Just to add to the many answers we already have here, if not summarize a little bit.
Anime in general English parlance refers to Japanese animation, though in recent years, it has slowly changed from the product of a country to a style that refers to the popular animation style produced in Japan. It’s why we’re hearing phrases like “anime-styled” becoming more and more often.
A number of well-known / popular games playable in the English-speaking world these days, with anime-styled characters, aren’t from Japan, Genshin being one of the prime examples, from China, and there’s those like Blue Archive, from South Korea (though iirc they get a mix of South Koreans and Japanese illustrators for their assets). Japanese pop culture has had a strong influence on many Chinese and South Korean youths over long enough to result in the creation of companies specialized in making anime-styled games and even the “anime” we know of (some people have mentioned a few in other comments). A lot of the times though, these anime don’t really get as much attention from English audiences, unless you’re in a circle who’s attentive to that side of the market.
That said though, I’ve had people argue with me over the definitely of “anime” itself, saying that it should just be “animation”. To those, they aren’t wrong if they look simply at etymology and not what’s evocated in anime-watchers’ minds at the mention of anime. To be fair though, the line does start to get murky. I mean, take a look at this list I just looked up: https://whatnerd.com/best-non-japanese-anime-series/.
It’s IMO from here, but Japanese anime has a few distinctive features: generally heavier use of detailed backgrounds, and scenes that prioritizes raw art prowess over animation techniques. There’s also the fact that voice acting is just a huge scene in Japan, and so there’s a lot of good talent that comes up, whereas everywhere else, the scene is rather limited. Underlying the success of anime is manga and (light) novels, which is also a really active industry in Japan. Comics are just quite limited elsewhere.
Just to add to the many answers we already have here, if not summarize a little bit.
Anime in general English parlance refers to Japanese animation, though in recent years, it has slowly changed from the product of a country to a style that refers to the popular animation style produced in Japan. It’s why we’re hearing phrases like “anime-styled” becoming more and more often.
A number of well-known / popular games playable in the English-speaking world these days, with anime-styled characters, aren’t from Japan, Genshin being one of the prime examples, from China, and there’s those like Blue Archive, from South Korea (though iirc they get a mix of South Koreans and Japanese illustrators for their assets). Japanese pop culture has had a strong influence on many Chinese and South Korean youths over long enough to result in the creation of companies specialized in making anime-styled games and even the “anime” we know of (some people have mentioned a few in other comments). A lot of the times though, these anime don’t really get as much attention from English audiences, unless you’re in a circle who’s attentive to that side of the market.
That said though, I’ve had people argue with me over the definitely of “anime” itself, saying that it should just be “animation”. To those, they aren’t wrong if they look simply at etymology and not what’s evocated in anime-watchers’ minds at the mention of anime. To be fair though, the line does start to get murky. I mean, take a look at this list I just looked up: https://whatnerd.com/best-non-japanese-anime-series/.
It’s IMO from here, but Japanese anime has a few distinctive features: generally heavier use of detailed backgrounds, and scenes that prioritizes raw art prowess over animation techniques. There’s also the fact that voice acting is just a huge scene in Japan, and so there’s a lot of good talent that comes up, whereas everywhere else, the scene is rather limited. Underlying the success of anime is manga and (light) novels, which is also a really active industry in Japan. Comics are just quite limited elsewhere.