From my standpoint, Cartoons and Anime have very different styles, which is good, because we wouldn't want to have the same style for both. People enjoy cartoons and people enjoy Anime, both are good but it's not to say one's necessarily better than the other. For example, I can't say that American food is better than Italian, because to me, both taste good. But I guess in the end, it's based on the opinions of the viewer.

Yes, i would have to agree that most of american cartoons are very random, but some do follow the characters of their series and the rest don't relate to any of the characters. I also do agree that the japanese animes do follow the characters from the titles butsome sometimes to follow the series at all. Other then that, i say japanes anime is way better then american, but very few american i do like.

It makes a big difference here between cartoons and animes, from my view cartoons are made only for children, and animes are made not only for children, older or people like we, from 20 years old and watch some of them too.
and some snime series are made especially for adult, and about something that has very deep meaning inside, that sometime, we, not mature, or not have much experience about things, can not understand what it want to decribe, and talk about.
exactly like manga, there are many manga release for older people than we. it makes sense, so by this way, everyone, with different ages can read manga or watch anime too, not only for children.
i like this kind of thing, it makes manga and anime's world have more varieties to choose.

Cantoon is specifically aimed at only kids. Anime has genres that's aimed at many more demographics.

Just because it's animated does not mean it cannot carry out deeper themes and stories. That's the ultimate difference in perception of animated shows between Asia and America.

Anime has many points which make it far better than cartoons but the main points i think

Firstly Story: Many anime, if not most anime, have better storylines which make us feel for the characters-whether to hate/love them, and also able to give us the excitement of anticipation waiting for the next episode. Anime also has a wide variety of genres that can be targeted to children(pokemon) or for more mature audiences(Monster) while cartoons are mainly targeted at kids(Ben 10).

Secondly Art: Even if some anime stories are not that good, their art almost never fails to impress and to make you wish you had a boy/girlfriend like that. This even encourages people to dress up like their fav characters, like in bleach or naruto(they are everywhere).

Japanese Anime has more of a plot and a story line to it. The episode are all connected to each other in some way where in American Cartoons it's more random and rarely ever has a story line to it. I think Anime is better drawn than American cartoons. Anime has characters you can more relate to where American cartoon's character are more to entertain you more than anything. I definitely think Japanese Anime is alot better than American Cartoons.

Well, Japanese anime is better than American cartoons in terms of character design, storyline, animation and presentation. Although American cartoons nowadays has follows the anime style, still they can't beat the quality and popularity of anime around the world. I do like American cartoons but anime always captivates my attention. Anime can focus a lot on many issues that happens around us and have various genres to explore unlike cartoons. Not to forget, anime have awesome soundtracks and J-Pop songs.

I don't see how american cartoons can be limited to just superheroes. our cartoons offer a wide variety of styles, characters and story lines. anime is virtually the same as well, it just airs on the other side of the world.

is anime more popular now, definitely... was it in the past, NO. regardless cartoons, tv, anime, etc. are all simply entertainment. and viewers don't relate to cartoon characters, they relate to their characteristics

when i see naruto i don't see a 23 year girl (referring to me)... but i do see a strong-willed person who never goes back on their word!

To be honest, some American cartoons are actually of good quality... but most aren't. There's the fact that anime has MANY genres, some targeted towards kids, adults, teens, girls, boys, older women, older men... etc., while American cartoons just doesn't. The ones for kids usually have no meaning to them, so you can't even take them seriously. American cartoons for older audiences are even worse. How many American cartoons do you see involve important topics in a mature way, such as bullying, rape, and murder? Most of 'em just make jokes about it. There aren't many American cartoons that discuss real drama, or a comedy that doesn't use racial/sexist/etc. jokes to make it funny. That's just all I have to say.

In my personal point of view, both styles have their own good, bad and uglies. Anime is just a tad more diverse than western cartoon, but comparing the two styles is like comparing taco and lasagna.

Personal preference, that's where I'm getting at.


Just for the sake of throwing my 2cents in, western cartoons back then are a hell lot better than what we have now. By a freakin' mile. SWAT Kats, Thundercats, Maxx... etc etc.

I think anime/manga have more diversity by far.. Most western comics tend to be focused on superheroes etc. Although that might just be my bias.
Personally, i like manga a lot more.. although american comics do have their own merit.

I too am biased, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here, since I also like animation from the USA.

While American animation tends to have a lower quality of what's being animated, the animation tends to be better. Compare the Fleischer brothers' Superman made in the 40's (?) to the recent Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. I love them both, but while GitS is really detailed, there are scenes where nothing is animated at all - not even eyelids! (:O)

Also, the classics - like Loony Tunes and Disney movies - appeal to a large audience without alienating anyone. Children like them, because of the humor and animals, while adults like them for the war and pop culture references and deep themes. American animation tends to be more stylish too. You've got things like Spawn and other things like Flapjack and Chowder. They don't look all that similar at all. I'm not saying stylish anime doesn't exist, but you've got to admit, it's few and far between sadly.

When was the last time you saw comedy in a non-comedy anime series that wasn't bodily humor, potty humor, or involved perverts? This seems to be the only humor I see in anime, while in American animation, you get wordplay, awkward scenes chockful of humor, trifles being taken seriously, etc. that is just much funnier IMO.

American animators and crews also get paid more and everyone on the crew is usually skilled in the arts. That's all I can think of for now.

I differentiate between animation(whether eastern or western... they differ but both have animation) and Cartoons quite simply.

Animation is simply the medium of presentation. It is an empty container that can be filled by anything.

Animated Cartoons are an actual umbrella genre of their own. Is well a cartoon that is presented through animation. As such all cartoons are animations but not all animations are cartoons.

The major difference is that a cartoon is straight humour and/or satire. An anime, even a comedy, tends to have more than just the humour or satire. A cartoonist would generally say this is wasteful, unneeded exposition for a cartoon to have. Namely cartoons are built around the humour/satire, whereas animation can be built around anything(and in Japan even Anime comedies, at least that I have seen, seems to be centered on the characters moreso than the humour(it does depend on the anime though)).

First of all OP is bias and naive. Japanese anime are just animated manga, while some American cartoons are their own basis of a storyline. Anime is completely different genre than American cartoons. First off some cartoons are for a specific audience, usually for the younger generation in America, while in Japan they target the older generation. Secondly there are good cartoons targeted for older people made in America. Futurama, Simpsons, Family Guy all did well and probably outlast a lot of animes in Japan. Venture Bros. is an amazing parody to Johnny Quest. Before you go off flaming on American cartoons do some research.

I feel that it's not the quality of the animation or themes and things like that, it's because of it's audience. Cartoons are mostly aimed at children in the USA and in Japan, it's for everyone, which is why people of all ages enjoy anime. I mean, we consider some anime "great" because of it's themes but it's only good if we understand the theme. Children watch cartoon for fun and that's it. Also the guy above me, fearednerd, mentioned all these other great cartoons that outlast Japanese anime. I also find it a comfort that I understand fully what the person's saying in English because there are some words and phrases that can't be fully translated to it's actual meaning.