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First off, let me begin with my definition of “anime”, or what makes something an anime. Many people think something along the lines of, “anime is an animated title, produced in Japan” or perhaps “an animated title intended for a Japanese audience”. And many English-language dictionaries will define anime as "a Japanese style of motion-picture animation" or as "a style of animation developed in Japan."

However, in Japan, the term "anime" does not specify an animation's nation of origin or style. Instead, it serves as a blanket term to refer to all forms of animation from around the world (both foreign and domestic). The word "anime" is a loan word referring to "animation" or "cartoons," adapted from the English word "animation." The Japanese Wikipedia on "anime" specifically notes that:

Since the language that can abbreviate animation as anime is limited to Japanese, the term "anime" is used for Japanese animation and Japanese-style expression within animation in English-speaking countries outside Japan. In Japan, anime is used regardless of the country of production or style.

So there you have it. It’s the western-centric mindset that gravitates towards defining anime as something exclusive to Japanese animation. When the reality is that anime is ANY KIND of animated work (In Japan, people call Disney animated films, Disney Anime). To appease the purists reading this, I will concede that, on average western cartoons are more lighthearted and tend to be less visually detailed when compared to Japanese anime but both can deal with more mature themes. And I think this distinction is slowly dissipating as more series like Netflix’s Castlevania, B.CMAY's The Kings Avatar, and ARCANE come to prominence.

The difference between "animation", "cartoons", and "anime" ends up being very subjective. It typically comes down to what you like and how you like it. And to me, I’d prefer to not exclude a series simply because it “doesn’t look like anime”, or “isn’t from japan”, or any such nonsense along these parameters. Additionally, here are some videos by prominent Anitubers that share opinions along these lines to show that I'm not the only one that thinks this way:





/RANTEND