Animation has been regarded as a children’s medium for years due to its look of bright colors, comical character design and often lighthearted themes.

Animated features can be for adults too, even if the subject matter is juvenile and light hearted because animation is art.

Whether 2D animation or CGI, the medium continues to push and advance itself by exploring different art styles. An example being a Polish film called “Loving Vincent” which was the first fully painted animated feature film.

“Loving Vincent” received a PG-13 rating due to the mature themes in the film such as murder, suicide and the stigma of mental illness.

The target audience was not children.

Anime is another example of a diverse art style. The hand drawn and computer animated medium each have their own aesthetic to fit its theme and break the mold but all have similar characteristics to each other.

Oftentimes, Anime tend to have a PG-13 or even R rating and those particular sub-genres of anime often feature violence, gore, death and sexual themes.

Popular anime shows such as “Dragon Ball-Z“ and “Pokemon“ have garnered a cult following of fans of all ages; that includes adults.

Adult Swim’s most popular shows, an example being “Rick and Morty,” are animated. As the name of the channel suggests, none of the content is aimed for children.

Although many of the shows such as “American Dad“ and “Family Guy” tend to have juvenile content that they pass as comedy.

However, it’s given a more mature rating because no matter the execution, the subject matter is still not deemed age appropriate.

Many adult focused animations tend to have more comedic and juvenile content, in order to talk about mature subjects in a more lighthearted and entertaining way.

Nevertheless, it’s controversial having cartoons be catered to adults, considering that children, who are not the intended audience, often tend to disregard the mature ratings.

Another issue that an adult faces is the notion that they haven’t matured because they still enjoy Disney movies or cartoons they had been watching since their childhood.

It’s a common belief that after a certain age, one has to abandon the child they were once we’re to become grown up.

After reaching adulthood, society expects new adults to mature in order to function.

But, who says that maturity means having to completely forbid oneself to enjoy juvenile and more light-hearted content?

It begs the question on why animation still regarded as a juvenile medium when it’s proven to have mature themes.

The definition of the word “animate” is to bring something to life and animation is the act of bringing art to life.

Animation continues to break the mold each day with both its art style and subject matter.

More animations should target an adult audience in order to eliminate the common notion that it’s a genre meant for children.

The horror genre making an appearance in animation is one way to shake the image being nothing more than a way to distract children.