Ember said:
That's like saying you don't like live-action. You're just not watching the right stuff.
*hugs Ember* I love you, honey.
And she's right. When people say, "Oh, anime is lame," or something to that effect, I tell them they're blindly dismissing an entire country's contribution to an art form on the example of one or two terrible series. I compare it to someone outside the US saying, "I don't like American music" just because most Britney Spears (the Pokemon of music?) is a corporate puppet completely devoid of creative ingenuity.
I admit, great anime series are few and far between. Most great series never see a stateside release because American consumers are--perhaps justifiably--stereotyped as caring more for scantily clad women and explosions than thought-provoking explorations of human relationships. "Don't stimulate our minds, just flash pretty lights in front of our eyes," essentially.
And on the rare occasion that a great series
does see a stateside release, the voice acting is so nauseatingly terrible that many people dismiss it after ten seconds of soulless dialogue. Dismissing dubs completely (as most anime fans do), there's still the problem of ridiculously high costs for anime. Distributers will charge $30 for a DVD featuring three episodes (which, by the way, will feature ugly subtitles and translations far less accurate than those found in fansubs).
So, while I disagree with dismissing an entire country's catalog of animation, I understand why anime is not taken seriously in America. The companies that select, translate, and distribute anime titles in the US care more about cutting costs (especially when it comes to hiring terrible voice actors with less skill and emotion than high school drama dropouts) and making a profit than preserving the message and innovation of terrific series.
And thats probably true Ember!