Anime Game (Day 5) What is anime

Anime is a cartoon from Japan.

... That's basically the gist of it. To quote a person on YouTube, "It's Looney Tunes from f***ing Japan."

Other than the fact that one comes from Japan, there are no differences between anime and american cartoons, contrary to what some anime fans might tell you.
Both can be aimed at kids,
both can be aimed at adults,
both can be light-hearted and kid-friendly,
both can be incredibly dark and violent,
both can tell a damn good story,
both can be comedic and make you laugh,
both can be tragic and make you cry,
and both can be very entertaining overall.

"Anime" is an abbreviation of the word "animation."

Anime is also Japanese cartoons. It can be done using computer animation or it could be hand drawn.

Simply put.....

I could go on....and on...

Anime is a Japanese animated TV show or Movie often involving themes like Sci-Fi or Fantasy. And there are also anime video games like BlazBlue and Yggdra Union and there are also anime Graphic Novels known as Manga. Most Animes are usually serious and emotional like Basilisk but funny and silly at the same time like Soul Eater. Animes usually involve violence and vulgarity like Elfin Lied. And some of them are also based on video games like Sonic X or Pokémon. And there is also Anime Porn FYI.

(As I was told by my mother a few years ago, it could totally be wrong...) The word 'anime' was once a Spanish word (again, I could be wrong) and the Japanese coined it to mean their own animation.

Anime isn't just animation, what determines anime is who wrote it/animated it. So for example, Young Justice and The Front may look akin to Japanese anime, but since Americans (or just non Japanese) wrote it, it wouldn't be considered anime.

Anime can look any way it wants, there's no specific style of which all manga-ka/animators use, like I said, it's really about who wrote it that determines it. So just because something is anime or written by someone Japanese doesn't necessarily mean that their eyes have to be big or drawn a certain way, though it is known that the most detail is put into the eyes and the hair.

And my last, last last thing that I have to say about the difference between anime and cartoons is the quality. As my un-bais opinion, I feel as if cartoons are directed mostly to children/younger teens, albeit Adult Swim and the like. Anime comes in many different ways, different plotlines, art, age group and what-have-you, it's not just DBZ and Naruto and Pokémon and all that....there's an anime for everyone, whether you're into Shounen, Shoujo, Ecchi/Hentai, Yaoi/Yuri, Moe, you name it!

Everyone has an anime that's theirs.