I feel bad to bring up Frieren again (it was a discussion from last year, after all), but I feel like it/my feelings towards up sum up current otaku culture well. It's not a bad show, Frieren is cute and relatable, the cast is generally likeable, the animation is spectacular, the OST had some cool tracks here and there... But as an affront to all of this, it's so empty. It's watchable, though I did drop it myself kek, but that to me is not good enough. The show starts heavy with it's philosophy and attitudes towards friendships, love, life itself and what it means to both live and die. And what does it turn into? A hollow shonen-slop shell of what it could've been. There's nothing wrong with mindless action, especially when that action is accompanied by some glorious animation. But sacrificing what could've been AOTY, at the very least in terms of themes, for it? Sacrilege, bordering on evil. Things weren't always like this. Things don't have to be like this. But because so many anime watchers are either normies or accept whatever companies throw at them, things are and will continue to be like this
>TLDR; Anime nowadays isn't hell-spawn tier Netflix garbage, but it's empty, lifeless. This is bad and I don't personally like it desu