What Are the Different Genres of Anime? Beginner's Guide

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Get familiar with anime types, from shonen to isekai and beyond

Co-authored by Megan Blue and Luke Smith, MFA

Last Updated: February 18, 2026 Fact Checked

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Primary Genres

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General Genres

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Niche Subgenres

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History

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Video

The world of anime is wide and wild, and there are as many anime genres as there are genres for things like Hollywood films or fiction books. Anime has some unique genres all its own, though, and knowing a thing or two about these genres helps you navigate the scores of new anime releasing each season and find your own niche, and your next favorite series! We’re here to explain the major genres, more general genres, and niche subgenres. Plus, we’ll give you a quick primer for the history of anime as a medium.

Most Popular Anime Genres

Shonen (meaning “few years”) anime like Naruto are targeted primarily to young male audiences and feature lots of action, adventure, and fantastical worlds.
Shojo (meaning “young lady) anime like Fruits Basket are targeted mostly to young girls and feature lots of color, drama, and magic.
Isekai (meaning “another world”) are anime where a protagonist is plucked from their normal life and dropped into a new, strange, and exciting setting.

Section 1 of 4:

Main Anime Types

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Shonen Major anime genres are often defined by their target audiences. Shounen is perhaps the most common and popular kind of anime. The word literally means “few years,” meaning young boys under the age of about 15. Shonen is a broad umbrella that refers to any anime targeted mainly to this demographic.^{[1]
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Research source} Usually, they’re about a young boy in a fantastical world, who has to work his way up the rankings to achieve his dream.
- That said, shonen aren’t just for boys, and they often have widespread appeal across ages and genders.
- Also keep in mind that most anime fall under multiple genre labels. There’s a lot of crossover!
- Examples: Jujutsu Kaisen, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Naruto, My Hero Academia, Gachiakuta
- Shonen anime has given us some of the most iconic characters in the medium. Check out our list of the 25 Most Iconic Anime Characters!
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Seinen Seinen, meaning “young man,” is another umbrella term that refers to anime targeted toward a more mature audience.^{[2]
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Research source} They’re often similar to shonen, but they cover more mature, darker, and explicit stories and themes, often about violence, death games, mysteries, drama, romance, and intense thrillers. That doesn’t mean every seinen is dark or gritty, just that they’re all speaking to a more adult audience.
- Examples: Golden Kamuy, Vinland Saga, Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Erased, Parasyte, One Punch Man
- For more info on anime basics, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Anime and Manga.
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Shojo Shojo means “young lady,” and is the feminine version of shonen anime. These shows are often targeted to young girls, with themes of relationships, magic, friendship, character development, drama, and often a more cute and colorful aesthetic.^{[3]
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- Examples: Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket, Kageki Shojo!!, Ore Monogatari!!
- Every anime genre carries classic tropes. To explore these, check out our list of the 43 Most Common Anime Tropes.
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Josei Josei means “woman.” Just like how seinen is a grown-up shonen, josei is a grown-up shojo, but for women instead of men. These anime often target women as an audience, and speak to themes relatable to women, like romance, sex, drama, careers, ambition, and relationships, usually taking a more mature and nuanced style than its younger sister genre.
- Like shonen and seinen, shojo and josei aren’t just for one gender, and often have diverse audiences of all ages and genders.
- Examples: Nana, Princess Jellyfish, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Chihayafuru, Paradise Kiss, Nodame Cantabile.
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Isekai “Isekai” means “another world.” This is a genre that’s exploded in popularity in the past decade or so. Isekai anime are about a protagonist who, one way or another (usually via reincarnation), gets transported to another world where they must reorient themselves to a new status quo in a fish-out-of-water style story.^{[4]
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Research source} “They end up somewhere else with all of their original memories, but they're in a video game, they're in a fantasy world,” says anime expert Megan Blue.^{[5]
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Expert Source

Megan Blue
Anime Expert

Expert Interview} These anime often have long titles that give you the rundown before you even start watching, since there’s so much competition in the genre.
- Examples: Sword Art Online, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Mushoku Tensei, Jobless Reincarnation, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
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Kodomomuke Kodomomuke means “intended for children,” and the genre is fairly self-explanatory. These are shows targeted to a very young audience, often for educational purposes, but also just in terms of content and themes. They often cover topics of friendship, collaboration, and adventure, and are typically more colorful and cartoony than anime in other genres.^{[6]
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- Examples: Pokémon, Digimon, Detective Conan, Hamtaro, Hello Kitty, Doraemon
- Check out our article that explains some of the most common Japanese slang terms you’ll hear in anime.

Section 2 of 4:

General Anime Genres

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Anime includes common genres like action, mystery, and sci-fi. Like any other form of fiction, from Hollywood movies to novels, anime covers a wide range of more general genres that more or less describe the vibe of the anime, but don’t really tell you much about what’s going on inside it. Still, they’re useful labels for organizing anime by general taste. Here’s a look:
- Action anime center on characters in motion, fluid animation, fun fight scenes, car chases, things like that. They’ll get your blood pumping!
- Adventure anime take the characters on a wild journey, full of twists and turns. They tend to be more lighthearted and fast-paced.
- Comedy anime are similar to sitcoms you see on TV. They put fun characters in silly situations and pack in the punchlines.
- Fantasy anime is a broad genre that covers anything that wouldn’t be possible in everyday life—witches, magic, knights, dungeons, that sort of thing.
- Romance anime revolve around 2 or more characters finding each other and falling in love. They’re often feel-good, but you can never really know whether the characters will stay together!
- Sci Fi is another broad genre that involves any sort of technology not available in the current day, and what kind of situations arise from it.

Section 3 of 4:

Niche Anime Subgenres

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Mecha Mecha anime is all about big robots battling it out. Well, there’s often much more nuance than that, but if you sign up for a mecha anime, that’s probably the foundation of what you’ll get. It’s a staple of the sci-fi genre that can get pretty cerebral and high-brow, exploring things like technology, politics, and interpersonal drama, all from the cockpit of a giant robot.^{[7]
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- Examples: Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Patlabor, Macross
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Slice of Life Slice of Life anime explore everyday, mundane (and not so mundane) happenings of the characters involved, who tend to be ordinary people with average lives navigating school, work, and relationships. Sometimes, the angle is more fantasy, and explores an average day in a fantasy world. Often, it’s humorous and romanticised, easygoing, and something to kick back and watch at the end of a long day, like a sitcom.^{[8]
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- Examples: Nichijou, City the Animation, Hyouka, Mushishi, Barakamon, Yuru Camp, Girl’s Last Tour
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Mahou Shojo Mahou Shojo means “magical girl,” and these series tend to be about young girls who transform into magical alter egos who solve problems and fight crime. They’re fantastical stories that often empower young women to rise to the occasion and take hold of their lives through magical-but-relatable heroines.^{[9]
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- Examples: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Flip Flappers
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Idol Idol anime is a musical anime genre that follows young people (usually girls) as they train and perform as professional musicians, most often as pop idols.^{[10]
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Research source} It’s popular for its musical segments, colorful characters, and themes of ambition and hard work.
- Examples: Love Live!, UmaMusume, Zombieland Saga, Oshi no Ko, Macross, The IDOLM@STER
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Yaoi & Yuri These are romance anime that involve homosexual relationships or themes. Yaoi focuses on gay male relationships and yuri focuses on gay female relationships.^{[11]
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- Examples: Nana, The Summer Hikaru Died, Doukyousei, Banana Fish, Kase-san and Morning Glories, Citrus, Bloom into You
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Harem & Ecchi These are romance anime with more explicit sexual themes, or with unusual or taboo romance concepts. Harem is a genre where the protagonist has multiple love interests at once, and ecchi anime involves a more explicit and expressive depiction of sexuality.^{[12]
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- Examples: Oreimo, Girlfriend Girlfriend, The Quintessential Quintuplets, Food Wars, Interspecies Reviewers
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Sports Sports anime are exactly what they sound like, following a character or a team of characters as they train, play, and aim to be the best in their chosen sport. They’re often a subgenre of shonen anime, but they’re pretty diverse and varied in their aesthetics, themes, and subject matter. One thing remains the same, though: high tension and high drama.
- Examples: Haikyuu!!, UmaMusume, Sk8 the Infinity, Yuri!!! On Ice, Blue Lock, Slam Dunk, Chihayafuru
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Horror & Mystery Horror anime aren’t super common, but they’re still a staple in the medium, as are mystery anime. These shows often take on darker themes, and center around a core mystery, or are mystery-of-the-week format, with a new caper or monster each episode.
- Examples: Another, Detective Conan, Monster, Erased, The Promised Neverland, Psycho-Pass

Section 4 of 4:

History of Anime

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Anime dates all the way back to 1917. During the era of silent films, Japanese animators were at work creating moving, animated pictures, at the same time that animators in other countries were. While Disney films soon took off, the Japanese industry struggled to find stability, and natural disasters and wars didn’t help. After WWII, however, there was a national effort to recoup the arts, and animation was a focus. Finally, after the premiere of Disney’s Snow White in 1937, the president of Tōei Film Company founded Tōei Animation, a studio dedicated to creating anime, with the funds and talent to back it up.^{[13]
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- Animators like the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, who would go on to create Studio Ghibli, got their starts at Tōei.
- The first broadcast anime series was Tetsuwan Atomu, a.k.a. Astro Boy, in 1963.
- The release of the film Space Battleship Yamato in 1974 proved a blockbuster hit and launched a new wave of anime production.
- In the 90s and early 2000s, anime found new audiences worldwide, and these audiences helped make the medium a global phenomenon.