Problems with anime
There was a time I watched a lot of anime, but it was a long time ago (three to four years).
I have nothing against anime - japanese language is cool enough, big eyes are ok (inside reasonable limits) and I like the action and culture. So why don't I watch more?
1. Mary Sue and characters. The main character is created as perfect, special^10 and unique. The other characters are very one dimensional, with only one defining characteristic, often accompanied with one hobby (smart, likes chocolate or stuck-up and beautiful).
Often they haven't bothered to create even new characters, but the same characters appear again and again with new names from one serie to another. How many instances can you find for militaristic, beautiful woman with monocle? Or silent little girl with stuffed toy, who never the less is smarter than the adult cast-members? I don't even watch anime and I can recall (if not name) three.
2. The concept is often created first, and everything is filled in later. This sounds good in theory, but in practice it means that "scifi" means "technological" and "fantasy" is "magic". This would be good so far, but when "scifi" is defined "2000 years in the future", you should be able to give some sort of explanation how the world has come to this. Why is it that there are space ships and genetically enchanted soldiers, but cars still run with petrol and are simple enough to fix with hands (Gankutsuou, for example?). This shows that there is no over-compensating idea where the story sets place, but the backstory is created and changes according to its own needs. If you make a scifi-story, and announce it takes place in the future (eg. the technological level was once this), you have to explain how it has developed to THIS. You can't just go "oh, there are spaceships, but otherwise people use horses". Or say that "people have forgotten how to do this". Even then, there is an explanation, and it should not be half-willed "because" or something fast to get on with it.
3. In the beginning of any given story, the storyteller and story listener make a pact; storyteller tells that this is an imaginary story, for example, and during the course of story we shall meet fantasy-elements such as people changing shape. You DON'T make happy-happy story to have a grim-and-gritty ending without giving hints of the turn-to-darker earlier in the story (Fruits Basket). You also don't introduce powerful demon into scifi-story that in itself is a retelling of a book set in the modern times (Gankutsuou (aka. Count of Monte Cristo). And if you do, you should explain where demon comes from (not told).
In anime, you are just expected to accept that "in scifi you do technothings" without thinking too much bout it.
4. Most western stories have a three part structure; characters and world are introduced, second part about things going wrong (crisis) and third part where the problem is solved. This can be world-saving, character-building story (soulless hero learns the values of feelings) or even just a story where something is established (you can or can not change destiny).
Many anime's break this. They introduce the characters (see my complaints about world above). Big hidden evil is maybe established. And then happy-go-lucky till the last episode where the evil dies with little to no effort (Rune sword).
There might be even something to show how to story goes; for example, in Inuyasha the heroes are given shards to collect. When the shards are collected, the story ends or shifts its focus. Instead, the shards are reshattered again and again, with the goal going farther and farther. At least in Dragonball the scattering is not seen as failure.
These are not problems only shown in anime; for example, old american superhero comics show similar disregard to these points. The difference is that the audience was pre-teen boys who were not expected to read every issue of the storyline. In anime, every episode can be expected to be seen, and not every show is targeted to pre-teen boys, though, I admit that they do have their own segment.
So, what do I want?
I want the story set in a world that doesn't rise questions about internal logic. Trigun succeeded in this by explaining that it was not our world, and much was lost on the enterprise to get there.
I want the characters to have faults. That not every hero is superspecial Vampire that can walk in the sun (Bloody Trinity) or have ability others lack (Angel Arm in Trigun) or be powerful half-demons (Inuyasha, Vampire hunter D) or have demons caged inside your belly (Naruto).
I want the characters to be original. That they aren't just pure archetypes that have been established the past 20 years as working well enough. The protagonist is nearly always geekish boy/man/boyman with problems with women. The women can, with few expections, be categorized into five archetypes, with no new qualities.
And I want stories that look like they are the right length.
I have this theory that many of the problems arise from the fact that the executives who ok the projects don't want to take risks... and perceive any changes from the fear that change of the status quo would somehow limit the amount of people who will watch the show. Why change winning formula?
I'm not saying all the anime are bad. But this is what I always fear when I start to watch new show. Will this something new, or something old with new package?
I do like School Rumble. I would like to watch more anime that has similar joy of living in it, but that does not mean that I want to see the same characters.. Anime is, after all, so expensive to make that would think it would be used to make something new and exiting, not only old and tried.