That's because they aren't called "anime", they are "cartoni animati". You are a 40 year old Italian and never heard of Cristina D'Avena? (https://en.wikipedia.

That's because they aren't called "anime", they are "cartoni animati". You are a 40 year old Italian and never heard of Cristina D'Avena? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_D%27Avena https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_D%27Avena) She'd literally fill stadiums with her concerts all over Italy, she sung most Italian "anime" songs (sigle dei cartoni animati) from the 80s/90s/00s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_theme_songs_recorded_by_Cristina_D%27Avena https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_theme_songs_recorded_b...). When I was a kid in the 90s and 00s our TV program was always full of "cartoni animati" (telemontecarlo, which later became MTV I think, and also on Italia uno). I don't think there exists *any* Italian that grew up in the 80s/90s that doesn't know shows like Sailor Moon, Power Rangers (not anime, but still), Sanpei, Ken il Guerriero (with one of the best non-Japanese openings *ever* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Crm94eMuPE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Crm94eMuPE), Holly e Benji (Capt Tsubasa), Lady Oscar, Mila e Shiro, Dragon Ball, Ranma 1/2, Nadia e il mistero della pietra azzurra, Mazinga, E' quasi magia Johnny (Orange Road), Lupin, etc. These were all parts of the communal zeitgeist when I was in elementary school in the 90s, and my sister who's a bit older than me (about your age I imagine) also had the exact same experience (we often watched them together).