There are many significant differentiating factors that procreate a border between the two extremes of childish cartoon anime and professionally done realistic anime. These include things such as hairstyles, clothing, body proportion, color, shading, line and more. The average domesticated anime viewer would observe a common anime show in America and base a discriminating judgment on all forms of anime.
One of the greatest differences is hair styles and colors. Although realistic anime will occasionally lean toward an unseen hair color such as pink or green, for the most part, it sticks with naturalistic colors. Colors that include brown and black are most commonly seen, although blond is popular and red isn't as common. The hairstyles tend to be ones that everyday people would wear. They also will change their hairstyles every few seasons as they age. From ones as simple as a bowl cut to a ponytail or spiked hair, the styles are all ones that you and I would be able to style our hair, or what of it we have. However, in the cartoon anime shows and mangas, the hair will usually be something like thick clumps of hair falling in several different places. It is most common to see two to six thick clumps of hair falling over the forehead or face. Brown, black or blond hair is as common as orange, pink, bright red and blue hair in cartoon anime. The characters also will rarely change their hairstyles throughout a series.
Clothing is another great difference between the two. Realistic anime is usually everyday clothing such as a plain t-shirt or a business suit to jeans and shorts. The clothing is also drawn to show more of an actual body underneath them. In cartoon anime, the characters are mainly seen wearing the same thing in every episode and it's rare for them to 'change their clothes'. The clothing is also simplified in drawing and shows less wrinkles to fit a body underneath. It is usually drawn to fit the character but would look very odd should an everyday person be seen wearing an outfit found in cartoon anime.
Body proportions in realistic anime tend to be more naturalistic. The fingers bend in three different places, the eyes are smaller and even the neck is thicker. In cartoon anime, the characters are seen with very large eyes, small mouths and tiny noses. The characters are usually drawn two to five heads high. In contrast, realistic anime is drawn with six to seven head high. 'Heads' is a way to measure a character drawing. It is used by taking the size of the head and seeing how many you can stack up to get the size of the character you are drawing.
Color, shading and drawing also play a big part in realistic anime. The artists try to stay away from using black lines to outline their characters, rather, they try to get their characters to blend in with their surroundings. If light is on a character, everything is colored and shaded from that light source. There will be shadows on the face, eyes, clothing and surroundings. In cartoon anime, a light source is rare unless the characters are drawn at night. Characters, buildings, cars, trees, clouds and other things are usually bordered with a thin or thick black line in cartoon anime.
In conclusion, cartoon anime and realistic anime are two completely contrasting styles of drawing anime.
