Real simple answer to this. Japanese animation usually means: Good Story Decent Animation Quality Fun characters Great Action fan srvice Good comedy American Animation of the 80's and early to mid 90's usually meant: Semi-decent story okay quality animation some comedy Today's American animation is very low-grade, and the storylines generally suck. The comedy is usually worse than slap-stick humor, and the it's basically an insult to animation as a whole. (Examples: The Spectacular Spider-Man (was always the Amazing Spider-Man, and insults the previous series), Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and Adventure Time).