Not only does that show a lack of understanding of how the industry works, it doesn’t pan out when looking at statistics. Half of the anime with the highest average sales can be considered “cute girl anime” on one level or another. The same is true when looking at anime with the highest total sales, and when looking at anime with the highest first release gross.

The fact is there’s nothing about moe in particular that produces any higher or lower frequency of mediocre, forgettable shows than any other trend in anime. There were plenty of also-ran super robot anime in the ‘70s, plenty of also-ran real robot anime in the ‘80s, and there are plenty of also-ran cute girl anime throughout the 2000s and 2010s.

It all comes down to taste.

No Accounting For Taste

Some people don’t like moe, and that’s fine. Where it starts to become a problem is when people see fit to lie to people with remarks like how moe is “killing anime.” It’s propaganda, meant to cast anime they don’t like not only in a bad light, but as an antagonist to the industry itself.

People complain about a lack of variety, but don’t take it upon themselves to support the anime they like, because they find negativity easier to articulate than positivity.

This is where the “moe is killing the industry” argument fails: If there wasn’t a pattern of consumer response involving moe, there would be no incentive at all to continue making it at scale. There are a lot of people involved with the anime industry whose entire careers revolve around knowing what people will respond to.

If moe correlated to a negative effect on the industry, they would find what consumers do respond to and shift toward that.