Start with a still that already works
A good anime still has a clear character silhouette, a readable face and a simple background. If the still is crowded or the character is small, the video model has less information to work with. Crop to the character before animating.
Keep the still at the highest resolution you have. The video model will resize it, but a clean source preserves line quality. Avoid images with heavy compression artifacts or text.
Motion that respects line art
Anime line art is less forgiving than photographic texture. Large motion can warp the face and hands. Start with a head turn, a blink, moving hair or a camera move. Avoid full-body running or fighting unless you are prepared to retry.
If the line art shimmers, reduce the motion and add a stability rule. A slow push-in with moving hair is usually cleaner than a fast action shot. Keep the camera move in one direction.
Style consistency across clips
If you need several clips of the same character, use the same still as the reference and keep the prompt structure identical. Change only the motion sentence. That gives you a consistent set without retraining a character model.
For a longer sequence, generate each shot separately and edit them together. A five-second clip per shot is easier to control than a single long generation.