"anime" tends to be one of the things unique to Japan that a lot of people outside it feel free bashing them for (or at least they did for a long time until it started becoming more mainstream recently).

I don't want to make too many comparisons between what's "more" or "less" Japanese because, like you said, both are still undeniably Japanese in this case, but there are still unique attributes that can mark a work as being different from what the world might consider palatable/acceptable compared to what the Japanese audience would enjoy without issue, and as a result its hard not to look at said things as being "more" Japanese.

Not to mention the more palatable and popular a product becomes to the world (especially if its changed in some way), the more diluted and tenuous its identity tends to become. As an example with food: Sushi is still "Japanese" I suppose, but now everybody has their own take on it (Korean sushi, American sushi, etc.) and its popular across the world. Compare that with something like Natto which is pretty much a Japan-only thing and its clearly and solidly Japanese.

The world doesn't treat all of Japan's products and their aspects equally. There's a difference between someone who says they love Japan because they drive a Toyota Camry, eats instant ramen once in a while, and play Mario Odyssey on their Nintendo Switch, and someone importing "Anime Loli Pantsu Simulator 6: Pride of the Tokugawa Clan" through a proxy service to play on their Japanese Limited Edition Hatsune Miku PS Vita while shitposting about it on 2chan and enjoying some homemade melon bread and yakisoba from his Japanese girlfriend. Nobody would bat an eye at the former, but the latter... lol.

And you'd probably be more surprised if a game like the latter sold well outside of Japan, and not be as surprised at the former doing the same.