>>281570112
Cases of "follow the leader" have always existed like a bunch of pretentious "deep" Mecha anime after evangelion, the harem boom afterove Hina or the endless copying of toy selling kid anime after hits like Yu-Gi-Oh or Beyblade (and let's not start with the wave of creature companion shows following Pokemon).

But I do agree that in recent times the copy of what becomes a hit seems lazier than ever before. Back in the day copies at least tried to do their own thing to differentiate from the source.