A list of basic anime genres
The 13 Most Popular Anime Genres & The Titles That Defined Them
The reason Fullmetal Alchemist is the best fantasy anime of all time is that it paints a fully realized, unique world with internally consistent rules that have real consequences. Building on that foundation, it delivers a story about two brothers that's as grounded as the setting is fantastic.
Honorable Mentions
The five types are shonen, shojo, seinen, josei, and kodomomuke. Each kind of anime is focused on a specific target population of viewers.
The 13 Most Popular Anime Genres & The Titles That Defined Them1 Shonen - Dragon Ball.2 Shoujo - Sailor Moon. ... 3 Slice of Life - Clannad. ... 4 Sci-Fi - Cowboy Bebop. ... 5 Adventure - One Piece. ... 6 Horror - Elfen Lied. ... 7 Psychological - Death Note. ... 8 Sports - Haikyuu!! ... More items...•
Shonen. The shonen genre is by far the most popular brand of anime and the majority of breakout hits and major successes like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and One Piece all fit into the shonen brand.
Josei. Advertisement. Anime and manga of the “josei” (女性) variety are aimed at adult women. Josei series are often slice-of-life or romantic tales featuring adult women, though, in recent years, shonen-like action-adventures have become popular as well.
Action fictionDark fantasyApocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fictionDramaShōnen mangaAttack on Titan/Genres
GamblingPsychological thrillerKakegurui – Compulsive Gambler/Genres
Note that while the term "shōnen" tends to be used to refer to a few standard genres, it isn't technically a genre as it literally refers to the target demographic (and in Japan, generally refers strictly to manga, rather than animenote Light Novels are often marked with a generic "male" or "female" demographic.).
MysteryPsychological thrillerThrillerDeath Note/Genres
Death Note is a shounen series because it was made to target middle school aged boys.
Adventure fictionDark fantasyMartial ArtsDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba/Genres
The history of anime can be traced back to the start of the 20th century, with the earliest verifiable films dating from 1917. The first generation of animators in the late 1910s included Ōten Shimokawa, Jun'ichi Kōuchi and Seitaro Kitayama, commonly referred to as the "fathers" of anime.
Attack on Titan is serialized in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shounen Magazine. As the magazine's name suggests, it is a shounen magazine. The official way to identify a series is not just through its themes or characteristics, it is mostly classified by the magazine where it is serialized in.
Examples: Revolutionary Girl Utena or Kannazuki no Miko. Shōnen-ai or Yaoi is Japanese for 'boy-love'. These focus on love and romance between male characters. The term "Shōnen-ai" is being phased out in Japan due to its other meaning of pederasty, and is being replaced by the term "Boys Love" (BL).
Shotacon ("Shōtarō Complex") is the sexualization of under-aged male characters, the name coming from the lead child actor from Tetsujin-nijūhachi-gō. Example: Boku no Pico. Harem is a genre which focuses on a male character surrounded by the romance of multiple female characters.
The genre shonen can be considered the most popular form of anime. Although aimed at boys, many girls are also interested in this segment. What makes it even more popular is the fact that your audience is not aged, it can fit the preferences of children and adults. As we can see, this genre is the opposite of shoujo.
This genre is one that in its plot there is the presence of comic elements, or popularly known as funny. Basically it can contain jokes either directly or indirectly, actions and reactions that result in a comic surprise, situations of the same nature, etc. In short, everything that is funny and that can make someone laugh.
Seinen is a genre of anime aimed mainly at the adult male audience. In Japanese, the word "seinen" literally means "young", although it is also used to describe the target audience. Despite this definition, one more case of not being a rule, but the content will not, in many cases, fully satisfy the demand of other types of public.
Basically, this genre is distinguished from the others because in its plot there is some kind of relationship with music. That is, a music band or someone who works with music as the main theme.
By literal definition, harem is a word derived from the Arabic harãm, which means a group of women who live and share a house, living under the rules of a polygamous marriage. That is, in this genre there are several women married to a single person. The reverse can also happen.
Anime with Super Powers. This despite being well known, is not as popular as genres of magic, fantasy, ecchi or action. This genre encompasses only the types of plots that some people have supernatural powers that are not common in society.
The latter is not uncommon, there are a lot of anime that deal exclusively with romance between girls who sometimes reach the end.
Characters in these anime might run a brewery, or are sommeliers, alcoholics, or simply enjoy the experience of drinking alcohol . These anime may offer step-by-step Recipes for how to make cocktails or alcoholic beverages.
Common themes include the creative and design process, sound design or voice acting, editing or meeting deadlines, distribution and marketing, or the culture of anime consumption.
Agriculture. These anime explore the occupations, issues and lifestyles related to agriculture and farming. They frequently take place on a farm or in the countryside, and follow protagonists that learn or practice skills such as tilling the earth or taking care of barnyard animals. 457 701.
Anime Industry. These anime explore anime from the industry or consumer side. Common themes include the creative and design process, sound design or voice acting, editing or meeting deadlines, distribution and marketing, or the culture of anime consumption. 910 270. #N#1.
Androphobia. Androphobia is defined as an irrational fear of men. In these anime, characters with the disorder have extreme reactions to the men in their lives, from panicking to having an intense allergic reaction to anything in between. 700 653.
These anime are heavily or loosely influenced by Lewis Carroll' s 1865 publication Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. They range between true adaptations, alternate versions, parodies, or stories that take place in a new setting that heavily mimics or alludes to Alice's journey.
Action is about conflict. Whether with guns, blades, fists, or mysterious powers, these anime feature characters in combat - either to protect themselves or the things or people they value, or simply as a way of life.
Ghost Stories – Creepy tales about ghosts and other beings of (Japanese) folklore. Hentai – A pornographic title. Horror – Deals with the escape from or the battle with (mostly supernatural) threatening beings. The protogonist is constantly in a frightening situation. Indefinite – Can’t be assigned a specific genre.
Slice of Life Drama – A serene and sometimes mundane drama about everyday conflicts. Thriller – A suspenseful story about one or more people that have to face a seemingly desperate situation.
Examples - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Hunter x Hunter, Kill la Kill
Examples - Made in Abyss, A Place Further Than The Universe, Samurai Champloo
Examples - Puella Magi Madoka Magica, The Ancient Magus' Bride, Flying Witch
Examples: Barakamon, The Eccentric Family, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!
Examples - Kaguya-sama: Love is War, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Silver Spoon
Examples - March Comes In Like A Lion, A Silent Voice, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
Examples - The Qwaser Of Stigmata, Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo: Anata to Koibito Tsunagi, Futa-bu!!
The manga it is based on began in 1997 and is still being written and animated to this day, making it one of the longest-running anime of all time. The manga is also leading as the best-selling manga series in history!
6 Horror - Elfen Lied. This dark, horror anime went viral back at its release in 2004 and continues to be one of the creepiest and most famous horror shows in the genre. Elfen Lied is set in a world where a newly mutated species similar but stronger than humans are threatening to wipe out the Earth's population to replace it with their own.
The Clannad anime was based on a visual novel of the same name . The show follows the main character Tomoya Okazaki, a high school delinquent who has his life flipped upside down when he becomes friends with a girl named Nagisa Furukawa.
Isekai is a genre of anime where the main characters enter a new world unlike their own, typically resembling a MMORPG or fantasy land. Sword Art Online was originally released back in 2013, and it boosted the genre into the spotlight.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Dragon Ball is the defining anime that shaped shonen anime as we know it today. The original manga and show were created back in the 80s and new series based on the classic are still being animated to this day.
Death Note continues to reign as one of the best anime series of all time. It is a common show that people not familiar with anime watch to get into the animated film scene, since it avoids any of the weirder, funkier, and sometimes perverted tropes that other anime tend to have.
There are very few anime characters who can be identified as easily as Goku, and even people who don't watch anime will know what is being referenced when they hear "Kamehameha!". It's a classic that continues to be watched and loved even nearly 40 years after its initial premiere.
Hentai. Probably the most popular kind of anime or at least something that everyone has heard of at least one in any conversation about anime. Hentai is the kind of anime that shows explicit content while having a minor plot going on in the background.
Drama usually means tension, dark, some depressing events, and something on those lines, very akin to the Angst and Fluff genre of fanfiction. Drama is coupled with other genres to make a more specific and detailed image of what to expect from a certain anime.
Popular seinen anime include Black Lagoon, Code Geass, Plastic Memories, Tiger and Bunny, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and so on.
Shōjo. Following the trend, this word means ‘a young girl’ and is the intended target audience demographic. Shoujo anime most often like all the others is combined with another sub-genre like historical drama or sci-fi for storytelling purposes.
Popular harem anime include High School of the Dead, High School DxD, Clannad, Zero no Tsukaima, and so on.
Kodomo. The word literally means ‘child’ in Japanese. So, obviously, this is the kind of anime that is aimed at young kids to enjoy. This, however, though considered a genre, is actually more of a target audience demographic than a genre. These anime often don’t have a lot of story and are very episodic in nature.
This is when a male protagonist of a story is being crushed by more than 3 female or male characters in the anime. The male protagonist either has no idea about these romantic feelings or in the end, chooses not to get into an actual relationship with anyone.