A Guide to Understanding the Different Types of Anime

Whether you’re a beginner to anime or a fan looking to brush up on your knowledge, understanding the different types of anime is a great way to get started. With so many different styles to choose from, learning a little more about each one can help you figure out which type of anime you enjoy the most!

Shonen

Anime is a huge medium that encompasses an enormous range of stories and themes. For many people, this makes it feel intimidating, especially when it comes to genres, which are often used in anime fandom to label works.

Shonen, for example, is a popular genre for action-packed series. These shows often feature giant robots and fighters with incredible powers. They also have a wide variety of storylines, and they’re perfect for a teen who wants action without too much adult angst.

Another common type of anime is shojo, which typically focuses on romance and everyday life. It is usually softer in art, and has a calming color palette. Characters in shojo are often cute and adorable, and tend to have large, sparkly eyes.

While both shojo and shonen anime are targeted towards teenagers, there are differences in their art styles and the ways they portray characters. Shonen anime has more dramatic art and a darker tone than shojo, as well as sharper lines in action scenes to make the characters look cooler than they actually are.

The art in shonen anime is also more realistic and detailed, as opposed to shojo, which usually focuses on bright colors and cute characters. For example, Death Note is a great example of this style, with a world that looks like it could be our own, and characters that appear to have authentic emotions and feelings.

Lastly, shonen has a lot of exaggerated humor in it. This can be in the form of hilarious dialogue between chibi versions of the main characters, or in scenes where the protagonist beats up a particularly threatening opponent.

There are a lot of different types of anime, and each one has its own unique art style. These include shojo, shonen, seinen, josei, and kodomomuke.

Shojo

There are a lot of different genres in anime. Some are more popular than others, but they all have their own style and are intended to be watched by a certain demographic. These different styles include shonen, shoujo, seinen, and josei.

Shonen is by far the most popular type of anime, with shows like Dragon Ball and My Hero Academia. It has a huge amount of action and comedy, but also has a heavy focus on friendships that are used to battle evil in the world.

Another type of anime is shoujo, which focuses on romance stories. These stories are more serious, often featuring strong female characters and a lot of heartbreak. Some examples of shoujo series are Sailor Moon and Paradise Kiss.

This genre is for teen girls, and is full of crushes, school friends, and breakups. It’s usually romantic and has deeper themes than other types of anime, but it still has some comedy.

In addition, shojo is a very popular genre in Japan and is popular overseas as well. It’s a great place to start if you’re new to manga, and it can be a great way to get introduced to Japanese culture.

One thing that makes shojo different from other genres is the protagonists. Most shojo series feature a female hero, while most shonen series have a male hero.

The art style of shojo is generally lighter and sparser than shonen, with more screentone patterns and less shading. Frames are rarely rectangular and borders are often absent. Character designs are also very small and slender, with large sparkly eyes that twinkle whenever they see their crush.

The shojo character has become an agent of positive change in Japanese society and is now ubiquitous in the country and abroad. In fact, shojo manga has even surpassed its own form and is now a complex, multilayered, transnational compendium of commodities that circulate in the realms of advertising, packaging, illustration, toys, and girls’ accessories.

Seinen

Seinen (Qing Nian) is a manga genre that is aimed at adult male readers. It usually features more mature and complex themes, as well as bolder graphic eroticism.

It can also be found in a wider range of subject matter and approaches than shonen, including comedy, crime, psychological horror, and dark takes on science fiction and fantasy. In addition, some of the most acclaimed anime franchises belong to this genre.

In the United States, seinen manga is not as popular as other forms of Japanese entertainment. Despite that, it is still one of the most widely read types of manga.

The audience of seinen manga is largely composed of young adults, typically ranging from high school students to working-class employees. They tend to understand kanji and enjoy reading about characters and stories that involve action, violence, and drama.

Although they can be a little less idealistic than shounen, seinen works often portray relationships in a realistic way. Relationships between heroes and heroines can be ambiguous or over-simplified, but they are not generally treated as an easy answer to the question “Which hero will hook up with which girl?”

These types of relationships may also include gay characters, as a way of presenting a realistic depiction of gay relationships in manga. In addition, many seinen works feature lesbian characters, as they are not as common in shonen manga.

Some seinen series are known for having pessimistic, nihilistic, and/or post-apocalyptic settings, targeting a more mature audience. Others have grey-and-gray morality and are more cynical than their shounen counterparts.

Josei

There are many types of anime, but there are five main categories: shonen, shojo, seinen, josei, and kodomomuke. Each of these has its own target audience and story. These are all based on specific themes, ideas, and characters.

Shoujo is an anime genre that’s aimed at teen girls and features stories of romance and friendship. It can also be filled with action, adventure, and comedy elements. The focus is more on interpersonal relationships than anything else.

While shoujo often presents idealized relationships that most teenage girls would like, it’s not without its issues. In shoujo, there are more realistic, three-dimensional characters than in most other genres. This makes shoujo more relatable to adults who don’t want to see princesses on white horses or damsels in distress.

Josei, or nu xing (women’s manga) is another type of anime and manga that focuses on women of all ages. This is the mature evolution of shoujo, featuring stories that tackle issues like adult relationships and growing up.

This genre also deals with complex romantic relationships, sexual content, and other darker subject matter. Its protagonist is typically a woman who is going through a complicated time in her life.

The storylines are often messy and full of heartbreak, but they’re more realistic than shojo’s interpretation of love. It’s not uncommon to see stories where one character is forced to choose between two potential partners.

The best josei anime include stories that deal with adolescence, love, and friendships that outlast evil. These shows are more mature than shoujo but still have some humour. This is where you can find shows such as Paradise Kiss and Princess Jellyfish.

Iyashikei

Iyashikei is the Japanese word for “healing,” and works of this genre tend to have a calming effect on the audience. This is often achieved through a slow pace that forgoes tension in narrative or comedic form, as well as an emphasis on nature and the little delights in life.

While iyashikei has existed in various forms for centuries, it really crystallized as a genre during the 90s. Its popularity is likely a response to Japan’s national crisis at the time, which had triggered the country’s economic bubble and heightened its sense of anxiety.

The most common element of iyashikei is an appreciation for nature, particularly its transience. This is rooted in Eastern philosophies such as Zen and Taoism, which both deal with self-development through personal effort and living in harmony with the world. It also ties in with Buddhist teachings of the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering and absence of self-nature.

This is most commonly seen in iyashikei manga and anime that are concerned with the environment, but it can be found in series about fishing and meditation as well. These works all emphasize the value of nature and the importance of putting oneself in nature as a way to heal the mind.

Unlike slice of life, which usually has a lot of action going on, iyashikei anime eschews tension entirely in favor of a more calming pace. This is done in part to help the audience escape from their daily stress and worries, but it’s also to evoke a positive feeling within the viewer.

One of the best examples of this type of anime is Aria the Animation, which has a lot of heartwarming moments and wholesome romance. The series is a solid Iyashikei choice that will have you smiling from start to finish. It’s a great series to binge watch when you’re having a rough day or when you’re looking for a good series to relax with.