I don't completely agree that anime Japanese is so different from real life Japanese. There is certainly some grammar used that, while correct Japanese, would very rarely be used in real speech. But for the most part, once you have a solid foundation of the language down, and anime or untranslated manga can become very good tools for learning. However, I would not use anime or manga for learning until you know enough to know what is out-of-place and should not be used in real life speech.

I feel as though using structured learning via textbook and—if possible—class (in person or online) is ideal until about early intermediate level. You can tell that there has been a lot of thought into what is taught when. After that, learning on your own becomes easy as you can easily identity what you don't know and what exactly you need to look up.