Anime is animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.
While the earliest known Japanese animation dates from 1917, and many original Japanese cartoons were produced in the ensuing decades, the characteristic anime style developed in the 1960s - notably with the work of Osamu Tezuka - and became known outside Japan in the 1980s.
Anime, like manga, has a large audience in Japan and recognition throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via television broadcasts, directly to video, or theatrically, as well as online.