I’m making this to be called out if I’m just wrong in a bad way. But I feel like a lot of anime style lately is starting to look very samey? I don’t know if its because of gotcha games but I’ll see a anime character and go "hmm have I seen this character before?’ When in the past I would know a anime character even if I didn’t watch the show. Maybe it’s just the type of anime that is popular now? Honestly no idea.
I think same face syndrome always existed. With protagonists just looking boring/the same, I think it started during the late 1990s and just became really bad after 2003 - 2010. I heard online that happened because they probably already have the templates for these characters done before even starting to write the story or manga.
My age might play a factor into it then lol. I kind of stopped watching anime regularly later in high school and college which would of been around that time. I think the last thing I was keeping up with was Naruto and early One Piece before we lost cable for a bit and I had no hope of catching up.