I don't know if in your country is the same, but here in italy, people says that anime (they don't make difference between anime and cartoon) is for children.
For exemple, they say me that i am too "old" for spend my time reading manga and watching anime. everybody say that: from teacher to friends...
what do you think about?

Kisss Usagi

Because they are ignorant pricks who should learn a thing or two before passing judgement.

Yeah, i think that they haven't seen any anime or manga. i have saw a lot of anime, and my personality is change from when i was child to now and i think that anime make me be a better person, surely better than people that talk a lot whithout knowing

I can say, about this problem here, in Russia people who watch anime talk too)))
I think it depend from the human mentality )))
I agree with ~SailorMoon4ever? becouse people really like judge things, which they even dont see.
For example my parents and my sister don't understand me))

This happens in Singapore A LOT.
Who says anime is for only children? I mean, I happen to know some teachers that watch anime... They tell me that anime is for everyone, age doesn't matter at all!

Depends on the persons viewpoint...like..most think its just a stupid cartoon and categorises them all to be the same...they probably havent seen much anyways...but for me...anime is so much more, its like art to me...i love it, its beautiful.

Not all anime for kids some are not suitabe for them either

Because anime are cartoons.

Since Disney, the world has come to consider that animations are for children, thats whty all the scandal about anime being violent and sexual and stuff... You cant show that to children, and adults cant begin to comprehend that certain animes arent for kids...

Oh, that's a very common prejudice. It's true that people aren't very interested in anime here in Romania - a lot of my friends don't know the difference between anime and cartoons. Maybe people think that everything 2-D is a cartoon, because cartoons are shown more often than anime (again, speaking from the point of view of my country, I don't know about others).
It's wrong to think so. After all, anyone who has watched the new Hellsing OVA can't say it's exactly for children! Violence, blood and the likes are present in anime too. Even some cartoons present it.
However, cartoons belong to one type of culture, anime to another. It is wrong to mix them.

Well, I don't know if I can speak for all countrys in the world, but...

Here in Germany we have ONE "official" Anime-channel. The only problem is that they often show Anime like Pokémon, Digimon, Detetctive Conan etc. If they show other things, they always cut out the bloody and/or "perverted" parts and sometimes censor the dialogues. I don't know if anybody has heard of what they did to the Naruto series, but I can say, it's horrible. You don't get to see the tiniest bit of blood, even if it's that little you actually wouldn't even notice it. Often they cut out so much you don't know what's actually going on anymore.
So adults see them as either childish or confusing. That's one point.

The other one is that many people, that don't gather information about Anime because they're not into cartoons or whatever, get the idea that Anime is quite the same as stupid things like... let's say Spongebob Squarepants *ignores the evil glares*
...or maybe even extremer concerning all the "strange" methods to express emotions and many other things. Liiike this:
...aaand so on XD

The only difference to these people is that Anime is "Japanese crap" and that the style in which they're drawn is quite different from the styles western cartoons use. So they classify them as more or less mere cartoons. The problem is that most of the cartoons in the western countrys are either outstanding stupid and foolish or they're for children. At least they're "nothing grown-ups are supposed to deal with".
Therefore, they don't even try watching Anime because they are "cartoons". And because they don't get a different view that way, they classify them as something tops children should be watching, as they know it from most of the western cartoons.

That's how I discovered it to be - maybe it's something different for someone else, I don't know^^

I think that some people confuse anime with cartoons too much. Because anime is animated like cartoons some people think that they are also aimed mainly at children. Here in New Zealand, a lot of the anime shown on television during prime time seems to be aimed at younger viewers. Cartoon Network is currently showing Naruto,Marchen Awakens Romance and Pokemon during the day and Gundam and Ghost in the Shell late at night. So I feel that most kiwi's are more familiar with anime aimed at the younger viewer than the more serious stuff. Real anime fans in NZ know better of course! No onewho has ever seen Elfen Lied would agree that all anime is for the kiddies!

I think that they say this because when they depend on only one title or two is simple that the sey "Anime is only for children"
They don't understand whats the real magic of manga and anime, its natural when for example saw "Dr. Slump" XD they think that all titles are like this, they sould seen Saikano, GTO, Kanon :) . There are a lot of great titles and its impossible to count all of them.

We should ignore this, we know better what is the beauty of anime and manga.

Haha lol if you look at some animes what you get to see there, hell no it's meant for children.
Anime's are just stories in a other kind of medium, but a lot of people just don't like the way those stories are told.
That's oke but what i do hate is that they say it's childish cause offcousre "a real story" has to be in a book or on tv.
I don't wanna say much but there is sometimes more meaning and content in a Anime then in 80% of the hype crap they show on tv(lol i even loaned out my tv and don't even miss it)

I experience this too. Some people just are ignorant.
I agree with agentbo, Animes have much more meaning that most of the other shows you get to see nowadays.

This is really common in Mexico as well, I suppose that people with this opinion still thinks that anime=Pokemon or something so they only make ignorant comments towars it.