bleach is as long as it is because it has that much material. Stuff like Shakugan no Shana (which I dislike), does not.
Hajime no Ippo has nearly 800 chapters now. Guess what? It's better than every manga in existence. The anime for it was 75 episodes and the entire thing (which didn't cover very much of the manga) is better than every show you could watch.
Long series are just fine and honestly, most of you guys fall into the category of not liking something becauae it's popular. The main Bleach storyline is very well written for the style of show that it is.
I was actually thinking about watching Hajime no Ippo, lol. Why do you dislike stuff like Shakugan anyway? I find that I'm rather odd in what I watch, because I tend to watch things like
Piano,
Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito,
Puchi Puri Yushi,
Shakugan no Shana,
Sola, and
Byosoku 5 centimeter ~a chain of short stories about their distance~. Shakugan is the only one that's really popular, but they all ahve such amazing stories (Which I find to be better, or just more entertaining, than bleach etc.)
Zero no Tsukaima has 12 light novels for it's story, but are they going to run it through all 12 of them? Not likely. It's going to get a 3rd season, but I doubt it'll cover all of the books, or even come close. The second season didn't exactly move the plot very far, and if they make the third season like they did the second, it'll likely be dropped because of the new director and writer making it crappy.
I will admit that part of my problem with the shows I'm talking about is because they're popular, but so far, I have yet to find any single reason to like Naruto. Bleach, I don't really mind too much. Inuyasha got lame after they introduced naraku (does anyone else hate anime with bad guys that just don't die?) My point is that many of these anime are only as long as they are because they are popular, because they were pretty much designed as the sort of thing that becomes popular. You don't see people going crazy about Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, because it's a shoujo-ai, and because it's not designed to be commercialized.
I have the same issues with most movies. You rarely ever hear about a truly amazing movie any more. With the exception of those ones that start in film festivals and break out from there. You never see people making movies like Citizen Kane and stuff like that now.
I guess you could say I'm opposed to commercialization, and the general lack of creativity it breeds. (And the retarded people who think that <insert lame anime here> is the best anime on earth when I could list about 10 anime better than it off the top of my head.)