Anime is Japanese cartoons. Animation in most countries of the world is designed for children, while anime is created for adolescents and adults. The plot of Japanese cartoons is mainly taken from manga (comics), light novel (novels) and computer games (visual novels).
Target audience classification
Kodomomuke anime (kodomo) - cartoons intended for children under 12 years old. In this case, there is no need to talk about deep ideological content. You can recognize a kodomo by its characteristic drawing, which in many ways resembles the European or American school of animation. There is no cruelty and rudeness in kodomo, these are funny and positive cartoons. In Russia, such kodomo cartoons as Speed Racer, Grendayzer and Maya the Bee were extremely popular in the 90s.
Senen is an anime aimed at adolescents 12-18 years old, mostly male. In cartoons of this genre, the plot develops very quickly. They are full of situations about male friendship and mutual assistance, about rivalry between young people both in sports and in everyday life. All female characters in shonen are hypersexual, which is done to emphasize the masculinity of the main characters. Senen is divided into several subspecies:
- sentai - a story about the adventures of a group of people (for example, friends or a team) who have to fight against injustice;
- spokon - cartoons about athletes who cultivate the will to win and achieve success;
- harem - in the anime of this type, in the center of the narrative is a man or a guy, around whom there are always many women.
Shoujo is the opposite of shonen. Animated films of this genre are designed for girls and girls 12-18 years old. Most often, the plot is centered on the romantic relationship between a guy and a girl. All images in shojo are detailed both graphically and plotted. Shojo is subdivided into:
- maho-shojo - the adventures of a group of girls, most often endowed with supernatural powers (a striking example is the once popular series "Sailor Moon" in the CIS countries);
- harem - the story of the everyday life of a girl or girl, most of the other characters in such cartoons are male.
Seinen is an anime for men from 18 to 40 years old. In such cartoons, one can find both sharp satire and frank eroticism. The plot, as a rule, does not involve romantic relationships. The seinen often portrays the psychological evolution of a character very well.
Dzei is a manga for women from 18 to 40 years old. The plot is based on the everyday life of an ordinary Japanese woman. Often, several episodes in a row are dedicated to the school years, when a girl meets other people who will accompany her through life. The love line is most often worked out as much as possible.
Anime classification by technology and surroundings
Furs - in the cartoon, the plot is tied to the interaction of complex self-propelled mechanisms that are invented by the scriptwriters and have no prototypes. In fact, most cartoons in the fur genre are a battle for the world of huge combat robots, often resembling human figures in structure.
Cyberpunk - such cartoons show the world of the future, which differs from the present by the unprecedented development of computer technology. The cyberpunk genre is typically dystopian.
Steampunk is an anime genre where an alternate world is at the center of the narrative. Often the viewer can see the original interpretation of such events that changed the fate of many people, such as the creation of airships, trains, planes. Steampunk cartoon characters perceive inventions as demonic.
Fantasy - Japanese animated films, where, along with people, heroes are mythological creatures, for example, gods, demons, dragons, thunders, elves.
One of the most famous types of anime is hentai. These are erotic or pornographic cartoons, which often contain elements of other anime genres.
