Hey, I’m from Asia (not japan, though). But I used to watch cartoons during my childhood. At that time I knew no difference between cartoons and anime. I don’t remember anything like ‘south park’ (maybe I didn’t watch it), but I do remember watching loony toons, Tom and Jerry, baby loony toons, teen titans, kids next door, Pokemon, power puff girls, dexter’s Laboratory etc. (I thought they were all cartoons)
Among loony toons I liked the roadrunner and bugs bunny, didn’t like any other. I loved baby loony toons- it was cute, taught me somethings and everyone was nice 😊. I don’t remember much of teen titans or kids next door, but I remember not liking kids next door cuz it was too complicated/unreasonable for my young mind, I liked power puff girls, found dexter’s Laboratory kinda weird, oh and I loved dragon tales- 2 kids who would go to another world, full of dragons, to help their dragon friends out whenever with the help of a dragon scale- loved it as a kid, now that I think about it, I guess that’s where the love for isekai originated from 🤣🤣
Also, my favourite books were the series of chronicles of Narnia, so kids kinda get isekaied in it too.
But when I started watching anime, it was like it opened doors to a new world to me, they felt just soo so much deeper than mere cartoons(which seem like they’re just for fun). Anime showed me soo many different perspectives, that it felt like it opened my eyes somehow. Cartoons could never match. I also remember a cartoon “billy and Mandy” at first I was fond of what a strong girl Mandy was, after a while, it just seemed stupid (no offence meant)
