In Japan anime means all animation, not one style
English speakers treat anime as Japanese animation with a recognizable look. In Japanese the same word covers every animated work, whatever its origin. Commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917, a Tezuka-shaped style bloomed in the 1960s, and more than four hundred studios now feed theaters, TV, and streaming.
Outside Japan, anime usually means animation produced there. Inside Japan, anime is simply animation—any style, any country. English borrowed a shortening of animation written in katakana; some accounts also mention French dessin anime. Commercial Japanese cartoons begin around 1917. A characteristic graphic approach spread from Osamu Tezuka's 1960s work and grew a large home audience through theaters, television, video, and later streaming and games.
Production stayed mostly hand-drawn for decades while absorbing new tools, blending graphic design, character work, and cinematography across many genres. Calling anime itself a genre is a common English mistake; it is a medium that contains science fiction, romance, sports, and more. The industry includes over 430 companies, among them Studio Ghibli, Kyoto Animation, Sunrise, Bones, MAPPA, Madhouse, and Toei Animation. Precursors stretch back to eleventh-century emakimono picture scrolls and kage-e shadow plays.
Early twentieth-century filmmakers tried techniques from France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. Katsudo Shashin, around 1907, is sometimes claimed as the earliest Japanese animation, though its maker is unknown. By the mid-1930s animation was an established alternative to live action, competing with Disney while artists such as Noburo Ofuji and Yasuji Murata often relied on cheaper cutout methods. From disputed etymology to global fandom, the word still flexes with the map: mass noun in English, umbrella term in Japanese, and a century-old industrial craft either way.
Source: Anime
