If you’re a regular Plugged In reader, you may have noticed an uptick in the amount of anime TV and movie reviews on our site. That’s no coincidence: Whereas the consumption of anime was once an aspect of “nerd culture,” the medium, like other once-nerdy hobbies (playing Dungeons & Dragons, for instance), is quickly becoming more and more mainstream.
How mainstream is anime? A recent Polygon survey found that 42% of Gen Z respondents report watching anime content weekly, compared to 25% of Millennials, 12% of Gen X and 3% of Baby Boomers. The same survey further notes that only 25% of Gen Z’s members keep up with the NFL weekly.
What’s more, prominent brands, including McDonald’s, Duolingo and Puma, have likewise capitalized on the popularity of anime to boost sales. The BBC even writes on how anime has “taken the West by storm.”
What Is Anime, Anyway?
For those unaware, anime isn’t a genre so much as it is a medium. The word derives from a shortened version of the Japanese word “animēshon,” which, unsurprisingly, refers to any animated work. Linguistically, the term is typically used to describe any animation that originates from Japan—as opposed to Western animation, for instance.
Similar to how Marvel adapts comic books for the big screen, many anime shows and movies are based on manga, which are Japanese comics or graphic novels. Polygon noted that manga—which differentiates from Western comics in that they’re read right to left and are typically black-and-white—rose in sales by 280% in 2021 at American bookstores.
Because the term anime essentially just describes where an animated work originated, its topics can range as widely as the rest of the entertainment landscape. Some movies and shows feature deep, heavy and contemplative topics (such as Grave of the Fireflies). Others can be soaked in action and adventure (such as My Hero Academia). And some might just be far too inappropriate for your family.
With such a wide range of potential content concerns, it can be helpful to understand some other key jargon related to the medium. Anime and manga alike fall into various genres. And while some can be slated under genres with which we’d be familiar—such as drama or comedy—some iterations fall under specific terms that’ll be foreign to a newcomer. To help you start navigating a medium growing in popularity, we’ve put together a list of prominent anime genres with which you might not be familiar. And after that, we’ll note some of the common issues that, while not indicative of every movie or show in the medium, do appear often enough to merit a warning.
Genres
Different kinds of anime are not immediately divided by plot descriptions but are instead primarily labeled by age demographic. It is important to recognize that these distinctions are based on where its manga was originally published. Also important: anime’s age categories aren’t determined by any sort of MPA rating system.
For instance, if a show is described as a shonen TV show, that means the manga on which it is based likely originally appeared in a magazine which prints stories intended for 12-to-18-year-old boys. So while content in the show should generally match the age demographic associated with it, some shows can certainly toe the line of what’s appropriate for that age range. The following terms all describe the age demographic to which a title is meant to appeal:
- Kodomomuke. This term translates to “intended for children” and targets age groups younger than 12 years old. These stories tend to have moral lessons and heavy emphasis on the value of friendship and family. Popular examples of this genre include Pokémon, Digimon and Beyblade.
- Shonen. Literally translating to “boy,” shonen anime aims to entice boys between the ages of 12 to 18. This genre typically features a larger-than-life teenage or young adult male protagonist and a whole lot of action, adventure and fight scenes, sometimes with a lot of blood. In the United States, shonen anime tends to be the most popular type. Typical lessons include perseverance, fighting against evil and the value of friendship. Popular examples of this genre include Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, Death Note, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Dragon Ball and One Piece.
- Shojo. Shojo is the opposite of shonen, translating to “girl” and intended for female audiences between 12 and 18. The genre often contains a female lead and frequently contains a romance plot, though other shojo may focus on mysteries, action or fantasy. Due to many shojo anime titles focusing on romance, some may contain lighter sexual content. Typical lessons include self-love and acceptance, compassion and a variety of social issues. Popular examples of this genre include Sailor Moon, Fruits Basket and Princess Tutu.
- Seinen. This genre targets adult men (those 18 and older). The content is typically more graphically violent, and it may contain foul language and sex. Likewise, many stories are often (though not always) dark, and they don’t always have happy endings. Common themes explored in seinen anime include politics, philosophy and realism. Popular examples of this genre include Vinland Saga, Berserk, Made in Abyss, One-Punch Man and Cowboy Bebop.
- Josei. Continuing down the list, josei targets adult women (those 18 and up). Like the shojo genre, josei anime tends to focus on romance. However, these romances also tend to be more realistic in the positives and negatives that come with them, and they can be sexually explicit. They can sometimes dive into LGBT relationships as well. Meanwhile, other josei stories simply focus on non-romantic issues relevant to adult women. Common themes explored in josei anime include issues in relationships, various moral and philosophical questions and realism. Popular examples of this genre include Paradise Kiss, Chihayafuru and Honey and Clover.
Following this distinction, anime also falls into various topic-based genres. While many will be familiar with genres like sci-fi, action or horror, below are genres that are more common to anime than other media.
- Slice of Life. Slice-of-life anime focuses on the mundane, intentionally containing a slow, episodic pace in order to mimic life for most real-life people (though in some cases, these shows may focus on the daily lives of outlandish characters). A subgenre of slice of life is called iyashikei, meaning “healing.” It tries to show the small beauties of mundane life, such as the enjoyment of surrounding nature or tension-less activities. Fans of lighthearted sitcoms may enjoy the slice-of-life genre. Popular examples of this genre include The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., The Way of the Househusband, Fruits Basket and Aria.
- Mecha. This popular form of anime centers on giant robots, often ones that do battle with each other or giant monsters. While they can sometimes adhere to the laws of physics, they likewise can contain aspects of magic. Popular examples of this genre include Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann and Code Geass.
- Isekai. Isekai literally translates to “other world,” and it features a protagonist who, through magic or other means, is transported into a different realm and must learn how to live there. Western audiences might identify Alice in Wonderland or The Chronicles of Narnia as having isekai qualities. Popular examples of this genre include That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Spirited Away, Sword Art Online and Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World.
- Ecchi. This is the kind anime you’ll want to avoid—and to help your children stay away from as well. This genre intentionally contains light sexual situations that can be designated as “soft porn.” It derives from the first letter of the far more graphic hentai, another genre which translates to “pervert” and features explicit sex and nudity. For obvious reasons, we won’t list examples for this category, but we want parents to be aware that this category exists.
Concerns to Note
As you’ll note from our reviews, pretty much every piece of entertainment potentially has something negative to consider. And just as a genre might broadly suggest what content issues you might expect (violence and spiritual themes are common in horror movies, for instance), there are likewise concerns that rise above others in frequency with anime, too. While there are always exceptions to that rule, be mindful of the following three issues that pop up in anime more often than other problems do.
- Sexualization. If there’s one stereotype that anime is unable to shake (and which, in many cases, is unfortunately true), it’s the unnecessary sexualization of its characters—usually its female characters. In many shows, women can be drawn with ridiculous proportions and are seen in revealing clothing. In other instances, which some viewers deride as “fan service,” animators intentionally take moments throughout a show to focus on a female character’s body parts. Or they’ll intentionally put the character in a situation that compromises her dignity in some way. This becomes disturbing, as some shows may even use the same tactics on underage characters. It is common for viewers to ask online if a show contains “fan service” before they watch to avoid such objectifying issues.
- Heavy Violence. Some shows contain heavy amounts of violence. Fights in the shonen genre tend to accentuate the amount of blood the characters lose as well as the toll taken on their bodies as they battle. The popular series Attack on Titan, for instance, is infamous for its bloodshed, depicting people struggling to survive against man-eating titans. Other shows, like Promised Neverland, even depict the death of children.
- Spiritual Themes. Many shows dive into Eastern spiritual themes. While some are casual references to Eastern philosophy, others can incorporate these ideas more fully. Death Note, for instance, features a land full of gods of death and the means by which they take human lives. Meanwhile, Record of Ragnarok incorporates traditions from across the globe to depict a battle between man and the gods. While these ideas are often used more for entertainment value and to explain a show’s otherworldly setting than any sort of proselytizing, parents will still want to be aware how shows can dabble in spirituality.
Conclusion
Like the realm of television, it’s unfair to classify all anime as good or bad. I’ll admit that, other than prominent shows such as Pokémon, I didn’t pay much attention to anime for a long time, believing that every show was going to be filled with the aforementioned issues. And while it is true that some shows contain these themes, there are plenty out there that don’t—and they may even tell a good story.
My advice, therefore, is not to reject the medium altogether, but rather to treat it as you would any other streaming service. When you hop on Netflix, Disney+ or Prime, for instance, you know that there are plenty of movies and TV shows that are just plain garbage and should be avoided.
But if you’re coming to Plugged In, you also already recognize that there are pieces of entertainment on those streaming platforms that are worthwhile, shows and movies that provide positive messages and don’t fall into the same pitfalls as others. (After all, we previously listed Spy x Family as one of our Top 5 TV shows of 2022.)
And as anime becomes a more recognizable medium in the Western world, we’d encourage parents to use this guide as a way to push their children away from problematic shows and towards helpful ones.
9 Responses
I remember sending you guys an email back in 2021 hinting that anime was becoming a much bigger deal worthy of your attention. Nice to know you guys actually value your readers’ suggestions. 🙂
I’m actually a pretty big anime and manga fan and belong to a group who call ourselves the Christian Weebs (weebs being a generic term for people who have a passion for anime, manga, and Japanese culture in general) and we spend a lot of time discussing some of the deeper themes of a lot of our favorite series and how they can be used to point back to Christian truths.
While it is difficult to find things that I can let my younger kiddos watch, my oldest (11) does enjoy Spy x Family (the dub cleans up a lot of the language so censoring it is easier) and he’s recently gotten into the manga series Yotsuba, which he found at our local library. It’s a fairly clean series with a very Calvin and Hobbes-esque feel to it. Yotsuba is a little girl with a big imagination finding adventure in the mundane. So far, the only questionable things I’ve seen are a few references to shrines and how much time her laid-back adoptive father spends in a T-shirt and boxers.
I’ve also let him dip his toes into my favorite series, Detective Conan (or Case Closed, as it’s known in the US). While the series does revolve almost entirely around murder mysteries, they tend to be more bloodless than otherwise (especially the longer the series goes on), with some mysteries being treasure hunts instead of murders. And the fanservice is minimal. Maybe a couple bathing suit shots every 50-ish episodes or so. I select which episodes and movies he’s allowed to watch and we watch them together.
If nothing else, hopefully exposure to anime and manga encourages parents to pray for the many missionaries currently in Japan (some of whom are friends of mine) as they witness to one of the most un-churched nations on earth. If anime is capable of telling such deeply complex stories now, just imagine what they could do after dedicating their talents to the greatest Author of all time. 🙂
Seconding ‘Detective Conan’ as a strong recommendation for young audiences.
That said, “Weeb” is not a “generic term for people who have a passion for anime, manga, and Japanese culture in general,” as it stems from a shortening of the nonsense word “weeaboo,” which originated in a 2005 entry of a webcomic called The Perry Bible Fellowship (not a Christian webcomic but named after a real church in Maine, for which the Gospel Coalition has a dedicated directory listing).
Years ago, I emailed Plugged In an article from The Escapist magazine called “Vampire of the Rising Sun” (Fintan Monaghan, 2011), detailing Japan’s complex history with Western influences, including religion. Japan’s treatment of Christianity was rarely, if ever, “we are so sinful, Jesus’ ways are so much better, please save us,” but often more cynical, possibly from a knowledge of how religious wars had devastated Europe (Scorsese’s beautiful movie “Silence” deals with this subject in some detail).
I find it interesting to see how Christianity manifests in a culture and environment where it is not the dominant religion or the “moral majority” (e.g., ‘In their own way’: contrafactal practices in Japanese Christian communities during the 16th century, Makoto Harris Takao). Eiji Tsuburaya, co-creator both of “Godzilla” and of “Ultraman,” was Catholic and was buried as such, and my understanding is that Hideaki Anno, creator of the hit anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and its franchise—known in part for its religious imagery—was a strong admirer of his.
I’m aware of where the word “weeb” originated. But that’s currently not what it means. It’s been somewhat redeemed by the culture, similar to how the word “nerd” used to be an insult and is now a label worn with pride. We’ve appropriated it for our own use.
Japan’s history with Christianity has been a volatile one, and to be fair, many in the name of Christ didn’t follow His teachings in that area. Things are beginning to change there, though. More and more anime are referencing Christian trappings (if not the religious views itself) with something of a bemused affection. See series like Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence, the treatment of priests and nuns in Black Clover, Nicholas D. Wolfwood in Trigun, and many of the characters in Vinland Saga (which is historically accurate as many of the vikings did convert to Christianity).
It’s a trend I’m hoping continues as Christianity becomes more accepted there, thanks in no small part to the devoted missionaries and Japanese converts reaching out to a society that’s desperately searching for meaning and hope.
You know, would Classic Superbook and The Flying House be considered anime?
I love anime but I’ve severely censored myself in the last decade because most of it is just too inappropriate. I do have a couple suggestiins though. Anpanman is a good show. They have movies on Tubi. The creator is Christian and styled Anpanman after Jesus “The Bread of Life”. Anpanman literally gives of himself and sacrifices himself often and characters learn important values driven lessons. I think it’s best to stick with shows like Chi the Cat, Doraemon, Pokémon (be careful they may be going “woke” in the future with representation), Beyblade, Hello Kitty shows and movies, Yumeiro Patisserie, JewelPet,etc.
Ive listed many animes for very young viewers but one must still be careful of young romance (crushes), fan service and language (apparently many words that Westerners consider bad words are everyday words to Japanese children).
All that to say….just be very very careful. Watch with them, research and preview EVERYTHING.
Representation is not something we in the kingdom of God should be afraid of, and even when that representation manifests in ways we might not always agree with (it wasn’t all that long ago that some authors were even condemning dark skin tone as being a sign of sin), that just opens the door for how we can talk with our families and children about showing the love of God to people whose view of “normal” might differ from ours.
Angel Studios has a Christian anime coming out called “Gabriel and the Guardians.” A great American anime is Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I hadn’t heard about ‘Gabriel and the Guardians,’ but looking up its teaser trailer, it looks a little cliche but otherwise has potential.
I honestly feel like Death Note is a great contemplative anime for older teens. Having discovered the show myself at a very pivotal moment of my faith, it’s actually a great representation of what happens when the will of man is given the chance to prevail over the will of God. Right down to the apple (which I understand was not the Biblical fruit stated in Genesis), the protagonist is sold a lie that he can become “God of the New World” and enact his own sense of justice after being given power by a demonic entity. Within the span of six years the world tumbles into chaos and ends with a prominent scene of self reflection upon realizing one’s state of sin.
I actually highly recommend this for teens, especially if a parent is willing to watch alongside and have conversations regarding God’s goodness, sovereignty, and the importance of truth and justice in a fallen world.