Adventures are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Adventures are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the viewer. Rather than the predominant emphasis on violence and fighting that is found in pure action anime, however, the viewer of adventures can live vicariously through the travels, conquests, explorations, creation of empires, struggles and situations that confront the main characters, actual historical figures or protagonists.

Shounen means “for boys” and refers to anime marketed at boys. This especially includes action, harem anime and mechas; well-known examples of each of these, respectively, include Dragonball Z, Tenchi Muyo and the Gundam series. Harem anime refers to a show in which a male lead lives with, works near or is otherwise involved with a large cast of desirable female characters and inevitably romantic or mildly sexual comedy ensues. Mecha anime is defined more thoroughly below.

Shoujo means “for girls.” It can include almost anything from romance and drama to action to comedy. Its primary distinguishing factor is its focus on the characters and the relationships between them. There is a shoujo subgenre called reversed harem, which is essentially the same as the harem anime described in the shounen section, but with a female lead surrounded by male characters.

A subset of anime and manga created mostly by women, for late teenage/adult female audiences.

Mecha anime is considered a subgenre to shounen, but is so enormously popular that it’s deserving of its own section. A mecha is a giant robot that may operate independently, but more commonly contains a pilot inside who controls the robot like a suit of armor.

Hentai refers to animated pornography. One that focuses around explicit sexual content. Not for kids.

Ecchi is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the letter H, which stands for hentai. However, ecchi has grown into a separate term in its own right and can be used to refer to anime with a great deal of sexual humor or other sexual content that isn’t explicit enough to be labeled hentai.

The anime is saturated with overly emphasized emotions and events, exaggerating even the most trivial happenings. Stresses character development and relationships.

Magic and other supernatural forms are primary elements of plot, theme and/or setting. Distinguished from science fiction and horror by not involving scientific or macabre themes respectively, though the three genres can often overlap each other to some extent.

Develops from a card game or board game.

Sports anime revolves around a recreational physical activity or skill. In addition they often adhere to certain genre conventions, the emphasis on training and practice in preparation for competition, characters desire for self improvement, and pursuit of a specific goal.

In a traditional Fantasy anime with medieval setting, the lack of technology is “compensated” by the introduction of the supernatural, i.e. spell-casting, magic wands, and magic circles.

Science fiction stories usually focus on how situations could be different in the future when we are more technologically advanced; due to either our own achievements or having met with other civilizations whom we have learned from.

Anime whose central struggle causes hilarious results. These stories are built upon funny characters, situations and events. A comedy anime is laced with humour and sets out to provoke laughter from the audience. Japanese humour can be a bit strange to westerners, so if you’re new to this type of humour, just bear with it; it’ll most likely grow on you if you’re a fan of other kinds of comedy.

The mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.

Action anime usually involve a fairly straightforward story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disputes are resolved by using physical force. It often contains a lot of shooting, explosions and fighting.

Includes demons and others demon kind spirit. (‘ . ‘)

The anime concerns an organised armed force, and its members. Said body should have both the equipment and hierarchy found in military groups, and should ideally be actively utilising their power against an opponent. Characters are either employed as professional soldiers or enlisted on a volunteer basis, for ideological reasons.

Be it an ancient Greek Hercules, a cybernetic muscle-man, or a fourteen year-old girl in a mini-skirted sailor suit. As long as they have super powers, they’re in the show.

Material relating to the supernatural world and supernatural folklore. Includes ghosts, haunted houses, vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, witches, and contact from the other side.

An anime that takes place in an alternative past is an anime that clearly does not belong to the future or the present, and isn’t tied particularly closely to our history, or has ties to our history but only as a premise: there are too many things that don’t make sense for the time-period. In some cases there is futuristic technology present, but the overall setting still feels that of the past. However the setting must still take place on Earth, since we can not know if the history of a fantasy world is an alternate one or not.

Characterized by extensive fighting scenes employing various types of martial arts, meaning systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat.

Anime that imitate other stories (can be from TV, film, books, historical events, …) for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original. Also known as spoofs. It can also refer to when whole elements of one work are lifted out of their context and reused.

Romance describes a story that deals with love between two or more characters typically also having an optimistic ending. Romance is also a difficulty encountered when creating a harem.

The antics of the protagonists do not take place in some exotic setting or time, but in everyday life. When not “at the job” this means getting up in the morning, making meals, house cleaning, going shopping or out to eat, visiting the bath house or spa, leisure activities in the spare time, etc.

Dementia is the slow deterioration of the mind, a gradual decline towards insanity. It could be anime that discuss themes or feature characters who are afflicted or seemingly afflicted with the disease.

Since a large part of the anime audience still takes part in school life or is visiting college, it is only natural to choose a setting the audience can identify with, be it elementary, middle, or high school. For the older viewers a college setting with more mature real-life problems is appropriate. And since clubs take up so much time in the lives of students, these are obviously also important.

Yaoi refers to anime that portray gay (male/male) sex. Do not confuse this with the Shounen Ai category under Romance, which only portrays male/male relationships, but generally not anything pornographic. This is real male/male porn.

Harem broadly speaking, is a loose subgenre of anime and manga characterized by a protagonist surrounded, usually amorously, by three or more members of the opposite sex.

A subset of anime or manga that is generally targeted at a 18 – 25 year old male audience, but the audience can be much older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s.

The horror cinematic genre is characterized by the attempt to make the viewer experience dread, fear, terror, or horror. Often their plots involve the intrusion of an evil force, event or personage, sometimes of supernatural origin, on the mundane world and the consequences thereof.

Directed toward dealing with or affecting the mind, especially as a function of awareness, feeling, or motivation.

Thrillers are mostly characterised by an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder by showing society as dark, corrupt and dangerous, though they often feature a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested.

Shoujo Ai means girls love, and as such it explores what happens when two girls (or women) fall in love. This is not to be mistaken for Yuri which is a hentai genre. This is not. Meaning no graphical sex.

Includes Police in the series.

This Anime will include one or more sword-carrying/wielding warriors.

Music anime generally revolves around people concerned with music in their everyday lives. In addition they often adhere to certain genre conventions, the emphasis on training and practice in preparation for competitions, characters desire for self improvement, and pursuit of a specific goal. This is not unlike the Sports category.

This usually refers going to space or travelling in space there with or without a spacecraft.

For Kids only. For adults also. Hehehe

As plot device cars (personal transport vehicles, or race cars) play a central part in this anime.