Entering into the winter roster of anime, I've notice an influx of "web series" styled anime; basically short formed anime that are about ten minutes or less. I'm pretty sure these type of anime appear on television, but it is aimed more for online audience where the attention span is shorter, compared to the television counterpart.
What makes these shorter type of anime so special anyway? Well, I'm not completely sure, since I don't work inside the anime industry, but I can speculate about why they are starting to crop up. I do have some interesting hypotheses that I want to discuss because these type of series are very low risk and sometimes have entertaining value, despite being so short.
Experimentation
To start off, as I stated previously, they are low risk; anime studios can experiments with new technology or a different type of story without much fear of loosing money. This tends to ring true for the strange and little sense to be made plot of these web series.
Some examples being Gokicha!! Cockroach Girl! and Ishida To Asakura, both being strange in it own right.
Gokicha!! Cockroach Girl! is about the adventures of an anthropomorphic cockroach. The main thing that is weird about it is that they try to make a cockroach cute to the viewer, but the actual humans in the anime are disgusted by these cockroach girls. Which is kinda obvious since they are actually cockroach, but only presented as girls, in the viewer's perspective.
As for Ishida To Asakura, there is only one episode that is about two minutes, so I can really say what it's about. However, what I can say about this anime is it is a slapstick comedy and doesn't have much of a plot, but is school based. The anime is one that is hard to explain, but if you watch it, I'm sure you will get that same 'what the fuck' feel.
Smaller Studios Gaining a Following
It's quiet obvious that anime studios don't automatically become large with a dash of fairy dust or a bit of magic, it has to start somewhere. Making small projects so the studio can iterate quietly, is one of easiest things a company can do to get some recognition; as well as, have products to show investors.
With a web series, you usually don't have a very in depth story to follow, and animation can be the focus, since that is one reason most people get drawn into a series anyway. Lastly, because of the time retrains, it isn't too much of a time waster for the consumer; which can be another thing that draws many people to these styled anime.
Anime Studios Recognising Online Audience
The internet has been a new a scary place for a lot of companies, based on television, and that is no different for anime studios. With the influence of crunchyroll and netflix these fear have been alleviated, but there is still some growing pains.
Web series and alike are sort of like studios testing the waters before actually diving in completely. The presence of anime and its worldwide audience, not just Japan, has been shown quiet clearly and slowly you can see a rise in overall anime viewer ship.
Future of Anime
The increase in recognition of anime will lead to my last of the many speculation. As for what we might see in further iterations of anime, because of the services listed before and overall convenience, we might see a bigger library of anime available online. The main reason I think this might be the case is because physical copies of anime are far more expensive to produce, than just putting it online and letting the series be available on demand.
We may not see this for quite some time and studio might make there own services, instead of the already made and available services; it is still something that is interesting to see happen as the technology for these things become cheaper to produce.