Those who casually watch Anime might be familiar with Anime genres like Romance, Comedy, Action, or Fantasy, and if you are a bit advanced, you might know Slice of Life and Shoujo genre as well.
Those who are a bit avid (notice that I did not use the word ‘Otaku or Weeb’?), you guys might know other spread of genres like Shounen, Harem, Isekai, and Seinen. Now, these advanced terms are mostly based on the Japanese language – which I will explain in a series.
In this post, I will not touch on the term Otaku or Weeb(Weeaboo) yet, since it is a whole other debate, but I will surely write a specific discussion on the matter in future.
Believe it or not, there are generally more than 10 major anime genres. But if we were to consider sub-genres of Anime, there are more than 30 genres! Since we’ve just started, I’ll briefly explain the major genres. I will also include suggestions for Anime in each genre because, in the Anime world, we always share ‘sauces’. For newbs, who knows, you might be able to pinpoint which genre your preference in Anime is.
Now, remember. An anime doesn’t need to have only 1 genre. Sometimes, it will be under more than one major genre. There could be 2 – 7 genres in one anime.
MAJOR ANIME GENRES
- Action
- Adventure
- Comedy
- Drama
- Fantasy
- Supernatural
- Horror
- Mystery
- Romance
- Sci-Fi
- Sports
ACTION
Anime packed with battle scenes and the plot’s main focus is the intense fights. The one that makes you think you can fight too (pfft). Got a problem? They’ll fight. A new character appeared? They fight first and introduce themselves later. Cool and dashing anime, for short.
ADVENTURE
Anime that focuses on a main goal (usually in a faraway place or further reach point) and the whole plot revolves around that goal. Now kids, I hope you learn the best from this kind of Anime – focus on reaching and achieving your goal (or better… have one).
COMEDY
Comedy Anime might have either a light or a heavy plot since it could be a Romance-Comedy or an Action-Comedy. But what both can do is to make people laugh and chuckle. Sometimes not because it’s funny, but because it’s so stupid, you can’t help but laugh off the awkwardness and embarrassment.
DRAMA
Anime that uses a realistic approach to real humans. Usually highlights the struggle of human beings or a story about humanity. It kind of makes you feel good to know you’re not the only struggling person in the world. Many people face failure and ups-downs in life, hence, the creation of this genre.
Additional info: People often misunderstood the Drama genre as Slice of Life(SoL). SoL is actually for drama anime that does not consist of magics or supernatural powers – simply muggles life and problems. But it’s okay, I think because most people address an anime as SoL. After all, they could relate so much to the life struggles of the characters. Tomato tomato.
FANTASY & SUPERNATURAL
Contains magical powers, sorceries, beasts, and magical creatures that only exist on TV or in Manga, not in our real life (…so far. Who knows, vampires and our Gojou Satoru might be real somewhere hidden wwwww). Anyway, it’s slightly different from the SUPERNATURAL genre.
- FANTASY: A fantasy world where almost all characters have unrealistic powers or magical abilities that if someone doesn’t have power, the character is deemed peculiar
- SUPERNATURAL: Where people should not have powers but somehow our main character (MC) possesses a supernatural ability.
