I love anime despite all of it's warts and blemishes and worse (as mentioned by others here). And I've been in and out of it heavily since I learned what it was

I love anime despite all of it's warts and blemishes and worse (as mentioned by others here). And I've been in and out of it heavily since I learned what it was my sophomore/junior year of HS (around 1996/7). I've learned that for me it comes down to the different way of storytelling and emphasized. A great breakdown of some of the differences are can be read here. https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-structure/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-structure/ especially the diagrams from https://www.jstor.org/stable/20198301?seq=2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/20198301?seq=2 tldr: "In a Western story the plot is moved forward by the character’s goals." while in Japanese story telling they might go like this "In a simple-reaction story, the character’s own actions and the universe’s reactions to them drive the story to a conclusion that may or may not have anything to do with character goals." and the ending. "This leads us to the second significant difference between Japanese and Western story grammar: the conclusion. The Japanese story grammar ends with “events and/or emphasis,” whereas the more western model ends with a “resolution.”"