A Western tourist wanders through the metropolis of people that is Tokyo. Crows span the entire width of the sidewalk and crosswalks, and daring bicyclists dart through traffic without hesitation. People are quite literally packed into the subway cars like the belly of a slave ship. Technology unfamiliar to the Westerner's eyes is commonplace, but as if to counterbalance, the tourist finds a plethora of cartoons on the television that evening. He turns off the television and calls it an early night, complaining all the while about sleeping on the floor in a so-called civilized city.

Originally, I thought the same way about cartoons as the ugly American tourist. In high school, a few of my friends liked Japanese animation (anime), and I could not understand why they wanted to watch cartoons. I assumed all cartoons were for children. One day, my friend instant messaged me saying, "You don't have 'Tank!' You need to hear 'Tank!'" The song in question that he proceeded to send me is the upbeat, jazzy opening to the anime "Cowboy Bebop," and as my friend said, "How can any show with that for its theme song not be good?" After listening and agreeing, I decided to give the cartoon a chance.

At first, a series named "Cowboy Bebop" gave me the mental image of old west cattle herders singing the blues. The title of this anime actually refers to futuristic bounty hunters sometimes called cowboys, and their space ship, the Bebop, as well as jazzy soundtrack. "Cowboy Bebop" shows a science fiction version of the future in which the rest of the solar system has been settled. The main characters are bounty hunters, people who hunt down fugitives with prices on their heads and bring these fugitives to either the police or the organization that wants them. Although I hardly understood a minute of the first episode I saw, the random bits of philosophy I caught intrigued me. Though the show has its goofy moments, such as when the main characters all hallucinate for half an episode after eating bad shitake mushrooms, the show's themes are clearly not meant for kids. Several episodes involve humans' dependence on technology, but more often the show explores how one is affected by one's past. Each of the main characters has a dark past, involving abandonment, amnesia and debt, love loss and of course betrayal. By the end of the series, each must come to terms with his or her past; some escape and move forward, while others are consumed by their demons.

The anime immediately following that night was titled "Trigun," which also induced a mental picture of the old west for me. I was basically correct with that assumption; the anime takes place on a desert planet after humans have destroyed Earth's habitat. The main character, Vash the Stampede, is a goofy, doughnut-loving ace gunman who has sworn never to take a life. The show is packed with action and amazing gunmanship, because for some reason, this pacifist attracts trouble like an electron magnet. At first, the goofy Japanese humor annoyed me, but I kept watching as they unpacked the psychological content. Even when enemies shoot to kill, Vash merely immobilizes them, and he will stop to offer them medical assistance if their wounds are severe. Most characters point out that he cannot expect to keep living for very long if he never kills his murderous enemies, however he refuses to break his vow. After this evening of television, I began to realize that despite being cartoons, anime carried some serious themes and ideas, and I found that animation did not condemn a show to Saturday morning kid's television.

I had to watch all twenty six episodes of "Trigun" before I could appreciate the anime on another level. I finally started seeing allusions during the episode "And Between the Wasteland and the Sky." At the time, my European Civilizations class was reading T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland, and the teacher's interpretation of the poem was that Europeans needed to work together and love each other to escape the literal and metaphoric wasteland that was post World War I Europe. In this episode, the passengers of a hijacked mass transit sand-steamer must overcome their selfishness so they can help each other and survive. I recognized the possible allusion, and after thinking about it I realized that these allusions to the poem were present throughout the entire series. The entire planet is a barren dust ball, and most of the desert town folk in the series refuse to share resources, even for the greater good. Some towns learn to love and assist others, and only then do the towns flourish. Both the poem and the series end with a natural and interpersonal relief for the Wasteland; it rains, and people finally work together.

Many of my friends discovered "Rurouni Kenshi," a more historical anime. The title character is a manslayer from the Meiji Revolution who has reformed and became a wanderer (rurouni). He swore never to kill again, helping and defending those in need, while others live by the philosophy "Destroy Evil Immediately." When Kenshin's enemies from the Revolution appear, all involved demonstrate stunning swordsmanship, and the fight scenes often produce a dropped jaw reaction in viewers. Through watching this series, I learned more than my school ever taught about Japanese history. I did not know anything about the end of the shoguns and samurais, or how Japan transitioned into the modern era until I watched "Rurouni Kenshin." This anime examines the effects of Imperialism on Japan, and even though Kenshin fought for the Imperialist, the show depicts many of them as corrupt. The series suggests that no regime can accommodate everyone, no matter how pure the intentions of its creators.

My friends also introduced me to "Lain," and we all agree that it is the most confusing and disturbing thing we have ever seen, surpassing even the Matrix trilogy. The series begins with a young girl committing suicide by jumping off a building, and it foreshadows the insane events of the other twelve episodes. The title character is a middle school girl, but she discovers that she is actually a god-like program from inside the Wired, which is like the internet. Somehow, the Wired and the real world are beginning to merge, and some characters begin to wonder which world existed first. The series constantly questions reality and identity, occasionally referencing Marcel Proust's Swann's Way; in the final episode, Lain's father mentions getting tea and madeleines, which were the triggers for Proust's trip down memory lane. Lain's hallucinations somehow relate to Timothy Leary's 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness, and the show uses the Schumann Resonance as Deus ex Machina. For lack a more accurate description, "Lain" will mess with one's mind in ways one probably thought were not possible.

When I heard about an anime called "Fullmetal Alchemist," I thought it would be a half-baked Japanese spin-off of Harry Potter, but I could not have been more wrong. Harry Potter merely mentions the alchemist Nicholas Flamel in passing; "Fullmetal Alchemist" explores alchemy as a science, and the series often brings up the conflict between science and playing God. Several characters try to use alchemy to bring back the dead, but each fails and pays a terrible price, usually losing part of his or her own body. The animation becomes quite graphic at times, and I would not recommend this show for the squeamish. Each failed human transmutation yields an intelligent yet soulless homunculi, most of whom wish to become human; the show uses these creatures to ask what a soul really is, and what makes one human.

"Fullmetal Alchemist" also delves into government and corruption which spreads through every level. By the end of the anime, the main cast discovers that most of their wars were orchestrated and provoked by their own military. Their military and government are secretly controlled by powerful people who use the wars to create the desperation and massive death toll necessary for one to make the mythical Philosopher's Stone. I found that rather unsettling, and I cannot imagine a child trying to comprehend a planned war.

Most anime fans know "Neon Genesis Evangelion" at least by name if they are not intimately familiar with this masterpiece. Directly translated from Greek, the title means "New Beginning Gospel." In a post apocalyptic world, this anime presents a struggle between humans and building sized creatures from the moon called Angels. Humans defend themselves using giant robotic beings called Evangelions, nicknamed Eva, which is Greek for Eve. I was not impressed at first, but then I started hearing other terms like Dead Sea Scrolls, Adam, Lilith (a demon, screech owl, or Adam's first wife, depending on the story), Dogma, a MAGI system whose parts are named after the three wise men, and the Lance of Longinus. I was happy to finally hear a character ask the same question I had been thinking: "Why are we fighting Angels? Aren't they messengers from God?" The director claimed that he used the Christian imagery to separate his project from other giant robot "mecha-animes," but viewers cannot help but ask why Angels would attack. Did humans anger God, or did He forsake them? "Neon Genesis Evangelion" suggests that humans will always fight to stay alive, even if they must fight their creator or utilize that which is killing them (the Evangelion units are essentially copies of the first and second angels, Adam and Lilith). The anime adds in psychological concepts as the characters' pasts are revealed, and they each attempt to cope with their inner demons. Several characters display the Hedgehog's Dilemma; they long to be with people, but like two prickly hedgehogs, they are hurt when they are close to others. The final two episodes are a psychological profile of the main characters as they try to answer their existential questions about understanding other people despite their differences.

Although it took me a long time, I did come to understand that anime is just another medium of communication. It was rather ignorant of me to assume that a show is for children just because the characters are drawn and not real people. Cartoon Network made that mistake once; they aired the anime "Sailor Moon" on their kid's daytime block, only to discover that two of the characters were lesbians, a taboo on kid's television. They attempted to cover up the relationship and called the characters cousins, but many fans criticized the heavy editing. Western culture dictates that cartoons are only for kids, but recently, adult cartoons have surfaces in mainstream television. "Family Guy," "The Simpsons," and the plethora of Williams Street cartoons made for Cartoon Network's midnight run contain mature jokes and references to pop culture that children most likely do not remember or understand. While adult humor does not quite reach sophisticated levels of science, religious allegory, or T. S. Eliot, it is at least a start towards breaking the Cartoon's immature stereotype.