Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, and also the word Japan uses for animation in general, foreign cartoons included. Outside Japan it usually means one specific thing: the hand-drawn or digitally drawn shows and films made in Japan, with their own recognizable look and a huge range of styles and stories underneath that look.
A borrowed word, cut short
Anime is simply the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "animation," clipped down to three syllables. Japanese studios were making animated films as far back as the 1910s, but the industry we know today took shape after the Second World War, when artists like Osamu Tezuka brought techniques from comics and film together to make animation faster and cheaper to produce for television. That approach, expressive faces, big eyes, limited but well-timed movement, became a house style that spread across the whole industry.
From kids' cartoons to a global industry
For a long time, anime outside Japan was seen as something mostly for children. That changed as shows and films aimed at teenagers and adults reached wider audiences: science fiction, horror, romance, sports, slice-of-life stories about nothing much at all. Streaming services now carry huge anime libraries with subtitles or dubbing in dozens of languages, and new shows often air in Japan and abroad within the same week. Behind every series stands a large team, a director, a studio, and often source material from a manga or novel that came first.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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声優 (seiyū): a voice actor, a job with its own fame and fan base in Japan, quite unlike most voice acting elsewhere.
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原作 (gensaku): the "original work" an anime is based on, usually a manga, light novel, or video game.