Anime is a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as teens,on the other hand cartoons are Americans attempting to make anime/animation such as digimon as well as pokemon.
So, say I take an original Disney hand painted movie..for example Snow White, he called it a cartoon. Then I take an anime, say Tranzer Z. One was technically masterful...called a cartoon, and one was crap, called an anime...what differentiates them?
Ok,you can say what ever u want about anime, but I can still know that you have never watched a good anime,a Japanese anime American animation=Cartoon Japanese animation=Anime such as Soul eater, Black butler, Attack on titan, or Tokyo ghoul
Hmmm, I just said they are cartoons. I never questioned whether they are good or not. Having spent a bunch of time in Kamakura and Noda City....I've seen all sorts of anime.