Going a bit back to when the western world had worked on many
animations of its own had made such animations to be known as
"Cartoons". However while the argument is always at large it is said
that the legend of anime himself Osamu Tezuka was inspired by such
works. What was known in the Western world as Cartoons was from
years of Walt Disney Studios evolutionary techniques, Warner
Brothers Studios, Hanna Barbera Animation, and other studios that
made stories for all audiences in their early days. Anime was played
during this time with: Astroboy (us.1963) and Speed Racer (us.1967).
The Animation in Japan would certainly surpass the quality of its
western television counterparts and people in the west took notice.
Many shows would become iconic cartoons of the 1980s with
television releases like: Transformers (1984) and Voltron (1984) by
Toei Animation, then ThunderCats (1985) and Silverhawks (1986) that
were animated by Japanese Animation Studio "Pacific Animation
Corporation" that would later turn into Japan Disney Animation. But it
wouldn't be until later people would take notice that the animation was
in a style unique to Japan.
Sean Akin's and Jason Demarco would create Toonami for Cartoon
Network and bring Japanimation (Anime) to the Western world. The
shows that would break anime to the mainstream would be
Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon, which would open people into a world
of Anime, Manga, and Japan. Japanimation had become a respected
Animation Form with Genres within it, during a time when Anime had
to battle from being niche to normalized with those who identified as
being known as "Western Otaku". Today many people take it for
granted that it has been given the approval of many.