Also i call bullshit on the link you posted, just because a cartoon is based/promotes a franchise doesn't mean it's bad, or causes the "death" of the industry, yeah there are and have been a lot of shit cartooons and anime that promote stuff and there are and have been also a lot of shit cartoons and anime that are just shit.
Amid Amidi is an animation historian. He has served as a judge at various film festival events, has been reporting on the animation industry for years, and has written several books on the matter. He know s a great deal more about the industry than you ever will. When he talks about something being a sign of the end of an entire era, it's because he knows what is going on behind the scenes in the industry and can back it up.
The Hub and My LIttle Pony are systematic of a problem with the entire industry. The shows are not creator-owned and do not reward animators for success. They are not conducive to a creative environment because the safe bet nature of the executives has been drying up quality animation in both the west and the east. The animation industry is in a rut right now, and has only gotten more stuck as the decade has rolled on, and this show's success can only worsen the issue.
I know that the definition of cartoon is not unlike that of an anime
It IS that as an anime. In fact, most Disney films released in Japan are marketed as "anime". Only in other territories is "anime" used to specifically refer to Japanese cartoons, as a subgroup of "cartoons".
So? Do we have the same thing for films? Paintings? Books? Games? Is Lost Planet any less of a third person shooter because the Japanese made it? Why with animation specifically, and why with JAPANESE animation specifically, is something not a valid part of an entire medium simply due to not being western? And "EVERYTHING sucks except things produced in an environment that does things differently" is not a valid argument, either. OF COURSE everything sucks that isn't at all different from something that sucks. If something doesn't count because different ideas went into making it, well then fuck, NOTHING COUNTS.
I do watch animes like FLCL and Samurai Champloo but unless they get praised by reliable sources i tend to avoid them.
Generally speaking, you SHOULD avoid modern anime. Most of it is terrible, for much the same reason American animation is doing badly. Japan has been in a recession longer than the US, and in recessions people go with safe bets. And safe bets are crap. The safe bets in animation are predictable formulae, product tie-ins, the cheapest animation possible rather than the best or most expressive, etc. All the same, Kemonozume and Tatami Galaxy comes from a block on Fuji TV meant to foster creative, high-quality animation for adults, and it shows. Kemonozume is from the same director, and while it's grittier(stronger sexual and violent content), it's no less artful and it has a more detailed visual style that some could prefer.
In the US, we don't have a "Noitamina" equivalent that I know of. The closest we have had to an analogous serious adult animation block would be Liquid Television.
Ugly Americans is a creative show set in an alternate universe New York City where monsters and demons and the like all live alongside normal people. It has a very EC Comics look to it, and while it seems to struggle to find its voice at times, it has a great individuality and creativity and tons of potential.
Moral Orel is a series about fundamentalist Christianity in middle America. It starts off as a satirical caricature of fundamentalist Christianity, and that on its own is fairly hilarious, but it's in the final season where the show really developed into something that was actually beautiful. Much of the final series consists of masterfully-created episodes that take these paper-thin characters and expanding on them, showing WHY they are what they are. What they're hiding, what they're hiding FROM, what they're dealing with on a daily basis. What starts off as a satire on "Lesson of the Day" Christian programming and culture comes off as a truly beautiful examination of PEOPLE as a whole, and I love it dearly for that.
And you refuse to accept asian animation as examples. Fine. Accept "Avatar: The Last Airbender"(not great, but tolerable with moments that are truly good, and the animation is lovely) and Archer, which while badly animated with computers at least has the decency of not also following a shit script.
RatherDashing: Good trolling, dude.
I missed the part that was trolling, because I can't find it.