters and plot (though I don’t really care for the mecha designs). In just the past few years we’ve seen the rise of a new animation powerhouse–Kyoto Animation–and a tremendous increase in the number of new series produced, to the point where the number of anime presently airing on Japanese TV is in triple figures. Yes, Evangelion is great, but I doubt it’s very representative of the quality of other Fall 1995 shows.
I guess if for whatever reason you don’t care for Haruhi, it might seem like the quality of shows is going down–“Wait, so this is supposed to be the best anime in recent years? It sucks!”–but the plural of anecdote is not data. Me, I’m watching and enjoying more new series than at any point since I got into anime in mid-2004.