I will be (and have been) an anime fan through in through for many years.
I love it. It's my favorite type of storytelling media, along with reading o'course. (they're very different so it's difficult to compare them; I'm not getting really into it, though). There's lots of inferring involved in the minds of the characters because the story is mainly told omnisciently with glimpses into their thoughts at times. The main character feels less important because of this, too; so if your main character is stereotypical, like many main characters are, you can focus on side-characters because you're given pretty much the same amount of insight into their minds, even if you're following the main character's actions. This is pretty much like all non-episodic TV series and movies, Japanese or otherwise. Add the dimension of aesthetic appeal -- stylized art in different styles and music -- and anime is phenomenal for me, trumping pretty much everything else.
I like the goofyness of toons, though, and I watch Cartoon Network some (mainly just Flapjack).
And that didn't make a lot of sense and I got a bit off topic. Eh.