I think Hentai destroyed Anime's reputation

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I know Hentai already exist since the 80's but it became viral during the internet era. I remember before Hentai became epidemic, I see lots of people respecting anime, As in they respect it because of beautiful illustrations(We know usually American Cartoons looks Ugly) and Niche stories. But now when you say Anime the first thing that will come in some people's mind are hentai and Loli. In some other message boards I have flame-wars with some trolls calling anime as animu, They think Anime is nothign but sexx and violence. Before internet became affordable, I remember most people respects anime and talks about how much better anime is than American cartoons.