Personally I don't see any purpose for mainstreaming of anime in our half of the world -- only dangers. The only possible reason I could cite would be for increased availability (which I'd say with official and, ahem, unofficial channels is quite sufficient at this moment) or increased quality. I see no reason to believe increased American involvement or notice will significantly raise the quality of Japanese product, only lower it as it is catered to our perceived tastes. The Japanese already had the largest animation industry in the world before this most recent 'anime going mainstream' prediction (anybody else here remember the talk that anime would go mainstream after Macross : DYRL and Nausicaa?) The only remaining reason that I can think of would be the psychological factors, the "hey, my hobby's cool/ahead of its time rather than fanboyish so now you can understand me" factor. I don't care if it's 'understood' or whatever here in the states, only that the Japanese keep doing what they've been doing.