So, I'm guessing that this assignment has probably come and gone now, and that unless there's been a flood of responses through private channels, poor Joleen here has done her assignment without the help of this board, ans since she only posted here once, she probably wasn't all that broken up about it, but nonetheless, I think it's an intriguening concept meriting perhaps at least some discussion.
Perhaps her phrasing of the question was wrong, and the overall point of it therefore boring. It's not very interesting to write a paper on why a whole bunch of people personally enjoy anime, but rather, why has anime landed such a following in foreign countries. That would be a more a interesting academic discussion.
Manga an anime are unique in that while some artists may gain individual popularity across the seas, the Japanese commercial art has become popular as an entire medium. It is not the individual stories themselves that are loved, and not just the artwork, but the origin.
An american can create a cartoon with large eyes and a small nose and it will immediately be thought of as manga, rather than an just a comic, and so people are not in love so much with the actual art form, the idea of it's foreign origin?
But why? The reason comes back to content. There is obviously some difference in content between Japanese cartoons, and other american/foreign cartoons.
What is it?