The difference between Anime and cartoons. Listen up and write this down bitches...
There are many differences between anime and cartoons. For one, anime is from Japan and cartoons are American in origin. That seems silly, but the implications of the cultural differences of the two countries are that anime is what Americans might call, risque, or inappropriate for children. Nudity is commonplace in Japanese anime, along with adult jokes, and things that are quite disturbing, but don’t have a category. For example, in Pokémon, one of the most child oriented anime series to date, a male character named James has some interesting qualities about him. He’s obsessed with clothes and is always carrying and smelling a rose, not that there’s anything wrong with those two things. Where it crossed the line and got cut from the American series though, was the episode where he got breast implants and wore a bikini for quite a bit of the episode. However in Japan they see things that Americans find offensive as normal and acceptable. Another difference is that in anime, the main characters can die. In an American cartoon, which is made for kids, that could never happen. In fact, in a show like Dragonball Z, a main character can die multiple times!
Believe it or not, there’s more that’s different between anime and cartoons that just that! Character development, the most important thing for any good series or story, is gone about in a different way. In American cartoons, most development is done via direct characterization. It’s actually said in words at some time or another what his personality is like. It still may take several episodes to fully develop a character. In anime, it’s mostly done through indirect characterization, and consequently one character can take half a season of programming or more to describe. Not only does character development take longer, it goes much more in depth. Almost all anime characters have merits and flaws, and if a character has a flaw, he will always have it, even if it ends up killing him and his friends.
The main purpose of anime is different than that of cartoons. Cartoons are made to entertain children and those in touch with their inner child. Anime is made for anything from a sociopathic view on the possibilities of technology replacing humans in the distant future, to a warm, fuzzy children's story. One of the biggest differences between cartons and anime is this one fact. In Japan, anime is so accepted and supported, that I.G. Production, that company that made the new movie Blood: The Last Vampire, was given financial aid by the Japanese government.
Finally, as far as differences go, a huge difference between cartoons and anime is the actual style of drawing. In anime, the eyes are unrealistically large as to make showing emotion easier. Showing stress or a tense situation is done with what looks like a mathematical plus sign on the forehead. The sign is supposed to be a bulging vein, like the one George always had in Seinfeld. A rather gross thing unique to anime is that big, wet, drippy snot bubbles coming out of a characters nose denote that the character is asleep. Finally, a large sweat bullet on the characters forehead shows that they are nervous. It's a very common occurrence for people to be nervous in Japan during conversation, because in Japan people are often too polite to say what they're really thinking.
Believe it or not, there’s more that’s different between anime and cartoons that just that! Character development, the most important thing for any good series or story, is gone about in a different way. In American cartoons, most development is done via direct characterization. It’s actually said in words at some time or another what his personality is like. It still may take several episodes to fully develop a character. In anime, it’s mostly done through indirect characterization, and consequently one character can take half a season of programming or more to describe. Not only does character development take longer, it goes much more in depth. Almost all anime characters have merits and flaws, and if a character has a flaw, he will always have it, even if it ends up killing him and his friends.
The main purpose of anime is different than that of cartoons. Cartoons are made to entertain children and those in touch with their inner child. Anime is made for anything from a sociopathic view on the possibilities of technology replacing humans in the distant future, to a warm, fuzzy children's story. One of the biggest differences between cartons and anime is this one fact. In Japan, anime is so accepted and supported, that I.G. Production, that company that made the new movie Blood: The Last Vampire, was given financial aid by the Japanese government.
Finally, as far as differences go, a huge difference between cartoons and anime is the actual style of drawing. In anime, the eyes are unrealistically large as to make showing emotion easier. Showing stress or a tense situation is done with what looks like a mathematical plus sign on the forehead. The sign is supposed to be a bulging vein, like the one George always had in Seinfeld. A rather gross thing unique to anime is that big, wet, drippy snot bubbles coming out of a characters nose denote that the character is asleep. Finally, a large sweat bullet on the characters forehead shows that they are nervous. It's a very common occurrence for people to be nervous in Japan during conversation, because in Japan people are often too polite to say what they're really thinking.