*h₂enh₁-

*h₂enh₁- is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to breathe” that became the Latin anima: breath, wind, soul. From this we have animal: “having breath”, “having soul”.  

The term animism was coined from the same root by the Victorian anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor in 1871, where he used it to name what he considered the most elementary form of religion: "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings," the attribution of anima to all things, animate and inanimate alike. Later scholars such as Tim Ingold revisited the concept as a mode of perception, more than a belief system. 

From the same root as anima and animāre (to give life to) came animātiō: “the bestowing of life”.  This first entered English as animation in the sense of liveliness, and around 1910 acquired its cinematic meaning: "production of moving cartoon pictures". 

In the 1970s, animation entered Japanese as アニメーション (animēshon), abbreviated as anime. The word carries no direct cultural association with anima or soul in Japanese, where it refers to all animated film and television regardless of origin, not specifically to Japanese animation. 

While these words share an ancestor, there is no genealogical connection: the Japanese anime just imitates the sound of an English word that came from Latin. Its meaning has no relation with breath, spirit, or soul. 

It’s easy to forget this when we think of Shinto’s kami, the spirits that reside in natural objects, places, phenomena and when we look at Miyazaki’s work. A Japanese friend recently told me: “There are 8 million kami: in plants, mountains, waterfalls, winds, thunders, … so there’s a long and rich history of imagining characters.” Miyazaki too, in interviews and in his own writing, has made the animism-animation link explicit.