Anime Tutorial 1: What Kinds of Anime Are There?
Anime Tutorial 1: What Kinds of Anime Are There?
This is a huge question, and until I started looking into this, I did not know all of the various types of anime that are out there. I am not sure that what I have is a complete list, but here's what I have found so far...
A special thanks to Anime-Genesis.com for some of the info that I did not have and for more details on the rest...
Anime Types
This genre of anime and manga is targetted at teenage girls. Generally, shoujo is more character-oriented than other forms of anime, and the main characters are almost always female. There is a strong emphasis put on relationships, especially if the relationship involves romance. Large portions of the anime deal with the normal life of the characters, with action scenes being used sparingly.
Perhaps the best example of shoujo anime is the series Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon although other series would include Fushigi Yuugi, and Marmelade Boy.
Shounen anime is aimed at teenage boys and generally involves combat-oriented plots and characters. While some character development happens, there is not as much as in shoujo anime.
The action scenes tend to be fast, and there is not a lot of room left for an emotional attachment. Although entire episodes may be dedicated to showing the life of the characters, the series as a whole is dominated by a conflict of some sort.
The shounen series that come to mind are the Macross series and Street Fighter.
Seinen works on the premise that people have normal lives. It is sort of a sub-classification, as seinen can also be shoujo or shoenen, This type of anime centers on the daily lives of normal, or nearly-normal people. Because of this, it has a realistic feel to it.
Seinen series would include such things as the anime adaptation of Little Women, which is based on Louisa May Alcott's book of the same name, My Dear Marie, which is about a guy who builds an android girl (like I said, 'nearly-normal'), and Wandering Student 6, which is about a drama class (I believe)
This type of anime involves relationships of a romantic or sexual nature between men. Some of this type of anime is quite inappropriate for younger audiences as it can involve such things as the rape of a male by a male.
Hentai is the japanese word for "pervert", and in anime, hentai is associated with pornography. The quality varies, but some hentai can degrade into mindless debauchery.
You must be of legal age in your locality to view videos of hentai or yaoi anime.