...It seems you like you can't have an anime about young romance without everyone being super demon witch kawaii catgirls or something. I know there's robust counterexamples but it still covers a lot of anime and manga that is 'visible' in the public consciousness, doubly so to someone not already in the genre.
this is really, completely untrue, i can list dozens of anime with realistic romance and no magic or action, and it's not even my main genre, it's called the "Shoujo" genre. Again, those "super demon witch kawaii catgirls" are a staple of SHONEN anime. Shonen means "little boy" e.g. kids shows.
Try "kimi ni todoke" which is Japan's top selling romance manga, or "toradora".
Fixed that for you, please read my full posts (or at least the paragraph) before replying (not that I've never made the same mistake before). I was giving it as an example that angsty super powers are tacked on where they seriously don't need to be, and there are indeed series like I described. It's not the shoujo that I have an
issue with. That said I don't really read/watch it, because romance stories aren't really my thing. But I certainly don't complain about them. I even mentioned, it's the shonen elements that really bother me.
One Piece entertains me in much the same way(and yes I know one piece has a lot of bad things about it too, but for me the good still outweighs the bad).
I can't really
quite watch One Piece without being bothered by the anime silliness. Who knows, maybe one day I will- I can see some of what's appealing in there. But I still can't manage to sit down and really watch it.
5) Characters making dumb or out of character decisions just to increase the drama of a show.
I'll say, I rather feel like this isn't an anime thing at all. There's a good amount of low-budget, or even high-budget, poorly written anime. But it definitely doesn't get me thinking, "Man, I can't stand this anime crap!" I don't think it's more prevalent in anime than anywhere else.
6) Pointless filler (One piece has a lot of this, and a lot of the newer anime's seem to have this as well)
This is true, it seems to be a problem anime series are prone to above other genres. Especially things like Dragonball, where fights go on and on with no resolution or development (but lots of POWER LEVELS WAARGH!!!!11!)
4) Not being filled to the brim with fan service
Aw man, this very much. Anime is way to full of absurd fan service., in my opinion. It also seems to be an odd staple whether or not it makes sense; there's some series where that sort of thing isn't nearly as intrusive (ba-dum tish) because it doesn't clash with the mood. It's also very present with video games too, incidentally, and while it doesn't usually put me off of something it'll ruin the mood. In both videogames, and anime, you seem to get an effect of "Look at this: guns, missiles, airplanes, lasers, cars, swords, muscles, blood, badassery, good and evil, and TITTIES!" It kind of ruins immersion to a point, actually. On an even more tangential note this is especially true where armor is concerned. But it's just the norm, which sucks.
A conversation I had once:
Me: Hey, you should try this game.
A friend: What's it about?
Me: It's kind of a medieval combat game. Swordfights and cavalry and the like. It's pretty realistic.
A friend: How realistic?
Me: (Shows the cover) Look at how much cleavage you're not seeing.
A friend: Oh shit, that must be hard core.