This may not be obvious if you have only seen anime at your local comic or video store. Until recently the American companies that released Anime in North America were only interested in two audiences, male teens, and adult males. Luckily this is slowly changing and we are starting to see a wider selection of titles. It should be noted that full length anime features challenge Western live action films in both popularity and sales and do exceedingly well, both on TV and in theatres. Now it's the men that are often drop dead gorgeous.
More emphasis is put on the plot and there is usually a love story worked in there some place.
Strong female protagonists are the norm. An important difference in anime, relates to how character development is handled. Western animated TV series tend to be episodic, allowing a small number of episodes to be rerun in random order. Most anime series are designed to be watched in order, and tell one big story instead of a bunch of small ones. The characters are allowed to develop along with the story.