The "Fandom 101" panel cut to the heart of the issue: why do so many Americans enjoy a Japanese artform? Said Dade Merritt: "We wouldn't be here today if American cartoons in the '80's didn't suck."

Dave Bell talked about Macross, the Japanese TV series which, turned into Robotech, introduced millions to anime. He said hardcore anime fans seemed to like the Americanized Robotech, stitched together from parts of three series, more than the Japanese original - perhaps because Robotech was in English.

If you had the impression that anime fans blindly accept any animated series from Japan, you would have been surprised by this panel's criticism of current anime series. "Even the Japanese are producing series that suck," Don Yee said. "It's the same theme and stories - nothing really changes."

And Joe Vecchio of the AWA staff noted that "In Japan 10-15 years ago, they were looking at "is it (anime series) a good show or not." Vecchio and the other panelists pointed to toy and merchandising tie-ins as the driving factor behind anime series.

The guy assembling this web page will take the opinion that the panelists probably weren't as hard on anime as they sounded. The deeper you get into the pursuit of any art form, whether it be Bach cantatas or Shakespeare sonnets, the more you see the structure and the less of the underlying emotion you feel. Besides, every genre has its conventions and cliches, and it's too easy to look at the standard forms of modern anime series - such as the "teenager with magical power" shows - and see a flaw instead of a show that fulfills its audience's emotional need.