Are you finding it hard to find cartoons suitable for both teenagers and adults? Well, anime could be exactly what you’re looking for.

Anime is an abbreviation of the Japanese word animeshon, which is based on the English word animation. Outside Japan, the term usually refers to the medium of animation originating in Japan, with distinctive character and background aesthetics that visually set it apart from other forms of animation, such as Walt Disney films, Warner Bros., and other short cartoons. Within Japan, the term anime is used to refer to all forms of animation from around the world. While some anime is entirely hand drawn, computer assisted animation techniques are, in recent years, quite common, and becoming more popular every day. Story lines, typically are filed under the fiction category, and there’s examples of anime for almost every genre of fiction out there.

Anime is broadcasted on television, distributed in media, through DVDs and VHS, or included in computer format, and it also has a big market in video games. Anime is often influenced by Japanese comic books, also known as manga. There are also many examples of anime story lines have been adapted into movies and television series.

Anime can be traced back the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers were experimenting with the animation techniques being explored in France, Germany, United States and Russia. In the late 1960’s, the United States had its first large scale exposure to anime through the Speed Racer TV series, a dubbed version of a the popular Japanese series.

Anime developed further and separated grew away from its roots in the 1070’s. This was a result of the growing popularity of manga comics, which eventually became anime themselves. This was especially the case with the work of Osamu Tezuka, who has been called a legend and the god of manga. As a result of his work, and that of other pioneers in the field, anime developed characteristics and genres that became known as the fundamental elements of the modern anime. The giant robot genre, known as mecha, meka or mechs outside Japan, for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed under Go Nagai and others. The genre was also revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino.

This genre of robot anime, examples of which being Gundam and Macross, became instant classics in the ‘80s, and even today, robot genre of anime not only still exists, but it thrives as being one of the most popular forms that teenagers and adults still enjoy. In the 1980s, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a boom in production. The mid to late ’90s, on into the millennium, saw an increased acceptance of anime in overseas markets.

If you are looking for cartoons that are suitable for both teenagers and adults, Anime with its many genres, styles, themes and formats can definitely be exactly what you’re looking for.