by Hasan Ali

Created on: July 11, 2010

 The word “Anime” is used for cartoon animations created by Japanese cartoon artist. The word is pronounced as “ah-nee-may”. Although these types of cartoons came into existence in the early 1920s, but the characteristic anime style emerged in the 1960-1980 period, which was due to the efforts of Osamu Tezuka a Japanese manga artist and producer. Nowadays anime has a very large audience not only in Japan but in the whole world, probably due to the fact that anime is not just for kids but for people of all ages unlike the usual cartoons.

 A common question arises that, “What is the difference between anime and cartoons? “. A simple but illogical answer to this question is based on the difference of origin. Only Japanese animation is known as anime, others are known as cartoons, “but still both are cartoons, what's the difference?” a logical answer to this question can only be given if one actually has watched anime. This is because many differences between cartoons and anime can only be observed when watching them, like story-lines, graphics, characters etc.

 Most of the cartoons have a same and predictable storyline; some characters are the defenders of the good and the remaining are the promoters of the evil and they both clash with each other and the good always wins. On the other hand the story-lines and plots of anime series are very complex and unpredictable. In order to completely understand these ideas take example of Naruto Shippuden one of the most popular anime series being watched nowadays. In this series some characters that once defended the good have become evil, like Orochimaru, a popular character in this anime who once defended the Hidden Leaf village (the focused location for this anime), later turned against it and became one of the most dangerous threats to the village. Similarly, another featured character in this series is Itachi Uchiha. In the beginning the impression of this character was given as one of the enemies of the Hidden Leaf who murdered his own clan, but later in the series when he dies, one of the characters who knew why he did such a thing explains the reason behind it which totally inverts the impression of this character from a enemy of the Hidden Leaf to a hero for the Hidden Leaf. Such story-lines and plots make an anime series totally unpredictable and interesting to watch.

 Another distinguishing feature of an anime form a cartoon is the graphics and animation of the characters. The most common difference is in the animation of eyes. Anime characters have large doe-like eyes, which gives some characters a cute look and to some a smart and bold look.

 There are many genres of anime, martial arts, romance, comedy, tragedy, school, hentai and ecchai to name a few. Anime is for people of all ages, for kids, teens, and even for adult. The hentai and ecchai categories are usually for the adult audience and are rated for audience above 18 years of age. This is the reason why anime is more popular among adults than usual cartoons. Naruto, Pokemon, One Piece, Inu Yasha, Dragon Ball Z are among the popular anime nowadays.  

Learn more about this author, Hasan Ali.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.