Anime to many countries and people now stand as a genre on it's own. Even department stores selling VCDs/DVDs have their own dedicated anime sections which are different from the cartoon section which is obviously full of kiddy stuff like Disney/Warner Bros. To me the Matrix spinoff the "Animatrix" helped a lot of people to realise that anime is not only for kids, and how big the anime franchise is internationally.

Sure there are people who cannot see the difference and anything animated to them is a cartoon or show for kids, but we of course know better.