For those who dont know what anime is or arent familiar with it what do you think it is?

I've been an anime fan since the mid 80s.

Back then, the term "anime" was virtually unknown - even to many other anime fans. Instead the term "Japanimation" was used. Generally, those part of the larger sci-fi/comic book fandoms would recognize japanimation and what it covered.

To the average person, however, I had to explain that I was interested in "cartoons from Japan", which normally resulted in "aren't you a little old to still be watching cartoons?" Remember, this was before The Simpsons came out, so the vast majority of people still thought cartoons were only for kids under 10 years old. My mom simply rolled her eyes and called anime "Those cartoons" as in "My son wants to go to Japan because he's into *rolls eyes* "Those cartoons"." She stopped referring to anime that way once I started getting jobs due to my Japanese skills but that was still years in the future at that point.

In the 90s, I was in college. When I would tell a Japanese person that I was an anime fan, it caused some confusion. To the Japanese, all cartoons are anime, so they usually said "Ah, yes, I like Mickey Mouse too." I had to then specify "Nihon no anime" (literally, "Japanese anime") which then caused them to be a bit afraid of me due to the now infamous Miyazaki Murders (no, not THAT Miyazaki!) which is where the Japanese slang meaning for "Otaku" came about. Many Japanese people did consider me to be an otaku - something I still do not consider to be a compliment.

Even my Japanese professors had never heard of an American wanting to learn Japanese because of anime and manga. One teacher noticed I seemed better at reading than my classmates and wanted to know my "super secret studying method". She literally didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I showed I had been reading manga.

By the time I graduated from college, the Japanese language program was being flooded by eager anime fans wanting to learn the language. The campus anime club, which I had been actively a part of, had grown from being just a rumor with a membership of about 40 people, to a monstrous 450 people, resulting in 2 dedicated anime shops to open near by - in addition to the comic book store that had been there longer than anyone could remember.

After college I moved to Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area) so there's quite a lot of Asians around who grew up watching anime, and still watch it now or read manga.

I was first introduced to anime back in the 80's, watching old cartoons from the earlyy 80's and 70's that were american versions of japanese cartoons, but i did'nt know it at the time....

but when i was in highschool i was first introduced to both Akira and Fist of the North star, both of which immediately held my attention, and i began to search for other anime.....

it's been about 15 years since then now, and although i do introduce a lot of people to different anime movies and shows, typically i to get the initial response of "aren't you too old to be watching cartoons??", but after watching different movies that I've shown them (typically things such as Sword of the Stranger, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Paprika, X, Appleseed, Vexile, or movies of similar quality) they are typically much more interested in them and normally ask to watch or borrow the ones i have on DVD.....

Animation movies and TV shows from Japan.