differentiate anime to cartoons!!!!

I'm not sure about the differences of anime and cartoons but the first thing that comes in my mind when I hear the word cartoons is like kids show like educational or funny or something like a cute story and when I hear the word anime the first thing that comes to my mind is anime is much mature cartoon and also more action than cartoons. Most of anime also have love couples in the story. I think more adult watch anime than cartoons.

anime is just short for animation. the name anime normally refers to a style of animation. there is a western/american style of animation and there is the anime/asian style of animation. when you hear the word 'cartoon' you can instantly think something like a kids show. that is true, majority of cartoons are meant for children, but there are also anime's that are meant for children as well. there are also cartoons which are meant for an older viewing audiences. Take Family Guy...it's an animation but NOT for children. The same goes for more racy cartoons like Futurama, Drawn Together, and King of the Hill. They have the same cartoonish animation but they have a more mature storyline. the same goes for anime. they have different types of anime geared for different audiences. some for adults, some for teens, and some for kids. if you think about it in that aspect..yes, anime and cartoons as essentially the same, they're animations. not using real actors but drawn characters. after that it's more of a regional thing. anime is more asian and cartoon or more western. if you would like to point out a difference. majority of anime's geared toward teens and adults will consist of ongoing storylines as for cartoons and anime's meant for kids will solve their storyline in the 30min it airs. the reason for that is that children have a shorter attention span and a teen or adult can retain the knowledge to be able to watch on to the next episode. those are more present in anime then in cartoons. especially ones made for adults. the lack of an ongoing storyline will be the major thing exasperating the two.