Like many other people, I grew up watching cartoons. Saturday mornings in particular were a highlight of my week. Also like a lot of kids, I was attracted to the vivid colors, movement and sounds. In particular I loved the imagination of it all. Worlds and characters with no real limits or boundaries.
As with a lot of other kids, I grew out of cartoons in my teenage years. Occasionally, for sentimental reasons, I would watch one here and there, but overall I was into more real movies and adult shows. However, in high school, I came across an anime movie named "Akira." I was blown away by the greatness of it. Here was a cartoon unlike any I had ever seen. It had style, depth of character and plot lines, and a pace like live-action movies. The amount of detail in the movie was simply amazing and re-sparked my love of animation. I rented many more anime (which is short for Japanese animation) films and some were great, others average and some that were just horrible. Just like live-action movies, some where hits and some were misses. People tend to assume that just because it's animated, that its only for kids, but I disagree.
I think its sad that some people miss out on a wonderful art form due to preconceptions. Everyone doesn't like cartoons, and that's ok too, but for those that used to love them, I really feel you could be pleasantly surprised if you gave anime a chance. I think there are many anime fans out there that don't even know they are fans. Voltron, Thundercats, Transformers and G.I. Joe and many more are primarily Asian created and produced. A somewhat Americanized anime form from as early on as the late 1970's. I still love the classics (Disney and Looney Toons) for sentimental reasons, but for a thought provoking, visually stimulating and dramatic show or movie I will pick up an occasional anime along with new releases of live-action movies.
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