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Genre disputes

First, I just want to copy and paste the explanation for each genre that is displayed when you submit any:

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- Adventure : a quest! action! thrills! faraway and exotic lands! - Comedy : it's funny, it makes you laugh - Drama : serious and intense emotions... you know, dramatic stuff! - Fantasy : a medieval-like world, where swords–and often magic–rule - Historical : based (although sometimes loosely) on historical places and/or events - Horror : meant to strike fear, although too often it only manages to be gory - Magical girl : normal girl who transforms into a magical defender of peace and good - Mecha : those giant robots that kick ass - Military : focus on the military life, the army - Mystery : a secret must be unraveled through detective work - Police : focus on cops, law enforcement - Psychological : messes with your head - Romance : love is an important part of the story - Science Fiction : spaceships, aliens, laser guns... you know, the future! - Slice of Life : small vignettes of ordinary life - Shoujo : emphasis on relationships and character development, primarily aimed at girls - Shounen : emphasis on action and fighting, primarily aimed at boys - Sports : soccer, baseball, basketball, you name it - Supernatural : has ghosts/demons/mysticism as central theme

Okay, the genre thing has gotten really annoying to me recently. There's a lot of people who are just throwing out genres to anything that just remotely resembles it, and sometimes even to anime that are not that genre. I just want some clarification on any of the genres and what classifies as each. Most of them I'm pretty sure what they should be, but there's some that are a bit more subjective that I'm not sure on. I'm just going to go through them right now and mention the problems (if any) I'm having with people incorrectly submiting them.


Adventure: I don't really seem to have a huge problem with this one.

Comedy: Not really a huge problem. There was once somebody who submited "comedy" for Evangelion, but that's the only problem I remember with it. It's pretty easy to tell if something's supposed to be comedy...

Drama: Dormcat said before that this is supposed to be for titles that have the possibility of "making you cry". I really haven't had a huge problem with this one though.

Fantasy: I'm having quite a bit of problems with this one. I see people giving it out to title that have anything fictional or just anything out of the ordinary. Pokemon is one people love to classify it as. This is just limited to worlds that revolve around usage of swords/magic, right? Does it go beyond that at all? If it doesn't, I have a few more error reports to submit. I'd like a bit more clarification on this one...

Historical: Not really any problem.

Horror: Some questions and problems on this. Fullmetal Alchemist is one that I am doubting should be "horror". I thought to be horror, the main theme had to be that it tried to scare you. I really don't think that's the main theme of FMA... there's also a few more I'm not sure classify as it...

Magical Girl: This one was actually pretty well covered in that other thread. I don't have any more questions on it now, but it is one that I have problems with people throwing it out to any anime that has a girl with magical powers...

Mecha: I have a bit of questions on this one. I thought it was mainly limited to anime that had robots that you piloted. I see a lot of people submiting it to titles that just have robots in them. I'd like it if someone could clarrify what counts as this...

Military: Not too many problems. Does the main focus have to be military life or if the main characters are just part of the military, does it count as it?

Mystery: I don't have too many problems with this one.

Police: I actually rarely even see this genre...

Psychological: Not really any problems.

Romance: A few problems with this. The main theme has to be romance, right? I see a lot of people giving this out to titles that just have a hint of romance in them, but the anime never really focuses on it. "An important part of the story" is not really that descriptive... as even anime that have love as an important part of the story, don't necessarily have to focus on it all that much...

Science Fiction: I see people give this to anything that is fictional or takes place in the future. I think it's a bit more limited than that... But I'd like a bit more clarrification on this as I still see a lot of people throwing it out to titles that I don't think should be classified as it.

Slice of Life: A few problems with this. Does it classify as just having attributes that reflect real life? Or is there something more to it? I think that there's fictional titles that can classify as this if they're "real" enough. I see a lot of romance and harem classify as this... I think harem is already not "slice of life" mainly for the reason that having a bunch of girls going after you is not very realistic for most people...

Shoujo: Very annoying. I see people often classifying anime based on dating sims as this. I think people automatically recognize the focus on character relationships and less action and incorrectly classify seinen as shoujo. I also think we should have a seinen and jousei genre too. If not, I think we should just get rid of both shoujo and shounen, as it just confuses too many people then.

Shounen: I think shounen is a bit more broad then shoujo. I can usually tell if something is shoujo but I'm not always sure on shounen. I'm really not sure on this... so any clarification would help.

Sports: No problem with this one. It should be pretty easy to tell...

Supernatural: I have problems with this one. I see it being labeled on titles that just have one character that is a ghost or supernatural being. I'm not really sure what classifies as a "central" theme either, but I'm pretty sure it's just not one character being a ghost, demon, etc...


So, if anybody can help out a bit on what classifies as what, it would be appretiated. I don't think some of the explanations provided are specific enough, and a lot of people are just throwing them out to anime that just contain that element, regardless of how minor of a role it plays in the anime.

Also, this is kind of minor, but it's sometimes pretty distracting. Is there any possible way that the encyclopedia can automatically capitalize the genres when they're submited? It just looks really wierd to have some of them capitalized and some of them not when I look at titles...

Ah, genres. Always a nice can of worms to re-open. First of all, keep in mind that genres will eventually be re-worked to be like this (should happen pretty soon too).

Fantasy: it was meant in the sense of "Epic Fantasy" or "Heroic Fantasy". If anything "out of the ordinary" is fantasy, then 90% of anime titles are fantasy. That's just meaningless.
Mecha: pilot-controlled robot, not just any robot.
Police: at the time I came up with the classification I was knee-deep in Patlabor. I guess it shows...

Overall you have the right idea: a genre is something that DEFINES an anime, e.g. an anime may have comedy in it, but that doesn't mean it is comedy. When marking an anime as comedy (for example), that basically means you can watch it for the comedy value alone. If you had to pick ONE genre for an anime, what would it be?

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Shoujo: Very annoying. I see people often classifying anime based on dating sims as this. I think people automatically recognize the focus on character relationships and less action and incorrectly classify seinen as shoujo.

Too true. I just finished watching episode one of Lemon Angel Project, and its encyclopedia page has it labeled shoujo. I've only seen the first episode, but it struck me as much more of a bishoujo seinen anime with some possible romance on the side. I was considering submitting an error report, but I'm not 100% positive on whether or not it really is shoujo.

It is part of the Cream Lemon series, which is primarily made up of erotic anime aimed at males. I can hardly believe it would be shoujo. Also, I know some of the people aren't doing this on purpose... even my friends (in real life) often incorrectly classify a lot of the anime I watch as shoujo, so they think I'm gay (they are usually joking about the gay part though). They are mostly mecha/gothic/action anime fans so they don't know much about "cute" and/or "moe" anime at all...

I've taken down the shoujo label for Lemon Angel Project now. I've seen some people applying 'shounen' to anything that runs in a shounen/seinen magazine, and 'slice of life' for all sorts of things really, from Strawberry Panic (which has also had shoujo twice & shounen 3 times) to Monster and He is My Master. Of course it makes you wonder which part of 'small vignettes of ordinary life' people have trouble interpreting. Perhaps their lives aren't as ordinary as other human beings'....

Anyway, looking forward to the reworking of genres and in the meantime do report anything that looks mislabeled, it's hard to keep up with genre freaks sometimes.

Hmm... I noticed that Petite Princess Yucie has been listed as "Shoujo". There isn't any basis for that is there? From what I've read, it's based off of Princess Maker.

Hitohira also isn't Shoujo. It's Seinen.
Although I'm not quite satisfied with putting Audiences as Genre, anyway. It just isn't the same.

I'm getting a little confused with the Slice of Life genre.

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psychological OR slice-of-life *psychological: exploration of a character's (or our own) psyche through intense and traumatic events *slice-of-life: exploration of a character's (or our own) psyche through mundane and every-day events

It seems to be a trend in anime encyclopedias all over the internet that every High School anime is "Slice of Life" where it pretty obviously isn't. Shouldn't a slice of life anime only include titles that capture the mundane and everyday events and not big events that lead to climactic consequences or anything that is clearly not "every-day"? For example Air TV is considered Slice of Life. I got the impression that what I saw in Air was not what those characters experienced every other day. The events that ocurred seemed paramount to their demise or development and changed everything that existed within their realm.
Azumanga Daioh on the other hand could be the only true Slice of Life anime (which probably isn't right), since it does capture

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small vignettes of ordinary life

I felt watching the series that each episode could be animated reflections of real girls, exagerated for comedy, but nonetheless absolutely true to the literal definition of slice of life. I felt like I saw a small captured time frame of their lives that is as mundane as the events that I didn't see.

There are tonnes of examples of what is clearly not a captured slice of life but is categorized as exactly that. REC, there was an introduction, a conflict, a climax and a solution, I don't see how the events that occured are mundane events. Haibane Renmei had intense dramatic conflicts and events for example spoiler[the main character was born into existence in the first episode, characters die (the same thing as "disappear")]. SaiKano, I actually don't understand how this could even be considered a vignette of mundane life. spoiler[Girl gets artillery attached to her back, world ends.] Windy Tales, how could discovering that people can control wind and effectively "fly" be a capture of everyday life? Amaenaideyo!! Katsu!! is recorded as slife of life when Amaenaideyo!! isn't, the same things basically happen in both. Grave of the Fireflies, even though it is "historical" that doesn't necessarily mean that it mirrors everyday emotions and events. I know that not all titles under one genre make them the same, but I don't see how something like Azumanga could be compared to GotF in any way.

I could go on but it'd take too long. I'm not arguing with the genre definition. I'm genuinely curious why some titles that don't fit the definition are always considered Slice of Life. Is there something I've missed?

If you don't think Windy Tales is slice of life, I would argue you're either misinterpreting the genre or the show. Windy Tales isn't a show about wind-users that were young girls, it was a show about young girls that can use the wind. It's a subtle but very important disctinction to be made in my mind. If you were to ask me what the genre is, it's really quite simple (if hard to put into words), and it actually includes a large number of anime

Slice of Life - A show that lacks a central theme or goal. An anime where one of the primary foci is on the every day lives of the characters and how they cope with the situations that confront them in their normal lives.

I think it is important to note that there is no inherent need for a slice of life anime to take place in a perfectly ordinary world that includes no demons, chakra, or tentacle monsters looming in the shadows (though, any show that could manage to include something like tentacle monsters in a benign evironment and still fit under the category of slice of life would have my praise). And although it may not be an inherent need in my mind, very few shows incorporate supernatural elements of any kind and still manage to be true slice of life shows; however, Windy Tales would definitely be one of them in my book.

selenta wrote:

I think it is important to note that there is no inherent need for a slice of life anime to take place in a perfectly ordinary world that includes no demons, chakra, or tentacle monsters looming in the shadows (though, any show that could manage to include something like tentacle monsters in a benign evironment and still fit under the category of slice of life would have my praise). And although it may not be an inherent need in my mind, very few shows incorporate supernatural elements of any kind and still manage to be true slice of life shows; however, Windy Tales would definitely be one of them in my book.

I meant to emphasize that slice of life can exist within it's own realm, that doesn't necessarily have to be realistic. I have no problem with that but every series with a teenage girl as the protagonist doesn't mean it's slice of life.

Sorry about Windy Tales, I started watching it a long time ago and then stopped halfway through. I just watched a couple of episodes and understand what you mean. Bad example.

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Slice of Life - A show that lacks a central theme or goal. An anime where one of the primary foci is on the every day lives of the characters and how they cope with the situations that confront them in their normal lives.

With that definition it'd be too easy to fit almost any anime into the genre if you tried. I guess the whole genre just confuses me and I really don't understand what would and would not be considered Slice of Life. I'd like to think that if a genre search system was ever implemented and if I wanted to find similar titles to Hidamari Sketch, I wouldn't get SaiKano as a response.

Amasa wrote:

Quote: Slice of Life - A show that lacks a central theme or goal. An anime where one of the primary foci is on the every day lives of the characters and how they cope with the situations that confront them in their normal lives. With that definition it'd be too easy to fit almost any anime into the genre if you tried. I guess the whole genre just confuses me and I really don't understand what would and would not be considered Slice of Life. I'd like to think that if a genre search system was ever implemented and if I wanted to find similar titles to Hidamari Sketch, I wouldn't get SaiKano as a response.

Fair enough, but if you ask me, expecting a particular response based off of only one genre or description is going to be lacking, no matter which one you use. The more precise the answer you want, the more criteria you need to put in. Just as how you would need to add "fish" to "taco" in the search box when you're looking for information on fish tacos, you may need to add something like "NOT 'depressing'" to your search box when you're looking for like titles. (fyi, I haven't seen Hidamari sketch)

I think my definition of slice of life is as defineing a characteristic of a show as they come. While there are many types of slice of life shows, they all exhibit enormously similar traits, and is quite often these particular similar traits that draw people to the shows in the first place.

One more thing, is that it is important that the day to day lives are far more important than any sort of overarching plot to the importance and focus of the show. PlanetES, Windy Tales, Genshiken, Ouran, Honey and Clover, Ah! My Goddess, these are all prime examples of the feeling and mood of slife shows. Several of them have over-arching plots, but when you watch them, it is quite clear that to the viewers, the importance of the overall plots pales in importance to the everyday struggles of the characters.

Although there are a number of shows that indeed could be categorized under this definition, is that really so bad? Personally, I'd rather categorize things according to the feel and attitude of the show that matches the label as intuitively as possible , rather than try and pidgeon hole shows under extremely specific categories that were clearly designed for a particular show and only are ambiguously applicable to the rest of anime. I think a lot of people look for a perfect system, that always recommends something the user likes, but I think we can all agree that people are different, and generally illogical when it comes to things like 'likes and dislikes'; there is no perfect system, and I think it would be best for the system to try and match attitudes and themes as best as possible, without automatically excluding results that fall in perfectly with a different definition. If the search is even reasonably accurate or reliable, I think the user can decide the final difference between dramas like FMA and Monster.