Anime vs. Cartoons

[Ben Davis]

It depends entirely on the genre and time. For example, it's difficult to equate earlier classics like Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Doomed Megalopolis, Fist of the North Star, Evengelion or Totoro to modern classics like Death Note, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Stein's Gate, Bleach or A Silent Voice. The cultural paradigms are too different but there are some parallels. You could split classics in to the 5 modern core themes: teenage titillation (e.g. High School DxD), extreme violence (e.g. Blue Exorcist), sci-fi/fantasy (e.g. Active Raid), action (e.g. One Man Punch) or high-end art (e.g. Kaguya hime no monogatari).

I think it's a disservice to try and stereotype titillating anime as the main form, simply because the teenagers love it and it sells well (its roots in hentai are too well understood) but, the fact is it sells well so you're going to see lots of it. For the discerning fan though, there's more than enough other content to enjoy without having to look at teenage boobs all the time.