[BakaTensei]

I don't mind when people think of anime as cartoons, they are uneducated about the subject so why should they think any differently. I love anime and a lot of my friends thought it was cartoons so I gave them a few examples like Death Note, to show them how the storylines arent for children. Plus I showed them spirited away and howls moving castle and they started asking me for a lend of my studio ghibli.

Think its very similiar to how people always go "I can't read that japanese there" and its actually chinese. Japanese have kanji (chinese characters) and because of that the written can look very similiar just like anime resembles cartoons. Without being educated on the subject they won't know any better.