What draws people to cartoons/ anime?

I am back after nearly a year, and this has been on my mind for awhile. So, please bare with me, as I try to voice my feelings on this often controversial subject.

What exactly draws people to watching cartoons and anime? 

       I know some of it is, there is no limit to what you can do in any animated media. What else is there though? I have watched cartoons for the better part of my life, and I prefer them for more reasons than I could really put words to. So, I did what all humans do when trying to understand myself. 
I asked others. I read blogs on the internet, and I did it all in an attempt to understand my feelings and ideas on the matter. It is hard enough to sort out my own thoughts, let alone, figure out any one else's ideas. 
       I have, for myself, narrowed it down to emotional connection with the characters, moral strength(not religious, of course), and the differences in social norms in these fantasy worlds. I will do my best to explain my reasoning for these, and keep in mind I will call this an evolving blog. Depending on the feedback I get from people, with compelling arguments, that differ or align my opinions may change.

Emotional connection with characters:

       I personally find it far easier to build emotional connections with anime characters than I do from characters in most shows on TV. I think this is because you can see every action in there lives from their thoughts to embarrassing moments, which makes them seem more human than actors. 
When they hurt, you see it lined on their face.(Mad props to the artists who can do that) In example, one of the moments in my recent cartoon experiences. Uncle Iro from Avatar the Last Air Bender. The episode where he sings "Little solider boy comes marching home". It is like you could see the pain of every moment missed on his face, and the writers made him seem so human. You could as a person connect with the grief, as if, experiencing his pain with him. 
       Here is another example from Clannad: After story,(SPOILER ALERT), watching as Nagisa was dying in front of Tomoya because of giving birth. There was nothing in those scenes, but sadness, and you could see visually that he lost his world in that moment. 
I was so glad that story ended happy on a personal note. 
       
       My last example will be from AnoHana. The moment where they finally find Menma's journal. The main character had run through the forest until his feet bled, where they find personal letters from Menma in the same hand writing from when she was a kid. 
All the pain, the group of friends felt as they yelled, "Are you there!?", while crying. That moment makes me cry even watching it now months later. A group of childhood friends reuniting to say goodbye to their childhood friend Menma's ghost before she disappears. 
This ends with them all saying, "I love you", while crying. Even reminiscing these examples, I find myself on the verge of tears, and I love the writers for it.


Moral strength:

       You might find it hard to believe, but I learned almost all of my rights and wrongs from watching anime and cartoons. I didn't grow up with a father to show me the way, and growing up my mother was often to busy to have time for me to learn from. I respect what she did for me, and I hope you don't get the wrong idea. My mother taught me to work hard for the ones I care for. Animated shows taught me all the little things that she was unable to while working so hard. 
       I will use Naruto as my first example. This is by no means my favorite anime/manga, but I have continued to love it growing up. The moral lesson I got from this is to never judge someone based on heresay(Meaning don't judge without getting to know him or her). Naruto got a bad reputation simply because of something his parents did before he was born. With no idea why people hated him he grew up completely alone because of this. No quote for this example. This is just my perspective of the situation here. 
       My second example is from my favorite anime of all time, Detective Conan. I could fill up 15 pages of moral lessons from this show, but I will stick with a simple one. This show taught me to value the life's of others. Try watching this show and you won't be disappointed. 
"Do you need a reason?... Do you need a reason to save someone's life?...people kill each other and I don't understand why, but for saving a life, is a logical reason necessary?" -Kudo Shinichi, Detective Conan 
       I think the last moral lesson I would like to add comes from Death Note. This should be the easiest one to learn, but for most of my life I took for granted my isolation from the world. 
Learning and understanding that words could kill. They could also hurt people more than physical injuries. 
It is a lesson I think more should learn.
In regards to this lesson my favorite quote is from Detective Conan. "Words are like swords. If you use them the wrong way, they'll turn into ugly weapons. There are cases of broken friendship that could have lasted a lifetime if not for verbal abuse. Once you sever your ties, you might not see each other ever again." -Kudo Shinichi, Detective Conan
       When I first read/heard these words, it was as if, a part of my mind was opened up to that truth all over again. The reason why I am attracted to this is because these are fictional people that I would love to see more people in real life act like. 
No one is perfect of course, and I wish that I myself had more of these qualities and understanding.

Differences in social norms:

       This may be a little hard for some people to grasp. You might even like anime/cartoons because of it and not realize it yourself. In the real world the saying goes, "You made your bed, now lay in it." I understand that for some things it is understandable to think like this. Pedophiles, rapists(legitimately tried with actually evidence for both), murders and things like this. I have little to no understanding for.
       However, youth burglary, drug use and things like this I believe people should be given another chance. There are also cases of people charged with pedophilia whose "victims" have come forward and said they instigated the thing. The charges are never dropped.
       This is why I think these things should be forgiven. Lots of them happen from mistakes during developmental years, and most of these crimes come as a felony, which means they will be unable to travel outside the country and ineligible for lots of forms of employment.
In anime there is always second chances, or third depending on the anime. Lots of times even for the bad guys there is opportunities for them to change their ways, and find a understanding.
      There is no finality to a situation. The world itself accepts that people change through them proving that they have. The majority of opinion in the real world it is always the "once bad, always bad mentality." There are many countries moving past this in regards to drugs and rehabilitation. Argentina for one treats addicts as if they have a mental disorder(Which is often times the reason for the addiction). They clean them up and give them another chance at a normal life. I hope that the world continues to take this route.

Sorry about the slight rambling toward the end here. I was trying to give examples to explain why I have this point of view. If any of it came across as confusing please feel free to leave a comment and I will hopefully be able to explain better.
Thanks for reading my Ravings,
Derek.

The images in this post to not belong to me, nor did I make the gif's. Please give all credit to the artists of the anime/cartoon.