Oh well.

I still think there's an anime out there for everyone. The problem is diversity--unless you know Japanese, there's not a wide selection. American distros kicked themselves in the shins by marketting anime exclusively to nerds and thus pandering to the genres they're likely to enjoy (giant robots, battle shows with lots of fighting, etc.) and also by trying to market anime as something that was "extreme," at times even intentionally adding crude language to the English dubs to further that agenda.

In fact here's a Youtube video showcasing a particulary egregarious example of that "trumping up the edge":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVpwJbLLivU

Back in the VHS days, we got a much wider overall variety of anime. Now the market has sort of homogenized, and I don't blame anyone who "can't get into it."

Fricking North American distros and their forcing of their own tastes on the market...