Do you know anyone that’s said that to you? Does it make sense? Do you feel that way?
While I think the two are mutually exclusive to a point - I can see someone getting into JRPGs before anime- as I did, but I can’t see how someone can like anime and not JRPGs. That just boggles my mind. It’s hard to say if one is more accessable than the others, though there are certainly more accessible anime shows than JRPGs. At least in my experience, I’ve seen more casual anime watchers than casual JRPG’ers (ie, Final Fantasy and that’s about it).
JRPGs are basically Shonen Fantasy Shows in game form. Which is ONE genre of Anime. Considering they have everything from Bobobo Bo to Urotsukidoji, I’d certainly say that liking some kinds of Anime but not JRPGs isn’t that absurd.
It doesn’t seem that strange to me. Not everyone who likes anime is going to like playing video games. And even then, some may not like the RPG format. Vice versa, not everyone who likes JRPGs will like anime, as they may like them for their different qualities rather than the similarities.
On top of that, as Wil said, there are a lot more themes present in the whole of Japanese animation than you will ever find in games like Final Fantasy and what not. Go ahead and find me a JRPG that matches the greatness of Akira. Hell, find any game that does that. It would be pretty hard (for me at least).
Even that is still too broad. The amount of JRPGs that stray from the basic medieval fantasy formula (Or futuristic-but-we-still-use-swords-and-shit-so-you-can’t-really-tell-the-difference) is a minority (That I’m thankfully seeing is expanding as of late). And even then there are a few recurrent themes explored. Hell, I’d kill for an RPG with a plot like Übel Blatt for a change, and that one’s got a standard Final Fantasy-ish setting.