Often a widespread character description that permeates a whole
series. Describes a series which, whenever possible (if
not necessarily logical), will use highly attractive
female characters between the ages of 13 and 25, and
which isn't shy about making this fact obvious. Can be
especially jarring when characters are depicted in
careers they are way too young to logically be in,
especially any series featuring a military style job.
Refers to the gender of the cast rather than the
audience. Technically can refer to girl-oriented
series, but in common use invariably refers to
male-oriented, fanservice-heavy series of variable
script quality. Adding a guy near automatically
gets it labelled
Animes that relate to this genre are:
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A popular anime character type is the Bishonen, or
"beautiful boy", affectionately called "bishies" by
fans who are particularly into the type. He is tall,
slender and androgynously beautiful. Some bishonen,
like Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi, can be mistaken for
women; others are clearly males who have feminine
(although rarely effeminate) traits. Bishonen can be
found equally distributed between heroes and villains;
bishonen villains often develop devoted followings
among fans.
Bishonen with white hair are almost always villains,
no matter how they initially seem.
1.Example
Here is an example of a bishonen character. Now if you have saw the anime BERSERK the character Griffith is a perfect example if you havent seen this anime then here isanother example
2.Example
Now i know most if not all have played or seen someone play a Final Fantasy Game in this game the main character is mostly always a Bishonen
Animes that relate to this genre are:
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A unique subgenre of romance focusing on Yaoi Guys male homosexuality. In a typical plot, two boys fall in love (or a Love Triangle, or whatever other romantic plot you can think of), and the story shows their progress as a couple. Sometimes it's just part of the scenery, although most series directly foster what the audience expects and likes.
Boys Love series are made by women for women, though many of its tropes have bishoujo equivalents. Because of this, most Boys Love works have idealized male characters who are sensitive and nurturing-- traits that appeal to females. They are usually drawn in a Shojo style and exist in a world where homosexuality is considered no more unusual or transgressive than heterosexuality, though others, especially in Western media, explore this more realistically.
The stories are stereotyped as having a high degree of soap-operaish melodrama, especially within the younger teenager reading audience; something exploited by the manga translation market. The dynamic of the aggressive Seme, the "male" in the relationship, and the submissive Uke, the "female," is so common in Boys Love that it has become a virtual archetype of the genre. Some Slash Fic writers go so far as to feminize the shorter guy to fit this dynamic.
The term Boys Love includes all ranges of explicitness, one of the reasons josei-aimed Boys Love doesn't make it to television much. Fan jargon being what it is, westerners co-adopted and developed various other terms for the genre for more specificity, though the terms are still understood by Japanese fans:
Yaoi implies explicitness and a heavier focus on sex scenes. (Compare with the Japanese definition of "yaoi" as PWP, with explicit stories with a plot going under "Boys Love".)
Shounen-ai, a subgenre of shojo, implies a greater focus on the romance and emotions.
The term boys love itself was created by the Japanese to distance softer depictions from the sexual connotations of yaoi, with the term shounen-ai rarely used in Japan, due to its unsavoury connotations.
Animes that relate to this genre are
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The name Dating Sim is from a video game genre which is particularly popular in Japan but hasn't yet caught on in North America; however very few of those games have been released here, and most of these have been porn games distributed by little publishers, so that is not much of a surprise.
In recent years, making anime based on dating sims has become popular to the point that it seems like nearly a quarter of anime started as dating sims; most of this is due to production of a known quantity that's already proven lucrative. Of course, these anime are nothing like the Western Dating Sim shows; usually, they are harem anime, much tamer than the games on which they are based.
Japanese dating sims are usually ren'ai games; those with overt sexual content are called eroge (Westerners sometimes call them H-games). Most of these fall under the umbrella of bishoujo games.
Another trend in dating sims that seems to have faded was sparked with online Flash Games. These games follow the format set by the original game, Sim Girl, where a character of three pre-selected types raises three stats (originally and usually: Strength, Intelligence and Charm) to impress one or more girls. These games are often derivative of one-another; for example, Charm is almost always increased by drinking (for as we all know, there is no better time to develop social skills than after getting smashed).
Animes that relate to this genre are
- 3.Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (aka Rumbling Hearts)
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Fanservice is found in many anime, in many forms. When the service has a distinctly sexual slant to it, and it appears to be a major focus of the show, then it's safe to assume you're watching Ecchi.
The line between Ecchi and Hentai can be hard to draw at times. However, one good rule of thumb is, if it was aired on Japanese public TV at all, it probably wasn't Hentai. Ecchi usually features Anime Anatomy, or avoids nudity with lingering Panty Shots. Hentai, on the other hand, will usually show full frontal nudity in some explicit form, and full, intimate sex scenes. At its mildest, Ecchi is closer in spirit to shows like Three's Company and Are You Being Served?, full of Double Entendres, big misunderstandings, and sexual farce. At its most explicit, it is still more in the realm of HBO Presents than Vivid Video.
To borrow an old saying, when it comes to sexual content, Ecchi is the sizzle; Hentai is the steak.
Possibly because sex is inherently funny, a large number of Ecchi series are comedies.
Animes that relate ot this genre are
- 2.Battle Programmer Shirase
- 3.Eiken (Nothing but Gag Boobs as far as the eye can see.)
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A comedic show specifically concentrating on being humorous before any concern of plot, drama, or even comprehensibility. Noted for a complete lack of tact or pomposity on the part of the writers, and frequent postmodern commentary. Can have occasional Fanservice which the series will openly acknowledge. The Rule Of Funny will be observed.
Because they don't take themselves seriously, gag series tend to experiment across the board with parody, lewd humor, and short-lived drama. In a win-win situation, these can be very successful experiments when they succeed, or mocked by the series itself when they fail as a protective tactic. Ironically, can be praised for presenting such topics without being Anvilicious. However, doing this at the end of a series can cause accusations of being pretentious.
Anime gag series often use a Puni Plush design. Many are also Widget Series. Shows that depend a lot on puns and parody are typically considered too difficult for commercial releases, and are fansubbed only erratically. A few even get a Gag Dub.
Occasionally the Gag Series is an adaptation of some 'canonical' source, except now the writers pretty much do whatever they like.
Animes that relate to this genre are
1.FLCL
2.School Rumble
3.Digi Charat
4.Ninin Ga Shinobuden
5.Family Guy-Which i am sure you already seen this
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An anime in which, rather than fighting, the characters play a game or sport. Said game or sport may be Serious Business. Frequently leads to a Tournament Arc.
In many cases, the game is a real-life product.
Not to be confused with RPG Anime.
Animes that relate to this genre are
1.Yu-Gi-Oh. Initially, the manga featured several different games, but eventually settled into exclusive use of the trading card game, Duel Monsters.
2.Hikaru No Go is centered around the traditional Japanese board game of go.
3.Prince Of Tennis is about, well, tennis players.
4.Eyeshield 21 is about American football.
5.Captain Tsubasa is centered around soccer.
5.Legendz revolves around a Pokemon-esque monster fighting video game.
6.Duel Masters, something of an Affectionate Parody of Gaming Anime, revolves around the titular card game
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This anime genre focuses on girl/girl relationships. Girls' Love tends to be less well known and dabbled in than its counterpart Boys Love, partly because of the belief (misguided or not) that male viewers are more interested in lesbian porn than in more romantic stories. By the same token, Girls Love seems to be more often animated due to the belief that girls watch less TV.
Most Girls' Love couples consist of an older and more popular schoolgirl (often Tall Dark And Bishoujo) and a younger, more innocent Moe Moe girl who looks up to her as a mentor figure. The sempai schoolgirl then becomes fiercely protective of the innocent schoolgirl in a manner that can be read as either a mere Romantic Two Girl Friendship, or an Official Couple if subtext is high enough.
Just how explicit the relationships are varies wildly. For some reason, most lesbian relationships tend to be ambiguous, and use subtext in place of kisses and love declarations.
A disproportionate amount of these also end tragically or inconclusively. Some move on to boy-girl relationships with the romantic two-girl friendship as only a steppingstone, others are made insane to let the other girl enter a "real" relationship with a boy, and still others step back to let their love be happy with another. The majority are just left unconcluded or up to subjective interpretation because the girl/girl relationship is rarely the main focus of the series. A Girls' Love couple with a definite happy ending is the exception, not the rule.
And that's not counting how many series mines its Girls' Love content in the trailers, only to back out of the Official Couple at the last minute and go with a safe boy/girl pairing instead.
Girls' Love can be divided into two categories: yuri, which focuses more on the sex, and shoujo-ai, derived from the Boys' Love term shonen-ai, which focuses more on the emotional aspects of the relationship.
Animes that related to this genre are
1.Kannazuki No Miko intertwines a Girls' Love romance with a Humonguous Mecha + Magical Girls plot.
2.Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl has a Love Triangle involving three Schoolgirl Lesbians with the added complication that the main character used to be a boy
3.Strawberry Panic is set at a cluster of three girls' schools largely populated by Schoolgirl Lesbians.
4.Yami To Boushi To Hon No Tabibito
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Hentai is the Japanese word for "pervert" or "perverted", and is used by western fans to describe sexually explicit anime. Sometimes these can have actual plots, but much of the time they are as devoid of literary merit as most American pornography. Hentai material can focus on tender moments between high school students who are discovering passion together for the first time, or can just cut right to the Naughty Tentacles. It can be sweet, tender, and airbrushed, or it can be ghastly, gory, grotesque things that'd horrify a Castro Street leatherdaddy.
Material that is less explicit or intense is called "ecchi" ("H", pronounced "ay-chee"; an abbreviation for Hentai). Ecchi is to Hentai as Porky's is to Deep Throat.
Animes that relate to this genre are
1.Kekko Kamen
2.La Blue Girl
3.Legend Of The Overfiend
4.F3 (Frantic, Frustrated and Female)
5.The End Of Summer
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Who needs an Abrams tank when you can have a 100-foot man-shaped robot with a glowing sword and a fist that fires off like a missile? There's no argument -- fighting robots are just infinitely cooler than ordinary ordnance. Whatever their shape, though, they are all known as "mecha".
The "mecha", or "giant robot", concept is ubiquitous in Japanese pop culture, and is more than adequately represented in anime. Despite the name, the robots need not actually be "giant" -- some are merely human-sized, and some even smaller. They range from the boomers and hardsuits of Bubblegum Crisis to the multi-hundred-foot "megadeuses" of The Big O.
Surprisingly, they're not limited to high tech or rubber science settings, either. For example, Vision Of Escaflowne is High Fantasy with magical mecha, and Sakura Taisen is a 1920s Steam Punk setting with rare but powerful psi/magic talents.
Normally, the series just tries to ignore the elephant in the living room, namely, the fact that the humanoid forms are not particularly effective or efficient for combat, movement, or almost any other purpose to which they are assigned. When used in a series that involves magic or psi abilities, however, the mechas often seem to have a spiritual or supernatural link to their pilots, which suggests that they have a symbiotic relationship aided by their humanoid construction. Other series have come up with alternate solutions; Mobile Suit Gundam created an entire fictional branch of physics to explain it. Naturally, this is an area where the Rule Of Cool applies frequently.
A subcategory of mecha is the transforming mecha -- robots, vehicles and equipment that unfold, rotate and shift parts of themselves to turn into other mechanical devices. Similarly, there are combining mecha -- where several smaller robots or ships combine to produce a larger, far more powerful single mech.
Teams of Humongous Mecha are traditionally piloted by a group of plucky kids or a mismatched band of misfit pilots who are all in love with the beautiful daughter or niece of the robots' designer. Either one of these may be a Five Man Band, and if they are, their robots will probably combine into one.
There are two distinct kinds of Humongous Mecha, the Real Robot and the Super Robot. Either kind, although the Super Robot is more likely, can be a Transforming Mecha or a Combining Mecha.
A series focused on Mecha as its main gimmick is called (appropriately) a Mecha Show.
Animes that relate to this genre are
- 1.Mobile Suit Gundam more or less launched the Real Robot subgenre, and its dozen or so sequels, prequels, and alternate continuities refined it perhaps more than any other series. The original series had Transforming and Combining Mecha, due to its Super Robot roots, but these were retconned out in the sequels. Recently, Gundam SEED brought back Transforming Mecha, and its immediate sequel, SEED Destiny, features a new Combining Mecha, the modular-design Impulse Gundam.
- 2.Transformers and the various sequel series showcase a Western version of the archetypical transforming mecha. It's especially notable because unlike the usual mecha show, there are no pilots or crew to be the stars -- the mecha themselves are the stars, being sentient robots.
- 3.Voltron was, for a time, the best-known example in America. It was a Macekre of two fairly obscure shows, Go Lion (Lion Voltron) and Dairugger XV (Vehicle Voltron), along with some Lion Voltron episodes produced by Toei especially for the American market.
- 4.Gasaraki is a recent release which attempts (amidst an incomprehensible mass of mysticism) to show a "realistic" view of giant war robots in a contemporary setting. The "Tactical Armors" of Gasaraki are not much larger than a main battle tank, require extensive support squads, and can have their joints fouled by blowing sand.
- 5.Full Metal Panic, like Gasaraki, attempts to show "realistic" robots in a "modern" setting, but is considerably more relaxed about what constitutes "realistic", not to mention much lighter-hearted. It also acknowledges that man-shaped robotic fighting machines are at the very least unlikely, but promptly handwaves the objection away with a mysterious source of ultra-advanced technology.
- 6.Neon Genesis Evangelion superficially resembles a mecha show, but this is intentionally misleading; the show is in fact a post-modern Deconstruction of the giant robot genre, thoroughly shot through with dysfunctional characters caught on a depressing apocalyptic downslide ( not to mention the fact that said mecha, the Evas, are actually alive, and the robotic armor only allows the unwitting pilots and mostly unwitting scientists to restrain them).
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Literally "mysterious/phantom thief". Kaitou shows feature the daring criminal and borderline criminal acts of stylish gentleman/lady thieves who, like Batman villains, announce their crimes in advance or leave distinctive "calling cards" identifying themselves at the scene. These thieves may be loveable rogues or noble heroes driven into a life of crime, but either way, the audience's thrill comes from watching them outwit all their opposition.
The genre can sometimes blend with Magical Girls in the case of female thieves.
Anime shows that relate to this genre are
- 1.Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (crossed with Magical Girls)
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Called Mahou Kanojo in Japan, this is the genre of adolescent male wish fulfillment, and has become rather popular in recent years.
The hero is usually a geeky loser, terribly unlucky at love. He is either unable to get a date at all, or has had his sensitive poet's heart broken by a cruel bitch who was only toying with his affections, forcing him to withdraw from all feminine companionship. Exactly how strongly this is exaggerated depends on the writers.
However, because he is a genuinely good and kind person, fate (or the gods, or karma, or pure dumb luck) smiles upon him -- the perfect girl for him enters his life. She is beautiful, kind, domestic, and utterly and eternally devoted to him.
As for 'magical', she's often not exactly human by most definitions -- she is a spirit, or goddess, or a robot, or an alien, or a virtual being born of an advanced computer program, or under a spell/curse, or an immortal sorceress, or some combination of any or all of the above. Sometimes the term is just metaphorical, although this is usually used in a critical way implying she's too good to be true.
Of course the path of true love never runs smoothly (especially since she loves you and everybody) but the pairing of dork and demigoddess runs into especially large bumps -- usually comedic ones. Despite this and his initial misgivings, though, true love blossoms for the once-hapless hero.
Animes that relate to this genre are
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Cute Witches are the classic version of the character, and still pop up today. Idol Singers play upon wish fulfillment, and are the most likely of the three to rely on Glam Of Shazam. Magic Warriors arguably have the widest demographic appeal, and in the West are often synonymous with the idea of a Magical Girl.
It may come as a surprise to learn that the entire Magical Girls genre is descended, effectively, from the American live-action series Bewitched. While two series claim the role of first magical girl anime -- Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Mahoutsukai Sally (Sally, The Witch, 1966-1968) and Akatsuka Fujio's Himitsu No Akko-chan (broadcast 1969, but its manga predates Mahoutsukai Sally) -- the creators of both credit Bewitched as a primary inspiration for their work. Yokoyama explicitly adapted its concept for a younger audience, while Akatsuka merely says he was "inspired" by it
Animes that relate to this genre are
- 1.The most famous Magical Girl anime is, of course, Sailor Moon.
- 4.Magical Angel Creamy Mami
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A series with one or more pieces of technology as a significant main character. Most of these are Humongous Mecha, of either the Real Robot or Super Robot subclass, but it is equally true of shows with cool bikes, high tech body armor, amazing racing cars, and space fighter craft.
Almost any genre of story can, and has been, combined with the Mecha Show. Any Japanese Sci Fi series is almost certain to feature one or more machines in a starring role, as well as most Steampunk, Cyberpunk, and even Heroic Fantasy.
The most important part is that the focus of every episode is on the cool characters doing cool stuff with their cool toys.
Anime that relete to this genre are
- 4.Super Sentai's sometimes-adaptation-sometimes-Spiritual Successor, Power Rangers, plays by the same rules as its parent.
- 5.In Transformers, the mecha are the characters. Not all incarnations even
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