How come most anime fans don't care about anime directors?

yea that kind of makes sense, but I still agree with OP that people don't know many anime film directors either, then again there's also a lack in anime films that are original works and not just sequels to TV anime or adaptations.

It all depends on the film. Most people know Miyazaki, Takahata, Kon, Oshii, but not the director of random TV adaptations or "lesser" works. Just like how people know Lynch and Kubrick but not the director of random Hollywood shit #329. The stronger a director's personal vision is, the more people will talk about them. Likewise the more popular the director, the more the anime will be marketed with their name.

Name an animation director who has never had a bad job

Mostly because multiple directors work in different episodes and sometimes even in different scenes in the same episode. The title of director in tv is kinda meaningless.

Voice Actors are more important.

>sometimes even in different scenes in the same episode
Do you have any examples?

That's an overgeneralization, but otherwise right

Because I just care about how good the show is.

Anno has two shows where he stopped being director halfway through, and both went to shit.

Ep directors are absolutely not the same role as a director. It sounds similar in english but the role is completely different. They all answer to the overall director anyway.

Again, an overgeneralization. It depends on the show, consider the episodes director's role on Space Dandy for an extreme example.

Series with a lot of action scenes and big set pieces like Game of Thrones or most Disney stuff would usually have a completely different crew work on them while the regular team handles the rest of the scenes.

I am aware they are different positions, thats kinda my point. Episode directors play a far bigger role on how the final product turns out. The director may have final say but in reality they don't do much.

Anime directors are equivalent to showrunners in tv and yes, especially in "prestige" tv you get distinct voices helming projects. You can tell which Twin Peaks episodes were made with Lynch's oversight and where the networks heads ran the show in the second season, for example. And I would even argue that in anime productions, this effect is even more pronounced. However, I also concur with user here that it really depends on the kind of project and how strong the director's creative vision is. There's a world of difference between, say, Furukawa's Revue Starlight and generic seasonal idolshit.

Why should I care about directors? What matters is the writer of the source material and how cute the girls are.

But your argument is that the role of a director in tv is so different in film because of these ep directors, however you fail to realize that film has ep directors. Movies are split into multiple parts with oftentimes different ep directors working on them just like tv, so your argument about there being a distinction is retarded. I have interviews with quotes from ep directors saying explicitly
>anime is the product of the overall director, end of discussion
but I doubt you'd listen

Space Dandy is explicitly different from the norm.

If you like an anime the most practical application of looking up the director is finding what else they've done, as you may enjoy those too.

>how come most anime fans don't care about anime directors?
Cuss a good director doesn't always mean that every work he does is a masterpiece. It's usually just a good anime that was directed by a certain director. For example Miyasaki has Sento no Chihijo a very good anime and a masterpiece but none of his other anime are as good as that one. It has good quality and good animation but they are not as good, the same with the rest of the directors and Studios. I guess for the Japanese economy it's good that the Studios that have some success are divided into smaller and independent Studios, but for the quality of the anime they produce it's a bad thing, in my opinion.|

because directors are "creator" type roles. a creator who does adaptations, won't be as notable as one who actually creates, even if their adaptations are great. they won't stand out over someone like ikuhara or these old names.

VAs are different because they don't tend create in the first place. so you judge them solely for their VA work.

the fact that space dandy was created to give ep directors more control than had been done before notwithstanding, they still answered to pre-production staff, and were brought onto the project by the pre-production staff. the entire concept of the show was formulated by the pre-production staff

I just looked at the director for Tsubaki and everything else is trash.

That's the only show he directed.

Ultimately all I'm trying to get across is that it's not black and white nor is it one or the other. The degree to which all of the various creatives on a project influence it depends on the project.

ikuhara's most famous work is an adaption

Utena isn't a straight adaptation of an existing manga.
The whole project, manga and anime, was created by Be-Papas, a group which Ikuhara was apart of.

But I looked up a director and the other shows he directed episodes for are all shit.

He's talking about Sailor Moon.

The argument also applies for anime original directors like said

i was talking about sailor moon

Not really his fault, unless you specifically hated the episodes he directed.

I don't understand why the argument that because directors assemble talent who contribute to the show too, you should ignore them all even started. Directors' role is undefined and how they influence the production is a gray area like you said, but following directors will teach you an incredible amount about their abilities and style, and especially who they like to work with. Knowing about their colleagues and assistants paints and even fuller picture about the rotating ep directors and storyboarders that will be on a project, helping you guess what kind of production is being laid out before the broadcast starts. Genuinely everything that's been said is more an argument that you should pay attention to practically every role in a production, not that you should ignore them all

You literally said it yourself, unless they have a unique style, why care? Nobody usually cares about the director of any given TV series. Even in movies, where people actually do care about directors, the actors can at times be more important.