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Anyone else notice the common love/death theme in anime?

I wouldn't say it's all that rampant. I don't think it happens very often when compared to everything that's come out. I would definitely say that I really don't like it, though. In rare cases it fits, most of the time it fails instead.

I don't really like random depression for depression's sake, I think there should be a logical reason for it put forth to kill off a character that serves the story other than shock value, otherwise it feels manufactured. Things like saving others at the cost of yourself, foiling world destruction or villainous plots, are acceptable or deaths that are plot turning points that advance the story or develop characters. What isn't acceptable to me, is all that "character X died because it was all just fate" or that "destiny" bulls***. I don't buy into that concept, it's just lazy storytelling. Basically, if I can't discern some kind of acceptable reason for the death it's going to impact negatively on the quality of the story in my opinion.

Character death has more impact and is fine in small meaningful doses rather than large numbers. I don't really like series that insist on killing off the entire cast or the whole human race before the show is over. That's going overboard, and isn't effective because you become numb to it and it makes a story predictable.