From what I’ve heard, the Western anime market blew up around 2007/2008, yet the industry still managed to pull out stuff like Kaiba, Casshern SINS, Kure-nai and Eden of the East in the time since. I admit that the reduced amount of money within the anime market may prevent the next Gankutsuou from being made, but I think the combination of the Japanese market and the severely weakened foreign market will still be able to bring out great titles.

@AC

Unlike OVAs and movies, I very rarely rewatch television shows since it takes a significant amount of time to do so. This is part of why shows with heavy hitting ideas and themes tend to float up on the list. Take Gungrave for instance. I haven’t rewatched this series since 2005, but I still have vivid recollections of some of the exchanges between Brandon and Harry.

When I look at your TV series list, I don’t know if it’s true or not, I feel that it’s very objective. Perhaps the issue of listing your favourites according to subjectivity versus objectivity isn’t a significant issue to you, but I’m just saying this.

When viewers see something they like, naturally they want more of it (in fact, according to Akira that’s what feeding the anime industry with the moe revolution albeit he feels that it’s changing). I know I do, and maybe that’s why I tend to feel more disappointed than surprised. I’m glad I’ve yet to experience any serious burn-outs.

But there’s also the industry reacting to the worldwide boom in popularity, and on the tails of the ground breaking titles in the late 90s (Eva, Utena, Bebop), experimentation and globalization became the theme of the early 00s. I loved it, of course, but what are we going to see when the global economy is down, foreign markets are shrinking, and anime curls up in its shell again? Food for thought.

Thanks!

@Sorrow-kun

My statement was targeted towards those who have a heavy anime bias in their media consumption as I was a while back. I must admit that access also plays a part in this since it’s easier to pirate anime than any other media except perhaps books due to high interest among people who are willing to upload content and low (no) legal enforcement. There is also the fact that there is an active community discussing anime – from old to new – because the medium is still fairly new on this side of the pond. There may be collective interest in classic movies, books, etc. but this interest is not concentrated enough (or the individuals not interested enough) to form a self-reinforcing community that constantly promotes its great works and also entertains/addicts the viewer enough to return (Note: I’m not saying that these communities do not exist).

In my case, my transition from high school to college gave me an opportunity to beef up my physical collection of live action movies now that I’ve pretty much already tapped the outer limits of anime.

I think you’re onto something with the conclusion. Expectations play a big part in the anime experience (I think I’ve talked about that previously), and I kinda think that the key to not getting burn out is to continually keep those expectations to a minimum, so you’re surprised more often than you’re disappointed. But I don’t completely agree with all the implications of your conclusion, since there’s no such thing as a bad time to look into the classics and/or important titles in other media. I think it’s just sensible to regularly dabble in other media. In fact, watching nothing but anime all the time is probably an even quicker way to get burn out (unless you’re a freak).