Yes, I do feel that Anno was a tad pretentious in certain sections of the letter, but I do agree with everything he says to some extent. There is really nothing “new” in anime anymore. There are too few series that really break any ground. Sure, there are a lot of good series, some even great, but none are pushing the medium to its limits. If anything, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu did that, but it just put a new spin on a bunch of cliches. It really did push the envelope though, I think.

Patrick Macias said he was quite impressed with Tekkon Kinkreet, but I don’t think it’ll do much for the Japanese animation industry as a whole. From what I’ve seen of it (that being trailers and some promo images) it’s not a movie that would resonate with the kinds of people who partake in animation, comics and games (in Japan.) And it’s usually (I assume, and I know there are exceptions) those people who go on the make animation. So, I honestly don’t think it’ll affect much over there because the people who partake in animation over there (otaku and the like) simply won’t be interested in it. I’m not sure what these new Evangelion films will do for the industry, they might not do anything at all, but more anime fans will watch that over Tekkon Kinkreet.