Japanese anime is alot more aesthetically pleasing than American cartoons, and generally have much more depth when it comes to plot and character development. American cartoons usually rely on toon-force, pulling hammers out of thin air or getting hit in the face with a pie. For the most part American cartoons are episodic and there isn't really a continuity or final goal for any of the characters, which it makes it less intriguing and consequently, less enjoyable to watch.

iroveashe

First of all, I don't know where you get the idea from that all American cartoons are for kids (that seems to be the general opinion around here) and second, I don't know why the fact that some animes have an "adult" storyline makes them better than American cartoons. I've gotta admit that I haven't been watching a lot of contemporary American cartoons but the topic doesn't say anything specific about the year of the comparisons.

I agree.

We can't really judge which is more aesthetically more pleasing. That's just how art is, & depending on your personality, anime can be disgusting or lame (that's why there are anime haters who say "anime's gay")

Anime looks a hell of a lot better than American cartoons. The characters usually have strange colored hair (Ex. blue, pink, green, etc.) and anime knows how to entertain me.

SirKnight

Anime looks a hell of a lot better than American cartoons. The characters usually have strange colored hair (Ex. blue, pink, green, etc.) and anime knows how to entertain me.

yeah anime has more color and it also has a certian feeling to it

Alright, I have to end this ridiculous assumption that anime has better animation quality than American cartoons. Comparing strictly television to television. Anime runs at a frame rate of 12 frames per second, and typically runs on 2's, meaning it's actually going at 6 frames per second. This is not always the case, but is very very common, while American animation runs at 24 frames per second, ad is typically on two's, but also runs on 1's when needed. The frame rate alone will make american animation higher quality since the difference in frames won't be noticeable. Then we move onto the rules of animation. These are the things that make animation truly high quality. Timing...anime timing is typically abysmal outside of some awesome fight scenes. Arcs...anime doe snot follow the rule of arcs, period. Squash and stretch...very rarely seen in anime outside of mokona's squishy body. There are 9 other rules in animation, all of which anime either loosely follows, or doesn't at all, which makes their quality of animation lower. Not to mention, they almost never have overlapping action. Thats the end of my technical rant on animation.

Don't get me wrong. I love anime (hence me being here, dur.) but to say that it is better quality, is silly, since at the technical aspect it is not. Now, moving onto why people actually like it.
Anime is great because it has a fluid story (unless your name is evangelion, in which you leave plot holes abound) that stretches across several episodes. This si something I love about anime. You get a lot of depth out of characters, and are more immersed and their world. The character designs are usually very detailed, which makes people go ..."oo...ahhhhhhhh". Unfortunately these detailed characters is why anime suffers in it's technical execution.
I love anime because of all of the above.

Now, for American cartoons. As pink-sakura said, American cartoons are made to make people laugh. They are short little spurts of entertainment that can take up a full 30 minutes, or be a half episode at 15 minutes. Sometimes they will be continued over. It has been this way ever since the earliest Fleicher brothers and Disney cartoons. They are meant to be this way so you cn sit down and watch one Saturday's, skip a few weeks, and then do it again and not have missed anything. I find watching anime on TV very frustrating since I hate missing episodes, and since I'm busy, I ALWAYS do.
One thing American animation typically does not have is the depth to their characters. We can't always relate as much because we don't know their back story.

Personally, I like both equally, and they both make up a large amount of my DVD collection, as well as russian animation like Yuri Norstein. Neither is better than the other since it is all based on preference. Even the clear difference in technical ability doesn't mean anything since it's still all personal preference. My personal preference? Give me an episode of Fosters, Chowder, American Dad or Family guy over an anime any day.
Thats what happens when you animate for a living :P

I am a die-hard anime fan, so this will be a very biased response, but it's what I think.

American cartoons have no style to them. They are just random episodes that have nothing to do with one another. Most of the cartoons today are really stupid or sick. They try to make children laugh through really dumb jokes and it's just getting really cheesy. I used to adore cartoons before I found anime, but those were the classics. And every Japanese animation they tried to Americanize turned out badly. Take for example, Digimon. That was such an awesome show but it was ruined by the dub. Americans don't know how to pick good voice actors and that's why their cartoons aren't so good either.

Anime shows are able to relate to your life. There are so many kinds of it that you don't know where to start. The audience for anime is much larger, as there are animes for little kids all the way up to teenagers and adults. The story all connects in anime most of the time, and if you're looking for a certain quality in a show, it is easy to find. The American cartoons mainly focus on impressing the little children so they don't have that big of a selection. Animes can relate to romance, fighting, mystery, drama, or just plain old regular day life. If one doesn't like that boring stuff they see every day, there is fantasy and fiction, taking the viewers into a different world for their enjoyment. No wonder America's trying to dub so many animes nowadays.

American cartoons are more based for comedy, while Japanese cartoons are based upon different genres, that applies to each every one of us. Also, American cartoons don't really have a plot to it and the episodes that go in order don't really flow together(With some expectations, like Avatar the last Air bender). However, like Spongebob really is based for younger viewers, but I still watch it.

Iro

First of all, I don't know where you get the idea from that all American cartoons are for kids (that seems to be the general opinion around here) and second, I don't know why the fact that some animes have an "adult" storyline makes them better than American cartoons. I've gotta admit that I haven't been watching a lot of contemporary American cartoons but the topic doesn't say anything specific about the year of the comparisons.

I have to agree with you Iro. Personally, there are some anime that I really don't like the story involved into it, like Excel Saga(No offense fans). While I really like Avatar the last Air Bender a lot and that's american. In my opinion, America and Japan are just aiming for what we like and appeals to are taste.

Well...most american cartoons I've watched don't really have a plot, and they have really silly jokes and characters in them. Japanese anime/manga are more into what people do in real life, and if it's a fantasy anime then the characters will at least act realistically. Well, that's just my point of view.

In general animes are vastly superior to American cartoons for a number of reasons. First of all animes tend to have a more coherent story throughout the series whereas most American cartoons go from episode to episode with a different story each time. This anime trait also allows animes to develop their characters in a way that American cartoons rarely do. Next is the obvious difference in the visuals. Animes tend to have an artistic detail and visual depth that is simply not there in American cartoons. I think the reason for all of this is a cultural difference in values we may never overcome. America as a whole doesn't appreciate art in the same way as the rest of the world. We are just so caught up in our commercialism that we don't always have time for much else. It may not be a bad thing, but it doesn't bode well for American cartoons. Of course, there is an exception to every rule, but in American cartoons the number of exceptions has dwindled in the past decade and is nearing extinction.

I would like to say that their style are different.

i like America cartoon but also anime.the fact of anime is they have story line nice graphic, good looking character and so on.Just like others i like one piece, bleach,keroro,Initial D and others.

on the other hand i also watch spongebob squarepants, happy tree friends they are entertaining for me ha ha.although they act stupidly but they sure entertain me in some way.

I suppose it depends what shows you compare. If you compare Cowboy Bebop to Spongebob Squarepants then of course the show made for your demographic will come out looking better but I'm sure children will find Spongebob 10x more hilarious which makes it successful. Cowboy Bebop is successful because to many of us its a wonderful masterpiece of Drama and Action with some comedy. It just so happens most American cartoons are directed to a younger audience so their storylines are simpler, more episodic, child-friendly and downright boring for us. When I was young there was a lot of cartoons based off comic books like Batman, X-men, and Spiderman. They were very comparable to the Shounen shows like Naruto and Bleach. Especially X-men which was hardly episodic at all. While Batman had small arcs was for the most part episodic in nature it still held as much as depth than any shounen. Seinen just jump to another audience and I don't think anything comes close besides Aeon Flux. American cartoons have become more geared towards comedy and simple action shows which matches the American ideals of a sheltered childhood while Japanese shows are less so. I think in Japan, censorship laws are less strict so they aren't so hampered.

I for one think cartoons have little or no redeeming value, especially since the only popular ones are your disney mouse and the superheroes.
I for one, think that cartoons just don't have it anymore, the way an anime satisfy me through the use of good stories, good narrative, all sorts of variety and a good amount of fanservice just appeals. But less of the latter, after all, without a good story, there is no good ecchi either.

Come to think of it, the only cartoons I liked was Batman and Freakazoid, and come to think of it, aside from Batman which made in big recently with Christian Bale, I see no redeeming value with the cartoon respawnings of Batman of the future etc, and all that jazz... well, I lost the love for cartoons, a long long time ago, simply because they just can't keep my attention.

come to think of it again, I think I am losing it for anime too.

I think anime requires a lot more skill. All of the details, fight scenes in shounen, being able to draw pretty much everything while maintaining a good story line. Also, I think that anime appeals to a much broader audience of all ages. There's anime for youngsters and there's anime for mature audiences. There's anime for girls and for boys. But also, I think it depends on what kind of American cartoons we're discussing about. If we're talking about cartoons like on cartoon network and nickelodeon, then anime is on a far different level than them. Anime shouldn't even be compared to lowly childish cartoons like those. If it's like for a older audience like family guy, then I still think anime is better because anime can be funny, dead out hilarious out that, but it can also maintain a serious story line and be much deeper and can actually touch the audience. Basically, I believe that anime can be more widely accepted, requires a lot more thought and time, and is just much better.

American cartoons aim for a younger audience, for times when we still believe is super heroes and monsters. Most of the time, it's for fun and all, with never a whole plot. In rare cases there might be. I had been watching some recently and I found them great xD Anime well, they aim for all ages, with lots of life things and all. Sometimes, it's so realistic that you find yourself getting more and more in the story, because you can relate to it. But then, I do love both xD

MANY of you say that true anime goes way beyond American cartoons. Well.......
I have an opinion too, and I DO think that some anime has incredible style and depth when it comes to the art and also the stories. BUT, It is VERY obvious that there is plenty of CRAPPY art in a lot (not all) anime. Sure it has "style", yea, pretty bad I must say. So bad that it is distasteful. :( "well you don't know what your talking about" "you don't have a clue about traditions and story telling through anime" :(
Maybe I don't. But I do know something about art and drawing. Not showing off or puffing up, I am just tired of BAD art in various forms of anime. You want an explanation of "bad art"? Maybe I said it wrong, I meant CHEESY art. The kind that is REALLY simply, without detail, very abstract and not realistic in any stretch of the imagination. Let me give you one example of good anime (what I think of good) the new GOTHAM KNIGHT batman anime movie. Now that's great. "that's not anime" :(
If you don't agree, well, everyone's an art critic, but do you draw or know the techniques. I'm not saying that anime is or isn't the best way to illustrate, I'm just tired of the CHEESY side of anime. It's just bad art, PERIOD.