If you look at the genres of the theater, you'll see that there are different types of plays, tragedies, comedies, and so forth. Anime is the same, to define anime in and of itself, it's a form of animation that does not attempt to make the characters look true-to-life, and uses Japan's history if very simplified images to convey a story. Granted, 'Naruto' has been going on for a decade now and is only now showing signs of a conclusion. But that's just how the story plays out.
To not some more popular Anime's, have you ever heard of Astro Boy? It was a 1960's anime that basically debuted the art form, and since then, variations, styles and genre's have taken to using anime as a form of simple art, perhaps somewhat introductory, to animation as a whole. To be a bit informal, it even had a recent CG movie based on it! I would hope that this represents that anime is an artform that has had it's stars and does have the potential to have cultural importance.
Anime is also a Japanese-oriented artform, so one must take into account that there will be cultural differences between Americans and the Anime's creators. I am in my college's Anime club, and some anime's I just don't get, or sometimes are a bit disquieting, but as the saying goes, "to each his own"
Most anime is never meant to be taken seriously, as any cartoon, it's simply a character that fills a role, whether you have any connection to that role is what will make you like or dislike an anime, just like a movie, just like a play, or just like theater.
