What is the difference between Animator Controller and Animation component?

My problem is that colliders attached to the bones of a rigged character sometimes ignore Physics.raycast hits when using an Animator Controller. But raycasts always hit the colliders of the character using the Animation component.

What I don’t understand is, why? What is the Animator Controller doing that makes it different from Animation? I always assumed the difference was an Animator Controller is using root motion but even with that disabled, the colliders can still ignore raycast hits. I don’t understand how an Animation character’s colliders remain accurate while animating but an Animator Controller character’s colliders are all wonky while animating.

Did you change the Update Mode of the Animator to “Update Physics” ?

Some info here about Animator Controller and Animator

Roughly:

Animator component uses an associated Animator Controller to move between Animations and apply the animations to the GameObject.

Animator Controller can be used to define specific ways to transition between animations