What characteristics tie anime styles together?

Question

Anime seems to be a broad subject, but it also tends to be fairly easy to identify something as anime, even if it is dubbed very well. The only exception that I can personally think of where it's easy to confuse an American production from a Japanese production is Avatar: The Last Air Bender.Excluding being produced in Japan, is there a defining set of characteristics that makes a work anime? What makes it so easy to spot a production as anime?

Answer 1

The most obvious connection that ties all of Anime together is the size of the eyes of the characters. They are usually wide and larger and more exaggerated than normal sized eyes.