Japanese pop culture has wiggled its way into the hearts and minds of the European and U.S. consciousness.  Anime is one of the most popular exports from Japan and shows no signs of ever leaving our shores.  Whether it’s directed towards small children or teenagers or even adults well into their 30’s and 40’s, anime is here to stay it seems.  This article hopes to explain a few different forms of anime and who it’s geared toward.

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Shōnen

Shōnen is a form of anime that is geared towards a teen and preteen male audience.  It’s often categorized by male bonding and a lot of action.  Examples of Shōnen include Full Metal Alchemist and Yu-Gi-Oh.  Shōnen is often confused with Seinen Anime, which we’ll talk about in the next paragraph.

Seinen

Seinen is similar to Shōnen except that it’s geared more towards men of college age or even older.  Like Shōnen, it’s also meant for males but has a more mature theme and is often considered more violent.  Examples include Hellsing and Elfen Lied.  It’s interesting to note that most people in the west consider Shōnen and Seinen to be practically the same thing. 

Shojo

Anime isn’t all about dueling battle monsters or mystic card games.  In other words it’s not just for males.  What Shōnen anime is for men,  Shojo anime is for girls, usually up to age 20 or so.  Shojo isn’t as popular in the West as Shōnen but does have a fan base here.  Examples of popular Shojo include: Card Captor Sakura and of course, Sailor Moon.

Josei

Josei anime is for women in their late teens and well into adulthood.  They have a tendency to be more realistic and the drawing style tends to shy away from the large eyes made popular by most anime.  An interesting fact is that very little Josei makes it to the screen, usually staying between the pages of manga or japanese comic books.  However, a few notable examples are Paradise Kiss and Honey and Clover.

Kodomo

Kodomo is created for children of both sexes and is used to tell stories showing good little boys and girls how to be good little boys and girls so that they can grow up to be good men and women.  These stories are often moralistic and abstractly teach children to be considerate to others.  Good examples of this demographic include Astro Boy and the incredibly popular Pokemon.

Well, there you have it.  Keep in mind that this is not a definitive list of anime genres.  In fact, this article probably covers less that one percent of all the types of anime you can find, much of it not exactly for the general public.  But that’s for another article, for another author to write.