ANIME, is or was an traditional animation form because it was a cel based animation. The earliest example of “anime” was in 1917- it was a 2 minute animation about a samurai testing his new sword on a target, Anime today is mostly computer cultured or generated but there are still some examples of a cel based or traditional animation fell in the early 1960, with Astro boy 1963- it used hand drawn characters and some still back grown much like the classic Scooby doo.

Anime is most commonly recognized because of the big eyes, insane hair styles and over the top exaggerated emotion. but this is not strictly true not ALL anime follows this principle, granted the more comedy kid friend shows like “Lucky Starts” follow this guide lines.

Anime’s such as Hellsing, Ergo Proxy and ghost in the shell have more anatomically correct characters, heads and limbs proposal to the body and tone done emotions and in general more realistic even though they are still cartoons.

Saying this there are some anime’s like Elfen Lied strike a balance between realistic forms. Best example and most overuses one is adult Lucy and child Lucy, the adult version is more anatomically realistic, but as the child though the body and head are slight proportional to the head, she had BIG “anime” eyes  and exaggerated emotions.