CATDOLL: Japan's late-night animation has grown too fast, and netizens complain that there is only quantity but no quality

I wonder if you have a feeling that the number of new animations released each season is increasing, and many of them are broadcast in the late night. The recently released Japanese anime market report in 2015 also mentioned the rapid growth of late night animations. However, in a recent survey conducted on a Japanese website, most netizens believe that too many late night animations are not a good phenomenon.

When asked, "Do you think the number of late-night animations has increased too much?", 61% of people answered "too much", and 25.7% answered "somewhat too much". In addition, 10.3% answered "okay", and only 2.5% answered "not much" or "not too much". From these results, we can see that more than 60% of people think that there are too many, and if "somewhat too much" is included, it accounts for about 90%. In this survey, many people also expressed their views on "what problems the increase in the number of late-night animations will cause". These views can be divided into several major points based on the content. Judging from everyone's answers, most people are worried about the quality of animation.

Viewpoint 1: Too much quantity will lead to a decline in quality

“It feels shoddy. I hope the animation will be carefully selected and produced.”

"There is no good balance between quantity and quality. I would rather see high-quality animation than mass-produced animation with declining quality. If this continues, the number of animations that do not feel love will continue to increase, leading to a vicious cycle of not being able to sell. This is disturbing."

"In recent years, it feels like the industry has placed more emphasis on quantity than quality. And the production side has further reduced the quality of animation by offering low pay and heavy labor."

"Because of the increase in the number of episodes, the number of episodes has decreased, and many works have ended halfway through the story, which feels too abrupt. There are more and more animations that make people completely lose their passion to watch."

“Price competition and shortened construction periods have become the norm, which is causing fatigue in the industry and a decline in the quality of work. I am really worried about this. I hope that people will not only treat this as a job, but also produce excellent works.”

Point 2: There are too many animations to watch

"Some people have said that more than 50 new series per season is too many. And now the number has reached a point where even if you are interested in the works, you don't have time to watch them in a season."

"With this amount, it's impossible to watch all of them, so I gave up on some good works because I didn't have time. Or I could only watch 1 or 2 episodes and then give up. This feeling is very difficult."

“Some works may only be interesting in the second half, but because there are so many of them, many of them can only be watched for one episode before giving up.”

"There are so many that it's hard to know where to start. Although it's fun to choose animation, there are too many of them. In contrast, I think there are not many high-quality and interesting animations."

"After all, they are just one season at a time, so it's hard to leave a deep impression on people. And it's no longer possible to record all the animations and watch them slowly."

Point 3: Similar content in animation increases

"There are too many light novels, and the content is similar. As a result, after being adapted into animations, people feel that the content of the animations is the same. I hope to see some new ideas."

"As long as a light novel sells well, it will be adapted into an animation. And some similar animations sell well, so everyone follows suit. In the end, there are too many similar works, and people feel a little tired of them."

“Is it because a lot of similar works have been adapted into animations? They would rather sacrifice quality to please the users, and as a result, they can’t sell them.”

"I've had enough of the bishoujo zoo..."

Of course, there are also positive opinions about the increase in animations, such as: "I think the increase in quantity is good. After all, depending on the region, many works cannot be seen by people everywhere. If the base is large, at least everyone has more choices.", "In fact, the prime-time animations are also increasing now. I don't think there are too many, it's better to say that there were more around 2010.", "More and more animations show that everyone is working hard." It seems that some netizens still think that more animation works will give more choices.

Among the opinions that too many late-night animations are not good, everyone is mainly worried that the increase in number will lead to a decline in the quality of animations. Secondly, too many animations will make people have no time to watch them, resulting in various situations of abandoning one episode. In addition, the similarity of animation content is also the focus of everyone's complaints, which is particularly prominent in the new episodes in October this year. For an animation work, quality is really the key to the vitality of animation. Too many shoddy works will not only cause the loss of audiences, but also bring immeasurable losses to the animation industry. Therefore, it is time for the Japanese animation industry to calm down and consider the future.