Old or Old School

I'm old, so I don't get this whole anime/manga craze. Pokemon, Naruto and my personal least favorite Death Note (I've never actually watched it but the title seems too dark for me to let my kids watch) look like second rate cartoons where the action is choppy. So what's the attraction? I talked to my kids about some classic cartoons that I used to watch as a kid to kind of steer them in the right direction. When I mentioned my all time favorite cartoon when I was a kid was Speed Racer, my kids informed me that that was Manga. Come to think of it, Speed Racer didn't have the smoothest graphics but what it did have was characters that were easy to identify with and action, adventure and a little romance that keep me running home from school for two years to catch the beginning of each new episode. I guess that's what attracts today's generation to the latest anime/manga offerings. So maybe I'm not so much old as old school.