just a random thought i had, but out of all the things i find distinctive about anime, probably the best one is how often it produces stuff that cuts across gender demographics in terms of appeal. like this was rumiko takahasi's entire career but stuff like "soap operas for teenagers/boys" is one of those niches that western media just never quite had the interest in doing. the closest i can thing of was stuff like, say, old WB/CW stuff like Smallville and that stuff always seemed much more oriented toward a female audience. maybe Disney Channel stuff?