I've enjoyed my fair share of anime, and there are some criminally underrated TV series and movies that should be mandatory viewing for American audiences. Tha

I've enjoyed my fair share of anime, and there are some criminally underrated TV series and movies that should be mandatory viewing for American audiences. That being said, once the new car smell wore off, I saw that Japanese animation has its highs and lows, just like American productions. Many shows suffer from the same horrible cliches and stale, one-dimensional characters that appear to be copy-pasted from story to story, and eventually you start to notice the same formulas behind some of those intricate plots. Ultimately, I'm saying that one shouldn't confuse originality with unfamiliarity. As a Westerner, Japanese animation was unfamiliar and amazing. Once it became familiar, much of it became less than amazing, but the good stuff was still just as good. One final thought is to point out the obvious target audience age difference. Probably due in large part to Disney's influence, Westerners have long associated animation with children, and this makes it an apples-oranges debate. If you challenge me to find an American cartoon with as much depth as Cowboy Bebop, I probably can't. On the flip side, you probably can't find a live-action Japanese show with as much depth as The Wire.