[Ryzorian]

I live in Iowa and know many people who enjoy anime, heck I'm 41 and enjoy it. I think much of the "for kids" idea comes from the fact that most anime shown on TV here, is Pokamon and the like. You have to go looking around to get the more serious stuff.

Anime is a primary medium in Japan to express storylines, so they have a wide varity of different types. I think this orginates from after WW2 when they lacked the resources to put out lavish productions and used "anime" as a less exspensive alternative.