Does Anime=Cartoons in your opinion?

1. This is Speakeasy material.

2. Technically yes. They are... Japanese cartoons.

3. From a subjective point of view, no. They are different. Too lazy to elaborate, but something along the lines of:

- Different approaches on topics,
- Different draw style
- Western series tend to be franchises or long stories, while most famous animes are short series of a couple chapters (between 10~30 most of the time).

that last point is rather subjective in itself; Gundam, Astro Boy, and Sailor Moon were much longer. I think rob you got popular mixed up with famous, though that isnt to say one cannot be both. Death Note's an example of such.

But yes, if anime = animation and cartoons = animation, then anime = cartoon. /end over-simplification.