By now, most news-savvy anime fans are aware of anime writer Dai Sato's dissatisfaction with the direction in which the Japanese animation industry is headed (if not, read an article about his comments here). In it, he makes statements about the amount of outsourcing that goes on within most anime productions these days, how the Korean or Chinese in-between artists often have little knowledge of the content of the series they're working on, and about how the Japanese seem to be more interested in lighthearted, airy, insubstantial entertainment rather than the type of series which require one to pay attention and read between the lines.
I've had a couple of days to mull-over the things that he's said, and in the meantime I've read numerous reactions. Many responders accuse Sato of being pretentious and self-serving; why is it that the only types of shows he laments the lack of are those similar to ones for which he's written scripts? Others label him pretentious for daring to suggest that there's something wrong with pure escapism, noting that it makes sense that people living in an age that's struggling with a poor economy and various international terrorist threats would rather watch something that has nothing to do with politics, war, or other heavy, real-life concerns. Of course there are also quite a few people who agree on certain points, and any time they're presented an opportunity, there are many people who are prone to comment on a supposed lack of quality anime within the last couple of years, or how the current season is "The Worst EVER."
