>>32353206"Most anime" might not be photorealistic, but it's still realistic enough to not be cartoon. It's in the middle, by having realistically proportionate body and realistic movement, but not completely realistic facial features. And a lot more of anime actually does have normal sized eyes and noses. If, by your definition, anime is just cartoon, that means all those more realistic ones are lumped together with cartoony ones. In pic related, for example, even if the left one is missing a nose, these still look far more human than the one on right does. The right has exaggerated everything to be comedic, simplifying all details. The left has just changed a few details.
Relative to what normal cartoons look like, it is still more realistic. Though calling it "realistic" would be wrong, but so would be calling it a cartoon. That is why a lot of people use the word "anime" to refer to an artstyle, one that is neither cartoony nor realistic.
