Sledgstone

I used to download everything I watched. Mostly because everything I liked was either butchered by 4kids into edited disasters or a company would buy the license and then never dub it or finally release it 2 years after it came out. Things have changed alot over the years and I haven't torrented an anime in an extremely long time.

(begins random anime rant)

I've gotten lazy about watching long term anime too. I love One Piece, Fairy Tail, Naruto and some others, but I just read the mangas now to avoid filler and watching things I already know the outcome too. Even then I dropped Naruto in the final arc of the entire series. I read the hell out of the manga and watched almost every ep for a decade.. and then that last fight literally dragged on for over 6 months and I lost all interest. And I don't mean the actual big ninja war.. I mean the literal last fight against 1 guy. x_x And speaking of series I dropped, Bleach was amazing back in the day. I still recommend the first 3-5 seasons to everyone. The entire Aizen arc was amazing. Then all the heuco mundo stuff got so boring and eventually the anime was canceled even tho the manga is still going on (i think its finally ending this year or maybe already has).

I think another issue with anime is the manga alot of them are based off of. Some of the better anime for me is based off of mangas that were very long stretched out series. While I don't mind a good long series, some of these are just too damn big. Bleach would have been way better if it just ended after the Aizen arc, Naruto got dragged on so long now he son has his own series. One Piece will still have new chapters for 10 more years and Ippo has become one of the longest mangas ever. How many boxing matches will Ippo be in before enough is enough? In the USA we have 1 series thats crazy long. The Simpsons. And even the simpsons should have ended years ago. I mention these specific series because they were great back in the day. And not many anime have even come close to them over the years imo. The original Naruto and Naruto Shippuden animes are amazing too. One Piece is amazing. I'd love to see new anime series inspired by these epics, but more condensed down to 3-4 season runs. I could compare the first season of Naruto to any other anime I've seen over the past 10 years, and Naruto would beat it hands down to me. And thats an anime focused on children ninjas. I hate children in anime, and that first season is still 20 times better than any other first season anime I've seen in a long time. Hell, I might just rewatch Naruto now that I'm thinking about it. It looked like the first 3 seasons are on netflix now.

The manga problem also stems from it getting too popular to where they can't wait to make an anime and sell DVDs. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is probably the best justice to ever come to a series. The second half of the original is a freaking mess. I rather them go the AoT route and just take a year or more off before making more rather than just making shit up or endless fillers. I'm starting to worry about TWD running into this problem as a normal TV series. X_x

Fairy Tail is the only long term anime I've kept up with. I'll get back into One Piece eventually. I loved Naruto when it was on Toonami, but when I started my management career I lost track of it and had no way to watch anymore of it. Right now I just burn through 12-24ep series. Its honestly my favorite type of anime. There is a whole story from start to finish (Except Legend of Legendary Heroes -_-;) that I can enjoy in 2-3 days. Its generally how I wind down from work late at night. I'll watch 4-5 episodes before I go to bed. I guess that's why Funi is worth it for me.

I hear ya. Its relaxing to actually watch an entire series in a couple afternoons than have to dedicate 10 years to watching 1 title.