Manga (& Anime) categories

I think it’s high time I write a post on the different categories of anime and manga. There is so much confusion on this issue (loads of people confuse anime for hentai or anime and manga for example). So let’s start (with the basics) and get things straight.

Anime v/s Manga

Anime and Manga are related but they are certainly not the same thing (not synonyms!!!). Very briefly, manga (as defined by Wikipedia) is the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons; I want to stress on the word print here. On the other hand, anime is short for animation and basically it’s the short animated films, usually based on a manga.

Types of Anime/Manga :

So now for the types anime/manga. Like any form of art (yes I consider these as forms of art), there are several genres each suited to different age groups. The most common ones are listed below:

• Kodomo
  • This is a type of manga targetted to young children - Kodomo means child in Japanese. They do not contain a lot of text to read and this is targetted to children who have just started to read.
  • Examples: Hamtaro, Doraemon

        

• Shonen
  • This is basically the most common type of anime/manga. It’s normally targetted at male teenagers. (The literal translation of shonen is ‘boy’). There’s lots of actions in these manga and there are lots of sports stories as well. I think that this is by far the most popular type of manga.
  • Examples: Dragon Ball Z, Ranma 1/2, Yu-Gi-Oh, Fist of the North Star, Full Metal Panic,…

• Shojo
  • This is the female equivalent of Shonen. Shojo means girl in japanese and this genre is targetted at young or teenage girls. Stories deal with romance with the main female character set in romantic scenery; flowers, bubbles,… but the story can incorporate any kind of subject
  • Examples: Sailor Moon

• Seinen
  • This is a type of manga geared towards young male adults - on emerging from teenage years. It’s focus is typically no longer high school but more it’s more geared towards adult life.
  • Examples: Cowboy Bebop, Berserk, Chobits, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,…

       

• Josei/Redikomi
  • This is the equivalent of Seinen and is meant for adult women - Josei means female in Japanese - and is the mature version of shojo. It’s created mainly by women for women and it deals with the lives of Japanese women.
  • Examples: Gokusen, Paradise Kiss, Tramps like us, …

        

• Hentai
  • In Japan (the word) “hentai” has a strong negative connotation, and is commonly used to mean “sexually perverted” - Wikipedia. It essentially deals with sex (or pornography)
  • Examples: … none available on the wikipedia site … but a list available under the name H anime!!!

[Sources: mainly Wikipedia, I just compiled some of the stuff there into one doc and added my comments]

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