Terminology of Anime
The Japanese term for animation is アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced: /ɑnimeːʃon/), written in katakana. It is a direct transliteration and re-borrowed loanword of the English term "animation", though there exists a theory that the word comes from the French animé (animated, "ah nee MAY") or "les dessins animés" (animated drawings). The Japanese term is abbreviated as アニメ (anime, pronounced: /ɑnime/ ). Both the original and abbreviated forms are valid and interchangeable in Japanese, but as could be expected the abbreviated form is more commonly used.
As with a few other Japanese words such as Pokémon and Kobo Abé, anime is sometimes spelled as animé in English with an acute accent over the final e to cue the reader that the letter is pronounced as [e].
In Japan, the term is a broad one, and does not specify an animation’s nation of origin or style. In English speaking countries the word is used usually only to refer to animated programming of Japanese origin. However, non-Japanese works are sometimes called anime if they borrow stylistically from the Japanese animation.
Syntax and morphology
Anime can be used as a common noun, "Do you watch anime?" or as a suppletive adjective, "The anime Guyver is different from the movie Guyver." It may also be used as a mass noun, as in "How much anime have you collected?" and therefore is never pluralized "animes" (nouns are never pluralized in Japanese). However, in other languages where anime has been adopted as a loan word, it is sometimes used as a count noun in singular and in plural as in Danish "Jeg tror, jeg vil se en anime" ("I think I’ll watch an anime") and Hvor mange anime’er har du nu?" ("How many anime do you have now?").
