What type of animes are there
Rather, they are just labels for who the intended audience is. So while the anime and manga that fall into each of the types can technically be of any genre, knowing which anime and manga you like fall into which type serves as a good road map for finding other similar titles you might enjoy. Thus, shonen anime and manga are aimed at that demographic. A lot of these anime and manga have a young male hero and are focused on action, adventure, and fighting.
However, comedies and series with female protagonists are becoming more and more common. Shonen works often have more than a fair share of fanservice as well. They can also have content of a pornographic nature though this is not the focus of the work. Famous seinen anime and manga include such titles such as Berserk , Ghost in the Shell , Akira , Hellsing , and Gantz.
These tend to focus on romance and interpersonal relationships—though this does not mean they are necessarily without action or adventure. Shojo works almost always have a female lead; however, many male homosexual love stories fall into the shojo category as well. With all of the classifications and names of the different types of anime and manga worldwide, we here at Comicbook want to help you make sense of it all. So here are the five basic types of anime and how to identify them:.
Shonen can be translated to mean few years in English, and refers to a younger male audience. Shonen anime usually look to meet all the interests of younger males. Most of the series feature a young male protagonist.
Shonen anime have some of the most popular and well known franchise as they contain a little bit of everything. There's elements of action, adventure, fighting, drama, comedy, and coming of age. Seinen can be translated as young man in English, and targets the young adult or adult male viewers. Seinen anime usually have the same stories and themes as shonen, however are more sophisticated than shonen. They are more violent, sexual, satirical, or psychologically intense and therefore cater to a more mature audience.
It is popular with high school teens all the way up to businessmen. Isekai, beyond anything, is all about watching a fish out of water acclimate to a new ocean, and that's a fantastically flexible premise indeed. Does anything scream "anime" more than giant robots? Mecha anime, the genre to which giant robot anime belongs, is likely what many picture when they think of anime as a whole. Brash pilots in enormous robots, fighting for what's right — it's the premise that just won't quit.
An important distinction must be made, however. Within mecha as a genre, there are "super robot" stories, about enormous humanoid robots with incredible powers, and "real robot" stories, which stick closer to the limitations of our world. Some series blend the two — Neon Genesis Evangelion , infamous for blurring all sorts of genre lines, does this — but the two approaches claim a wealth of distinct work all their own. Some, like Code Geass , portray mecha that border upon being magical, their abilities are so vast.
One thing unites them: the possibilities of storytelling in worlds with giant robots. It's all in the name, when it comes to slice of life anime: It's a genre containing stories that observe everyday life as it is lived by an individual or group of characters. This is anime that glories in the details, drawing meaning from events as intimate as a single meal or a school ceremony.
No one is going Super Saiyan, no one is getting into their story-tall robot. Life is being lived, in whatever form that takes. It's that last bit that makes slice of life such a unique genre, however. But it also might mean Kiki's Delivery Service , a movie in which magic is a very real thing. That's the beauty of slice of life: It takes an intimate approach, even if that approach is being used on very unique people and places.
Kobayashi's Dragon Maid , and Aria: The Animation include supernatural phenomena, dragons, time travel, and life on other planets — and yet each is a slice of life series. Sure, Haruhi is a reality-warping quasi-deity, Ms.
Kobayashi accidentally befriended a dragon who now lives in her house, and Aria follows the lives of Martian gondoliers. But the story isn't about any of those things to the exclusion of all else. It's about people, living life, one day at a time. Sometimes with dragons. Many of those unfamiliar with anime might think the entire medium could be described as kid's stuff. Yet even those who understand that Cowboy Bebop and Pretty Cure are very different works of art with very different audiences might not know what kodomomuke anime is.
Many, however, are not — consider Doraemon. At most, a Western fan might recognize the titular character from a piece of merchandise at their local anime convention, but few are actually familiar with the robotic cat's story, despite the fact that character is a Japanese institution. Beyond him lie series even more obscure to Anglophone eyes, like Anpanman , a superhero series starring a do-gooder with a pastry for a head. Some might wince at the stigma of watching stuff for the youngest eyes, but be assured that anyone can have a great time watching kodomomuke anime's greatest hits.
After all, where else are you going to watch an anthropomorphic red bean bun fight a giant alien germ whose greatest weakness is soap? Iyashikei, which means "healing," is a little tricky to describe. Often it overlaps with other genres, especially slice of life, and is more defined by the experience of watching it than the actual story content. Succinctly put, it is anime that soothes you as you watch it. Gorgeously painted backgrounds, gentle scenes of nature, people working together towards a greater goal — that's the stuff of iyashikei, the animated equivalent of a long, hot bath.
As you might guess, there's a fair amount of variation within iyashikei as a genre. Laid-Back Camp is one example, starring a group of girls who enjoy camping. The soundtrack is lilting and gentle, comedy isn't ever over the top, and creating a cozy atmosphere is the clear goal of the entire production.
Yet iyashikei can contain dramatic elements as well. Girls' Last Tour takes place in a bombed-out apocalyptic landscape in which two girls, our heroines, wander aimlessly. Their lives are, in some ways, bleak — and yet they find peace and comfort in each other.