Haha, this anime issue is turning into a hot potato! Here is my attempt to juggling it before passing it to the next person.

Here are my thoughts on Brad's opinion. Correct me if I am wrong, but your arguments seem to suggest that Anime is inherently shallow and uninteresting, and this I can't agree with. Granted, there are plenty of superfacial and cliched fares available, but highly intelligent and artistic works exist as well. All movies, animated or live-action, are celluloid fantasies projected on a white screen. We can't pretend that a over-the-top Bruce Willis action vehicle is any less a cartoon than GI JOE. On the flip side, I would say quite a few anime movies is more nuanced and sophisticated than 90% of all Hollywood live-action movies.

Plus, you say that much of anime are told with "Asian themes," which I also disagree with. First of all, the idea of "Asian themes" is travail. A sincere work of art tries to transcend cultural barriers. I've seen perhaps 2 anime series and 6 anime movies, while most of them are set in Asian societies, a lot of the themes they are concerned with are much more universal. If an audience is turned-off by "Asian themes," I see it as a failing of the audience, and not indicative of the artistic quality of the anime in question.

I think the indifference to (high-quality) anime in mainstream society is in some ways a manifestation of the generalized indifference to all foreign films. People are usually scared off by subtitles and unfamiliar cultures. But that's really their loss. If they can summon up patience and sensitivy to see beyond the different languages, customs and cinematic technique, then they will see the core stories that are not too different from those close to their own hearts.

Okay, somebody . .hot hot hot . . catch!