[Samael]

I don't really expect understanding, and I'm not really offended when people knock anime. Anime is a sub-category for my interest in foreign film. It takes a certain mindset to appreciate anime, and not everyone will have it.

Animation is simply a medium, like film, or literature. I don't judge things by the medium, simply by the artistic merits of the work itself. The majority of people are not open minded like this, and there's going to be a lot of prejudging taking place. Anyone whose shown a friend an anime and gotten nothing but blanks stares and "how can you watch this crap?" will know what I mean. They saw animation and immediatly went "Oh boy, it's a kids show, he's got me watching Transformers".