That "past" you're talking about is 2006-2010. And what is it that you find cute? I mean, art styles change over time, so if you define a particular art style as "cute", then you'd be right since that art style has become less frequent.

>I feel like the art and characters were cuter in the past
The problem with that statement is that you judge characters' cuteness subjectively and try to place them in a time frame. Cuteness isn't history just like beauty isn't (some people used to date greek sculptures based on their beauty rather than on their style which is, of course, bullshit). Besides, your question makes me wonder if you're basing your views on the quality or quantity, amount or percentage (if it really isn't the art style).

Examples of anime with cute characters and/or art from 2014:
Barakamon, Fate/kaleid, Gekkan Shoujo, (Hanayamata), Brynhildr, Gochuumon, Ishuukan Friends, Mahouka, No Game NL, (Soul Eater not), Chuuni, D-Frag, Gin no Saji, Inari konkon, Nisekoi, Denki-gai, Bahamut.

Absolutely!

OP is making me wanna see Kaitou Saint Tail.

>Examples of anime with cute characters and/or art from 2014:
>Chuuni
maybe kind of cute, but certainly a decline when compared to kyoani's efforts in the previous decade
>Gin no Saji
not cute. moe maybe, cute no, (except for the piglets).
>Nisekoi
more sexy and fan servile than cute. onodera is more pathetic (moe) than cute. she really got kind of annoying after a while.
raku is probably the cutest significant character.

i wonder if Shintaro Ishihara's strictness on anime censorship kept mainstream anime from heading too far into the fan service realm and forced the studios to use cuteness as their character's main appeal and his exiting the scene has anything to do with the trend.
also there is a lot less hand drawn artwork these days and almost no more use of watercolor.
watercolors are cute.

>>22523
>maybe kind of cute, but certainly a decline when compared to kyoani's efforts in the previous decade
Effort in cuteness? Wouldn't that just be calling Key a master of cute and/or K-ON! the supreme cute? Since those are the cute shows.
>Gin no Saji
I put it on because of cute character interaction, but I guess it doesn't stand strong.
>Nisekoi
I won't back down on that one no matter what. Pic related, it's cute not sexy.

>>22523
>and his exiting the scene has anything to do with the trend.
If there was a trend, you mean. Okay, I'm just going to make sure: Cute doesn't mean big eyes and sparkly personality in this thread, right?

>>22526
cute means cute
cute things are cute

Does 50 Shades of Anime have anything to do with it?

>>22572
But shading isn't cute.

Anime stopped being truly cute in the mid to late 2000s in my eyes. back then we had truly cute and innocent anime, the kinda stuff you'd swear was made for kids. Stuff like kokoro toshokan (2002), Taruto (2001), Binzume Yousei (2003), Mao-chan (2002).
That's not even counting all the sol anime. Those sol type shows still show up here and there but we get like one or two each season at best now.

Last cute sol we've had was Yama no Susume and that was a half length series. Everything else is either some harem bs, full of fan service, romcom, or idols. fall-14 just had Girlfriend (show had no boys in spite of the name), In summer-14 we had Hanayamata, spring-14 had Gochuumon and arguably Inugami-san, winter-14 had.. jack shit.
Sure there's tons of anime with cute characters in them, but ones that are full on cute from the ground up? they seems few and far between. Even sol as mentioned aren't that common anymore. Instead it seems more like we have mostly indecisive anime that try to do multiple things at once without committing to any one particular field. anime that look cute but are part harem, part romcom, part action, part whatever.

Its seems possible that Shintaro Ishihara's departure as Tokyo governor has allowed fan service to become more aggressive resulting in anime that is overall less cute than it was during the Ishihara era, but its still really, really cute.

>>22514
I'm not losing sleep over it.

>>22514
>Does anyone else here ever worry that anime is becoming less cute?
Fuck no. Anime today has plenty of cute girls around, which is why I still watch anime in the first place.

>>23022
Cute girls don't necessarily make for a cute anime. It's redundant to point out that anime has lots of cute girls, 9 out of 10 anime do and that includes a lot of anime that is far from being cute.

>>22585
GochiUsa was great, I really enjoyed that show back then, all the girls were alright and the atmosphere and scenery was just perfect.

I think one should just look up sol anime if you're into cute things only.

NNB S2 is coming up this year l think? I'm only watching kiniro this season, will pick up that kyoani show and a few others later.

>>23031
I can never unsee her giving the bird.