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I have often wondered, what are the differences between anime and manga?
Furthermore, what are the differences between these two and what would be
called "cartoons" to the rest of us?

Is this purely down to where in the world it's made or other cultural
differences, or is there more to it?


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question
terminology
What are the differences between Anime and Manga?


The following is mostly copied from [my answer on
Scifi](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/39286/12014) to a very similar
question.

Anime and Manga are two different storytelling media. They both originate in
Japan, and are closely related, but are ultimately two different things. The
confusion between the two arises mostly because it's often the case that the
same story will have both an anime and a manga version. The terminology will
vary a little bit depending on whether the person you talk to is a Japanese
person or a westerner; I'll try to point out where this happens.

* * *

**Anime** (アニメ, a shortened form of アニメーション, which is literally "animation"
when written as a loanword in Japanese) are Japanese animated cartoon videos.
These air on television or are released to home video. Producing an anime is a
large undertaking, and requires the work of an animation studio with a large
number of people.

There is some debate as to whether non-Japanese cartoons qualify as anime. A
Japanese person would say that any cartoons at all can be included as anime,
including western series like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Spongebob
Squarepants. The word " _anime_ " in Japanese is almost exactly equivalent to
"cartoon" in English. Most people outside Japan use the term solely to refer
to Japanese-origin series, or at least those which are inspired significantly
by Japanese anime (so Avatar might count, but Spongebob certainly wouldn't).

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/pNpPd.png)

An image from the _Saint Seiya_ anime

* * *

**Manga** (漫画, which could be literally read as "whimsical drawings") are
Japanese comics. Unlike anime, they're typically black and white. Manga are
often used as the basis for anime, but not every anime is from a manga and
most manga are never made into anime. Manga usually only require a small
number of people to produce, at minimum a mangaka (who is the author,
illustrator, and all other major roles) and an editor. Unlike western comic
books, most manga are read right-to-left.

As with anime, Japanese fans wouldn't have much problem labeling comics from
other countries as manga. In the English-speaking world, it's more
complicated. OEL Manga (Original English Language Manga) is now a standard
term for comics like Megatokyo which are inspired by manga but produced in
English-speaking countries. There's also manhwa (Korean origin comics) and
manhua (Chinese origin comics), both of which heavily borrow from manga.
Japanese people would usually label all of these as Manga, but English-
speakers will usually make the distinction.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/K2HMCm.png)

A couple of panels from the _Saint Seiya_ manga

* * *

As for what differentiates anime from cartoons, I'd suggest you look at [What
differentiates anime from regular
cartoons?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/69/what-differentiates-
anime-from-regular-cartoons). There's no universal answer, and different
people have different approaches for defining anime. Here's a summary of the
answers there:

Some people (I suspect most) choose to define anime as just "cartoons
originating in Japan" in which case there's no fundamental difference between
anime and cartoons. The only differences are in terms of what are more common
tropes, plot points, etc. Anime does often tend to be somewhat more mature
than western cartoons, if only because there is a significant fraction that is
produced for consumption by adults (whereas the vast majority of western
animation is not primarily marketed to adults).

However, there are also stylistic differences between most western cartoons
and most Japanese anime, and some people like to include non-Japanese works
which are strongly inspired by Japanese art styles and storytelling, e.g. the
_Avatar_ series. This is a trickier business since it becomes very subjective
as to what exactly qualifies as anime, so most professional anime
organizations (e.g. [Anime News Network](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/))
stick to the first definition and prefer to call these works "anime-inspired"
or some other similar terms.


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answer


Anime, is the Japanese word for "Animation"

Manga, is the Japanese word for "comic" although, people call them "graphic
novels" all of a sudden

Though, most people, like myself, refer to "anime" and "manga" as "Japanese
animation" and "Japanese comic", which, that is not what it means unless you
added the Japanese word for "Japanese" in front of it... which would be highly
confusing.... so anime and manga ;D

and also, the words "anime" and "manga" are both singular and plural. just for
your future reference ^^

You can tell a manga apart from a comic because, the begining is at we
consider the end. They read just so, "right-to-left"


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answer