Anime 102: Genres

This post I will talk about Genres in anime, you will notice on Myanimelist genres can be misleading, if the show has an action scene they say it's an action. So as an Anime watcher you need to create some sort of a system to identify Anime with.

This will also help you change things up so you will move to different genres so you do not suffer burnout, as will as if you watch a really good romance try to watch something different, so you do not feel judgmental if you watched another romance right after that is not as good. I will talk about my own way and I will try to also recommend shows that give a good representation for that genre:

Secondary

Firstly I will start with secondary Genres, these mean that they can not exist on their own, like you can not have just Action or Just Sports

• Action

• Adventure

• Romance

• Drama

• Historical

• Music

• Sports

• Military

• Mystery

• School

• Ecchi: when you see this tag it means that there is some sort of nudity in the show

• Shoujo Ai: this mostly means it is Yuri(Girls love)

• Shounen Ai: this mostly means it is Yaoi(Gay/Hot guys)

• Seinen: Mature shows

Romance

Romance can be a secondary Genre and a main one, to me a mainly Romance means it is about the chase. can be a love triangle or how they met story and things like that. a good Romance is:

• 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

Shoujo

This type is mostly Romance but it is all about feelings, in romance you will find it's about the chase and the choice, so a romance ends with them getting together, a Shoujo starts with that, it is about the relation and about how they feel and what do they want. a Josei is the grown up version of that rather than High school drama focused. The show that gives a basic simple story of a Shoujo:

• Sukitte Ii na yo: this show is simple Shoujo, too simple, to me actually it was creepy simple, the guy comes from the party world and the girl is a person that keeps for themselves, so I felt off when he went for her and it was part of the enjoyment whether the guy was trying to fool her or not

Shounen

This type of shows I put the long adventure and action shows, you know Bleach, One Piece and Naruto, the big stuff. they usually about an underdog MC, heros and villans and offer wide range of genres mingled together. The only show that nailed this genre is:

• Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: The highest rated show on Mal, and it deserves it, it offers a wide range of genres and do them all justice, on top of having a great story and characters

Psychological

they are complicated and complex stories. The problem with this genre is that it is always annoying, meaning a romance nails it when it makes you emotional, a comedy nails it when it makes you laugh. A Psychological when it nails it you will just be confused, if it didn't you will be disappointed, so it is just weird. Anyhow a Psychological that I can recommend:

• Boku dake: this is a nice emotional story but it gets confusing and the ending is a bit rushed but this is the only one that I can recommend to anyone, others can be just not for everyone

Slice of Life

This genre is very simple but very hard to nail, it is as its name, all about characters doing things rather than following a storyline or have major events within the story. Their problems are:

1. They all about character, so they need to establish them in a way that doesn't depend on a story or background yet they remain interesting

2. Even though they are about the characters but they need context, some shows end up being empty and some can end up disappointing because they over snippets of story that they dont follow up to, so you as viewer just get teased with a story that did not get told

So the way I look at them is by small adventure and how swoothing they are, they should have a story for context but not story driven, one example of a great chill anime:

• Yuru Camp: It is a nice chill show with nice music and scenery even though it is all about Cute girls camping, it nails the Slice of Life experience to me

Comedy

this is my least favorite genre to mingle with, because it is very subjective, like some edgy shows come off as comedies for how ridiculous they are, yet they are edgy dark stories, some may result to gag comedy like idiots doing idiotic things. to me I only prefer Rom/Com where it is not just comedy it has more of context, its not I dont like idiotic stuff but I need more context to it rather than clowney style of comedy, the best show that I can recommend for everyone is:

• 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

Fantasy

For me a fantasy are regular Medieval Fantasy things, on mal a Fantasy includes anything with anything unreal. For me I do not consider it really. Nowadays they only come as Iskai, the only Fantasy I can recommend to anyone:

• Claymore: this is my favorite fantasy action of all time, its similar to The Witcher Games in terms of how the world is dark and gritty and the MCs are man made weapons and that are discriminated against, it offers many shocking and sad moments as will

Modern Fantasy

A modern fantasy is when they do magic in the current world, there a couple of unique shows that do that but it will usually Magical highschool anime and the one i can recommend:

• 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...

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I will try to get reviews out for the shows I recommended and watched and will update this post with that.