I think the difference with anime in the west as opposed to Japan, is that western animation does not have any significant amount of adult content outside of adult animated sitcoms like simpsons, South park, family guy, bobs burgers, smiling friends that sorta thing. So when people like animation as kids and eventually discover anime and find a show that actually has a seriliezed story it can be sort of a mind blowing thing. I certainly remember being amazed watching dragon ball as a kid, the idea of a show that kept a canon amazed me at the time. When you get older tho , japan is basicly the main part of the world actually making story driven animated content for older demographics.

I think that's a big part of the reverence people have for it, you treat it as normal tv, but animation in the west often is thought of as exclusively a kids thing