Animation's a tough, tricky business.

When going into animation, there's already a system set up that's both very efficient and very defective. There really isn't a battle between American and Japanese animation.

It comes down to one question?

Do you want to Get Rich & Suck Out Loud, or do you want to Be "Cool" and Go Broke.

Because you can't and won't have both. You HAVE TO choose your career path at some point. I guarantee that much.

Generally, the unwritten law is:

The more $ you have at your disposal, the less popular you're going to be with the intelligentsia.