Anime 101: Concepts to know

This post I will talk about bunch of concepts that i found unique to Anime, this is my personal list of concepts you need to know as a new watcher. of course some may not agree with how I explained these or that there is more to them, but as I said it is just a list for newcomers to know what they should generally expect when they see those things in anime. I will try to also recommend shows that give a good representation for that concept, if I did not write a description for the show it's because I didn't personally watch it so I can't talk about it:

Moe

It means incredibly adorable, this is not really a genre or anything but you will usually find this one character that just TOO DAMN CUTE, Shows that I can recommend are:

• K-on: this is a very misleading show, K-on means music club but at the end it is just Adorable girls eating Cake, I am not complaining, but just saying do not expect music or anything like that

• Ore Monogatari: it is an incredibly fun Shoujo show, but my god the main girl is Just. Too. Cute.

Tsundere

It is a type of female love interest, and can be described as: she hates the fact that she is in love with the guy. But later on the term started to include that she is basically some sort of a bitch. Either bitch to the guy and nice to everyone else or bitch to everyone else but nice to the guy.

Shows that I can recommend that better represents a Tsundere:

• Nisekoi: it is a fun Rom/Com but it has weird art style so may through some people off

• Toradora

Yandere

It is a type of female love interest, it is rare to find this type outside of a comedy show in popular shows due to how dark it can get. She is the one that is just crazy, and am talking about having pet knives kind of crazy. But you will usually find them in comedies if you only watch highly rated shows, the only show that is not a comedy(Will maybe if you have a twisted sense of humor) that has a Yandere is

• Mirai Nikki: it has an extremely interesting story and idea, but it is really dark and edgy

Traps

It means that there is a character that you will presume to be a female but they are a male, this is done in a comedic context rather than gender identifications type of thing. They range from either the dude is Cute, to be in full dresses(Basically a female character model that they say she is a he). The only show I found where they approached it with more seriousness is

• Assassination Classroom: it is an action comedy with the MC being a trap but they only discuss his background in like 2 of the 50 eps so do not expect much in that regard

Isekai

It is the idea of "going to another world", they are mostly being moved to a video game world, this genre blew up in 2010s, you will find many variations of this and to me I am not bothered with this, but you will find many people online being really salty about these shows for some reason. to start this genre you need to watch the one that started it all:

• Sword Art Online: this show is the the first one and the only Isekai that actually fully explain how they moved to the world, and it offers many different genres and feelings, like an incredible romance and many good action scenes. But you will find many people hating on it just because of the Isekai thing

Yaoi

It is a show that is Sexually targeted towards females, in better words, they are shows with bunch of hot dudes doing hot things, they also go into being Gay and things like that, I have not watch any of them but from information it's not about being gay it is more about Hot Guys. The two most famous shows that do that are:

• Free

• Yuri on ice

Yuri

It is a show about girls love, the problem with these that they are also targeted towards females. So you will find that these shows try to give a twist and can be very emotionally unstable rather than sticking to normal romance, a couple of famous shows are:

• Nana

• Bloom into you

Incest

Oh boy, so yeah, you will find sometimes (Mostly in a comedic context but some take it serious) is brother and sister romance, in comedy it is mostly teasing and things like that but there are romance shows that go that way. But to be honest it is not as bad as it sounds really, some goes full on, but others that to me personally would not call even Incest, it is that like the guy moves in with girl after their parents get married and they fall for each other, thats is just normal to me but you will find people calling them Incest, most famous show that play with this concept:

• Ore no Imouto: this is fun comedy but yeah fuck that ending

Highschool with a Gimmick

Anime is marketed towards teens, so it is normal to find a lot of High School anime, the thing is it was done so much that it went out of control, like before Isekai there was this one thing that kept rolling out each season which is "in a Magical High School" you will find A LOT of shows that follow this idea but with a small twist, so there is many great shows that received hate just because it is that, two shows that I like from these:

• Mahouka Koukou: This is one of the most famous novels out of Japan apparently and the one that started that whole "in a Magical High School" thing(Unless you count Harry Potter) it is a good show with cool magic system but it has a weird relation between the Brother and Sister, but they are not related with blood, I think...

• Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry: This is a really good action with the tournament gimmick as will as the underdog hero, but it has a bit of fan service among other things

Mecha

It is simple really, they have big robots involved, I wanted to mention this because there is a lot of these shows, and for some reason, Me and everyone I know, don't like these shows, there is no apparent reason, it's maybe the toxic community that just PRAISE the old stuff and hate on anything new, or that the action scenes looks like two scrap yards having sex. the only two shows that I watched were:

• Code Geass: this show is incredibly famous but I just hated it for some plot holes so let's leave it at that

• Darling in the Franxx: this show is incredibly unique, on top of having an "Interesting" Mounting process into the Mechas, the characters are very neat, but the ending was very far fetched, it is still good time

Ecchi

It is show that is Saxually targted towreds males, basically Fanservice, just how much and to what level, some just do like beach episodes and stuff like that, some go full nude and some go softcore level. They are mostly comedy but there is a couple of serious ones. The most famou ones are:

• High School DXD: it is a fun comedy but got dragged a bit too much, and they changed the studio in the last season and the Art is just horrible now

• Shokugeki no Souma: it is THE cooking show, but there is a bit of too much moaning and visuales involved

Harem

It is a show where it is one guy that gets involved with many females, can be romantic or just friendship, there is also reverse harem which is one female with multiple males

a Harem Show

• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: It is a fun Rom/Com I just highly recommend it

a Reverse Harem Show

• Ouran Host Club: it is an incredibly fun show but really all about the characters there is no real story going on

Love Triangles

It is a romance genre, where three people gets involved mostly a guy that falls for two girls and they fall for him so now the whole show is about him choosing one. The roles can be reversed but I have nothing comes to mind for those tbh, the problem with these shows, THEY NEVER END, I only know one or two where they showed some sorta of an ending and they made a choice. a show that does that in a good way:

• Gamers: it is an incredibly fun show with some sort of a conclusion which is rare, I recommend watching in English Dub because they created their own script and jokes + the MC in the Japanese has a female VA for some reason

Lolies/Youjo

So this means basically girls that look like(And some time are) 12, they are involved in many shows and all types of different contexts but usually in tactful manner(Still you will find them in Ecchi situations which i always creepy). This is a turn off to many people but you need to be open minded to the culture, in the Japan and many Asian countries for that matter, they find small, frail, squeaky women attractive, because that is a common thing out there, a woman can look like she is 15 while she 25. also the fact the the age of consent is 13(and Marriage age is 16) plays a lot in this. any way two great shows that the main girls are technically Lolis are:

• Gosick: Incredible detective show, it is basically what if Sherlock Holmes was a Loli, but all jokes aside it is fun and offers nice story overall

• Chuunibyou demo: this is one of the greatest Rom/Com out there in my opinion, just because of how they balanced between the two genres, usually Rom/com is lenient towered one of the genres but in this show they kept it emotional and entertaining with a great balance

NTR

It means Netorare and it is the most controversial genre within anime and is something that you will rarely encounter if you only watch highly rated shows, but it exists and to a disturbing degree. the only way to describe it is that it means Dark Romance, it can range from kidnapping to forced marriages to Rape to other more disturbing things. So if you find an interesting looking romance but it is poorly rated it is defnalyty an NTR and the lower the score the more disturbing it gets. The most famous show i know that was an NTR is:

• Citrus: This is one of the few Yuri shows that came in 2010s and the only one that was not an Ecchi/Comedy(Will before Bloom anyway), so it was supposed to be a rockstar, but it turned out to be an NTR, it is not terrible but yeah there is assault in there as will as disturbing situations, so if you are a bit sensitive to that don't, but it offers a really nice romantic story

Manga Bait

This concept is something i came up with but if you told the idea to any anime watcher out there they will totally agree. Manga Baits are shows that only purpose is to advertise the Source Material, 90% of Anime are an advertisements but some try too hard to not do anything in the show and leave things open ended as much as they can, two really good shows that got kinda ruined because of this:

• Skip Beat: it is an incredibly entertaining show that was just perfect to me but they just kept everything open ended

• Tonari: This show is awesome too but it starts off too fast and then slows down to the point of you would not notice it is the last episode from how uneventful it is, but the characters are amazing

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Sorry if it is a bit random and off I just wanted to list things I did not know when I started Anime. Also sorry for the random small snippets next to the shows I did not want to write a lot next the shows, I will try to get reviews out for the shows I recommended and watched and will update this post with that and if any concepts came to mind