I think you're referring to the "anime" print when you say 2015, and the "kittens" print for 2016? I didn't notice a change in tape sizes, but I didn't really look that closely at the anime ones. Most people agree the new kitten print is a lot better looking.
Although I can respect the princess print for its good design, it looks to me like it's going a bit overboard on the color. The safari are a full-shell print too but there's a good deal of whitespace between the animals so that tempers the color a bit. I'd suggest they drop the pink background and just keep all the characters and designs, but I suspect a lot of people prefer them FOR their all-pink background. And we've got quite a few white shell diapers, the people interested in pink deserve some love too. All they have are the kitten and the princess.