The funniest experience I had in regards to the cloistered nature of anime, was an incident back in 97-98 (thereabouts) when I asked my then girlfriend if she wanted to watch some anime with me, and she proceeded to slap me and ask how I could watch something so despicable. You see, she was under the assumption the anime only equaled hentai/ero (specifically the tentacle porn that was oh so popular back in the day), so she had thought that when I was asking if she wanted to watch some anime with me, I was really asking if she wanted to watch some porn
. That was probably the "loneliest" moment for me (someone I had developed feelings for could so easily assume the worst so quickly), in regards to trying to expressing my fascination with anime to others, but in retrospect it became a very comical moment.