FLCL exists specifically to buck that trend. Gainax, the people behind FLCL are the people behind EVA as well. (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as well. I think they form a trilogy.) EVA, very very notoriously ran out of budget with 3 episodes left to make and air. Stretching the budget was always a problem with them, and EVA was just the spaghetti finally hitting the fan.But, then again, am I the only one who sees a correlation between the amount of episodes in an anime, and the worse it becomes?
FLCL's great in part because they took the budget for a 26 episode series and used it to make 6 episodes, hoping to stay within budget (they didn't), and as a result we have some of the best animation ever produced by people who don't call themselves Production I.G.
Moving on, anyone else reading Bakuman, the relatively new series from the guys who made Death Note?