My childhood happened between the late 80s and the mid 90s so tend to gravitate towards Animes from the 1960s through the 1980s mostly because of two key factors:
Animation and tone.
Not only was the animation top notch - ever since Jungle Emperor Leo stuff like backgrounds, anatomy and eye expressions kept improving to ludicrous levels in World Masterpiece Theater Animes - when compared to their Western counterparts but itself had somewhat of a western feel/influence that peaked sometime in the 1980s - thinking of FOTN or Saint Seiya - and gradually vanished within the turn of the century.
And storywise, rather than just focusing on the plot from begining to end even skipping some of it as long as its not essential to the story like nowdays, just like American cartoons of the era, the filler episodes being integrated into the plot meant that instead of feeling like a drag or side step in a confusing direction, you got to connect more with the characters, explore more of the emotional foundation and prepare yourself to the eventual finale.
But I have no problem with watching current Anime even if its shorter to that exent, as long as its well written and decently drawn/recreated.
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