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INTEREST: Veteran Producer Masao Maruyama Warns of Anime's Creative Decline

I don't worry about anime's creative decline. Sure, there's a lot of generic, formulaic, uninspired dreck out there (hello, average isekai titles) but good stuff continues to be made. I can't remember who first said it, but the quote goes that 90% of everything is crap. Anime continues to produce 10% of stuff that is not crap (or an even higher percentage, ymmv), so like I say, I'm not worried.

Which Chinese animation is dominating the world, exactly?

The usual people who complain about modern anime and rant about things like isekai will no doubt agree with him out of their bitterness towards modern anime. But its no different than the people back in 2009 complaining about moe and saying K-On and Haruhi was the downfall of anime. And the nice thing is the industry will continue to march forward no matter what they think. Maybe it's time for them to accept anime isn't a hobby for them anymore.

A guy who wants to make an arthouse indie film being forced to work on Vinland Saga, Attack on Titan, and Jujutsu Kaisen might think China is more appealing as they're not in the habit of pumping out huge franchises and global hits.

I think quite a few people value being anime fans far more than actually being able to watch and enjoy anime. If you so choose so, being an anime fan can give you something to socialise over, drama to get worked up about, a sense of community and belonging, rivalries. For lots people the actual watching of anime is just watching television and most of the fun comes afterwards. So I don’t think telling someone to give up what may have been a very large part of their life for years just because they no longer like one part of the experience is going to work. (I do think it’s the sensible thing to do though)

Will all do respect to the man, this is just another case of Old Man Yells At Cloud. He even admits anime is successful and "crowd pleasing" to the masses, but since it's not the stuff he makes that's popular then the industry is clearly doomed. These statements never come from creators who continue to find success in the modern industry. It's unsurprising he's upset when even otaku works like the Girls und Panzer film outdid his last original anime film at the box office in Japan, let alone the mainstream ones like One Piece, Detective Conan, and Your Name from the same year. Anime is doing just fine.

I've never seen or heard anyone talk about Chinese animation. About the only area of Chinese pop culture I see become popular are some video games like Genshin Impact, Honkai, Azur Lane, and etc. In that regard, sure, China is certainly doing well with some mobile gacha games. And Honkai Star Rail is probably the best RPG I've played in a long time, but I don't see Chinese animation ever having the global appeal or popularity that Japanese animation does. Which Chinese animation is dominating the world, exactly?

Fear of loss of originality is always an issue. But Japan has one massive advantage over China - No Glorious Leader to directly account for censorship standards. The government will not force you to make things a certain way or to promote certain ideals (memes about the late Shinzo Abe aside) and that gives you flexibility that your opposition lacks.

Americans use to say same thing about Japanese cars, electronics, etc... It was not long ago wither.

There's also the fact that most young creators themselves are Otaku (as normies left years ago, the conditions aren't for them and they are better off everywhere else in Japanese media than in the anime, manga, LN & WN). This results in anime made for Otaku, sometimes whichever Otaku category they are a part of.

Yeah, I agree with this. It's why I get frustrated when people complain about all the copycat male harem isekai while ignoring the shoujosei, iyashikei and slice of life stuff (note I say "while," some people do acknowledge this stuff when they complain about the other, which is nice).

As someone who hasn't really enjoyed anime since 2015 and has only been observing the industry from afar for years without actually watching anything, I'd have to agree, and not just with the creativity aspect, but the overall quality of anime as well. I just wonder, what happened to all the awesome anime original series? Stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Gurren Lagann, Eureka 7, and Code Geass? These days everything seems to be an adaptation of a generic, poorly written LN or modern shonen battle manga (which has also plummeted in quality since the mid 2010s). I used to adore anime as a kid and teenager, now I just find myself rereading and rewatching all the stuff I loved when I was younger because I just can't stand modern anime and manga. Most new stuff I've had to either force my way through or drop entirely because it's just not doing it for me anymore. Maybe it's just time for me and others who feel the same to move on, but I can still feel bitter about the downfall of my favorite entertainment industries. If anyone is interested in anime alternatives, I highly recommend checking out Japanese RPGs. Many of them are incredible and the modern releases are just as great if not better than the classics.