Terminology

Etymology and pronunciation
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The Japanese term for animation is アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced /ɑnime:ɕoɴ/), written in katakana. It is a direct transliteration and re-borrowed loanword (see gairaigo) of the English term "animation." 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.
The pronunciation of anime in English differs significantly from Japanese. The first vowel is further forward in English than Japanese: /æ/ is more likely than /ɑ/. As English stresses words differently than Japanese, the second vowel is likely to emerge as an unstressed schwa /ə/ or /I/ in English, whereas in Japanese each mora carries equal stress. 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 a Japanese /e/. However, this accent does not appear in any commonly used system of romanized Japanese, and English native speakers may produce /eI/.