English-language anime fandom opinions on things
On anime:
It is a subset of animation in general, usually characterized by an art style (or a closely-related family of styles) that typically features larger-than-life eyes, simply-drawn lips and mouth, and otherwise relatively realistic body proportions (with some notable exceptions) in comparison to more heavily stylized styles typical of some western animation series. There is persistent disagreement over whether a work has to be Japanese in origin to count under this banner, or whether the art style alone is sufficient.
On voicework, and "sub[title]s versus dubs":
The most active anime fans tend to prefer on-screen text translations, termed "subtitles". The most commonly-available translated voicework ("dubbing" or just "dubs") is in English, specifically American English. These most active fans usually complain about an alleged lack of quality and/or experience in the English-language voice actors (by "actors" I am referring to both genders), as well as the awkwardness of using English voices to express certain styles of Japanese voicework (such as the high-pitched cutesy female voice), though they typically admit that dub voicework has generally improved compared to past decades. (Occasionally covered is whether understanding a language fluently may allow one to pick out faults more easily, as well as the experiences of people who do not natively use American English, as some dubs are made in other accents and languages.) Dubbing work appears to continue and even be expanding despite their complaints, suggesting that market data may indicate the existence of a larger though less vocal population of dub fans.
On how much/how often they watch anime:
The most active fans typically watch "seasonally" -- as in they follow shows as soon as they come out and thus watch the current season's shows. This had led to some publishers/distributors attempting to do "simulcast" releases over the internet.
These most active fans also often watch at least a few episodes a day, in what is probably a mix of current and past series.
It is likely that there are more casual consumers who are less conspicuously active in anime-related fan communities, more likely to watch past series, and possibly rather numerous.
It is a subset of animation in general, usually characterized by an art style (or a closely-related family of styles) that typically features larger-than-life eyes, simply-drawn lips and mouth, and otherwise relatively realistic body proportions (with some notable exceptions) in comparison to more heavily stylized styles typical of some western animation series. There is persistent disagreement over whether a work has to be Japanese in origin to count under this banner, or whether the art style alone is sufficient.
On voicework, and "sub[title]s versus dubs":
The most active anime fans tend to prefer on-screen text translations, termed "subtitles". The most commonly-available translated voicework ("dubbing" or just "dubs") is in English, specifically American English. These most active fans usually complain about an alleged lack of quality and/or experience in the English-language voice actors (by "actors" I am referring to both genders), as well as the awkwardness of using English voices to express certain styles of Japanese voicework (such as the high-pitched cutesy female voice), though they typically admit that dub voicework has generally improved compared to past decades. (Occasionally covered is whether understanding a language fluently may allow one to pick out faults more easily, as well as the experiences of people who do not natively use American English, as some dubs are made in other accents and languages.) Dubbing work appears to continue and even be expanding despite their complaints, suggesting that market data may indicate the existence of a larger though less vocal population of dub fans.
On how much/how often they watch anime:
The most active fans typically watch "seasonally" -- as in they follow shows as soon as they come out and thus watch the current season's shows. This had led to some publishers/distributors attempting to do "simulcast" releases over the internet.
These most active fans also often watch at least a few episodes a day, in what is probably a mix of current and past series.
It is likely that there are more casual consumers who are less conspicuously active in anime-related fan communities, more likely to watch past series, and possibly rather numerous.
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Action series have had the longest history and most prominent presence with the western fandom, and many fans grew up with one of these in their childhood. Others include mecha series and magical girl series. Fans today are frequently interested in the less "traditional" offerings, typically the series aimed at adults in various ways -- more complex or unusual storytelling methods, darker/grittier settings, more use of violence and/or sexual content, or others. While there are major anime series aimed at children in Japan today, the western fandom largely ignores them.
Among genres that it does express interest in, the western fandom seems to have a rather high opinion of so-called "psychological" dramas, though various comedy, romance, slice-of-life, and other genres' series are also represented in "top" lists.
On directors, studios, voice roles, and other staff:
Many very active fans have seen a large number of series and have also looked into production details (or at least announcement news), and have as a result developed a fondness for the work of particular directors, writers, and animation studios. Voice actors are also a frequent point of fandom. These are treated similarly to celebrities in traditional western media. Less frequent are singling out particular studio staff members for praise or other attention, or discussing the music composers.
There are relatively few long-runner series with major fan-followings, while many series have only 11 to 26 episodes, so as a result smaller individual fandoms tend to be subsumed into the larger western anime fandom community.
On their experience of anime as a whole:
More active western fans have watched a large number of series and nowadays track what they watch through websites like MyAnimeList, AniDB, Hummingbird, Anime-Planet, and others. As a side effect of watching large numbers of series, they frequently draw comparisons between series, and a significant piece of their anime-related experience -- as well as the anime-related social context -- comes from analyzing, assessing/rating, and discussing anime series with fellow fans, as well as sharing recommendations and comparing (and arguing about) their tastes. This has, largely, led to the development of a distinct fandom separate from those of other works of animation or other TV shows.
On accessing anime:
The western fandom benefits from an unsaturated market, internet access, and relatively lax copyright enforcement. Before the internet, VHS tapes and the like had to be physically shared between fans, greatly limiting distribution and audience outreach, but once file-sharing through torrents became commonplace (albeit technically illegal), and once fans became able to easily access digital recordings of TV shows and also add their own subtitles, the western fandom showed that there was a largely very unsaturated market for these shows, with much room for growth, as fans started watching far more shows and also expressing their interest online -- which in a number of cases has also translated to increased sales (of both physical series media and accessory products such as figurines) for publishers and distributors. Given the high level and multidimensional nature of market relevance that illegal distribution channels have had in the success of anime in the west, discussions about it are often contentious and the relationship between fans and publishers is sometimes uneasy, but recent attempts are currently underway to take advantage of this fan demand by providing legal access channels through internet streaming at more affordable prices than buying whole box sets of DVDs (especially before one knows what the show is like).
On the anime fandom:
The western audience for anime is actually quite widespread as there exist a number of very famous Japanese cartoons in this style that are very much part of public consciousness (such as Sailor Moon and Pokémon). However, the western fandom itself generally only counts (and this includes self-counting) people who have watched one or more of the less-mainstream, more "mature" shows, and then subsequently desire to watch other anime series. The fandom itself is often considered a "subculture" by people outside it.
Internet interactions of the fandom tend to be rather rough-and-tumble, but constitute much of the fandom activity. Communities tend to be dominated by males, or at least people generally not willing to claim to be female due to either being male or due to not wanting to attract undue attention to themselves. Individuals can often switch between thoughtful conversations and thoughtless "shitposting" on a whim, based on the conversational context.
Meatspace fan conventions are also frequent in larger cities, and anime-related clubs exist on many school campuses, especially universities; it frequently though not generally that such conventions and organizations may combine interests in different fandom subcultures (such as adding in science fiction, tabletop gaming, videogaming, etc.). One fandom subculture that is very tightly intertwined with the anime fandom is cosplay.
Despite anime being from Japan, and the videogame industry being historically dominated by Japanese companies, western anime fans don't seem to express a notable preference for Japanese videogames. Largely the two hobbies seem to be separate, and anime fans often have typical western tastes in videogames, although they may occasionally cross anime-related materials (e.g. anime character models as mods) into their gaming activities.
The one major exception to this is the visual novel medium. Visual novels -- which are currently in dispute as to whether or not they constitute games, as they often lack most typical forms of gameplay but are also distributed as entertainment software through the same channels as videogames (e.g. Steam) -- are generally tightly tied to anime fans, with few non-anime-fans venturing into the medium. This is probably largely due to the art style, the Japanese language origin (requiring fan-translations in many cases), and the fact that a few of them have anime series tie-ins, as well as the the use of many visual tropes typical to anime (from face faults to sexual fanservice).
On politics:
Anime fans seem to be somewhat less engaged in politics than average, or at least the topic doesn't come up much because people are able to just redirect their conversation to more politics-relevant channels.
A few more recent trends include following the rest of general internet conversation in engaging in politics through mockery of political personalities/events/institutions and generally using them as components of humorous memes (sometimes with very little political opinion itself).
There may be an overall sense of disengagement due to being a subculture (even though most people probably don't engage in their fandom activities on a full-time basis and have other things going on in their lives), which results in some members using the community to express opinions that they'd keep mum about in other contexts, especially sexual opinions. Some of these people also become noticeably defensive in response to criticisms of their tastes, and as a result bashing so-called "social justice warriors" is currently popular among them, who generally allege that those people are responsible for "censoring" fanservice due to "sexism" (despite the fact that the most frequent criticism of fanservice comes from their own fellow fans who opine that it cheapens shows and distracts from stories).
The one currently somewhat-political issue category that does tend to get a bit more attention is the internet, including such issues as net neutrality, which is not surprising given the fandom's reliance on unfettered internet access.
Overall political opinion could be characterized as socially liberal/libertarian, in generally being okay with everything from very sexually explicit content to various sub-subcultures as long as people "mind their own business", but sometimes there are conflicts that result in minority opinions getting shouted down (on everything from tastes in anime series to social implications of various characters). Meanwhile, sometimes some fans do intentionally stoke the flames of controversy for amusement. There is little information or notable presence on other issues.
J-pop and especially the subcategory known as "anisong" have gained a western following in large part because of the popularity of anime, where some series have drawn series fans to become fans of their frequently iconic and memorable theme songs, which in turn draws attention to their performers. Some of these performers occasionally visit anime conventions in the United States and elsewhere to give concerts.
A voicebank software package called Vocaloid has become noticeably popular amongst anime fans. it allows users to write their own songs and have a virtual vocalist perform them using sung syllables pre-recorded from a real-life voice; these vocalists have been given names and (perhaps importantly?) portraits and have fandoms similar to those of real-life celebrities. However, most Vocaloid songs are still Japanese in origin rather than western.
On the non- (or not-quite-) mainstream status of anime and the anime fandom:
On one hand, a lot of anime fans complain that their hobby isn't socially accepted, especially by their families. Obviously, some people are more accepting than others; some people have parents that turn a blind eye to or even join in with watching things, but others report that their hobby is seen as either embarrassingly niche/geeky or embarrassingly immoral (when fanservice comes into the picture, literally and figuratively). On the other hand, some people opine that they'd rather the medium stay non-mainstream, some because they're afraid more "mainstream" media tastes might dilute the distinctive features that they enjoy in anime and some because they're afraid that more mainstream presence would lead to a decrease in less-socially-acceptable features of anime that they themselves appreciate, such as high degrees of sexualization of characters.
Sadly, while I also feel that sports fandoms are similar in various ways, that thinking doesn't stick with most people.
On western animation:
While there are occasional arguments over whether Japanese animation is superior to western animation, fans by and large seem to not have an opinion on this, and seem to generally watch whatever they please, even if it's not Japanese in origin. This has led most notably to a lot of interest in western animation works that use an anime-like art style, such as Avatar the Last Airbender and RWBY, despite fans' continued arguing over whether such works should be included under the name "anime".
As a practical point, though, one often does find such works listed on anime streaming sites.
On whether "anime" as a whole is getting worse or better:
A long-term broad-scale view would generally claim that it's gotten better as there's an ever-greater variety of shows to choose from, though various fans opine negatively about factors ranging from the evolution of the art style over the years to the reuse of formulaic plots to working conditions in some animation studios (which has reportedly driven at least one person to suicide).
One long-term trend since the early 00s that I've had pointed out to me recently, is that series seem to have gradually gone from two-cour to one-cour in length, which some speculate is due to the loss of advertising revenue due to economic slowdown and more of a move toward making series that are tie-ins to multi-media franchises which often include some combination of TV series, light novels, visual novels, videogames, and physical merchandise, thus intending the show to be a loss offset by gains from drawing in extra fans to purchase other items.
On the social implications of anime:
Well, there are many aspects that could be talked about, but a lot of anime series are speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy, sci-fi, post-apocalypstic/dystopian, etc.) so direct applications are rare. Some series have been made that poke fun at notable figures -- such as a world political leaders playing dramatic table games -- but on the whole there has been little more than casual speculation, generally overrun by jokes involving how unrealistic anime is in its portrayals of various things.
Like many other entertainment media, anime seems to be frequently a way to "get away" from the real world -- which seems like a bad thing on the surface until you realize that the western movie industry also tends to see an uptick when the economy is in poor shape.
Anime series themselves tend to be apolitical, which is not a surprise given that they are a commercial art form, though stories that are political within their own setting are rather common as well. I do not know if opinions on any given anime series, trope, or trend has any meaningful correlation with political opinions on any real-life issue; in my younger days I once thought there might be but I have learned to be skeptical that patterns I see as similar will be seen as similar by others.
Some people express hesitation or opposition to becoming mainstream in fear that their hobby or they will be "judged" for its social implications, and have opposed other people's conversations about the social implications of various features of anime series, especially commentary regarding sexism or gender roles. (Race tends to be largely a non-factor as most characters are light-skinned, though they also look rather different from real people so it is usually hard to tell anything beyond skin color.)
Regarding gender roles, a curious thing I've personally noticed is that while negative female stereotypes in the west have typically been about linking femaleness and female sexual attractiveness with inability -- for example, the "dumb blonde" stereotype -- a number of anime series that feature female protagonists link female sexual attractiveness with ability, such as being a warrior or supersoldier or some other prominent and often leadership role, even when also being a source of sexual fanservice. I haven't seen much discussion about this curious difference in perspective, though.
Attempts to actually discuss any social implications of anime are not recommended on anime forums, unless they are tight-knit and/or otherwise tend to produce meaningful responses. Otherwise, memetic shitposting is likely to take up a lot of the oxygen.
Just thought I'd chime in. I think you're being excessively broad in general, but that in particular kind of bugged me.
Japanese sexual politics are weird.