Both. The two are not mutually exclusive concepts. Sure, one can subjectively say a series fits one descriptor better than the other, but the medium as a whole has enough examples to fit both categories. People will still disagree about where plenty of individual series may fit in that Venn diagram, due to personal taste.

I whole hardheartedly agree.

I'd also like to add that often enough, a form of entertainment is a medium for artistic expression and art is the people's entertainment. I see no reason that anime and manga would be exceptions to this.

entertainment

Like others have said, it's both.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, one man's trash is another man's treasure and all that noise...

I would consider anime as a canvass that tells a story and in that way it is an art. Most anime contains a story with a set of episodes that tells the story and many work that miracle. It is both storytelling that uses a medium that intrinsically takes that story and separates it from the reality that we live in. What other medium where the characters can have all sorts of hair colors patterned after the rainbow and girls wearing skirts that is impossibly short in the dead of winter.

Like all art, it is in the eye of the beholder, many see that it looks like a cartoon therefore it must be a cartoon. Other see gigantic eyes and a line squiggle as a nose and cannot deal with the anatomically incorrect features. I think it is just stunning when a great story is animated so well and so differently. Take Whisper of the Heart for example, it is a great story by itself, but it is amplified many times over with the Cat Returns as the story that the girl in Whisper of the Heart wrote. Anime made those two stories possible, which any other medium would be difficult if not impossible.

Both. It's an entertainment art. Any art designed to be marketed and sold to the public is an entertainment art form imo as it has to satisfy both artistic merit and ideally generate enough $$$ so that everyone involved can support themselves financially by doing their craft, allowing them to dedicate their professional lives to creating and producing in the medium.

I believe anime is a form of art and entertainment because of the storylines tide into the art. Plus art is what each individual views. I went to an art exhibit where on a medium size board was one simple thumb print. Then another looked like poop smeared across a canvas. Also, another time while a friends uncle was painting in the public art gallery, an art teacher told him his painting of nature wasn't art. I personally don't understand the thumb print art and smear of poop art, but others view it as amazing. Concluding that anything can be art if you make it art.
If any of you had made a mini animation, it is hell! I applause to anyone who makes animations because they are hard. You have to make them frame by fram and er' you could pull your hair out at times. Also I'm talking about decent ones, not the kind that takes three seconds, but the ones that take three minutes! Also three seconds is even hard to do if any of you had succeully done this. Making the characters walking and talk nautrualy as if it was real life>.> Grr. Thus I wouldn't call it simple entertainment behind the scenes.

Just my opinions.

A medium can not be classified. only what is shown is what can be considered art or just entertainment. TV, games, anime, books and such differ too greatly to attempt to think as such.

Some animes would be considered "Art"... like Spirited Away or Death Note, where they have extensive character development and themes that make you reflect on different philosophical views.

Some animes would be considered "Entertainment" because they just use recycled stories and have superficial character development.
I mean, in most generic animes, the lead characters tend to say useless things that don't build their characters at all... for example, "Wow this sandwich is delicious"... that line was used at least three times in one anime. It has no relevance to anything. Or something like, "Would you like to have this octopus?"

Which is why I cringe when people call these generic animes a "Masterpiece".

In Death Note, for example, they show the character L being obsessed with cakes and sucking his thumb... this actually has relevance to the character development because it supports the fact that he has autism (One of the characteristics of autism is the obsession with a particular thing).

Have you noticed anime fans, are art in there own right, strong willed with intellect

I find that anime is both because its has a good plot and graphics

I say both

It's just a cartoon for entertainment as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qbivi-sJCM
I would say it is both.