The left-hander heaved, swatted and crunched 12 sixes and four fours on his way to a 36-ball century, surpassing Shahid Afridi's (Pakistan) 37-ball effort against Sri Lanka in 1996.
Staggeringly, Jesse Ryder was down the other end compiling the sixth fastest one-day century of all time.
On any other day the powerful left-hander's hundred from just 46 deliveries would have been a talking point for years to come.
Instead his rather wonderful knock was almost pedestrian by comparison and will be consigned to a footnote in history with Anderson now the undisputed heaviest hitter in world cricket.
Ryder was eventually undone on 104 but Anderson was undefeated on 131.
The pair combined in New Zealand record 191-run stand for the fourth-wicket, passing the previous mark of 190 set by Ross Taylor and Scott Styris against India in 2010-11.
You got dizzy watching the ball sail through the air of over the ropes. There were 22 sixes in all.
Anderson was responsible for 14 of them and Ryder chipped in with five. Brendon McCullum accounted for the other three. He played a nice little cameo, whacking 33 from 11 deliveries to kick start the onslaught.
Anderson had no clue the record was in play but said it was nice to have.
"I guess it's one of those things that you never really plan on doing when you go out there,'' he said in a television interview. "But, obviously, a reduced game makes it a little bit easier to go harder at it early. Brendon showed his intent early on and Jesse played an unbelievable innings as well.
"I think we went pretty good together, I guess. I was hitting boundaries and he was hitting boundaries - it was just one of those things that comes off.''
Needless to say, the Black Caps recorded a massive 159-run win. Only the constant threat of rain could have snatched victory.
New Zealand hustled through its 21 overs as quickly as possible. The West Indies reached 124 for five but rather went through the motions.
The series is locked at one apiece with two games remaining. Saturday's fixture in Nelson has the potential to be rain-affect as well with more bad weather forecast.
