Manga is the Japanese word for comics and consists of printed cartoons in the Japanese language in book form. Reading manga is a common past-time for people of all ages in Japan with various genres ranging from romance, action, drama to history and pornography.
Anime, rooting from the word "animation" can be defined as a Japanese animated production. Unlike American cartoons, anime deals with a majority of topics and are meant for all age-groups, including adults.
Similar to how books are often brought to life in the motion pictures and television, manga comics are often adapted into episodic anime series and motion pictures. A popular example is the manga Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon, which was created by Naoko Takeuchi and later adapted into the animated television series Sailor Moon, a franchise that garnered international success.
Although each artist has a distinctive style, there are some elements that distinguish manga and anime from a simple cartoon. Common forms in manga and anime drawings can be recognized in a character's exaggerated features such as large and expressive eyes, glamorous hair and vivid body types.
At the beginning of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers began experimenting with animation techniques, the term "anime" was born. In the 1960s, Osamu Tezuka, now called "The God of Manga," adapted Western animation-techniques used by Disney and inspired many of the features still used in the art form today.