> Or is there no “next thing” this time, like when sound came to film? I have an answer: "not for the time being" - and it's not even about the style itself.

> Or is there no “next thing” this time, like when sound came to film? I have an answer: "not for the time being" - and it's not even about the style itself. The reason is in the market that creates it: when it comes to anime series at least, they rarely start as such and they're not designed to make money by themselves. Usually the source material comes from printed media - be it a manga or a so-called light novel. Prospective stories are selected and then turned into a single 12-episode season (made at a loss). In the meantime a line of plastic figurines is released becoming the main source of revenue over time along with DVD releases and such because they fetch the highest margins. If the show is successful, more seasons are produced. Sometimes the source material is a video game. With the rise of mobile gaming some of the more successful titles include a mobile gacha game. Overall it's a massive factory of content with multiple selection steps along the way - much like a startup scene. Hard to beat such a process.