Uh, not every series does that you know.

nor does every series get to have the budget to do that.

No kidding. People don't seem to realise the shoestring budgets some series are on. Most of the money is made from DVD/BD sales.

Oh god Rahxephon. The first anime that I rented from Netflix and it was horrible. One of the worst animes that I've ever seen in my opinion.

Uh... they had no problem doing it before.

Noir, RahXephon, Cowboy Bebop, Madlax, Fullmetal Alchemist, all Gundam series until 00, Ecaflowne, Macross, Macross 7, Speed Grapher, Golion, Dairugger XV, GaoGaiGar, Mythical Detective Loki, Trinity Blood, Gankutsuou, and many many other series for decades had no issues with doing the full 26/52 episode run with no problem. Why is it suddenly an issue? Did their balls fall off? Hell, computers have made it easier to be lazy with the animation, so it's not like they have to actually animate anything with skill these days to warrant this method.

it got more expensive to make them.
like, you're gonna say no.
but yes, it did get more expensive to make anime.
you think that just because it's not hand drawn it's cheaper to make?
no. you gotta have a large team to make it right.
larger teams mean more mouths to feed which means more money they have to be paid.
and yes, you have to animate with skill!

why else would anime have so many fixes and shit from TV to Blu-Ray?
did you not see the differences in the BlazBlue anime?
how lazy some stuff was?
how lazy some stuff is now?
you still need to put effort into animation!
like, what about it being digitally animated makes it easier? you still gotta draw the phrames! it's not like there's a fucking animate the thing button!

Because shit got more expensive,because anime's popularity has declined and because the global economy went into the shitter in 2008.

Ok just finished the first two madoka movies. First off I was just planning to watch the third due to me watching the 12 episode anime while back but I thought why not watch all three film. First two I be given my thought as it as a hole movie not two parts. I can say I feel like madoka was ment to be an anime movie from the start and not anime first. The story flowed to me really well pasing was great story came threw. I'm so happy I pre order double pack blu ray by manga entertainment for the first two film due to animatsu hot the third film distribution right in UK.

^Yellow knows what he's talking about.

How could the cost of a show be any more expensive today than it was 10 years ago?

I'm sorry, but I call shenanigans on that. Series need to either be 13 or 26 episodes and air the entire series in one go without a break and without leaving it off for another season. God, I hate that Japan has taken the worst aspects of American TV into their culture.