Amerime

When I was reading today's Penny Arcade, I noticed the add on the side was for an anime movie that had won "Best Animated Film" from some award I'd never heard of. Seeing this got me thinking about anime, and cultural differences.

Here in the U.S., animation is not the realm of serious art. It is primarily used for entertaining children, and for adults, it is dominated by comedy. In Japan though, there are many serious stories told with animation, stories that could not be describe with the typical American "that's cute." Some of these films have made there way to across the pond, (can you say that about the Pacific?) but here, anime is the realm of little kids and nerds. The closest it came to edging its way into American pop culture was Pokemon, and we all know how big that was with people over the age of 15. All this led to one question: In Japan, does anime have a broad cultural appeal, or is it relegated to the same circles as it is here?

A small aside, and then my point: I think anime is mostly silly. Almost every anime I've seen has had at least one element to place it in this category, whether it be magical cop-outs, premises I don't care a lick about, or just being really, really weird. The only anime I've actually enjoyed watching was full of more Japanese cultural references than you can shake a stick at, and believe it or not, I couldn't really relate. Even then, I couldn't escape that God-awful flying blurry background thing that seems to be a required genre cliche. Though I find anime silly, I am not against animation as a serious medium.

Here's what I'd like to see: an American company needs to make a serious animation project, whether it be TV or a movie, in an American animation style that does not rely on big eyes and blue hair. (even though you've gotta have the blue hair) (For reference, see the super-hero cartoons of our youth, with their serious, yet not weird animation styles) It would also be preferable that it not involve samurai, ninja, giant fighting robots, talking animals, the apocalypse, or otherwise blowing up Tokyo.

I'd like to hear from the true anime fans on this one. What do you think? Also, is there anything that fits the description that you might refer me to?