Mecha

Mecha, also known as meka or mechs, are walking vehicles controlled by a pilot, often appearing in anime, science fiction, or other genres involving a fantastic or futuristic element. A mecha that approximates the shape of a human body allows the use of martial arts movements and swordsmanship, ceremonial acts of honor, saluting, and other human mannerisms that cannot be performed using a tank or airplane.

Military

This genre is using imagined battles as the main plot, or changing realistic battles, military campaigns endings as the main goal.

Science Fiction (  Sci-fi )

Science fiction is genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technologie, space, future-travel,parallel-universe and extraterresstial life ( ET ). Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations and has been called a “literature of ideas.”

Seinen

This genre aimed at older people, tend to be more satirical, violent, or sexual in nature than the Shonen genre.

Shoujo

These tend to feature a female lead character, romantic subplot and the girl realizing personal growth. There are action Shojo, but along with the fighting, romance is a big factor, and there is personal growth for the main character. Shojo manga also have a lot of homosexual romances, whether it is yaoi, or yuri, or can feature all of the above. Sexual content for these manga is present, but if it tends to get “too dirty” they tend to publish those in Josei manga (though something like Shojo smut exists). Some of the romantic elements are usually displayed as: abusive boyfriends, ecstatic lovemaking, happily ever after, and or the super smoochy sweethearts romance.

Shounen

These genre tend to focus more on action. Whether it’s with fighting, or in a sport. The cast is usually all male, or mostly male, and the main character is almost always male, and young.

Thriller

This genre tend to have an atmosphere of menace and sudden violence, such as crime and murder, characterize thrillers. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a dangerous situation, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation.

Wuxia

Wuxia is made from two characters; ‘Wu’ and ‘Xia’, which literally mean ‘martial hero’. Wuxia stories are basically martial arts stories, with an essentially ‘real’ world filled with people who do incredible things through martial arts and generating ‘qi’, which allows them to leap long distances across rooftops and skip across water, a la Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon.  Asian fans here surely have heard of famous novels/adaptations like the Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, Swordsman/Smiling Proud Wanderer, Seven Swordsmen (by Tsui Hark), etc.

Xianxia

the characters forming it are ‘Xian’ and ‘Xia’, which literally means ‘immortal hero’.  Xianxia is a newer genre and is essentially a ‘fantasy-fied’ version of Wuxia, with magic, demons, immortals, people who can fly, etc.  The biggest contributor to the Xianxia genre is actually not martial arts; rather, it is ‘Taoism’, which is a major part of Chinese history.  Taoism is both a philosophical way of life as well as an actual religion.  Religious Taoism is often blurred together with Chinese folk mythologies, and is chock-full of stories about demons, ghosts, and people learning how to become immortals through meditation/understanding the ways of heaven, and flying in the air and casting powerful magic spells.

XuanHuan

Using the Eastern legends as the main element, or using the Eastern legends as the foundation of imagination or using the land in another world as the background, using clear supernatural elements, and also uses military power struggle as the main plot.