Well anime is the Japanese term for animated works, such as cartoons, and cartoons technically include those pure-CGI shows such as Beast Wars.
The reason that people, particularly anime supporters, I have found, claim that anime is better is simple; the West, creator of "cartoons" does not, with a few notable exceptions in the comedy genre, tend to make them for anyone under the age of 12. In Japan, this age association of the entire spectrum never developed, so they are free to create works for teenagers (of the entire range) safe in the knowledge that people will actually watch them.
There is also how in the US, where most Western TV comes from these days, many people see childrens TV as having to be childish, and so do not give it any more than a simple plot, assuming it has one at all. This is not always the case, but it is more often than that. Due to different values, Japan does not seem to have the belief that children's TV must be childish, allowing for plots and material that can be enjoyable, if simple, for teenagers, even if they are by no means that target audience.
In the West, this results in the hilarious attempts by anime fans to claim that the shounen genre is primarily intended for late teens, when it isn't, which should have been indicated given that under Japanese law, a person is not referred to as a "shounen" once they are 15.
In short, anime is the Japanese term for cartoon, anime is a cartoon made by the Japanese, Western anime fans try to pretend that they are two vastly different completely unrelated concepts because they fear being mocked for watching cartoons.
10-May-2011 22:05:51