Among the Aristocrats of the upper echelons of American Animation, many of them claim that Anime is not art, and cannot be in the league with their art-- American Animation. They call it a fad, they call it a part of a niche group that will soon go away. However, Anime has been here in some form since the 60's and has been mainstream for over 10 years, influencing the very nature of American Animation, from Teen Titans to Justice League to Disney films. The majority of the artists in the American industry at least know of this art.
Because it is often not called true, stolen from and otherwise plagiarized and looked down upon, it is a slighted art.