I can't comment on the state of anime culture at all, mostly because...well, I don't really care for anime so much as I do for manga.
None of the genres that are super popular on the anime market don't particularly appeal to me...and they all seem to cater towards the same kind of audience seeking the same thing from every show: the exact same premise, filled with the exact same persistent stereotypes masquerading as characters, endearing the same slice-of-life dilemmas or comedic misadventures, in the exact same tone, style, and setting. The problem is that this kind of show is all the anime industry seems interested in making nowadays. And that is by far the biggest reason I've long since stopped watching anime at all...because the anime industry only seems to be interested in pleasing one kind of audience. The multitudinous nature of 80's and 90's anime is gone...no more branching out to different genres, no more catering to multiple demographics and audiences. Nowadays, there's no room for other genres or types of anime to be made...if it doesn't have the potential to sell like crazy, it just won't be made.
It's gotten to the point where I'm almost entirely convinced that if shows like Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Ruroni Kenshin and Berserk had been conceived in this day and age, they would have never gotten anime adaptations.
Manga spans multiple genres, and there's no limit on the quality or scope of the manga other than the limits the creator's imagination limits upon it. But anime? Nowadays, there's only bishonen and bishojo popularizing the market, and the lack of variety that's making the current anime industry a bore for people like me.
That's why I prefer to read and dig up manga for genres that are so bizarre and estranging, that they'd never be made into an anime, much less get the same mass popularity and financial success as recent runaway sucesses like Attack on Titam or Kill La Kill---two shows that embody the concept of being "overhyped to absurdity." Some of the best manga ever made is actually in the seinen genre...and very few of them have received proper adaptations or have even been given half of the hype and marketing of the aforementioned shows.
Some manga have been dug out of obscurity, and have blessed their fans with splendorous adaptations like Hellsing Ultimate, Black Lagoon, or the recent Berserk: Golden Age Arc Trilogy, but their numbers are so painfully few---and even those were just lucky enough to be movies or OVAs than actual shows.
