[Jiggly]

I think long story short the distinction between what we call 'Anime' and just any ol' animation isn't really made in Japan outright. They may refer to it by a number of different things. I just read this Kotaku article on it.

Still a bit confusing after reading the article, but it seems they don't have any one word to mean the Japanese style of animation, but instead refer to it in a more specific sense, IE: Ghibli Anime, Manga TV Series, etc.


From the Article:

That’s both the beauty and the problem with the word anime. It has different meanings to different people. It’s shorthand. It’s loaded. Is there a way around that? Maybe, yeah. Qualifiers help explain what exactly you’re talking about. “Television anime.” “Disney anime.” “American anime.” Whatever.

This actually makes a lot of sense. I can actually think of other things in life that I refer to by a more specific grouping rather than the word that represents all of it.