^I sorta agree with you, I can hardly get into an anime until later episodes, but once the story gets good I end up liking it better then a western one, but western ones I can enjoy EVERY episode at some point

Yeah,shows like Sgt. Frog can sometimes disappoint me because they focus too much on being funny than trying to be at least a bit touching or serious.

I'd have to go with Japanese anime.

For a long time in the west, animation was (is) seen mostly as a child's form of entertainment, so most western animation is kids stuff. When we do get more mature western cartoons, they seem to always be comedies (and really crude ones at that). Any action show has to be kid friendly, from what I've seen, and mostly follow the generic "monster of the week" formula. There have been exceptions as of late (such as the Avatar series), so I could see this improving.

In Japan, animation isn't viewed any different than other entertainment venues (such as books, live-action, ect), so there are anime for all kinds of audiences. Yes, you still have kids shows (like Pokémon), but you also get shows aimed at teenage boys (Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Naruto), teenage girls (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura), adult males, adult females, ect. Furthermore, there isn't just science fiction & fantasy, as @Drobotic claims (there are everyday stories of normal people, sports, horror, cooking, educational, ect). Pretty much, there are anime in every genré, for every age group, just like any other form of entertainment.

Also, for the most part, anime is animated so much better than western cartoons (which again, are either kids shows or comedies, so they don't need to be as detailed).

The Simpsons say hi

I never got the whole "this shows too Japanese" thing most Japanese anime is based off of 30's-40's cartoons and comics (the bigs eyes after Disney, and the super powers after marvel and DC)
@Lz Simpsons is a comedy(even if it's not funny anymore)

Oh I dunno Harmo, probably the Japanese humor, the Japanese culture, the Japanese humor, and especially the Japanese humor

I have yet to find one

Let's see...look up girl's skirt, NOSE BLEED! Let's count those if we can

^actually I've seen that in western shows as well

Adventure Time sucks. There ya go.
Lulz, sorry. It does have nice fluid animation and great music, but I just hate the humor. It's not funny 79% of the time.

Screaming out the name of an attack every time they use it.

South Park is the best, no other cartoon can even compare!

@turtle it's no different then a "bro hoof" from MLP or those people who play COD and yell online "nuke!"
Next

I hate picking favorites or saying which is best but honestly, I'd have to say Futurama is probably the best cartoon for me. It's funny, touching, and creative and it does all of those thing very well.
That said I prefer anime to cartoons but I enjoy both.

Wait what? What does fan terms have to do with cliches?

i prefer the anime art style, but it's mostly used for crap i don't care about. i've seen the art style used for crap like "high school rumble" or "ouran high school host club". i just cant find that stuff interesting. the anime art style is amazing imo, and i'd love to see more actiony animes with an at least decent story. i just dont care about these lame characters in high school. it also annoys me how in nearly every anime, there has to be over 9000 (lol, anime) boob jokes or references (and they're also big too). really, it disgusts me when all these jokes occur and i end up skipping over some footage when they drag on.
i always watch animes for their stories that they tell. the art style is an amazing way to tell a story without dialogue, and it's fun to look at.

Also some anime arnt about the stereotypical stuff (lucky star)

The only real difference is the art style and humor, just like Manga vs. comics. I prefer anime especially when compared to most modern cartoons, I just don't like a lot of the humor. I just find it too vulgar and immature for my tastes, like Peter blowing off his fingers or the coffee beans from Regular Show for example, I prefer the off-beat and random nature most anime use. I miss 90's cartoons though.

Theres a lot more to anime than sci-fi that stuff if you take the time to look. They also go farther than just comedy, Claymore, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Durarara!, and Full Metal Alchemist are good examples here. Even some of the over-abundant genres have really stand-out titles. There is a lot of fantasy elements thought. As for being too Japanesey, I don't really see it aside from shows like Bobobo Bo Bo BoBo, which Adventure Time is similar too anyway. Maybe its all the emoticons they use?

Needles to say FMA all the way for me.

Western titles are too technical, anime has creative titles (especially with videogames)

I prefer western animation, as the styles vary a lot, whereas many anime feel either formulaic or bizarre in a more (for lack of a better term) creepy way

The stuff on Cartoon Network, for example, varies a lot in terms of style. The ultra-limited animation of Space Ghost Coast to Coast and 12 oz. Mouse, the incredibly vibrant cell animation in Ed Edd n Eddy, the high detail in shows like Robotomy and Sym-Bionic Titan, then the anime-esque shows like Thundercats.

Anime always seems to follow a similar art style. Plus I don't get the Japanese-cultured humor.