I think you should watch both. If you watch anime with subtitles, you can learn more words and phrases, and also you can learn pronunciation. If you watch without subtitles, you can see how much you've learned and how many things you pick up on and understand. But no, you can't learn Japanese just from anime. Like I said you can learn phrases and vocabulary, but you need to study the language and put some effort in if you want to seriously learn it.

If you always watch with subtitles, it won't be very effective, because your attention will be focused on the subtitles instead of Japanese. You'll learn only a few words after a long time (this happened to me). However, I've heard that if you watch once with subtitles, then the same episode raw and repeat it multiple times, you'll learn more and eventually understand the whole content in Japanese. Obviously that takes a lot of patience and effort, I tried once but ended up getting tired of the same episode and gave up in the beginning,

こんにちわ、ビリーさん！ I enjoy much of the Anime available on Netflix and Hulu & found the following link to be helpful to learn Japanese with anime. http://www.tofugu.com/guides/how-to-learn-japanese-from-anime/ Also, as Arlen suggested, if you can watch an anime without subtitles, you're making your mind work out what is being said and in what context. Watching anime for a younger audience (Shōnen & Shōjo) can be useful for beginners (like me!!!). I found that by having the English subtitles on, I really wasn't making my brain learn so it was taking the easy English way. I hope this helps! がんばってねください！

Arlen that's awesome to hear that you also watch anime. Now I'm working with Genki 1 books and watching anime to make my language experience fun. After completing Genki 1 and 2 - will I be at an intermediate level? Also, when you watch without subtitles - does this not accelerate your proficiency by forcing you to figure out whats going on? What about reading Manga and Watching the anime based on Manga = will that seriously help? Love your spirit bro! Appreciate your help :)

Maybe if you have trouble with pronunciation. I personally watch a ton of anime and read manga in English and also in Japanese to practice my reading. I've been learning from many books and I did a couple of months of self study before I took lessons. book I recommend are the Genki books, their explanations are pretty clear. I watch anime with and without subtitles and I have been able to catch a lot of words that I learn in my lessons. Like for example a word I learn by mistake the other time was はやく (hayaku) (hurry up) I learned it when I was counting numbers, instead of saying ひゃく (hyaku-100) i said (hayaku). My teacher correted me and ever since when ever I hear the word はやく i know they are saying "hurry up" this has happened with many of the other words and phrases that I have learned. The only issue with anime is that you might start using a word the wrong way or in unnecessary situations. http://www.japaneseammo.com/you-may-be-using-sugoi-and-kakkoii-wrong/ follow the link so that you know what I'm talking about:) Good Luck!!!