
I didn't have as much time to work on this as I would like; I hope this edit helps more than hurts. I know you said that you were going for anime, but, just for the record, anime does not (to me) necessarily mean minimalistic or simple, either. I tried to take it farther in rendering than you might, so I apologize. Also, I added 2 colors, mea culpa. If I had more time I would spend it on the sand, which is just sort of scribbled in, for now.
The main points I wanted to communicate were that a small amount of defining shapes and cleaning up outlines could go a long way. Also, especially because you want your style to be cartoon-y, your rocks should be so rocky that they are confrontational about it: "Yeah I'm a rock! Wanna make something of it!?" Your sand should be so sandy that from a block away people are like: "Oh sh- here comes sand again to stir up trouble..."
As it stands with your rendering, one would not be so sure what was what if a section of the picture was pulled out of context.
Three places I would recommend offhand for the kind of feel you are going for to study are The backgrounds for The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio (the underwater scenes, obv.) and Spongebob. All have different, but very effective ways of approaching this environment.
Anyway, not everything I did is perfect, so don't take it as gospel, but rather as a number of suggestions.
Let me know if you have any questions about what I did.
EDIT: Oh, also - I found working with your palette to be most enjoyable - good picks on the colors.