Starting it all up with a brief intro ^o^

Coming here you probably already know what anime is o.o:;; but if not, here  is a basic description of what it is. To put it simply, anime is Japanese cartoons. But keep in mind, they're nothing like the typical American Saturday-morning cartoons. Anime is distinct from American cartoons in their depth of characterization and plot (among other things). For the most part, the quality of animation in anime far surpasses that of American cartoons. Anime spans many genres, from silly romantic comedies (Marmalade Boy) to fantasy adventures (Vision of Escaflowne and Fushigi Yuugi), high-tech science fiction (Macross Plus), and much more. The most distinctive quality of anime is the subject manner: much of anime deals with "real-life" topics that American cartoons wouldn't touch with a 30-foot pole.
http://www.duke.edu/web/DukAnime/what.html puts it quite nicely, right?

Next post to come is on the common misconceptions of anime