Well, Jin-Roh isn’t even based on Okiura’s own story. Plus, considering he hasn’t had many director gigs, you can’t really judge his entire body of work just yet. As for Ghibli rips, Momo is still more enjoyable than anything from Shinkai or Miyazaki’s bratty son.

It seems to me we’re seeing fewer of those across the industry…? Momo e no Tegami is cute and stunningly well-animated, but it’s very obviously a mainstream-oriented Ghibli rip, as opposed to the director’s previous Jin-Roh which is more emblematic of I.G.’s heydays.

Madhouse still produces (successful & mainstream-friendly) Mamoru Hosoda films of course, and the studio had an alt. anime renaissance with three Masaaki Yuasa TV series, Casshern Sins, Dennou Coil, Shigurui etc., but Redline is probably the last “alternative” work we’ll see from them. They can’t even get funding to complete Satoshi Kon’s final film. How sad is that? Madhouse co-founder Masao Maruyama bailed on the studio last year and created MAPPA in order to create Kids on the Slope and finish Yume Miru Kikai if if funding can ever be secured for it.

Maruyama interview: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2012/otakon/11

He also speaks of how difficult it is for (Bebop/SamCham director) Shinichiro Watanabe projects to get green-lit these days.

Alt. anime stalwart Studio 4°C’s output has dropped off, relatively. Berserk is decent, but they’ve also been doing a lot of junk like Transformers Animated and ThunderCats, ostensibly for the money. It seems like they’re doing everything they can to not resort to bishoujo anime (like Manglobe has), but, you know, I don’t see the experimental shorts rolling off the line anymore. Their promising concepts for Kung Fu Love and Global Astroliner (aka UGAT) seemingly never found the funding they needed.