Those "of an age" in the US may remember when their parents subscribed to "Classics Illustrated" comic books to "edikate the kids." In printed "comic book" form, each issue gave the "bare guts" of a classic novel. I've run into a fair number of people who said "I've read that book" when they really mean "I read the CI comic book" about that book. The "educated" ones often mean "I read the Schaum's(?) Outline" of that book and used my crib notes for the test.

Most of the kids who read (or pretended to) the CI "comics" also read (really) the Mars Comics et. al. as well.

Getting the content in an "altered form" is better than not getting it at all (often enough), and for some content a sophisticated form isn't really justified.

The Content is one thing. The format is another. When most people I've run into refer to anime, they're talking about a particular format, and most people see it as a "stylized way of drawing/painting."

The format is adaptable to animated video and/or to "printed picture books" and is used in both ways, and also is applied to "game design" in some computer games.

Almost any kind of content can be presented in anime, and it appears that a wide variety of material is available in that form. Since I don't have much exposure to "illustrated books" (of the kind) and have limited availability of TV programs, "kiddie shows" are about the only things I see "in anime" but one can find a wide variety of content in the form.

I would expect that the content is the main attraction for most younger persons, but the format has a deceptively simple "style" that attracts many to the idea of "I could do that," and lots of them do. I also have a cat that watches things I do with an "I could do that if I had thumbs" expression, but so far he's had little success - but he stays interested. Some of the kids who buy the "how to books" are probably more like my Vincent cat.

"Japanese cartoons" is pretty much a synonym for "animé" but neither term actually defines or is limited to a particular kind of content. Hopefully, the interest of the youngest kids is limited to the "healthy kinds" among the content available, and most of what they talk about probably doesn't include the coarser kinds.

John