Anime was always Seasonal in Japan

In the Anglophonic Anime Fandom an interesting subgenre of "things aren't as good as they were back in the day" discourse is complaining about the nature of Seasonal Anime Discourse where shows people were so hyped about all season are seemingly instantly forgotten when the new hot shows drops.

The structure of how Anime broadcasts was always seasonal like this in their home country.  But overseas fans were always behind and often getting what did get in big chunks rather then one episode a week consistently for 12-26 weeks.

So whatever old show an Anituber is currently trying to sell you on while complaining about this was also being talked about in Japan a lot less when it wasn't currently airing anymore.  However it's easy to look back now with hindsight of knowing what shows did "stand the test of time" and find the documentation that they were indeed still being talked about by a loyal fan base.  But guess what so are plenty of these modern seasonal shows on their own dedicated subreddits or discord servers or even on regular social media apps when you seek their Tags specifically.

The other thing that's different now is the nature of Social Media making what we used to call "water cooler conversation" more amplified and documented.  But you can still find the evidence that what I'm claiming is true.

Ghost Stories did NOT flop in it's original Japanese Broadcasts, a few Antitubers have already debunked that myth.  But part of the reason the myth seemed so believable is because it didn't stay popular, it topped polls in Anime magazines for the year it came out but it never became a permanent staple of 2channel culture.  Unless it did, I don't know.

Mother's Basement thought Classroom of The Elite was one of those forgotten seasonals and then when season 2 dropped he sought out and found the vibrant fan community that had been hiding in plain sight the whole time.  And that's only one of a number of 2017 seasonals to suddenly get a new season in recent years.

Thing is plenty of old shows that didn't "stand the test of time" also had active loyal fanbases for awhile or even to this day.