These are lists of the genres of anime and their respective descriptions. They are broken down into demographic ordering and a more defined thematic ordering.
Demographic[]
- Shōjo - Japanese for "young lady" or "little girl". These anime are generally targeted at girls. Examples: Fruits Basket or Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
- Shōnen - Japanese for "young boy". Examples: Dragon Ball Z or Digimon
- Seinen - Japanese for "young man" and normally includes teenage or young male adults. Examples: Oh My Goddess! or Cowboy Bebop
- Josei - Japanese for "woman". Examples: Gokusen or Honey and Clover
- Kodomo - Japanese for "child". All children's series fall into this category. Examples: Hello Kitty or Hamtaro
Thematic[]
- Bishōjo - Japanese for "beautiful girl", and a blanket term that features pretty girl characters. Sometimes conflated with Moè. Examples: Magic Knight Rayearth or Negima
- Bishōnen - Japanese for "beautiful boy", and a blanket term that can be used to describe any anime that features "pretty" and elegant boys and men. Examples: Fushigi Yūgi or The Wallflower
- Sentai is literally a "fighting team" in Japanese. It refers to any show that involves a superhero team. Examples: Cyborg 009 or Voltron
- Robot / Mecha features real robots or super robots. Examples: Mobile Suit Gundam or Mazinger Z respectively
- Post-Apocalyptic simply deals with a post-apocalyptic world. Examples: Fist of the North Star or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- Mahō shōjo is a subgenre of shōjo known for "Magical Girl" stories. These stories involves teenage or pre-teen girls who receive magical accessories that allows them to transform into magical warriors. Most magical girl anime involves a girl reciting a phrase before undergoing an intricate transformation sequence which shows the girl being magically dressed or a magical artifact forming its shape into the girl's hand. These sequences are collectively known in anime as henshin. Examples: Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura
- Mahō shōnen is a male equivalent of Mahō Shōjo. Examples: D.N.Angel or Fullmetal Alchemist
- Moé features characters with perky, cute, weak, or naïve behaviors. In some way, they are not overly independent. Examples: A Little Snow Fairy Sugar
- Expertise specializes with a specific topic in depth. Topics range from sports, the arts, and cooking. Examples: Eyeshield 21 with football, or Yakitate!! Japan with bread-making
- Lolicon ("Lolita Complex") is the sexualization of under-aged female characters, the name coming from the titular character of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Example: Kodomo no Jikan
- 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. Typically, the male cohabits with at least one female. It is usually marketed as a Shōnen or Seinen. Examples: Ranma ½ or Love Hina
- Reverse Harem reverses the gender balance in harem, where a female character is romantically involved with many male characters. It is more often than not a Shōjo or Josei Anime. Examples: Ouran High School Host Club or Fruits Basket
- Magical girlfriend is more accurately termed Exotic Girlfriend. This genre focuses on the romantic relationship (and cohabitation) between a man and at least one woman of extraordinary origins such as alien (Tenchi Muyo!, Urusei Yatsura), supernatural (Oh My Goddess!), or technological (Chobits). Often considered a subgenre of Harem
- Ecchi is Japanese for "indecent sexuality", derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the letter "H", (the origin of the term is not well known, even in Japan. See main article for more information.) Sexual humor and fan service are prevalent.[citation needed] Examples: Oruchuban Ebichu or He Is My Master
- Hentai is Japanese for "abnormal" or "perverted". This term is synonymous to pornography or erotica, as hentai content specifically consists of such. Examples: La Blue Girl or Bible Black
- Shōjo-ai or Yuri is Japanese for "girl-love". These focus on love and romance between female characters. It is often being replaced by the term "Girls Love" (GL). Yuri is like Shōjo-ai, but sometimes involves older characters or explicit sexual activity. 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). Yaoi is like Shōnen-ai, but sometimes involves older characters or explicit sexual activity. Examples: Loveless or Gravitation
- yobo07 - anime vulgar
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