Nearly two decades ago, the release of the movie adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's intense, apocalyptic, epic manga Akira became for many English-speaking audiences their first experience of Japanese animation, or anime. But despite Akira's impact, anime today seems absent from our TV channels, despite being a massive and diverse billion-dollar industry producing countless TV series and movies.

At most, the big channels touch on the popular anime shows every few years, usually during a Japan season like the BBC's recent Hidden Japan. Cinemas, ironically, are perhaps the best source of regular anime TV programming: the Barbican last year showcased some of the TV work of legendary manga creator Osamu Tezuka. When you find anime on the main channels, it is usually films from Studio Ghibli, who were behind Hayao Miyazaki's 2003 Oscar-winning Spirited Away. Meanwhile, the vast swath of anime television series available in English are ignored.

Jonathan Ross is perhaps the UK's highest-profile anime fan, showcasing it on his Japanorama documentaries. But there is no support from the big broadcasters. There are the digital channels - but audiences lost the only provider of regular anime to the UK when the Anime Central channel shut down last August. Now its content is squeezed into a graveyard morning slot on Showcase TV. Other digital channels that once showed anime like CNX have likewise bitten the dust.

Anime shows like Pokémon do air on the Jetix digital channel, but are aimed squarely at children. Anime can be much broader, and certainly much more adult. It is more than capable of dealing with deeper issues like alienation, tech noir and teen angst. Still, quality adult fare like the hugely popular Neon Genesis Evangelion can today only be seen legally here by forking out for English-language version DVD box sets.

Jonathan Clements, author of Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade, a compendium of insider writing about the industry, agrees that forays into broadcasting anime in the UK have been spotty. A lack of demand or financial issues with parent companies sinks many channels. "You may go looking for anime on mainstream television," he said, "but anime's profile on mainstream UK television has always been relatively low – a few late-night screenings on Channel 4 and the occasional prime-time airing on Sci Fi."

Clements also points out that many of the more popular adult anime airs outside of even the Japanese mainstream before going to DVD, making it hardly cost-effective to then bring over to an already niche market here. It is big studio movies that are having the money spent on them. Clements said: "Most TV anime that now achieves any fame within UK fandom was broadcast late at night or only available on TV in an edited form. Death Note, perhaps one of the most popular titles with fans of today, only aired in its native Japan at 1am. If Death Note isn't mainstream in Japan, it's hardly going to be here."

Emily Man from Orbital Comics, which has its own manga store in central London, told me that with expensive licenses required to show anime in the UK and the supportive channels closed down, "the only way that we are going to see anime regularly is if we buy DVDs."

But she also added that: "The UK censorship laws have made it extremely hard for the networks in the UK to show Japanese anime on TV too, our societies' tastes and cultural history are different.

"People in the UK are not as open to this type of 'cartoon'. They're used to Disney. The British have stereotyped anime as weird, sexual and violent, and a network probably wouldn't want to risk showing something like that.

"A big channel isn't going to show interest in anime until it becomes popular again, but that can't happen unless the medium gets exposure on a big channel. Thus the vicious circle. Most people buy DVDs now, or download it."

Clements notes that true anime fans today "wouldn't be seen dead watching mainstream TV as they are already getting their fix elsewhere". Behind the backs of mainstream channels, anime on the web has blossomed.

Fansites, like anime news network, are nurturing the fan community and remain a good guide for novices getting into anime. The mushrooming of streaming and filesharing anime online, sometimes with fans providing the subtitles – "fansubbing" as it is known – is also resulting in TV channels being bypassed, though the legal status of doing this is murky. Anime studios are cottoning on; the video upload and streaming site Crunchyroll now has contracts to legally stream shows, though this has meant cutting out unlicensed uploads. Anime might outlive television as we know it.

So if you want to start watching anime shows, forget about waiting for the BBC or Channel 4. Get online and dive into anime's thriving web communities. If the chatter there is just confusing, get down to Orbital, grab a copy of Neo magazine, and browse the DVD range. If you are ready to splash on box sets, make sure you research what you like first. Rookies can try the following series on DVD, all available in stores or to order online. Enjoy, or as we say, otanoshimi kudasai!

• Neon Genesis Evangelion. So much more than just a show about giant, battling robots. A hugely popular and haunting futuristic epic that tackles loneliness and belonging.

• Death Note. Adapted from the smash hit manga, this is a taught horror/crime battle of minds over a notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The Wachowski brother admitted to being inspired by the original 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie, which this series spins off from. (Currently showing on Showcase TV, Sky 188, 4-5am).

• The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Recently re-released on DVD, a classic Franco-Japanese production that aired on the BBC in the 80s, with a classic theme song.

• Cowboy Bebop. Retro-styled bounty hunters in lawless space. A live-action film is in the works, starring Keanu Reeves. Fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly might want to investigate. (Currently showing on Showcase TV, Sky 188, 4-5am).

