Anime’s popularity has surged in the United States over the last few decades, but it can sometimes be hard explaining to people sometimes that anime isn’t a genre, it’s a medium. It’s not all doe-eyed schoolgirls and giant robots. (Admittedly, a lot of it is, but that’s beside the point.) In this post, I’m going to break down some of the top-level genres in anime and occasionally point out how they differ from Western popular entertainment.

Drama

I’ve never seen Grave of the Fireflies.

The movie, about a pair of orphans trying to survive in Japan towards the end of WWII, constantly tops “best of” lists. I have plenty of friends who have seen it, and some who even own it.

The problem is, none of them want to see it twice. “I don’t want to cry again,” one guy explains. If it’s really that heartbreakingly sad, I’m not sure I can face it alone.

If Grave of the Fireflies sounds a little strong for your taste, there’s other alternatives in the drama category.

Death Note is enjoying a lot of popularity right now. It’s story of a cat-and-mouse game between a serial killer and a detective, but with a supernatural bent.

Monster hasn’t been offially released in the U.S. yet, but is already gathering strong advance buzz from people who have watched the fan translations online. I think it’s going to be one to watch out for.

If you’re the sort of person who enjoys sheer weirdness, you might want to look at the works of Satoshi Kon like Paprika, Paranoia Agent and Perfect Blue. Kon’s movies and shows deal heavily in escapism and subjective reality, so prepare to see some really strange things.

Action

The action genre is in many ways the public face of anime. How many of us grew up on Voltron, Robotech or Starblazers?

For better or worse, Dragon Ball Z introduced much of the U.S. to the anime tropes of tournaments, secret martial arts techniques and fighting tournaments. Those formulas still weigh heavily on the genre.

These days, Naruto dominates the anime market the way Dragon Ball Z did in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Bleach is catching up rapidly. In both, there’s an endless parade of baddies for the protagonists to fight and defeat

So, what sets action anime apart from other western cartoons? For one thing, the shows all have an overarching narrative, as opposed to a series of one-off episodes. Characters grow and develop, or even die. With new shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, American creators are beginning to warm to to this arrangement.

Of course, there are action-oriented shows that exist outsided the formulas. This humble author considers Cowboy Bebop one of the best television shows ever made, animated or not.

Comedy

This one is a tricky beast.

A lot of humor in anime comes from language-specific puns or references to Japanese pop culture, including other anime. Trying to translate these while retaining the humor isn’t for the faint of heart. For that reason, physical comedy or humor based on broad character types tends to work the best.

Shows like Azumanga Dioh, Lucky Star and Minami-ke could be described as more Seinfeld than Seinfeld, with meandering, easygoing plots about not much in particular. (This is perhaps a result of adapting four-panel comic strips to a half-hour animated format.) They have fewer neurotic New Yorkers and more high school students, though.

An up-and-coming show, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, plays off the high school comedy formula, but is eminently watchable in its own right. Do yourself a favor and find a copy of “episode zero” if you can.

If you’re feeling up to braving the highly referential FLCL, you’re in for a treat. You may not understand what’s going on, but just relax and have a good time.

Romance

Romance hasn’t quite penetrated the U.S. market the way the other genres have, but many shows in this category have a devoted following stateside.

Where western romantic comedies are often seen as for women, many romance anime are actually aimed at young boys. For instance, Kimagure Orange Road is a classic anime romantic comedy, and it first ran as a comic in the decidedly boy-oriented Shonen Jump. Deep down, boys and girls alike want to use fiction to fantasize about finding love, it would seem.

Most of the romance shows that made it stateside would probably be more accurately “X with romantic elements.” The best known is probably Inuyasha, an action/romance show.

Many of the shows that are more purely romantic are adapted from dating simulator video games. Some, like Kanon, are adapted from explicitly pornographic games, though the shows themselves are relatively innocent and sweet. I don’t know. It’s just one of those things.

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That covers it for the big genres. Next week, we’ll take a look at some of the more specific anime genres like giant robots and magical girls, and how they came to develop.

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