My co-workers talks a lot of shit about Anime and keeps saying "Look at all these little girls. WTF is up with Japan?". I say this to him, "Culture. Get used to it."
He watched Fate/Zero up to like episode ... 16 or 17 then lost interest because he "doesn't enjoy all the talking". He's a big US comic person and I'm a major anti-US comic person - it's very stupid and self-centered around stupid characters, with the exception of Batman. I like Batman's story. So now I'm introducing him to few non-loli-girl-type-anime and he's interested in few. I wonder if he would like Mirai Nikki, Deadman Wonderland, Death Note and most recent one - Attack on Titan. I'm thinking of starting him off with one of those four series. Others in the US aren't very interested, and I met some librarian that she was interested in Anime and was surprised how vast the young generation is addicted to it.
Anime in Chicago is much appealing to people than long ago thanks to the Internet, or better yet Fansubbers. She doesn't know much about Anime and have seen few. She is interested. I've asked her few questions and figured "this girl is a freaking nub" and she wants to host an Anime ... meeting or something, in August. I've yet to go to the library again but we will see. She's planning on expanding a section dedicated to Anime since the community is so involved.
I also remember, back in 2004 in college, some chubby female went ahead and made an Anime club and freaking 20+ people joined in less than a week. That's the first time or probably the second time I saw World of Warcraft and that's what drove an addiction inside of me towards the game. But we watched shows (don't even recall what shows we saw) and there was a lot of talk. There were people who, in that very club room, didn't even know what the hell Anime is but they knew it was Japanese Cartoons and they were interested. I remember our Adviser - a hot adviser to say with a skirt that rolled above her knees - was sitting down, writing notes, and wasn't really involved in anything till like the second day. Ah ... I attended few more times then dropped. I think my Japanese friend attended the club room, but I don't remember if we went together or not. I was the one to invite him.
All other co-workers and family members only get interested in the cool awesome stuff, non-ecchi, non-bloody. I say this. Watch Ore no Imouto, School Days, Mirai Nikki, fucking ... Death Note, what other good shows are out there? Ah yea, Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night UBW ... I don't know. Just throw in a bunch of this and that and see what they say. Give them a mix of "everything".
The only person I speak to about anime is my young sister. She watches shows as soon as they finish and talks to me about them for few minutes.
Those US conventions or whatever Western Conventions they do make me sick. Even the ones in Japan. I get hyped about Anime, but ... outside of that ... I cannot see myself doing much about it. Meeting creators, on the other hand, is pretty cool. Knowing that P.A.Works producers and even Huke whom came to the western world spiked my interest in going there just to meet these people. Well, that's about it.
/rant