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Anime refers to animation that originated from Japan. While essentially an Eastern invention, Japanese anime has, over the years, gained increasing popularity and tremendous worldwide recognition. People unfamiliar with the genre often call them cartoons, which is the same as the animation produced from the US and Europe. True enough, the word anime simply means animation. However, some insist that there are differences, often striking, between the two. Firstly, anime illustrations are known to be exaggerated as far as facial features are concerned. Indeed, “big eyes, small mouth” is a characteristic that most people often encounter in anime. Apart from the facial features, distinctive hairstyle, clothes, and many other attributes of the character are often exaggerated for visual impact. This involves heavily stylized displays of emotion, such as nosebleeds, teardrops, and so on. Also, because anime originated from Japan as previously mentioned, anime shows involve an extensive display of its roots. This often involves anything from the setting of the show (e.g., most anime shows are set in Tokyo), to Japanese humor and elaborate cultural quirks. For instance, the show Super GALS! deals heavily with the teen–girl subculture, which is very distinctive of urban Tokyo, including its own slang, social behaviors, and attitudes. In contrast to the often simple plots of cartoons, anime storylines are often more protracted, continuing across the entire season, or possibly continuing for several ones, as most who watch anime notice. A cartoon is often contained in a single episode, which means the goings–on wrap up in usually half an hour. On the other hand, one typically has to watch an entire anime series to find out what is going on. Revolving around humorous concepts, cartoons usually induce laughter. Anime, however, incorporates usually controversial subject matters that do not show up on cartoon episodes. While anime shows do not necessarily follow a general concept, those who watch anime shows typically see storylines involving sexuality and violence. Because of such, the typical audience of anime shows is often adolescents to teenagers, as opposed to the younger age bracket of those who watch cartoons. Unfortunately, some say that there is no inherent difference between the two, even going too far as to say that both are childish because of the way they are presented. This comes much to the woe of those who watch anime. Technically, there might actually be no differences, but you only have to watch a single anime episode to see for yourself.
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