How do you determine whats mainstream anime or niche anime?

Theres a reason why the most popular anime are the most popular. But anyways i like your list.

The problem with some of the "mainstream" animes like Naruto, Bleach, Fairytale etc. Is that they have really high points in the series. Which simply cannot be matched by later episodes. Not to mention that the mainstream animes seem to suffer much more from exploitation like filler and dilution of the original manga storylines. This has a major negative impact on the quality of the anime as a whole..to the point where you might not even recognise the anime 300 episodes later.

Naruto is a good example. The first 135 episodes of naruto (minus the little filler they had) is really intense, fast paced, high quality and really well thought through. It also stuck very close to the original manga. The next 80 episodes was all filler....i mean seriously.

Then if you look at shippuuden...from the very first episode they strayed away from the manga...mixed up storylines and the order of events. Slowed the pace of the story's progression to a snails pace and the quality of the anime as a whole was up and down through out. It never really lived up to the hype imo. And now when people on the internet judge naruto they take into account everything...all 500+ episodes (i think theres that much?) And if you take every episode into account then naruto isnt a very good anime at all really.

Contrast that with niche anime that stick very closely to the original story and dont suffer from exploitation as well as shorter mainstream anime like AOT, Steins Gate and Sword Art Online etc. which focus on qaulity over quantity... and you can see why mainstream anime like Naruto and Bleach never really make it on the top 10 or top anything list for internet people.

That being said naruto is number one on my list and im an internet person

Thanks for the great response.

I believe that to a large extent some internet people feel kinda superior when they suggest niche anime (not referring to anyone here, btw). Some feel like that they are special in their own way and admitting liking something that everyone else does, takes away some of their uniqueness. It's like when they go on rage mode when a popular girls claims she's a nerd. There was a video of a guy being upset about people calling themselves nerds when they're popular and have a good social life. Anyway, I could go on for ever, but I won't.

As for Naruto, I guess I disagree with most people who don't like the fillers. I think they're pretty awesome. I liked the yota episodes, when everyone else hated them. I pretend that the manga doens't exist, so Yota becomes an important part of Naruto's life, as it's thanks to him that he first makes friends with Sakura and the others. The only one filler that I hated (I'm sure there are more, just nothing else comes to mind) was the one where his clones rebel and tie him to the ship. There were quite a few cases where I wasn't sure if an episode was a filler or not. They were that good (imho). What happened between between Jiraya and Pain was simply amazing for me and no anime comes close to it. I don't expect 500+ to be all perfect, so I don't judge it that harshly. I'd rather watch 500 episodes than 150 really intense ones. Death Note wins because the writing is simply that good. I think that people who complain about Naruto should find a filler list and skip those. 

Just my two cents. 

No prob :) I saw so many of the titles that i would put in my top 10 i had to respond!

I forgot to mention that as well...the whole superior attitute thing. I get like that myself...when i see random friends of mine on facebook start liking naruto or bleach yet 6 - 7 years ago they were the same people saying it was stupid to watch "cartoons" lol But yeah that definitely plays a role in peoples top 10 lists. Even though i understand it i still think its stupid.

With regards to naruto...i liked some of the fillers too. For example episodes 130 - 220 of the original naruto series was really funny self contained episodes. Some of those episodes were seriously hilarious. The only issue i had with those were that i always expected the story to continue yet it never did. In hindsight i should have just done a google search about it...which probably would have given some sort of information about shippuuden and when it will be released.

With Shippuuden though i dont like the way they approached things. In the original, there was a clear distinction between filler and non filler. In shippuuden they try and mix things together to the point where you dont really know whats going on. I mean in the middle of fight they cut away to something that seems trivial and random yet in the same setting...not to mention that the animation usually takes a hit in filler episodes. I'd prefer there be a clear distinction. I'd rather they do a 100 filler episodes to allow the manga to get further ahead than to do fillers after every 10 or 15 episodes. Sometimes not even that long. It really doesnt make any sense at times. I also dont like how they change up the order in which events happen...Shippuuden is suppose to start with Kakkashi's back story...instead it starts with a stupid teaser...this has a major impact on the pacing and intensity of the show.

Some time ago i also did a direct comparison for certain scenes in the anime with the manga....i found that certain scenes which dont have any memmory flashbacks in the manga are flooded with them in the anime. This gets really bad in shippuuden where literally nothing happens in some episodes. Such a farcry from what the anime was back in the day.

I honestly dont mind certain things but when it starts to effect the  overall quality of the anime then it bugs me. Because in shippuuden you actually cant skip all the filler episodes easily. :/

If i had money id fund a naruto remake sticking 100% to the manga

I like Death Note too. I thought it was really really really good when it started but as i got to the end i somehow lost interest. And never went back! XD