Anime is produced by Anime companies. It is common for several companies to collaborate on different aspects of an anime to produce the finished product. Profits are gained by television and box office release and also by retail release, commonly through the sale of DVDs. Merchandise is also a source of substantial income.

Films, which are generally released in theaters, represent the highest budgets and generally the highest video quality. Anime movies that have broken profit earning records include Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Spirited Away. Some anime films are only released at film or animation festivals and are shorter and sometimes lower in production values. Some examples of these are Winter Days, and Osamu Tezuka's Legend of the Forest. Other types of films include compilation movies, which are television episodes edited together and presented in theaters for various reasons, and are hence a concentrated form of a television serial. These may, however, be longer than the average movie. There are also theatrical shorts derived from existing televisions series and billed in Japanese theaters together to form feature length showing.

Television series anime is syndicated and broadcast on television on a regular schedule. Television series are generally low quality compared to OVA (Original Video Animation) and film titles, because the production budget is spread out over many episodes rather than a single film or a short series. Most episodes are about twenty-three minutes in length, to fill a typical thirty minute time slot with added commercials. One full season is twenty-six episodes, and many titles run half seasons, or thirteen episodes. Most TV series anime episodes will have opening credits, closing credits, and often an eye catch, a very short scene, often humorous or silly, that is used to signal the start or end of the commercial break as bumpers in the United States are used in a similar fashion. Eye catch scenes are often found in TV series anime and are generally similar throughout the series. The ending credits are often followed by a preview of the next episode.

OVA anime is often similar to a television miniseries. OVAs can be any number of episodes in length; one shots are particularly short, usually less than film length. They are most commonly released directly to video. As a general rule OVA anime tends to be of higher production quality than that of TV episodes, approaching that of films. Titles tend to have a continuing plot, as opposed episodic conclusions. Opening credits, closing credits, and eye catches may sometimes be found in OVA releases, but not universally.