We all love anime, but no industry is perfect. In this post, let’s explore some valid anime complaints, and see which areas J-List fans hate about the anime industry in 2025!
Happy New Year from your Friend in Japan, J-List! We hope 2026 is a year of happiness and peace for you. To get things off right, we’re having a huge site-wide New Year’s Sale through Jan. 6, giving you 15$ off all in-stock products. Start browsing now!
What’s Wrong With Anime Industry in 2025?
There are plenty of issues that fans might have with the modern anime industry. Some could include:
- The push and pull of budgets causes frustration for fans. Many feel that if proper funding for a beloved anime adaptation can’t be secured, anime production committees would be better off not bothering.
- There’s the usual frustration at having too many low-quality isekai offerings each season. The good news is we get more than 50 new anime each three-month season, not counting continuing shows. So there are almost certainly a few fresh anime to discover.
- Then there’s the drama of how much fan service is too much. Out of the 50 new series we got in the Spring 2025 season, only five seem to be primarily focused on sexual visuals.
- Overuse of CGI animation. I hate this and will usually not watch an anime that uses CGI when there’s no reason for it (unless it’s BEASTARS). How do you feel about this trend?
J-List Customers Respond! What Do They Hate About Anime Today?
Although fans love anime and are supportive of the amazing creators and animation studios who bring us the anime we love every season, nothing is ever perfect. I asked J-List’s X followers (as well as our Facebook page, before that platform’s anti-anime policies forced us to leave), and got some good replies. (Memes and images are added by me.)
What do I hate about the anime industry? The usage of CGI animation where it isn’t needed.
Fans avoid Bang Dream because it’s CGI. They would be shocked if they knew how peak the story of Girls Band Cry really is.
English dubs. English dubs. And English dubs.
Peter’s response: Being bilingual in Japanese as well as a huge fan of Japanese seiyuu, I’m sometimes called out on X for being unkind to English dubs. I’m certainly guilty as charged. Sorry to anyone who feels I’m too hard on dubbed anime! But I do understand how important dubbed episodes are for anime to reach its true potential popularity, and I try to balance my own biases as much as I can.
What happened to anime like Genshiken? Was that not good? Can we get more anime set in college?
What do I hate about the anime industry? Moe culture. I’ve had enough of it. I want late ’80s and ’90s bad-assery to come back.
More Reactions from J-List Customers on the State of Anime in 2025!
I hate anime with ‘misunderstands’ that never get cleared up. I’m at least glad a few anime nowadays like The Dangers in my Heart and DanDaDan have misunderstandings between characters, but they’re resolved soon after when the characters actually explain what’s going on with each other.
I might be being nitpicky and biased, but I hate it when a studio overestimates itself and ends up butchering the adaptation of a beloved series. The most recent example is The Beginning After the End.
Where to start? Horrible pacing with some, series that don’t get more seasons like NGNL, not following the source material, or rushing the hell out of it like Promised Neverland or Soul Eater. Then there’s the terrible animation from The Beginning After The End…
I get that a lot of shows are mainly developed for kids and adolescents, but it feels like so much of it leans heavily on repeatable tropes and bad fan service. Very few studios attempt to break the mold and try something new. I miss genre-breaking shows like Trigun, Berserk, Evangelion, and hell, even Tenchi Muyo. Also, silly slice of life shows like Lucky Star and Minami-ke. I miss wholesome romantic comedies like Chobits and Please Teacher that treated their audience like adults and exposed them to grown-up themes.
How Do Fans Feel About Ridiculously Long Anime Titles?
Make Anime Titles Short Again. Also, they could remove half the isekai released since Covid and no one would notice.
I hate it when we don’t get the season 2 we need.
Aside from shitty CGI, I hate power point presentations used as “animation,” bad OP and ED songs, and spoilers in OPs. Also, default protag-kun.
Thanks for reading this post about some areas fans hate about the anime industry in 2025. How do you feel about the industry today, and what do you think could be improved? Tell us in the comments below!
Let’s Chat
You made it to the end of this post! Thank you! As a token of our appreciation, enjoy an extra 5% off your next order when you use the code BLOG at checkout. Also, don’t forget to follow J-List on all our platforms!
- Twitter / X, where Peter posts anime booba for you
- Bluesky, where we post several times a day
- Facebook, where we used to share memes and discuss anime
- Discord, if you want to chat with other J-List customers of culture
Happy New Year from your Friend in Japan, J-List! We hope 2026 is a year of happiness and peace for you. To get things off right, we’re having a huge site-wide New Year’s Sale through Jan. 6, giving you 15$ off all in-stock products. Start browsing now!
