Anime genres and tags

These anime feature unicorns: mythical beasts that resemble a horse with a horn on the center of its forehead. They are often magical and rare to find, and are known for attracting innocent young maidens.

Characters in these anime are dealing with an unrequited love for someone. Their feelings may be reciprocated later on, or they may have to come to terms with the fact that the object of their affection is not interested and move on. In some cases, characters may never confess their love at all.

Urban Fantasy is a subgenre of Fantasy that typically takes place in an urban setting. These anime might be a Contemporary Fantasy set in the present day, or they might take place in the future, or in the historical past. Urban fantasies are set primarily in the real world but contain fantasy aspects.

Urban Legends are modern folklore spread by word of mouth and passed off as true stories. These legends often serve as cautionary tales with horrific implications for the characters in these anime.

These anime focus on Valentine's Day, a holiday for lovers celebrated on February 14th. Common themes include Love Confessions, going on romantic dates, and giving chocolates or gifts.

These anime showcase traditional vampires - whether they're explicitly called vampires or not - who drink blood, can't sunbathe or have a pesky sensitivity to garlic.

These anime explore the video game industry, from typical console games, to mobile games, or even erogames. Common themes include the creative and design process, development lifecycle, or Voice Acting.

These anime predominantly or fully take place in Vietnam.

These anime feature Vigilantes: characters who punish those they perceive to be criminals by whatever means are necessary. They typically believe their cause to be just, and their actions to be justified, even if it involves murdering their targets. Vigilantes are often anti-heroes.

These anime are about a woman who is written to be the villainess in an Otome Game or a novel, and thus is on the road to ruin. Most commonly an Isekai trope where the main character is reincarnated or transmigrated into the villainess, or someone related to them such as a mob character or the heroine. The villainess and her companions must work to do whatever they can to avoid her fate, deal with life after doom, or just avoid the problem altogether! The worlds are usually based on an existing Otome Game or novel the main character is familiar with, or even wrote in their past life.

These anime have a mild amount of physical conflict, such as weapon fights that result in bodily harm, bloodless death, or dangerous explosions. Violence in these anime may also be censored with glowing or unusually-colored blood, a lack of detail given to wounds, or clever uses of cinematography.

A virtual reality is an immersive, computer-simulated environment that can be accessed using a computer, through a video game console, or even jacked into directly. These anime either take place inside a virtual reality, or might showcase a world where a virtual reality is commonplace.

Vocaloids are pre-packaged audio synthesizers that mimic the sound of a human-like voice and can be programmed to 'sing' words as they are written. Many Vocaloids also have a commonly known appearance as a 3D model, and may receive recognition almost like real pop stars in Japan. These anime feature Vocaloids, either as instrumental 'singers' or as cultural phenomena.

These anime feature protagonists that are voice actors for TV, movies, games or other media formats.

Volleyball is the focus of these anime. Training and competing in tournaments or championships are common themes in sports titles, as well as individual or team spirit, or being an underdog who goes against the odds to succeed.

Voyeurism is the act of deriving sexual pleasure from secretly spying on others as they engage in intimate activities, such as undressing, or having sex. Characters in these anime are voyeurs.

These anime feature VTubers (Virtual YouTubers): people who adopt virtual avatars and produce content on the internet for their fanbase. While the name suggests VTubers specifically work on YouTube, the term has branched out to other services such as Twitch and Niconico. Popular examples include Hololive and Kizuna Ai.

In these anime, two or more factions are in the midst of an adversarial conflict. They take place on a number of scales, from minor conflicts between two villages, to country-wide, to intergalactic between worlds. Wars occur for many reasons, from racial tension to political maneuvering to plain old fun and games, with consequences ranging from genocide to loss of land and power.

These manga feature water polo, a two-team water sport where swimmers move about in a pool and try to score points by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal.

Characters in these anime are weak, but through determination, hard work, and rigorous training, they become strong and masters of their field, whether it's martial arts, a job class in a game, or a hobby such as sports. These protagonists might even become powerful enough to be Overpowered Main Characters.

These anime feature werewolves: beings that can transform from a human to a wolf; sometimes by choice, sometimes not.

Westerns are anime that embody the spirit of the Old West where cowboys, gunfights, and justice are typical themes. The setting may vary anywhere from the traditional western setting to space or fantasy worlds. Governments rarely have control of these unstable areas, forcing men and women to take the law into their own hands. Characters tend to be strongly concerned with individuality and making their own way in the world, and conflicts tend to be personal, and often violent.

These anime feature witches: magic users who often possess classic traits such as pointy hats, flying brooms, and black cat familiars. Some are protagonists looking to improve their craft, have adventures, or save the world; others might be tricksters or outright villains who cause suffering and misfortune for others. Young witches might study Magic by serving an Apprenticeship, or attending a Magic School.

Wolves are the focus of these anime.

These anime showcase the daily life of an employee, whether they are a waitress, a salaryman or beyond. Office politics, relationships, daily duties or little things the characters do to pass the time are frequent themes in these titles.

World Masterpiece Theater, also known as the Classic Family Theater Series, is a Japanese TV program that showcases an animated version of a classical story. The program was started in 1969 and had a ten year hiatus from 1997 to 2007.

These anime take place in or around the time frame of World War II, a period of great upheaval and change across Europe, America, and Asia. They may focus on events that were part of the war itself, or deal with its build-up, aftermath, or impact away from the front lines.

Wrestling is the focus of these anime. Training and competing in tournaments or championships are common themes in sports titles, as well as individual or team spirit, or being an underdog who goes against the odds to succeed.

Writers have a career or hobby related to literary works. They might be an author that works in the Manga Industry or Novel Industry, or they might write poetry, draft news articles, or simply write for fun.

Wuxia (武侠) is one of the oldest genres in Chinese literature, and translates to "martial arts chivalry". These anime feature Martial Arts heroes who will stop at nothing in order to become the strongest of them all. The hero may use their Cultivation skills to fight evil in their never-ending quest for strength.

Xianxia (仙侠) is a genre in Chinese literature that translates to "immortal hero". These Fantasy anime feature characters who use Cultivation with their Martial Arts to gain immortality. These stories typically include Daoist concepts such as qi and yin/yang energy; immortal beings such as gods, ghosts and demons; the afterlife; and magic.

These anime feature the Yakuza: Japanese gangs that follows a strict code of honor, similar to the Samurai.

Yaoi, also known as Boys' Love or BL in Japan, is a genre that depicts homosexual relationships between men. Japan typically uses this single category for all forms of these relationships, sexual or not. In the West, the term Shounen-ai categorizes stories that focus on emotional aspects of relationships, while Yaoi categorizes more of the sexual aspects, such as Smut, or explicit content. As Anime-Planet's audience is mostly based in the West, we use the Western definition for both Yaoi and Shounen-ai. See BL for a list of both titles.

Characters in these anime have excessively large hands, often reminiscent of Facehuggers or having fingers that are tentacle-like in nature. This sort of character design is most common in Yaoi anime (though isn't exclusive to the genre), and thus is referred to as Yaoi Hand Syndrome or simply Yaoi Hands.

These anime feature Youkai: Supernatural spirits that originate from Japanese Folklore. Common examples include the Kappa, Kitsune, and Yuki-onna.