anime is disputed. The English word "animation" is written in Japanese katakana as ??????? and as ??? (, ) in its shortened form. Some sources claim that the term is derived from the French term for animation dessin animé ("cartoon", literally 'animated drawing'), but others believe this to be a myth derived from the popularity of anime in France in the late 1970s and 1980s.

In English, anime--when used as a common noun--normally functions as a mass noun.