Please someone prove me wrong, and show me something cool like those movies I mentioned above.
Have you checked out Gundam Unicorn (have only seen screencaps) or the Redline movie? It's decidedly current in aesthetics but also does have a bit of an oldschool feel if I remember correctly. It's also kind of a rush
But oh man. I agree with you and you made me want to go on a rant : >
I think you'll be hard pressed to find the kind of realistic touches you're after in modern anime. Or at least the mainstream stuff. Your best bet will be in the movies and not TV series. And by that I don't really mean movies connected to a running TV series (as those will only look like a better produced version of said show) but more in the line of Miyazaki, Mamoru Hosoda etc (Summer Wars, Girl who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children - his stuff does have more "current" look to it tho').
You said you liked OVAs and I too also totally love OVAs. (Original Video Animation)
They are awesome. Often done better than your average TV series but with way more creative freedom and no need for censoring since it went directly into the, then, booming home video market.
Everybody wins. Except for now - since it has pretty much died. Oh OVAs are still released but most stuff seem to be extra episodes for already existing works or smaller projects that just doesn't make much of a splash. I guess there just isn't much money to be had there anymore.
TV is where things are at right now and I'm not sure it's actually fair to compare OVAs with TV series - The drawing styles have changed, as you said, people are working at least partly digitally (i.e. the final line drawings are not printed on cels) - which dramatically change the way things look - not to mention there is a lot of outsourcing going on (cheaper that way) and 3DCG is a thing now - which is both good and bad.
Honestly, I believe backgrounds is the one thing that have suffered the least over the years. Some are more digital than others but I've seen some stunning stuff in recent shows. There are still studios doing good animation work: Kyoto Animation, GAINAX/TRIGGER, Madhouse to name a few but they probably won't look like you want them too.
<---- Example of how much better Kanon from 2006 (KyoAni) looks compared to the one from 2002. Not a show you'd be interested in perhaps but something I had on hand
TV anime is actually looking better and better - however the aesthetics are not always for us perhaps.
Then again, some shows just makes me want to
Recent exampleI'll end this rant with this:
/rant
To brighten things up a bit. Here's a brief video showing that Production IG are still doing a lot of the animation work for the newest Ghost in the Shell installment the traditional way.
Things go digital in the end of course but it's good to know that way of working hasn't died off entirely.
