Years ago a friend told me that he found pornographic anime under "Children's videos" (back in the age of VHS), and could get it even though he was underage. I'm guessing there are some "Cartoons are automatically for kids" misconceptions in our society :p

Its true. There is even a term for it, The Animation Age Ghetto

TvTropes has an article on this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimationAgeGhetto

Yup, just the same as 'computer games are for kids', hence parents buying their youngsters GTA and Manhunt and the like...

But there's hardly any "bloody" violence in anime, it's all mostly "romantic comedies" ie an "everyday" schoolboy suddenly gets a trope of cute girls fighting over him, with some magic and preposterous accidental sexual situations thrown in. It's "childish" at the same time as not, some of the themes would be serious if they weren't played in comedy.

Movies like Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, they are basically their only type of anime in existence, they became (reasonably) well known over here in the West because of marketing of dubbed DVD back in the day, but they are unlike 99.9% of Japanese animation. That's kinda the point.

My parents see animated and automatically think it's childish. I think they'd get an aneurism if they ever actually sat down and watched something like south park or Elfen lied, but they won't because they think it's for kids.

It's not just Japanese Anime; with a few exceptions (vive la France!) it's also comics in general. In most western societies words are regarded higher than pictures. Reading a trashy and unimaginative thriller makes you look more adult than reading an artful comic (and most are ignoring that comics aren't just pictures but a clever combination of words and pictures).

And yeah, like Crispy78 said, it's the same for video games. Just sitting there watching TV is okay in most societies, but the smallest hint that you're entertained by "playing" something other than an instrument or a sport makes you childish. As if there's a strict line between children and adults that's determined more by how they entertain themselves than how mature and responsible they act in general.

You obviously never watched Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the Northstar in english, Ken le survivant in french)... which was once featured in a kids show in France. Hence the uproar from parents and the almost general ban on japanese TV anime.

In France we had to wait until Ghibli's movies to get japanese anime reevaluated.

All because of some stupid buyers who thought "heh, Hokuto no ken = anime, anime = disney, disney = kids, hence Hokuto no Ken = kids". What a mistake...

I'm aware of Fist of the North Star, but didn't it finish airing in the late 80's or 90's?

Have you ever heard of Watership Down or The Plague Dogs, and Felidae? Those things were sold next to disney movies, when they're actualy anything but.

I don't quite understand your point. It's true that these mentioned titles are the only ones out of their genres that are generally well-known here in western countries.

But if its about darker or more mature themes in general - political thrillers, social critics, horror, etc. - there are more than enough of such titles. Every new season there is at least one such title broadcasted.

Or Claymore. I believe that series have at least a couple of torn-apart-alive characters per episode! :O

Oh actually I'll have to eat my words, Another was quite a bloody mess of a show in more ways than one, the ending was almost tragic if not ridiculous.

As people have already said, it's not anime/manga so much as comics and animation in general. It goes way back to Wertham and adult comics "corrupting the children". Reminds me of a recent (or was it classic? I don't remember) Cracked article about the most terrifying animation aimed at children. The problem was that it contained stuff like Plague Dogs and the recent short Alma, both of which were clearly not aimed for children. It's pretty common with comics too, especially in America where most people associate comics with trashy stupid superheroes (note: I'm not saying superheroes are trashy and stupid, that just seems to be the perception). These people I want to strap into a chair and force them to read all of Scott McCloud's books. XD

Well, at least it was not "Gloria". SCNR