Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawkmonger  Oh and Goji, animation is a medium of entertainment, cartoons (american or european et al) and anime (Japanese) are two sub medians of this medum. Calling all anime cartoons is like calling all romantic comedys horror movies. |
A cartoon is an animated motion picture. That's all. Country of origin, story, mood - all irrelevant.
I have no idea what you think "cartoon" means. I particularly don't see what country it is from has to do with anything.
As you say, animation is a medium of entertainment (though this is a crass simplification). It includes stop motion animation, collage animation and drawn animation. The drawn animations are cartoons. It's all tremendously simple to understand.
"Anime" is a term to describe (a style of) Japanese cartoons. It does not describe anything separate from cartoons, but cartoons from a specific film industry with a certain look. It is both correct and acceptable to refer to anime as cartoons. Because they are.