A lot of defintions on here for the word 'anime' have been hopelessly ill-informed. I hope to give a more accurate defintion that doesn't make me sound like an idiot. Anime is a form of animation orginating in Japan. Common elements in characters include large, shiny eyes, often spiky or unusually colored hair, long legs, etc. There are always exceptions to these rules, such as in Hayao Miyazaki's movies, which have more realistic proportions and hair. Often in anime, one episode will continue into the next, instead of each episode being a one-shot. There are several different types, like Shounen, for boys, which typically feature a male protagonist and lots of fighting and action, Shoujo, for girls, with female protagonists and the main focus being romance or comedy. There is also Josei, for young women, which I imagine are like soap operas(Never watched any), and Seinen, for teenagers and young men, which are often horror or thriller animes, and are usually considered too scary for children. There is also shounen/shoujo ai, which is gay/lesbian romance without sex, and yaoi/yuri, which is with sex. Many people say that anime is for 12-year-old dorks, but I myself have watched anime that would scar a 12-year-old for life. They also say anime is porn. There is a category of anime called hentai that is pornographic in nature, but the vast majority is not. Some anime is incredibly good, some is atrocious. And the stereotypes aren't necessarily true for all.

noun: a style of animation that originated and is still heavily centered in Japan.

The word 'anime' is based on the original japanese pronunciation of the american word 'animation.'

The stereotype of the anime style are characters with proportionally large eyes and hair styles and colors that are very colorful and exotic. The plots range from very immature (kiddy stuff), through teenage level, to mature (violence, content, thick plot). The classification of 'hentai' is given to animes of a stong sexual nature.

Although over 95% of anime has nothing perverted about it, most closed-minded idiots think anime is always a form of pronography.

1. Japanese animation.

2. Yet another thing that americans managed to completely fuck up, resulting in poor translations, unnecessary censorship, horrible dubbing, and people who don't know any better hating Japan for it.

Anime means "animation" in Japanese.

If you came here to see me call anime:
cartoon porn which is hentai, wannabe white person cartoons, or a nerds favorite hobby, then just give me the thumbs down already because my definition is precise.
Anime is a form of Japanese cartooning which either televised or on DVD or video. The comic books are called manga. Yes, there is a very big difference. If you walk into Borders/Barnes and Noble/etc. and ask for Anime, you will be sent to the DVD section. Shojo is a girl's type of anime (stories of love, achieving dreams and the type) while shonen is the boys type (wars, samuri, card battles etc.)Usually anime is much deeper than the average American cartoons. It can be funny, tragic, romantic, adventurous, sci fi and more. Stereotypical ideas: Nerds and geeks are not the only people who like anime. Not all aniime has the big twinkly eyes and extremely out of proportioned heads. It is NOT porn. See hentai. It is NOT only for kids.

It sems to me like everyone here seems intent on telling us it is not porn; which I find quite suspiscious. I've never know anyone one to just asume it was porn.

Japanese animation not porn. Anime porn is called hentai.

Cartoons from Japan.

A style of Japanese animation that is very popular today, in America and France as well as Japan. Many people think of anime as 'cartoons' but the words have very different implications. Anime can be anything from kid's stuff like we have in America to deep plots far beyond anything a child could understand to porn. There's love stories, hate stories, everything you could find in live TV.