Genres and demographics

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What is a genre? Genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. So why am I talking about this? Because I haven’t seen anyone talk about this and I have nothing else too talk about. Yes, I have officially run out of ideas. Anyway let’s get to why you clicked on this post. Genres. Let’s get to the question

How many genres of anime/manga are there?

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There’s a lot and I mean a lot so here a few: Comedy, Adventure, Slice of life, Romance, Horror, Drama and etc. There are about as many genres of anime as there are genres for any other form of media such as book, tv show, or movie. Sometimes which is considered subgenre in other media is treated more like a genre when it comes to anime, manga and light novels.

Some anime can be a mix of different types of narratives but they can usually be easily labeled with one or two of the genres. As each anime season passes by, more and more adaptations are released to viewers at one time. With more anime comes more repetitive themes, causing some genres to get more love than others. One good example is when sword art online blew up in 2012 it also inspired a new generation of isekai anime.

More anime genres in Wikipedia.

Anime demographics

I’m pretty sure people who have taken an interest to anime and manga also know that they are marketed by distinct demographic genres. Now let’s get deeper into that. What is demographics? Demographics is the statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it. Demographic analysis is the study of a population based on factors such as age, race, and sex. Manga are divided into roughly a dozen official publishing categories, mostly based on the age and gender of the intended audience.

Types of anime demographics include: Shonen, Seinen, Josei, Shoujo.

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Shonen – Target demographic is teenage and young adult males. This is one of the most popular types of manga and anime and is usually combined with another genre. One of the most popular shonen work is of course One piece.

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Seinen – Target demographic is adult males. These works tend to explore a wider range of topic, from action and adventure, to business and politics, to comedy and relationships. Some may also have strong sexual and violent content.

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Josei – Target demographic is adult females. A combination of slice-of-life and romance, the plots of josei manga are often realistic and the style is less extreme than that of Shoujo manga and anime. Josei works may have a touch of erotic content than Shoujo.

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Shoujo – Target demographic is teenage and young adult females. Shoujo anime cover subjects that focus mainly on human emotions and romantic relationships and are mostly told from the point of a female lead. The style tends to be much softer than in shonen manga. The girls tend to be cuter or more distinguished rather than overly-sexy.

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Shounen, Shoujo, josei and Seinen are also used to describe demographic groups as well as publishing categories; for example, most hobby manga are aimed at the Seinen demographic. Despite this, the publishing categories do not necessarily align perfectly with the actual readership; for example, many Shonen magazines have large female and adult readerships.

Underrated genres and subgenres

There also few genres which goes unnoticed or not given much attention by people. Here are some of the underrated genres:

Historical

Historical anime revolves around events in history and moments of antiquity. Shows of this subgenre are typically set in Ancient Japan and the feudal period. Other settings such as the Middle Ages and medieval period of Europe exist but they’re much more rare in anime.

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Parody

A parody anime is one where countless numbers of other anime references are showcased throughout the plot. They often use similar elements from other anime to showcase in their own show.

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Mecha

The mecha can be considered to be one of Japan’s most popular exports. It almost always uses a standard formula to carry the plot. As a general trend, mecha is often seen alongside the military, sci-fi, and action genre.

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My favorite genres

You guys probably already know my favorite genres but anyways.

Comedy

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Slice of life

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Romance

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Check out these websites for more information:

Genres

Demographics

Personally I love reading/watching comedy, it just takes all the stress out of me for example Gintama or Arakawa under the bridge. Different genres or demographics, as long as it can keep me on my toes, I’m okay with reading it even horror.

Well you have reached the end of this post. To tell the truth I have no idea what I should write about for my next post so feel free to drop some ideas down in the comment section.

Thanks for reading.