I think for me, my disappointment is more of a generalized ennui. It seems like every time I seriously focus my attention on anime, for every director or studio doing something amazing and imaginative, there are five who are churning out the same hoary cliches that have been around since the 70s. Sentai, mecha, ninja girls, bounty hunters, D&D rip-offs... Occasionally someone does something artful or intriguing within those broad motifs, but there's an awful lot of recycling. Determined speeches about the desire to do their best. Big swords that make crescent-shaped swooshes of light through the air. Yatta yatta.
Now, obviously, there's a lot of cliches and trope-reliance and willing mediocrity in Western film, animation, and television as well, I just feel there's less excuse for it in anime, where the laws of reality are whatever the writers say they are and the artists are able to conceive. Western animation is often hogtied by the continued belief that animation is largely a childrens' medium, or at least a family-friendly medium. South Park and some of the "Adult Swim" crowd are making some progress, but to be frank, most of them are made on the extremely cheap (and often look it) and can afford to take some risks. Anime also has to appeal to its audience, but in a nation where animation can range from hard-core pornography to cooking shows, it would seem like there ought to be more leeway.
