Anime Genres

Anime is a widely used and diverse creative medium for telling stories, and expressing ideas. It comes in many forms and style, and differs from artist to artist. This allows for many genres, and genre types. Ranging from romance to fighting and from adult shows to kid shows, these genres define what anime really is.

Most anime are usually grouped into more than one genre. This is really due a combination of the sheer amount of genres and the way they define them, plus the way anime is created with plots, subplots, and a high amount of development. These are things you don't normally find in American cartoons.



Some Common Genres Include:



General Types: These are types found in most forms of graphic art

• Action- A fast paced, thrilling story, usually including battle, fighting, competition, or death.
• Adventure- A story following someone Else's travels, usually as a journey to obtain, save, or learn something important, associated with action.
• Drama- An emotional story, usually with a high amount of character development, and a relationship theme, related to love/romance.
• Horror- A scary, gory story, usually including things of supernatural origin and darker themes, kept as realistic as possible.
• Sci-fi- A futuristic story, usually involving advanced technology and new sciences
• Progressive- An extremely stylized design for character, and story, can be associated with any other type of genre.
• Fantasy- A story with supernatural, or mythical origins, usually includes superpowers, demons, ghosts, or an unbelievable setting.
• Comedy- A funny story, made comical through unexpected situations and visual exaggeration, usually associated with all other genres except drama.

Demographic: Shows intended audience or targeted age group

• Shojo- Japanese for "Young girl", usually aimed at younger girls, focus on character and plot development, includes idealized love stories.
• Shonen- Japanese for "young boy", usually aimed at younger boys, focus on fighting and battle, associated with mecha, action, and adventure.
• Josei- Japanese for "young woman", usually aimed at mature girls (teens), focus on famalies and mothers, rarest genre, associated with yaoi.
• Seinen- Japanese for "young man", usually aimed at mature boys (teens), focus on more psychological and sexual elements, and more plot development, darker than shonen.
• Kodomo- Japanese for "child", all children shows fall into this category.

Thematic: Used only in Japanese style animation

• Bishojo- Japanese for "beautiful girl", features pretty female leads and characters.
• Bishonen- Japanese for "pretty boy", features elegant, handsome male leads and characters.
• Sentai- Japanese for "fighting team", feature superheros and superhero teams.
• Mecha- Features giant robots, which usually act more like extensions to the pilot, humanoid, related to sci-fi or fantasy.
• Post Apocalypse- Features a post Apocalyptic world, related to sci-fi.
• Maho Shojo- Sub genre of Shojo, Japanese for "magical girl", features a girl of extraordinary origin.
• Maho Shonen- Sub genre of Shonen, Japanese for "magical boy", features a boy of extraordinary origin.
• Moe- Features cute or naive characters, usually females who look younger than they really are.
• Expertise- Features a specific topic in dept, usually like a sport, an art, or cooking.
• Lolicon- Features the sexualization of underage female characters.
• Shotacon- Features the sexualization of underage male characters.
• Historical Setting- A story set in the past, usually featuring real historical events, opposite of fantasy, however not completely accurate.
• School Life- A story which features a school setting, deals with school issues such as romance and education, associated with almost every other genre.

Romantic Genres: Yeah... An entire section

• Harem- A single indecisive male character surrounded by a romance of multiple female characters, usually ending in him choosing one or none at all.
• Reverse Harem- A single female lead is surrounded by a romance of multiple male character, related to Shojo and Josei.
• Magical Girlfriend- Focuses on a romantic between a male lead and a girl or extraordinary origin, such as alien or superhuman.
• Ecchi- Japanese for "indecent sexuality", usually includes sexual humor and fan service.
• Hentai- Japanese for "Perverted", usually mature anime involving erotica.
• Yuri- Japanese for "girl love", focuses on romance between female charters, sometimes involving mature subjects.
• Yaoi- Japanese for "boy love", focuses on romance between male charters, sometimes involving mature subjects.