The age of cheap anime is over

In watching the new anime coming out this summer, I realized that every series has a high animation budget. (Well, except for Tono no Issho.) Of course, "high" is a relative term, but there's no doubt today's shows have a higher sheet count than the standard established for the past decade or so. Every summer 2010 show--at least when comparing first episodes--has a higher sheet count than, say, Aoi Hana, Genshiken, or ef.

So, big companies must be willing to put money into anime again. I wonder if this is due to the runaway success of Kyoto Animation's oeuvre, from dating sim adaptations like Air and Clannad to otaku-oriented shows like Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star. Certainly, mass fan visits to major Lucky Star sites have made the news; perhaps that turned a few heads in the financial backing world.

Now, these same shows could be burning their entire animation budget on the first episode. But high-budgeted initial episodes has been a trend for many years, and even there, this season's first episodes are better animated than previous seasons'.

It's a very, very good thing.