The main reason why anime are so split on quality in the last couple of years is because of Netflix

**edit: Reformulated the post for clarity**<br><br>The main reasons as to why many anime are so split in quality, story-wise and visually, is because of the anime market shift towards North America and streaming in general. Many studios now cater specifically for the international audience. Netflix is not the sole responsible for this, however, it's the most egregious example. Netflix has a hand in plenty of anime projects and it also has very questionable decisions regarding the artists and studios it chooses to work with, as well as questionable decisions regarding the shows it decides to produce. <br><br><br>The result is that many shows have split writing where it caters to two audiences, a crowd pleasing international audience and the niche Otaku market in Japan that those shows are supposed to cater for originally. The international market seems to be concerned mostly with shallow surface level details like the art style, the same archetypes and character designs, as well as generic video game-like stories and plot. The Japanese audience usually has more specific requests and are usually after more unique and authentic storytelling.<br><br>**To illustrate my example I have three different examples.**<br><br>1. As the devil is part-timing in the human world he isn't as powerful as he is in hell. This is a show where the writing is heavily catered to international audience. The show has a generic video game like story, the writing is very obvious, almost as if it's talking down to you, and the characters are all about shallow archetypes. It's an example of an anime that's completely catered to an international audience. The show is produced my 3Hz, a studio that's mostly short staffed. Netflix repeatedly chooses to work with it and pump it with money for their projects. Netflix must have a hand in this show's production.<br><br>2. Re:.zero. This is a show where the writing is heavily catered to a niche Otaku audience, more specifically YKOMG. The show deals with niche topics like mental health, PTSD and suicide. This is a show with a very split audience as people usually either love it or hate it. It has a lot of depth to the story and characters, it's also very well received in Japan and deemed a very unique and a rare take on time loops.<br><br>3. Nier Automata ver. Animé. This is a show where the writing is catered for both audiences above, a crowd pleasing international audience as well as the YKOMG niche. This is an example of a show that has a split quality in writing as well as split reception from audiences. The show is a video game adaption. The game deals with niche philosophical topics like gnosticism, the nature of humanity and consciousness, as well as themes like existentialism, nihilism, dualism, as well as dealing with heavy topics like mental health, depression, and suicide. The adaption itself was very lacking and heavily simplifies and omits a lot of the themes and writing from the game. It seems to cater to a more general audience. The anime is also very lacking in the visual department. Despite the fact that it was co-produced by Netflix, Aniplex, Square Enix, as well as Bandai Namco Entertainment, it was produced in a short staffed studio, OLM, and it had a very low budget.