Anime-influenced animation is a type of non-Japanese work of animation that is noticeably similar to or inspired by anime. Generally, the term anime refers to a style of animation originating from Japan. As Japanese anime became increasingly popular, Western animation studios began implementing some visual stylizations typical in anime—such as exaggerated facial expressions, "super deformed" versions of characters, and white radical lines appearing on the screen when something shocking happens or when someone screams.

Although outside Japan, anime is specifically used to mean animation from Japan or as a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastical themes, there is a debate over whether the culturally abstract approach to the word's meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries other than Japan. Additionally, all these anime-influenced series have become defined as "anime" by some sources, in an attempt to classify all Japanese-anime styled works of non-Japanese origin.

One of the first noted attempts from American companies on making a series visually inspired by anime was The King Kong Show in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was the result of a collaboration between Toei Animation from Japan and Videocraft from America. The result was an animation with an anime-like visual style and a Japanese kaiju theme, that incorporated the art style of the Hanna-Barbera era in American TV animation. Likewise, note that Hanna-Barbera's earlier series Frankenstein Jr. was heavily influenced by the Gigantor anime series, although its art style was more similar to that of other American cartoons of the time. Another early example of this might be The Smokey Bear Show, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero, Challenge of the GoBots, and Hong Kong Phooey.

Toei Animation continued this type of collaboration in the Transformers TV series and its associated film, both of which aired in the 1980s. While Transformers was co-produced with Toei Animation, who handled several stages of the animation production process, the series was ultimately written in the United States. Transformers showed many influences and elements of anime including story, themes, and a style that resembled Mecha anime.^{[citation needed]}

This trend continued throughout the 1980s with series and movies like Dungeons & Dragons, X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, Spider-Man, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Inhumanoids, Jem, Voltron, Voltron: Fleet of Doom, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, Defenders of the Earth, The Adventures of the American Rabbit, The Glo Friends, Sky Commanders, Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, The Real Ghostbusters, Superman, and Police Academy, all projects that were also co-produced by Toei Animation. Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, many American shows started to be outsourced to Japanese artists and animators, most notably TMS Entertainment and Sunrise, which animated popular television productions such as Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters, Mighty Orbots, Rainbow Brite, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Bionic Six, Tiny Toon Adventures, DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Animaniacs, The Littles, The New Adventures of Zorro, Dennis the Menace, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Batman: The Animated Series, and Superman: The Animated Series, most of which visually or thematically were not reminiscent of Japanese anime. TaleSpin (the animation was done at Walt Disney Animation Japan) did, however, take inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 manga Hikōtei Jidai.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, multiple American cartoons began showing a strong influence from anime without having any Japanese artists directly involved in the project. A few notable examples of this can be seen in the Cartoon Network show Dexter's Laboratory, the ABC show Clerks: The Animated Series, the Nickelodeon shows My Life as a Teenage Robot, Invader Zim (including its film Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus), and Blaze and the Monster Machines, or the Jetix show Yin Yang Yo!.

At the same time, Godzilla: The Series is technically an adaptation of the American Godzilla movie, but has plentiful references to the Japanese films and has a more directly anime-looking aesthetic throughout the show. Godzilla himself is made to look more in line with his earlier Japanese design.

Return to the Planet of the Apes, based on the Planet of the Apes franchise, is an American cartoon series that follows the Vietnam War and Cold War themes prominent in Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes as opposed to the fantasy elements found in later films, of which the cartoon itself has referenced. The animation is designed in such a way that looks somewhat similar to the works of Toei Animation and Madhouse Studios.