Right now they're stuck in the whole "ten shows from the same budget, each run by their own 'committee' and each competing for cash that runs out well before the show's over, and the poor performance very quickly get less per episode". Great for networks, shit for shows. Even worse for animators who need to get paid a living wage.
In 2026 the only thing that has captivated me, so far, was the Chainsaw Man movie and Dorohedoro S2.
Kidding aside, did you pick those 2006 releases at the time they were being released or are you picking them up from a list after years of refinement and discovery? It's completely possible that 2026 will be as fruitful from a 2046 perspective.
Trigun sequel is coming out this year.
2026 titles have caught on that trend of a really long specific title though.
“The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life”
I think anime is a big enough category that every year there’s always at least a few good ones but it’s hard to get good signal to noise. But the whole tiny girl thing is 100% a trend that’s stuck around.
Aren’t there a few Trigun sequel series already out (Stampede (2023), Stargaze (2026)), or do you mean something different?
I mean, you are twenty years older, if you didn't watch those anime in 2006 and tried to watch them now, you probably wouldn't watch most of them. It's not really any different than the people that say "oh, the best music came out in my formative years".