What is it with anime?

anime...is something that you either love or hate. There are so many different varieties of it that most anybody can find a series that they'd like. However, there's plenty of titles out there that either suck in general, or it's just really hard to get into(ALA weird ones like FLCL and Serial Experiments Lain...talk about a head trip!)
Another thing that's hard to get used to with anime is the vast cultural difference between japan and america. Things such as the sweat drops, random changes from normal to midget-sized(SD or super deformed in the anime world) for a comedic scene, and other things such as historic and pop culture references are incredibly difficult to catch on to and tolerate in most cases. It all just takes some getting used to.
I've always liked anime, hell, I wathced Robotech(Macross) when I was 5 and I still love it to this day. The robots kick ass, the story is increibly well written for how old it is, and there was actual CHARACTER DEVLOPMENT. something you never heard about back in those days.(epsecially when pretty much the only thing we had was either looney toons or transformers)
If you're seriously wanting to get into anime, I'd reccomend any of Hayao Miyazaki's films(Princess Mononoke being probably the best one to watch first, since it's got a fairly easy to follow story)
Evangelion is good too. It's got crazy mecha battles(although the designs might be unappealing to some), TONS of character development and drama(i.e., the commander of the base is the main characters dad and they hate each other, stuff like that)
about the only thing I wouldn't reccomend EVA for is it's weirdness in the end. believe me, the last 2 episodes i was like...WTF!?
one last one that is excellent to start out with that is non Adult-Swim material is GTO(Great Teacher Onizuka) not so much the anime cause I find the Manga(comics) WAY funnier. What's funnier than a biker punk gone teacher to reform a class of delinquents(sp?) ?...NOTHING that;s what.
Anyways, I think I've rambled on enough about this. I hope I was of some help to you guys ^_^