Your experience with anime seems to be extremely limited.  No offense, but I think your opinion holds as much weight as that of a Japanese person who has watched Cartoon Network a few times.  As someone who has seen brilliant anime like Serial Experiments Lain, Kara no Kyoukai: Garden of Sinners, Baccano!, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, Kimi ni Todoke, Monster, Welcome to the NHK, Nichijou, Nodame Cantabile, Skip Beat!, Spice and Wolf, Steins;Gate, and Azumanga Daioh, it kind of annoys me for someone to judge the entire medium because they've seen Pokemon and Bleach.

You won't find anything like the anime I listed on western television.  Monster is about a man trying to track down a serial killer, Steins;Gate is about the time paradox and conspiracy, Welcome to the NHK is about social disorders and addictions, Kimi ni Todoke is about a shy girl falling in love for the first time, and Serial Experiments Lain is the most complex series I've ever seen in my life, animated or live action.  The writing and the depth are well beyond the borders western animation seems allowed to embrace.

I love cartoons.  I've probably seen most of what you have.  Can you say the same for the anime I've seen?

Quite honestly, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Ryan, go watch Outlaw Star

This was exactly what I was thinking.

Most American cartoons are simply aimed toward comedy, and deal with mostly things like life lessons such as what friendship means, teamwork, working hard, etc.

Anime delves into minimalism, existentialism and nihilism, depression, slice of life, drama, action, society, death, cerebral crime drama, james bond-esque spy stories, comedy, etc, and questions things like "who am I", "what is life", "what is god", "why are we here", "what is right and what is wrong", "do we deserve to be here", "how do I accept myself", "what is love".

Hell, look at all the movies that were influenced by anime (or blatant rip-offs)
Ghost in the Shell -> Matrix
Perfect Blue -> Black Swan
Paprika -> Inception
Kimba the White Lion -> Lion King
Nausicaa -> Avatar
Fist of the NorthStar ->BookofEli/Thunderdome

Not to mention all the anime that have been remade by Hollywood
AstroBoy
SpeedRacer
StreetFighter
Dragonball
And a planned remake of Akira
Casshern Sins

Your thread title should read "Whose animation is better?"

I think this is more about culture. It'd be interesting to get the thoughts from non-USA/Japan people.

I couldn't keep up with every anime as there's been so many pumping out more than american cartoons. And i'm not surprised if anime has covered almost every aspec, heck they can make an awesome show based on cards (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and spin tops (Beyblade). Majority of american cartoons seems aimed towards kids or mindless humour, few are action base, and of those action based, ALOT are just repeats of superheros, transformers and old franchises etc..

Pokemon is funnier than the Simpsons. Family Guy ain't so bad. With exception of spongebob and ducktailes I can't say that I've seen the others.

I'll give it to japan, just for the old pokemon animes sake. :D

You know, the fact that the OP never mentioned any cartoon/anime "movies," it makes you think he is not counting them.

It's really not something you can put a "this is better than that" label on. They are both hit or miss.

AMERICAN cartoons tend to have the cream of the crop, at least historically, with The Last Airbender, Batman TAS, and two or three other truly excellent series. They also tend to have the most crap that try to knock off Family Guy, Futurama, or South Park...but only manage grotesque.

And then there's the avant garde stuff like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Quite the mixed bag, really.

JAPANESE cartoons are a much tighter bunch storytelling wise. It's inherently more formulaic, with the best of the best focusing on using formulae well rather than reinventing the wheel. Also, the animation itself can vary greatly, as Japanese anime tend to cut corners on their animation and focus heavily on the fight sequences.

In my opinion, the best of Japanese anime is only a whisker weaker than the best American stuff, but while they both have dredges, I find the Japanese terrible stuff to at least be enjoyably terrible. They both have their place, but most of the series I consciously steer clear of are American, not Japanese. Japanese anime may not hit "excellent" that often, but it certainly has more "very good" stuff than America.

Animes are too generic and cliched at this point, with only a few really standing out or some that are just so popular, it doesn't matter what they do. Edit: In regards to the animation, Anime pale in comparison to american shows, in my opinion. There just isn't much variety in character design and the likes for my taste.

I think American or western cartoons are more varied, not afraid to be crazy or really out there. Adventure Time, Regular show, Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama and Gravity Falls are some that I particularly enjoy

Thanks for clarifying, I agree.......

But ur still a goal post changer