There's More Than One Type of Anime?

In the last issue, I gave you a brief overview of what anime is, how it differs from American animation, and what you should do to take your first steps into the world of Japanese Animation. This chapter is going to introduce you to some of the most commonly seen forms of anime story, and give you some examples of series that fall into those categories. Just like American shows, anime falls under general types like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Drama and even the odd Soap Opera, but most series follow more specific sub-types.

Now, bear in mind that this chapter deals with sub-genres rather than just the major ones listed above. There are plenty of series that don't fall into the examples below, series that are just plain dramas, such as Cowboy Bebop, or purely fantasy, like Record of Lodoss War. Furi Kuri, which technically qualifies as a Magical Girlfriend series, is purely a satirical piece. Some might take a look at these sub-genres and conclude that all anime is silly, or childish - don't. Most of the examples here, despite my intentionally exaggerated commentary on the basic formations of their groups, are aimed at the young adult group, with a couple even coming from the realms of H-anime.

The most important thing to understand about these genres is that they're rarely absolute, so remember that just because something is classified as, for instance, Mecha, doesn't always mean that that's the story's main focus. Be sure to check our list of terms for words that seem to jump out at you.

Hey, How'd He Get All Those Babes?

I'll start with one of the most popular types of series, the Harem anime. Almost always a romance story, the series premise is usually pretty simple - through a series of events, one single young man - rarely older than 18 - winds up with anywhere from three to seven beautiful women either actively vying for his affections or at the very least hanging around with him. Generally the young man in question has one specific personality too - kind, somewhat shy, brave, and some would argue spineless when it comes to actually making a choice between the bevy of beauties around him.

The variations on Harem animes are actually fairly broad, despite them sharing a similar plot; for instance, there's Tenchi Muyo, probably the single most well known Harem. Focusing on young Tenchi Masaki, it's a mostly sci-fi series about the grandson of a Shinto shrine keeper and the alien women that just keep dropping in on him. Sometimes literally. Another example would be Koihime, a H-Anime about a young man who, through the innocent action of a child, wound up betrothed to not one, but FOUR demon princesses. Some other Harems of note -

• Ai Yori Aoshi
• Love Hina
• Fruits Basket
• Fate: Stay Night
• Shuffle!
• Tactical Roar

The advantages of good Harem animes is that they've often got pretty good romantic plot lines going for them, and besides the love triangles, squares, pentagons, and so forth, many have good main storylines as well. On the other hand, it's rare to find a good Harem anime - the problem being that all too often the protagonist is just a self-insert of the writer, wishing to be at the affections of the girls. Tenchi Muyo eventually suffered this fate, for instance - though my co-writer, K`thardin, covers that in another article.

That Giant Robot Stepped on my Car!

Another of the most popular series types revolve around Mecha, or gigantic fighting robots. Those familiar with American games and stories like BattleMech and BattleTech will recognize these right away. The Japanese got their hands on the idea of huge robots and ran with them, producing literally hundreds of stories centering on the Mecha. Often the Mecha are as much a character in the show as the pilots themselves, with elaborate designs and surprising amounts of time invested in details on them.

Probably the best known of the Mecha anime is the universe of Gundam. With 25 years worth of various branches to the story and world, Gundam has been around in one form or another since 1979. Nearly as popular, though not as long lived were the three separate series that together formed the world of Macross and Robotech. Just how big do Mecha get? At the size of a large city - New York or LA - the Macross could transform itself into a huge Mech , and yet was considered to only be a gun destroyer compared to some of the ships in the series. Other Mecha anime include -

• Patlabor
• Eureka 7
• Neon Genesis Evangeleon
• RahXephon

Despite the original popularity of Mecha anime in Japan, until recently they had been on a decline. However, in the last couple of years there's been a resurgence of the theme, meaning that fans of the massive machines could be in for a treat in the near future.

Five Times the Fighters, Five Times the Stances!

Sentai shows - more commonly seen as Live TV shows like Power Rangers - can be found without too much effort in anime too. Meaning Tactical Force, a Sentai anime focuses on a team of between three to six characters, who through science or magic morph themselves into armored battle suits and take command of mecha to fight the monster of the week. Unlike pure mecha anime, though, the machines are almost always purely secondary to the storyline.

Probably the most famous of these in America is Voltron, or Go Lion. Airing on US TV in the 80's, it centered around the five pilots of the robot lions that could combine to create Voltron , the Defender of the Universe. Sakura Wars is another in the world of Sentai anime, dealing with the 'Flower Division' first introduced in the Sega Saturn game of the same name. Others include -

• Battle Skipper
• D.I.C.E.
• Teknoman
• Gunbuster
• Immortal Grand Prix

The last is something of an oddity among most of the series I'll be mentioning, as it is not actually Japanese Anime. This is something that I'll be covering in a later chapter, so in the mean time, why not take a look at its Wikipedia page? Sentai series spend a lot of time focusing on team development, so single characters might suffer a bit.

Did All Her Clothes Just Vanish for a Moment?

Next up we have what is most commonly referred to as Magical Girl animes. These are most often a sub-set of Sentai series, with all of the members of the team invariably being girls, usually in their teenage years. Sometimes, though less often, it'll be a solo girl instead, usually with a couple more characters, male or female, showing up later to help out. Using magic rather than any sort of science to transform, merely changing from their school uniforms into sailor fuku makes them utterly unrecognizable to even their closest friends and family so that they can deal with evil without having to worry about having to sign autographs later! Occasionally, the term can also have a more literal meaning - the girl just plain has magic.

Among the best known of these shows is the classic Sailor Moon series, in which Usagi Tsukino - Serena, in the States - is given powers by her talking black cat with crescent-moon shaped symbol to fight the evil forces of the NegaVerse as Sailor Moon. A slightly more recent example is Card Captor Sakura, or Card Captors as it's known in the US. Both of these series demonstrate the horrible censorship that went with most early anime showings on State-side TV, with Card Captors becoming practically a different show. Alert viewer Unmei no Chibi points out that my experience with Magical Girl anime is somewhat out of date, and also recommends taking a look at Mai HiME or My-Otome for a truly up to date series. Some other Magical Girls shows -

• Devil Hunter Yohko
• Pretty Cure
• Tokyo Mew Mew
• Pretty Sami
• Magical Knight Rayearth

Depending on which form of Magical Girl you watch, there are different benefits/problems. The Sentai teams - Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew - tend to have longer running stories, but those stories are written with the outlook of a young girl, which means you'll get to watch all the high school drama along with the monster of the week. More importantly, Sentai teams have a bad habit of focusing too much on a single character - often one that isn't really worth the attention. The more original meaning - a just plain magical girl - don't suffer as much from this problem, but on the whole Magical Girl series tend toward the female viewer. Clothes-shredding transformation sequences aside.

They Just Keep Powering Up!

These are series that focus on little more than head on, all out, knock-down-drag-out, who can take the most punishing martial-arts pummeling possible - the Shonen series. In many ways, this is the guy's answer to Magical Girls series. They're not so much about character development as they are about how the blow by blow falls out. Marked by one on one battles filled with endless gathering of power to be expelled in hand to hand combat, the Fighters do most of their talking with their fists... and their feet... and their elbows... knees... foreheads... shins...

While the grandaddy of all these is probably Fist of the North Star, one of the classic animes, the most recognizable is Dragon Ball, which depicts the adventures of Goku, a monkey-tailed boy loosely based on the legendary Son Goku of Chinese lore. The series follows him from one situation to the next as he grows up, learning martial arts and becoming ever more powerful. Another familiar one is Yu Yu Hakusho, about a young man named Yusuke Urameshi - who starts the series out by promptly getting himself killed. Fortunately for him, it was the very last thing he was expected to do, as he dies trying to save a child from being hit by a car - though the kid would have actually had one less scratch had Yusuke not jumped in. Other Shonen series include -

• Bleach
• Naruto
• Maze
• Yu-Gi-Oh!
• KIBA

The last two on that list actually represents a newer sub-type in Shonen anime, the battle companion show. Rather than doing the fighting personally, characters use magical spirits/animals trained to fight and take the role of battle commander . Despite their primary focus on fighting, many Shonen anime actually pay a fair bit of attention to personal growth. Unfortunately, it's easy to lose that growth in the face of endless sessions of powering up. Dragon Ball is particularly bad for this, known for runs of episodes consisting entirely of two characters doing little more than glaring at each other, with occasional brief breaks to throw a series of light-speed attacks and counters at each other.

My Girlfriend has Wings and a Spaceship!

Last on my list of example genres are the Magical Girl/Boy-friend series. Strictly romantic in nature, these shows focus on the relationship of one lucky character - almost always male - and one divine (occasionally alien) girl. These lucky bastards are almost always the most unlikely sort, too - shy, withdrawn, unlucky as hell... yet somehow they find themself with a goddess on their arm... of course, that's not always a blessing, when the goddess's family starts showing up.

Chief among these has to be the immortal Ah! My Goddess, a story about Keichi Morisato , student at Nekomi Tech. Getting hungry after a long day, he decides to order dinner - but mis-dials and orders up a real honest-to-goddess goddess named Belldandy instead! But the last thing he expects when she offers him any one wish is for her to grant his joking reply... of a goddess like her to stay with him forever. Another series in the Magical Girlfriend genre is Onegai Teacher, which tells the story of Kei Kusanagi , a young man with a physical affliction that causes him to stop... everything, including aging, for an undetermined amount of time. One of these standstills lasts for three years, making him an eighteen year old in a fifteen year old's body, so is it any surprise that he ends up hot for his teacher? Did I mention she's an alien? Other series in this genre include -

• Onegai Twins
• Tsukihime
• Magical Twilight (H)
• Chobits
• DearS

Arguably, Magical Girl/Boy-friend series have the strongest storylines and characters of all anime. With excellent plot and character development, these series are almost universally a good choice. The downside is that action isn't the strong suit of these storylines , and while some shows - such as Tsukihime - do have fair amounts of it, it's never the primary emphasis. These are shows for couples to enjoy together, even cry over and go, ' Awwwwwwwww .'

Ok, I Think I'm Starting to Get It!

In this chapter I've gone over some of the most common sub-genres of anime, and named a fair number of series, some old, some new. If you've read this far, then you're probably starting to get an idea of some series that sound interesting to you. Maybe you remember one of those Mecha from when you were younger, or you've always dreamed of having a cute little goddess as a girlfriend. From here I'm going to suggest you go to the Wikipedia and try searching for some of the titles I've listed here.

Another thing you might consider doing is spending a little time at online anime community sites, like theforums here at Dragon's Anime, or Virtual Infusion. Sites like these are great places to get ideas of new, enjoyable stuff to watch, as well as make friends with both newbs and otaku alike. And don't forget your local Suncoast and Best Buy - chances are good that employees that work in the video sections will have good suggestions for you.