Popular Anime Genres – Explained

Just like any other realm of entertainment, anime can be separated into a wide array of genres. These genres range from very broad to almost hyper-specific in order to describe the wide number of anime available to the world today.

While you can pick another anime series to watch based on a picture or a recommendation, sometimes the best way to at least narrow down the search for your next favorite anime is to find something in a genre that you enjoy.

However, a good number of anime genres are pretty self-explanatory. So while we have defined the major ones, we have also defined some of the more obscure anime sub-genres that newer fans might not know about yet.

Understanding Popular Anime Genres

Demographic Genres

There are five basic demographic genres in anime – Shounen, Shoujo, Seinen, Josei, and Kodomuke Unlike other anime genres, you will find no sub-genres of demographic genres. They are meant to give you an idea of the content of the anime and what age and gender it is aiming towards.

These five demographic genres aren’t meant to pen you in, though. A shounen anime made to appeal to young boys can and often is enjoyed by adult women, for example. If anything, these days the demographic genres are meant to give you an idea of what the plot will be exploring and usually what sort of tone it will have.

Shounen

Shounen anime is anime that targets teen boys. Shounen anime will typically be heavier on the action, adventure, and comedy with maybe a little romance added. Of course, since it is is aimed at teen boys in the throes of puberty, a little ecchi might be tossed in as well.

While aimed at teen boys, Shounen anime is typically the most popular demographic among all ages and genders of anime fans because it provides frequent, interesting action with unique characters. Although, Shounen anime can follow a formula that may get repetitive, particularly because of the longer length of some Shounen anime.

Shoujo

Shoujo anime targets teen girls. However, unlike Shounen anime that is all about action, Shoujo anime focuses on things that teens girls are traditionally more interested in, like romance. You tend to find a lot of romantic comedies in the Shoujo genre, but there can also be a few drama-driven anime series in there as well.

Of course, the romances that you will see in Shoujo anime tend to be a bit idealized with interactions that make a cute story, but don’t really happen often in reality.

Seinen

While action-heavy Shounen anime is often violent, there are usually some lines that it doesn’t cross. Seinen anime is the demographic genre that can cross those lines. This demographic genre targets adult men by telling darker and more mature stories. This often means more gore, actual sex that isn’t just comical ecchi, and the occasional more cerebral serious plot.

While Seinen anime can be action anime, you typically no longer see the “battle of the week” sort of structure that you see with Shounen anime. Instead, it has a more focused narrative with a clear end goal in sight. So, no 800-episode never-ending epics here.

Josei

Like Shoujo targets the girlish hearts of teen girls with idealized romance, Josei targets the battered hearts of adult women with grounded romance. The idealization and heart-fluttering of young love is a gone and the Josei genre instead focuses on realistic relationships.

That said, not all Josei anime is about romance either. Often Josei anime focuses on the self-reflection and growth that can come from that. In all truth, Josei seems like the demographic genre that is most confused on what clear themes it wants to offer, but that actually does lead to realistic, but surprisingly complex stories.

Kodomuke / Kids

Unlike the other demographic genres, the Kodomuke, or Kids, genre of anime usually isn’t appealing to anyone outside that demographic target. Kids anime is, as you would expect, colorful, cheerful, and usually pretty basic in the plot department. It is meant to entertain young children and indoctrinate them with all those nice manners and life lessons you want them to learn young.

Defining Major Anime Genres

If you are looking for a new anime, generally the major genres are the best place to start. These umbrellas cover all anime in some way, shape, or form. Picking a new series can be as simple as finding a genre or combination of genres that you like.

Action

Action is the biggest and probably one of the most easily understandable genres of anime. Action anime is all about, well, the action. Characters are fighting, things are exploding, planets are blinking out of existence – Action anime is exciting, and that’s why there is a ton of it.

Recommended Reading:

• 10 Anime Featuring Mercenaries Doing Any Job For The Right Price
• 15 Action Anime About Monsters Fighting Their Own Kind
• Oops, All Fights! – 18 Anime About Tournament Fighting
• 14 War Anime That Feature Large Scale Battle Tactics
• 16 Assassin Anime About Cold-Blooded Killers
• 17 Action Anime About Monster Hunting
• 20 Best Action Romance Anime
• 9 Action Anime Where They Fight With Summoned Familiars
• 12 Realistic Action Anime With No Super Powers
• 21 Martial Arts Anime Featuring Fists Of Fury
• 45 Medieval Anime Full Of Swords And Struggle
• 30 Historical Anime To Take You Back In Time
• 30 Samurai Anime Following The Way Of The Blade

Adventure

The adventure genre of anime is often lumped in with the Action genre, but you don’t need to have action on an adventure, it is just extremely common. Adventure anime is all about a journey. The characters are traveling some place, even if they don’t have a particularly clear destination in mind. The plot comes from the places they visit and the people they meet.

Recommended Reading:

• 15 Road Trip Anime About Long Journeys
• 23 Adventure Anime With A Real Sense Of Discovery

Comedy

In the mood for a laugh? The comedy genre of anime is there for you, and it is a surprisingly varied genre. What we find funny is different for everyone, but there is really a comedy anime for everyone.

Recommended Reading:

• 18 Paranormal Comedy Anime On The Lighter Side Of Spooky
• 20 Best Pure Comedy Anime To Leave You Laughing
• Suffering From Success – 11 Comedy Anime About Being Too Talented
• 15 Fantasy Comedy Anime About Adventures Turned Silly
• 11 Anime That Blend Horror and Comedy
• 7 Painful Cringe Comedy Anime
• 10 Hilarious And Disturbing Black Comedy Anime
• Drama-Comedy-Dramedy – 15 Emotional Drama Anime That Can Also Make You Laugh

Slice of Life

You would think that anime about watching people just live their everyday lives wouldn’t be that appealing, but the slice of life genre of anime is vast and widely beloved.

The slice of life anime genre is as it says on the box – it displays a slice out of the characters’ everyday lives. Nothing too crazy really happens, and sometimes them living their lives comes with a nice revelation about how they want to approach life in the future. Of course, slice of life is often combined with other genres to make things more interesting.

Recommended Reading:

• 100+ Anime About School Clubs, Sorted By Club Activity
• Dragons and Chill – 35 Fantasy Slice of Life Anime Recommendations
• 6 Anime About Traditional Japanese Inns
• 24 Anime About Childcare
• 15 Slice of Life Anime About School Club Shenanigans
• 20 Slice of Life Anime About Living In A Small Town
• 30 Tasty Food Anime About The Joys Of Eating

Drama

Life can’t stay peaceful forever. One day someone is going to trip over a hurdle – a failed test, a break up, a father that betrayed your trust and injected you with an experimental serum. You know, the usual life stuff. The drama genre of anime is all about the bumpy bits of life. This means events that usually evoke emotions, tears, and passionate yelling.

Recommended Reading:

• Happily Never After – 15 Tragic Romance Anime
• 10 Anime About Characters With Serious Illnesses
• 14 Anime About Bullying In All Forms
• 25 Anime Where The Main Character Gets Betrayed
• 11 Police Drama Anime
• 14 Touching Anime Where Outcasts Find Acceptance

Sci-Fi

Sci-fi, or science fiction anime is about the same as sci-fi anything else. Sci-fi anime tells stories that have a particular emphasis on the scientific and technological aspects of the world. The stories focus on the advancement of these technologies or the way the world uses them.

Recommended Reading:

• Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots – 20 Sci-Fi Anime Featuring Intelligent Technology

Fantasy

The fantasy genre of anime is usually used more to describe the setting of a series. In fantasy anime, you follow characters in magical or mystical world where things that are fictional in our world are often a reality in theirs. This could be Dungeons and Dragons-type worlds of swords and sorcery or it could be captivating surreal dreamscapes.

Like sci-fi, fantasy anime is all about wholly fictional worlds, but unlike sci-fi, things are explained by magic and not so much by science.

Recommended Reading:

• 15 Fantasy Anime About Dungeon Crawling
• 9 Fantasy Anime With A Variety Of Fantasy Races
• 25 Swords and Sorcery Fantasy Anime
• 15 Fantasy Anime With Grounded Magic Realism

Supernatural

If its not natural, it is supernatural. Ghosts, aliens, demons – All fall within the supernatural genre of anime. However, it isn’t just the creatures that can make for a supernatural anime, sometimes the setting defines the anime as supernatural – such as being set in the afterlife, for example.

Recommended Reading:

• 20 Supernatural Mystery Anime About Occult Detectives
• Hell Raising! – 15 Supernatural Anime Featuring Demons
• 10 Anime About Supernatural School Club Happenings
• 14 Blood-Pumping Vampire Romance Anime
• Are They Out There? – Top 20 Anime About Aliens
• 20 Supernatural Anime Featuring Ghosts And Spirits
• 20 Supernatural Anime Featuring Zombies

Horror

The horror genre of anime is the genre of terror. From a series of terrible murders in a peaceful small town to an invasion of violent creatures all the way to being haunted by ghosts. If it can evoke fear, you can find it in horror anime.

Recommended Reading:

• 7 Lovecraftian Horror Anime Filled With Wriggling Cosmic Horror
• 20 Graphic Gore Anime Filled With Cruel and Unusual Deaths
• Creature Features – 11 Horror Anime Featuring Terrifying Creatures
• 8 Horror Anime About Natural Disasters
• Horror Anime To Watch – What Is The Scariest Horror Anime?

Mystery

The mystery genre of anime is more than just murder mysteries. A central element to all mystery anime is that there is a question that needs answered and the characters are working towards that. Yes, “who killed X?” is a pretty common question, but the mystery can be as grand as unraveling the very truth of the world.

Recommended Reading:

• 13 Anime About Sinister Mysteries In Small Towns
• 30 Best Mystery Anime With Intrigue To Unravel
• 20 Thrilling Detective Mystery Anime

Psychological

Psychological anime is a genre that is hard to define and often probably leads to a lot of mislabeled anime. The psychological genre of anime delves into the mind and often explores topics on a more thoughtful level. It could be exploring a characters’ psyche or it could be an anime stuffed so full of symbolism that it requires some deeper thought on the episodes you just watched in order to understand.

Recommended Reading:

• 13 Existential Anime to Contemplate Philosophy With
• 22 Mindfuck Anime Designed to Leave You Ponderous

Romance

Love is in the air when it comes to stories in the romance genre of anime. Romance anime is, as you would suspect, all about love. While many genres can have a romantic element to it, anime in the romance genre usually has a plot fully dedicated to the love story.

Recommended Reading:

• 15 College Romance Anime About Love As a Young Adult
• 12 Workplace Romance Anime Showing Love in the Office
• 15 Low Drama Romance Anime That Keep Things Wholesome
• 15 Romance Anime Where They Go From Friends to Lovers
• 22 Romance Anime Where A Popular Kid Falls In Love With An Outcast
• 20 Romance Anime About Complicated Love Triangles
• 30 Best Romantic Comedies Full of Love and Laughs
• 18 Dark Romance Anime That Shatter The Fairy Tale
• 10 Romance Anime About Teacher-Student Relationships
• 23 Romance Anime With Large Age Gaps
• 15 Romance Anime Where They Fake Being A Couple At First
• 15 Mature Romance Anime About Adult Relationships
• 8 Omnibus-Style Romance Anime
• 20 Romance Anime About Interspecies Relationships
• 10 Beauty and Beast Romance Anime
• 10 Strange Romance Anime Where Love Feels Weird
• 16 Romance Anime Where The Childhood Friend Wins
• 40 Cohabitation Romance Anime Where A Boy And Girl Must Live Together
• Toxic Romance – 27 Most Disturbing Relationships in Anime
• 24 Romance Anime Where They Start Dating Early

Ecchi

If you ever happen to meet someone that thinks anime is porn, the ecchi genre is probably the reason. Unlike hentai, which is actual porn, ecchi is just highly sexually suggestive. You see a lot of boob jiggle, glistening flesh, and suggestive behavior. It used to be that they wouldn’t have any overt sexual contact, but modern ecchi anime pushes the boundaries.

Recommended Reading:

• Top 10 Graphic Ecchi Anime That Are Borderline Hentai
• 15 Ecchi Comedy Anime That Are As Funny As They Are Lewd
• 11 Ecchi Horror Anime That Scare The Tits Out
• Legendary Lewds – 35 Perverted Anime To Never Watch With Friends

Suspense / Thriller

Anime actually doesn’t do suspense and thriller stories so often, or perhaps, anime does not do them well. The genre of thriller and suspense is always about creating a sense of tension. The characters actions need to cause a sort of anxiety from you, the audience, and it always keeps a sort of building anticipation.

To be fair, it is a hard genre to do well in any medium, but anime has limited choices.

Recommended Reading:

• I, Spy – 15 Anime About Spies and Espionage
• Revenge Anime – 20 Anime About Sweet Vengeance
• 15 Anime About Intricate Politics

Sports

It is said the that sports genre of anime is the most accessible to non-anime fans because most people enjoy sports. However, even if you don’t enjoy sports in particular, the sport is often just a platform for relatable character stories. The charm of sports stories is watching a character aim for the top and reach towards their goals. You hurt with them when they fail and you enjoy their victory when they succeed.

Recommended Reading:

• 11 Sports Anime Where The Main Character Returns To Sports
• 17 Sports Anime With A Female Lead
• 17 High Octane Racing Anime
• From Rookie to Rockstar – 15 Sports Anime Where The Main Character Starts As A Complete Novice
• 10 Sports Anime Where The Rookie Saves The Team
• 20 Baseball Anime That Hit It Out Of The Park
• 10 Sports Anime About Obscure Sports

Mecha

While not as popular as it once was, mecha is what you would call the “giant robots” genre of anime. It often follows heroes who battle invading forces in a giant mech.

Sometimes they are a chosen hero, the only one capable of piloting that giant robot, and other times warfare between nations is waged through giant mobile infantry exoskeleton-like mechs.

Recommended Reading:

• 7 Comedy Mecha Anime That Shake Up Saving The Universe

Defining More Obscure Anime Sub-Genres

Most anime sub-genres are extremely obvious. You know anime in the “Police” sub-genre will be about police officers or anime with a “Magic” sub-genre tag will have a story full of magic. However, there are a few less obvious sub-genres in anime that newer fans may be wondering about.

Isekai

The term “isekai” translates to “another world,” and it describes a character being sent to a world different from their original one. Often this is either being summoned as a hero by said other world or they died in their previous world and reincarnated into a new one.

Isekai is an increasingly popular fantasy sub-genre because of the wish fulfillment and escapism offered to the audience. Who doesn’t like to occasionally imagine they were someone else living a perfect – or at least more interesting – life in a land of magic and wonder?

Recommended Reading:

• Top 100 Best Isekai Anime About Being Sent To Another World
• 15 Reverse Isekai Anime About Fantasy Creatures Sent to Our World
• “Isekai, but…” – 15 Isekai Anime That Twist Up The Classic Set Up
• 24 Isekai Anime With A Female Main Character

Idol

While the days of the “boy band” have kind of died in Western music, Japan and a decent chunk of Asia still have a thriving idol culture where beautiful young people look beautiful and perform music for entertainment and idolization. As it is still such a thriving culture, it is not surprising that there is also a genre of anime for it.

In idol anime, you get beautiful anime characters that either are or are trying to be idols in show business. Expect some pretty good music and there is a distinct possibility of some series follow actual real life idol groups in anime form.

Recommended Reading:

• 9 Music Anime About Idols

Music

This one is pretty self-explanatory. The music sub-genre of anime follows the creative struggle of musicians trying to make it or at least hone their craft. Expect amazing soundtracks alongside either slice of life or drama-driven character stories.

It is important to make the distinction that all idol anime is music anime, but not all music anime is idol anime.

Recommended Reading:

• 20 Music Anime That Document The Creative Struggle

Parody

If something is loved by enough people, it will eventually become the subject of parody for comedy. Parody is a sub-genre of comedy anime in which a number of the jokes revolve around parodying other anime. This is definitely a sub-genre for those that have watched a decent share of anime, though parody in anime is not limited to parody of anime alone. A parody comedy will parody anything.

Recommended Reading:

• 13 Parody Anime That Poke Fun At Other Anime

Educational

In general, it is best to fact-check anything you think you have learned from anime. Some things, while having a grain of truth perhaps wedged in there, may have been embellished for entertainment. However, the educational sub-genre generally does provide more factual information while also still being entertaining. Although, as with all things, fact-checking should always be done even if it has the educational genre tag.

Recommended Reading:

• 12 Anime About Science And Discovery
• 15 Educational Anime That Can Teach Real Knowledge

Superpower

While there are some instances of it, anime doesn’t really do superheroes like Western comics do. However, the superpower genre is often as close as you will get to super heroes. This action sub-genre follows characters with superhuman powers and often use them to fight.

Recommended Reading:

• 10 Action Anime About Superheroes

Magical Girl / Dark Magical Girl

While the concept of magical girls isn’t unique to anime, it did coin the term for it. Magical girls, or mahou shoujo, is a sub-genre that describes girls who transform into powerful fighters that stop the forces of evil with the power of good!

While magical girl anime often looks bright and cheerful, there can often be a fair but of darkness and tragedy under the surface. In fact, the sub-sub-genre of dark magical girl anime has risen which often subverts the cheerfulness of its mother genre by fully committing those young magical girls to distressing tragedy and brutal violence.

Recommended Reading:

• 10 Dark Magical Girl Anime That Twist The Trope
• 20 Best Magical Girl Anime

Iyashikei

Iyashikei is a sub-genre of slice of life that depicts characters in peaceful environments, just living out happy lives. It is meant to have a healing, stress-relieving effect on the audience – thus iyashikei, which translated to “healing” in Japanese.

This sub-genre was born out of traumatic events and stress in Japan. Sometimes you just want to escape the chaos going on around you and watch some people have happy lives. It can help you find some peace in your own.

Recommended Reading:

• 25 Healing Anime To Make You Feel Okay Again
• 20 Relaxing Anime To Unwind With
• 15 Soothing Anime To Fall Asleep To
• 20 Happy Anime To Cheer You Up

Anthropomorphic / Kemonomimi

Anime has a long love affair with characters that are “things that look like people.” You know, like countries personified as anime characters or the more well-known concept of a catgirl – an anime character with cat ears and tail.

Anime in the anthropomorphic or kemonomimi, which means “animal people,” features these types of characters prominently.

Recommended Reading:

• Kemonomimi Craze – 25 Anime Series Featuring Beast People
• Human Abominations – 9 Anime About Human Characters With Beast Heads
• Moe Anthropomorphism – 15 Anime Where Objects Are Personified As Cute Anime Characters
• 11 Anime With Animal Main Characters

Harem / Reverse Harem

The harem genre is many a boy’s fantasy. The harem genre of anime describes a situation in which a male main character has several different women who all have romantic feelings for him. It could just be in a friend group or he could be living with all these girls for one contrived reason or another.

In most cases there will be a clear “main girl” who will ultimately win his affections, but modern harem anime has started to become more vague to keep the audience guessing which girl “wins” his love in the end.

Alternatively, “reverse harem” anime is a gender reversal. In reverse harem anime, one girl has many different men who all have romantic feelings for her. Again, there will usually be a “main boy” who will win, but reverse harem anime tends to have more focus on all the men making the girl have those intense feelings for him at different moments.

Recommended Reading:

• 50 Best Harem Anime Loaded With Ladies
• 10 Harem Anime Without A Dense Main Character
• 13 Reverse Harem Anime Bursting With Boys

Otaku Culture

“Otaku” is used to, in the West, describe a fan of anime and manga. In Japan, the definition is a bit broader as someone who has an obsessive interest. You could be an rock otaku if you are just really into geology.

In otaku culture anime, you will find stories that detail the otaku lifestyle. You will find relatable characters that love anime, manga, and games and live their lives for them. Sometimes it is a romance between otakus, sometimes it is a comedy about otakus, and very rarely it is a drama about the problems that come with being an otaku.

Recommended Reading:

• 15 Romantic Comedy Anime About Dating An Otaku

Coming-of-Age

Coming-of-Age anime is exactly that – a story of the characters growing up. These stories will follow teenagers or young adults who are a bit adrift. They are unsure of their place in the world and their future in it. Through the events of the story, you watch them figure it out and have a series of revelations about their life that come with growing up.

Recommended Reading:

• 15 Anime Where You Watch The Main Character Grow Up
• 7 Anime Where The Main Character Gets A Redo Of Their Youth
• 18 Coming-of-Age Anime About Kids On The Cusp Of Adulthood

Game

Game anime isn’t actually anime adapted from games, of which there are several, but rather game anime is about the characters playing games. Often you see this in a VRMMORPG, or Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, setting, but it can also extend to things like gambling or just having a major focus on playing different games.

Recommended Reading:

• 14 High Stakes Anime About Gambling
• 13 VRMMO Isekai Anime Where Games Go Wonderfully Wrong

Cyberpunk / Steampunk / Magipunk

The “-punk” suffix-attached genres of cyberpunk, steampunk, and magipunk are all sub-genres of different major genres. Cyberpunk adheres more firmly to sci-fi as it combines high tech with a lower class rough culture, often in dystopian or post-apocalyptic worlds. Steampunk combines steam technology and Victorian era flair with a higher level of technological advancements, sometimes even in a fantasy way. Magipunk is a more rare outlier that often is used to describe worlds that combine fantasy magic with various levels of technology.

Recommended Reading:

• 13 Contemporary Fantasy Anime With Magic in a Modern World
• 15 Cyberpunk Anime That Revel In Futuristic Society
• The Future is Then – 6 Steampunk Anime

Survival

Survival is a sub-genre of action anime that is all about characters in near-constant danger. In many cases, they could be forced into a survival game where the only way to win is to kill the others players. Sometimes there is no game – the world is dangerous and they need to fight to survive. Regardless, the survival genre of anime is about the struggle and desperation to stay alive no matter what.

Recommended Reading:

• 13 Brutal Survival Game Anime
• 15 Action Anime Where Humanity’s Survival Is Threatened
• 30 Anime Set In The Post-Apocalypse

Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (CGDCT)

As a sub-genre of slice of life, Cute Girls Doing Cute Things is exactly what it says. You take the cutest, most moe girls of diverse but complimentary personalities and you give them a thing that they do cutely.

Because sometimes you just want to watch good friends be good friends in a relaxing wholesome setting and not think about anything else. Or because you just like cute anime girls.

Recommended Reading:

• 20 Anime About Cute Girls Doing Cute Things

Gender-Bender

While there is only one anime series that is a serious exploration of being transgender, the topic of changing gender has been long-lived in anime through the gender-bender sub-genre.

In gender-bender anime, a character is often magically changed from one gender to the opposite. This is most often played out in comical (or ecchi) misadventures. Gender-bender anime is often lumped together with cross-dressing as well.

Recommended Reading:

• 25 Gender Bending Anime About Switching Genders

Shoujo Ai / Yuri

Shoujo ai, a sub-genre of romance anime, detailed the romantic relationship between two women. Shoujo ai romance anime is typically pretty innocent. The furthest things will go is kissing.

Alternatively, yuri is when the relationship does go further. While shoujo ai and yuri are often used interchangeably, a series specifically labeled yuri will have a sexual element alongside the romantic element. Things often go much further than kissing.

Recommended Reading:

• 50 Best Yuri Anime Worth Watching

Shounen Ai / Yaoi

Shounen ai, a sub-genre of romance anime, detailed the romantic relationship between two men. Shounen ai romance anime is typically pretty innocent. The furthest things will go is kissing.

Alternatively, yaoi is when the relationship does go further. While shounen ai and yaoi are often used interchangeably, a series specifically labeled yaoi will have a sexual element alongside the romantic element. Things often go much further than kissing.

Recommended Reading:

• 50 Best Yaoi Anime Worth Watching

Hentai

It used to be that hentai was when ecchi goes the extra step into sexual intercourse – You know, the kind of thing you can’t broadcast on TV. Although, modern ecchi these days is kind of borderline indistinguishable sometimes.

Plainly put, hentai is anime porn.

Anime genres only get more specific from here. Is there any more anime genres and sub-genres you would recommend to newer anime fans? Let them know in the comments section below.