Cartoons & Anime: Whats the difference?

[Anecronwashere]

Am I missing some glaring difference? Because the only thing I can see is that Anime is mostly Japanese made.

[Eakin]

Really, there isn't one since "anime" is just a shortened word for "animation" so any Tom and Jerry or WB cartoon you imported into Japan would be considered "anime"

Since the word was originally supposed to mean "Japanese cartoon" it got wrapped up in a bunch of stylistic assumptions based on the first few animations series that made the leap over the Pacific ocean, but as more and more Japanese material makes it to the US through the internet and Western studios create more and more material that's clearly influenced by Eastern elements, like the Avatar series, the more meaningless the distinction becomes.

I'd be perfectly happy to drop the distinction, myself.

[Dr.Epic]

Well, one of these takes 17 episodes for just one character to throw a single punch.:smallwink:

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Well, one of these takes 17 episodes for just one character to throw a single punch.:smallwink:

Those 17 episodes were classics! :smallamused: Of course more modern Japanese Animation shies away from such padding, usually.

[Dr.Epic]

Those 17 episodes were classics! :smallamused:

Yeah, like the episode where they powered up, and then powered up some more!

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Yeah, like the episode where they powered up, and then powered up some more!

I loved the part when they yelled a lot while they did that!

[GloatingSwine]

Look buddy, if you're not grunting and straining like you've had nothing but eggs to eat for a month you're not really powering up.

Anyway, OP: In English the word "anime" is a geographical indicator which means animated productions from Japan.

[Dr.Epic]

I loved the part when they yelled a lot while they did that!

And then somebody made a bad joke which caused the other characters to faint and then go all chibi as they yelled. Wasn't that part awesome!:smallwink::smalltongue:

[Dienekes]

There really isn't any distinction, it's just a shorthand way to say cartoon that happened to be made in Japan. It is fun though to tell an anime fan that he's watching cartoons. Their indignation always makes me chuckle.

[Jayngfet]

There's no real one glaring difference so much as there are a couple dozen little differences that have nothing to do with the obvious things people assume. The way perspective, composition, figures, and a bunch of other stuff works comes from the fact that Japan has an entire seperate artistic tradition. Obviously it's not a straight divide since the western world and Japan have been trading tips on again off again for a couple hundred years, but the way things are done on a fundamental level have some slight differences.

It's not so much a "Cartoons vs Anime" so much as it is "what exactly has everyone been doing in the years leading up to animation coming into it's own" and a "what overlying culture causes the people making this stuff to work the way they do".

[Lord Seth]

Am I missing some glaring difference? Because the only thing I can see is that Anime is mostly Japanese made.Mostly? Try always. The definition of anime is that it's a cartoon made in Japan. So if it's from Japan, it's anime. Otherwise, it's not.

So there's your difference. A cartoon refers to any cartoon, whereas anime refers to a cartoon specifically from Japan. In other words, an anime is a type of cartoon...asking the difference between cartoons and anime is like asking the difference between plants and grass.

[Traab]

And then somebody made a bad joke which caused the other characters to faint and then go all chibi as they yelled. Wasn't that part awesome!:smallwink::smalltongue:

Then suddenly a single drop of water, a gallon in size appeared on the jokesters head. Followed shortly after by a rain cloud that was only over his head. Ill never forget that scene, and it will never be done as well as it was then.

[Scowling Dragon]

I file it under cultural differences.

Japan has such a unique culture that many of their stuff gets lost in transition.

But this is my definition. =P

[Dr.Epic]

Then suddenly a single drop of water, a gallon in size appeared on the jokesters head. Followed shortly after by a rain cloud that was only over his head. Ill never forget that scene, and it will never be done as well as it was then.

And blood sprayed out of that one guy's noise when he saw a half naked girl?

[Loki_42]

Yeah, there's really not much difference. One could say there's the stylistic differences, and the way things are drawn, but then you get things like Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt that's a love letter to American Animation, or any number of anime where the cultural difference isn't really there because it was made for a western audience. Literally the only thing separating them is geographical location, and not even that, because they call all cartoons anime in Japan.

Also, in theory, you could say that there's less of a age bias against animation in Japan. There's still some assumption here in the west that cartoons are for children despite the success of adult themed animation like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. It would be very rare for there to be a Japanese person who would say all Animation is for children.

[Lord Seth]

Literally the only thing separating them is geographical location, and not even that, because they call all cartoons anime in Japan.It is true that in Japanese, "anime" refers to any and all cartoons. Last I checked, though, we were writing in English, not Japanese.

It's not fair to say they're "separated" by geographical location, though, because there is not a dichotomy between cartoon and anime because all anime(s) are cartoons. It's true that anime is defined by geographical location, but they're not really separated.
It would be very rare for there to be a Japanese person who would say all Animation is for children.And it'd probably be rare for there to be an American person who'd make that claim also (unless they think South Park is for kids...). I'm not sure what point this is supposed to make.

[Tengu_temp]

The western world produced adult-oriented cartoons as well, yes, but I don't remember any serious ones, with serious storylines - all of the ones I watched were either comedy or crude Heavy Metal knockoffs with lots of violence and sex and no substance. And those genres don't really help in making the medium be treated more seriously.

By the way, does anyone know any cartoons that fit what I just described? Western-made, aimed at adults and not kids, not entirely comedic and not an immature gore-fest/borderline porn?

[Scowling Dragon]

The west has a much lager focus on Live action series.

[MLai]

Am I missing some glaring difference? Because the only thing I can see is that Anime is mostly Japanese made.
Besides the artistic/screenplay differences that another poster mentioned, there's also the cultural differences. Japan produces their cartoons primarily for their home audience first. Therefore no matter the setting, the characters and stories will reference their culture and appeal to their culture. As for the setting, it's almost always Japan when it's contemporary. If it's sci-fi/fantasy, then it's sci-fi/fantasy setting as a Japanese writer envisions it. There are exceptions to that ofc, where a Western flavor is more pronounced, such as Cowboy Bebop.

Basically, the above is a long-winded way to say "It's Foreign Television." That's a big difference right there.

[DigoDragon]

Am I missing some glaring difference? Because the only thing I can see is that Anime is mostly Japanese made.

I've always thought of Anime to be a particular style of animation.

[Eldan]

I don't know... I've seen Anime of quite a few different Genres, and it seems to me like the style can be very different.

[Traab]

And blood sprayed out of that one guy's noise when he saw a half naked girl?

Oh YEAH! Right after that, some normally quiet girl summoned fire all around her, her teeth got super sharp, and she pulled a mallet larger than her out of "somewhere" to bash him in the head! It totally took me by surprise because the guy is the hero, and clearly the strongest of the bunch, while she can barely hurt flies. But there he was, with his arms and legs sticking out of a hole in the ground, twitching.

[Friv]

One of the big differences is that when you say "cartoons", people default to Bugs Bunny, and when you say "anime" people default to Dragonball. Of course neither is true, but this thread alone demonstrates how quickly it can spread as a joke or seriously.

More seriously, though, anime has various stylistic tendencies - long pauses for dramatic or comedic effect, stylized bodies and faces, Japanese cultural references and idioms - that usually make it noticeable. Various anime will have this to greater or lesser degrees, and a show like Jellyfish Princess is going to give you a very different set of assumptions than a show like Cowboy Bebop, but there are things that are common to the style.

[Terraoblivion]

Major stylistic differences happen between American cartoons and cartoons of other origins. Just look at what the stuff the Czech used to make is like. Mostly it's just that when people say cartoons, they think of American ones.

The biggest stylistic difference I can think of is that a lot of anime is for adults without being comedy. That's pretty substantial even compared to other non-American cartoons.

[GolemsVoice]

Oh YEAH! Right after that, some normally quiet girl summoned fire all around her, her teeth got super sharp, and she pulled a mallet larger than her out of "somewhere" to bash him in the head! It totally took me by surprise because the guy is the hero, and clearly the strongest of the bunch, while she can barely hurt flies. But there he was, with his arms and legs sticking out of a hole in the ground, twitching.

Have you heard about that scene where the main character makes a declaration, and he's just standing there with his amr in the air, and there are a lot of flashing colours in the background?
It really gives the character new depth!

[mangosta71]

By the way, does anyone know any cartoons that fit what I just described? Western-made, aimed at adults and not kids, not entirely comedic and not an immature gore-fest/borderline porn?
Is Archer too comedic to fit your description?

[Dr.Epic]

Oh YEAH! Right after that, some normally quiet girl summoned fire all around her, her teeth got super sharp, and she pulled a mallet larger than her out of "somewhere" to bash him in the head! It totally took me by surprise because the guy is the hero, and clearly the strongest of the bunch, while she can barely hurt flies. But there he was, with his arms and legs sticking out of a hole in the ground, twitching.

And the 10 minutes it took for the magical girl to go under her transformation?
Have we played this bit out long enough?

[Traab]

Have you heard about that scene where the main character makes a declaration, and he's just standing there with his amr in the air, and there are a lot of flashing colours in the background?
It really gives the character new depth!

Nah, the greatest part ever was when the hero was being utterly crushed, I mean decimated, nothing he knew how to do was working and the bad guy had him critically wounded. Suddenly all his friends yelled out his name REALLY REALLY LOUDLY, and the badly injured hero struggles to his feet, made that memorable speech about how good guys with friends will always win, then unleashed an attack that was like 10x as powerful as his previous best, obliterating the disbelieving bad guy in a single attack.

[GolemsVoice]

That's true, I had forgotten that scene. But another memorable one, I think, is where the protagonist starts spinning, and his special thing started glowing, and there were flashing lights in the background and smoke, and suddenly, he was that other guy, and like, super powerful!

[Nerd-o-rama]

It's like I'm really in 1998.

This is the important part of the explanation

Anyway, "anime" is the Japanese word for animation (just borrowed and shortened from the English word, like many words for things that were originally invented elsewhere - see also "pan", from the French pain for bread, "kohi" for coffee, and banana.)

English borrowed the term back to describe animation specifically made in Japan, so in an English discussion forum, "anime" just means "cartoon made in Japan". This is literally all it means.

End important part commence rambling

(Incidentally, the same thing happened with "mecha" - Japan borrowed and shortened "mechanical" from English to mean any kind of complex machinery; English borrowed it back to describe the peculiarly popular in Japan concept of giant legged piloted or robotic vehicles, often used in combat).

The 'differences' people are pointing out here are merely in the differences between the most widely popular Japanese animation (cheaply produced action or high school comedy-drama shows) and the most widely popular American animation (children's slapstick or sitcoms).

[Ramza00]

By the way, does anyone know any cartoons that fit what I just described? Western-made, aimed at adults and not kids, not entirely comedic and not an immature gore-fest/borderline porn?

Batman the Animated Series

[Prime32]

Batman the Animated SeriesNo, that was made for kids. Just made very well.

[Tengu_temp]

Is Archer too comedic to fit your description?

I am not really familiar with that show, but it might qualify. Same with Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.

Gimme more! And no, Batman TAS, Avatar or MLP FiM don't count.

[VanBuren]

Is Archer too comedic to fit your description?

I think I'd go ahead and say it still is, just that it also bothers to have a coherent plot. Still, it probably comes the closest out of them all so far.

[Eldan]

I am not really familiar with that show, but it might qualify. Same with Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.

Gimme more! And no, Batman TAS, Avatar or MLP FiM don't count.

Does it have to be American? I might dig up a few European examples.

[Loki_42]

And it'd probably be rare for there to be an American person who'd make that claim also (unless they think South Park is for kids...). I'm not sure what point this is supposed to make.

Yeah, those people exist, trust me. Hell, when I was a kid, I knew another kid whose mom would let him watch South Park, but wouldn't let him anywhere near Harry Potter because it had magic. I'm not saying they're particularly common, and the number diminishes every day, but some people just don't get that cartoons can be very mature(as in sexual/violent, not always actually mature).

[Tengu_temp]

Does it have to be American? I might dig up a few European examples.

Europe is fine, as long as it was made west from where I am. It wouldn't be western otherwise.

[Alabenson]

There's no real one glaring difference so much as there are a couple dozen little differences that have nothing to do with the obvious things people assume. The way perspective, composition, figures, and a bunch of other stuff works comes from the fact that Japan has an entire seperate artistic tradition. Obviously it's not a straight divide since the western world and Japan have been trading tips on again off again for a couple hundred years, but the way things are done on a fundamental level have some slight differences.

It's not so much a "Cartoons vs Anime" so much as it is "what exactly has everyone been doing in the years leading up to animation coming into it's own" and a "what overlying culture causes the people making this stuff to work the way they do".

I feel I should point out that anime actually has it's roots in American animation, if you trace it back far enough. Osamu Tezuka, sometimes referred to as the god of anime for his contributions to the medium, was immensly inspired by the early works of Walt Disney.


Also, in theory, you could say that there's less of a age bias against animation in Japan. There's still some assumption here in the west that cartoons are for children despite the success of adult themed animation like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. It would be very rare for there to be a Japanese person who would say all Animation is for children.

You also run into the significant cultural differences between what the Japanese feel is child-friendly and what is considered child-friendly in the west; the Japanese have a much higher tolerance for sex and violence in children's media than we do.


It is true that in Japanese, "anime" refers to any and all cartoons. Last I checked, though, we were writing in English, not Japanese.

It's not fair to say they're "separated" by geographical location, though, because there is not a dichotomy between cartoon and anime because all anime(s) are cartoons. It's true that anime is defined by geographical location, but they're not really separated.And it'd probably be rare for there to be an American person who'd make that claim also (unless they think South Park is for kids...). I'm not sure what point this is supposed to make.

To be honest, it's rather depressing to know how many parents groups were outraged that a "children's program" like South Park had so much objectionable material. There's also this article (http://www.actsofgord.com/Chronicles/chapter12.php), which shows that the belief that all animation is for children extends to anime as well for some people.

[INoKnowNames]

Honestly, it's a stereotype thing, if anything. Not much of one when you get good and serious... Everyone's got all sorts of different art styles in every media, those little distinctions aren't all that important anymore.

[Psyren]

The western world produced adult-oriented cartoons as well, yes, but I don't remember any serious ones, with serious storylines - all of the ones I watched were either comedy or crude Heavy Metal knockoffs with lots of violence and sex and no substance. And those genres don't really help in making the medium be treated more seriously.

By the way, does anyone know any cartoons that fit what I just described? Western-made, aimed at adults and not kids, not entirely comedic and not an immature gore-fest/borderline porn?

This - and I don't know of any Western examples either. The West is afflicted very heavily with Animation Age Ghetto.

I look at very cerebral shows like Ghost in the Shell or Serial Experiments Lain, then I look at western cartoons and weep. Even the more jocular stuff like Trigun has much deeper themes to it than anything in the West.

[Traab]

This - and I don't know of any Western examples either. The West is afflicted very heavily with Animation Age Ghetto.

I look at very cerebral shows like Ghost in the Shell or Serial Experiments Lain, then I look at western cartoons and weep. Even the more jocular stuff like Trigun has much deeper themes to it than anything in the West.

Thats because for some reason american cartoons are stuck on the "for kids only" track and cant derail from it. Even the stuff like metalacolypse or whatever its called, the crude nasty cartoons, are still egared more towards kids than adults.

[Ramza00]

No, that was made for kids. Just made very well.

The first season was aired during primetime aka evening

Batman: The Animated Series premiered on the Fox Network's children's block Fox Kids on September 5, 1992 and aired in that block during weekday afternoons at 4:30pm. In December, just three months after its debut, Fox also began airing episodesof the series on prime-time Sunday evenings, marking one of the few times a show created for Saturday Morning Television was scheduled for prime-time broadcast. However, the TV ratings fell short (as the show aired opposite the perennial favorite 60 Minutes), and the series was removed from this time slot in March 1993.

The series was also nominated for a total of 10 emmys and it won four of them.

[Logic]

I file it under cultural differences.

Japan has such a unique culture that many of their stuff gets lost in transition.

But this is my definition. =P
That's pretty much how I feel. I don't like most anime because of this distinction. The few Animes I have liked I can count on one hand. The number I gave a chance and HATED is at least 10 times the amount I liked.

[Scowling Dragon]

The anime I like are:

The ones that break from norm

The ones that don't need for me to know Japanese culture to like

And are just good.

[thubby]

there's no inherent difference besides country of origin.

as a sort of de-facto difference, animation in the west tends to be relegated to kids and comedy.

that's less true of anime, which has entire genres specifically targeted at older audiences (this doesn't necessarily entail sex/violence, but it can), and IME a greater willingness to tackle deeper and more diverse subject matter.

[Lord Seth]

Yeah, those people exist, trust me. Hell, when I was a kid, I knew another kid whose mom would let him watch South Park, but wouldn't let him anywhere near Harry Potter because it had magic. I'm not saying they're particularly common, and the number diminishes every day, but some people just don't get that cartoons can be very mature(as in sexual/violent, not always actually mature).Which of course all fits exactly in with what I was saying and provides support for my point.