The simple answer is No, because the definition of Genre I expect to be the first to pop into your mind is a type of Story or Setting for a Story, and Anime is not one of those. And a number of Anime YouTubers have expressed annoyance at it being called a Genre thinking of that definition.
But the word Genre is actually broader than that in application, it really just means a Category, it is etymologically cognate with Gender. In the context of Video Games we don’t usually use Genre to mean Story or Setting but to categorize the way a Game is played Mechanically. Platformer, First Person Shooter, RPG, Point and Click Adventure Game, ____ Simulator, ____ Like and so on.
So a Medium can be a Genre, as can an Art Style or any other definition for Anime you can come up with.
The thing about Anime being mistaken for a Genre in the first sense is that I can understand why many in the Anime Fandom hate it because of a fear that it will make people think Anime has less variety than it actually does. But I also think that conflation has caused some of what I like about the Anime Community.
Back in the 2000s and even much of the 2010s when I was still more Western in my Nerdy interests and only dabbled in a select few Anime, I’m sure I was far from the only person into DC Superheroes and Star Wars type stuff but also Teen Dramas, but as far as how people engaged in such fandoms openly online they were very segregated. And often a perceived crossing over between them was a source of hostility, people hated Twilight for tainting their precious Masculine Vampires with Teen Girl Melodrama.
The Anime Fandom was the first Fandom I ever encountered where it was normal to appreciate those different kinds of Story Genres together. Where the same Vloggers will give weekly coverage to both currently airing Isekai and currently airing Romantic Comedies. That I can talk about Nana with the same people I talk about Gundam. Because Anime itself was a distinct Category of content to be a Nerd for, the variety of Genres within it could coexist in a way they couldn’t elsewhere.
That’s not to say there are no internal beefs within the Anime community along these lines, the Anti-Shoujo and Anti-Moe “OldTaku” were and still are a thing. But it manifests differently precisely because Anime was always crossing over these things. Western media has its own long history of hybridizing Teen Drama and Superheroes going back to the 50s Superboy Comics. But with Anime this has been the default form, it’s Superheroes being Adults that’s a novelty.
I created a Playlist on YouTube called Anime Defined where the true nuances of what the word Anime means is broken down and certain popular misconceptions are refuted.
But one topic not covered in any videos there yet is how I think the most interesting difference between how Westerners and those in Japan use the word Anime is that only we use it for a “Style” of Character Design. A Character who looks like this….
…is called an Anime Girl even though she hasn’t yet been in any Animated Media. And certain Video Games are called “Anime Games” because of the style of their Character Designs.
In Japan Anime is not given priority among the various Mediums these Styles have appeared in. The oldest Styles used in the Oldest Anime would probably be called Manga Styles if anything because they were usually adapting Manga or imitating older shows adapted from Manga. Plus the word Manga in Japanese is more analogous to the English word Cartoon then Comic.
However the particular kind of Anime Style associated with what Westerners typically mean by “Anime Games” I’m pretty sure actually started with the Games, it was Anime adapting and/or imitating those Games that created the styles of modern Anime.
The Puyo Puyo series started in 1991 (spinning off from something older if I remember correctly), Doukyuusei and Galaxy Fraulein Yuna then came out in 1992, Tokimeki Memorial came out in 1994 as did Panel de Pon. Their OVAs were among the first Anime to have this style, but even in 1995 TV Anime still didn’t quite look like this yet. 1996 was the big breakout year with Shizuka and Kizuato and Kakyuusei and Welcome to Pia Carrot and YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World. And then 97 had To Heart and Dosei and Moon followed in 98 by One. Then 99 had Key’s Debut with Kanon and Overflow’s with Large Pon Pon, and the To Heart Anime being I would argue the first popular TV Anime with this style.
So yeah, it’s actually Anime that looks like those Games, not the other way around.
Those Games however I believe were in turn influenced by Shoujo Manga trends in both subject matter and the Bishoujo/Bishounen style.
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