The difference between anime and other cartoons
There is a big difference between the various styles of anime; some of them are more orientated towards the western styles of drawings while others remain true to the more traditional methods of anime drawing. But what exactly are the visual characteristics of anime and manga, and more importantly what are the differences between traditional anime and westernized anime?
Generally when you are looking at a normal anime cartoon you will on occasions notice that some of the characters are weirdly proportioned, meaning that at times there might be an exaggeration of a body part to create emphasis within the cartoon. Generally the eyes are the most notable visual characteristics when it comes to anime and manga. The reason these eyes are so incredibly big is for the sake of accurately portraying emotion within the character itself. As most cartoonists know that the eyes of the character are the way that emotion is portrayed. Secondly in some cases the head of the character might be slightly larger than the body. In many of these cases it is merely to show the inflated ego of a certain character. Generally the heads are in proportion to the body and only in extreme cases the body and the heads are completely out of proportion. Finally one of the most common visual characteristics are related to the facial expression. In almost every single anime on the planet you will notice an abstract facial expression, over emphasizing the emotion portrayed.
Laughter and emotion
Generally when a character laughs you’ll see a small bubble appear above the character’s eyes, signifying the intensity of the emotion expressed. There are counts of different types of visual characteristics that particularly are used in Anime and Manga, yet the above-mentioned visual characteristics are the most common in all the different anime styles.