[steven]

I have personally heard Japanese people saying things along the same line as "anime is for kids" and "I don't really watch it any more since I've grown up" or "I don't watch it because I've grown up".

As far as the people I've talked to before go (I've never really participated in conversations specifically about manga or anime myself because i'm not really into it), I think that most middle school students and above read manga. You can probably walk into any conbini in Japan and see some old guy reading a comic book, so I think that never really goes away. However, as far as cartoons go, in my conversations with pre school/elementary school kids, I've noticed that they are more into anime than most other people. That is my feel of the situation- but keep in mind I'm not particularly into that stuff so I probably don't hang out with that crowd too often.

Another thing I think is worth mentioning is that, at least for the poeple I talk to, most people don't have a bunch of TVs in their house. They might have one in their living room and that's it. Therefore young teens will often go to their room and read manga rather than going in their living room to watch anime, which might be intrusive on their parents. Now that I think about it, that might be the appeal to "portable games". I don't usually see kids with their PSPs or DSs out and about, but a lot of kids I talk to seem to own one and play it regularly. I suspect they play it in their room.

I couldn't find it in a quick search, but maybe there is a survey/some statistics on how many TVs there are per household on WhatJapanThinks (which is a cool blog by the way). I tried the Japanese Statistics Bureau website but didn't really come up with what I was looking for.

I think PockyMePink has it dead on.