Is it because Japanese tend to actually try squeezing in everything once there is a given, set budget...because it is a part of their culture? I have read Peter Chung's posts and some of the others who contributed to the discussion. It is essentially different at production level, and that Japanese animation usually costs less than an American one for the price of freedom. Even so, it didn't really prove itself (Japanese animation studio techniques) in terms of what happened to Destiny (recycled scenes), and some of the other not as good anime you think you have seen lately.
so yes the question of budget is still there. I mean, as there is the sakkan ( a sort of director-jack of all trades in the Japanese animation profession) to actually redo all fails in terms of halfhearted attempts of animation made by the junior animation staff, low pay for each panel made (200 yen per PANEL/PAGE?!
), and the reluctance of adhering to the Western animation techniques, yes, Japanese animation is really low budgeted. But I still love it in comparison to, as one poster in there said it, "homogenized" Disney. LOL.