Manga Genres

Hello Mina!

In my days as an "amateur" reader I had troubles with manga genres because I didn't know the meaning of those Japanese words and I've always been curious to find out. Of course, now that I know what they mean, I can choose my manga more effectively and to save you the trouble to google the meaning, I've put every manga genre that you can possibly come across in this post, just for you readers!

Shounen: Means boy, and is generally used to mark manga with loads of action and more targeted to a male audience. Great examples of Shounen manga would be Naruto and Bleach.

Shoujo: Exact opposite of Shounen, therefore it means girl and are typically manga with a romance or a female main character. Some Shoujo manga are Skip Beat and Dangeky Daisy.

Ecchi: More like a sub-genre, but these are manga with some erotic contact such as panty shots or cleavage. You can find this in quite a lot of manga so I don't really have any specific recommendations for this genre.

Mecha: Science fiction genre focused around robots and machines. Mecha manga that come to mind are Suisei no Gargantia and Infinite Stratos.

Doujinshi: These are fan-made manga or amateur manga often derived from other works. I don't really read manga of this genre, but if you are interested you can find a list of Doujinshi at Mangahere.

Harem: Typically manga with a main male character surrounded by female characters that have either live with him or like him. There is also Reverse Harem where the gender are inverses. Manga of this genre are Nisekoi and High School DxD.

Hentai: Usually means "perv" in Japanese, as you might of guessed these are manga with erotic and sexual content and again, I have no specific recommendations for this genre.

Yaoi & Yuri: Manga that involves sexual or intimate relationship between men (Yaoi) or between women (Yuri).

Seinen & Josei: Manga targeted to a mature male audience (Seinen) or to a mature female audience (Josei), can possibly have sexual content.

Smut: Manga considered controversial or offensive, mainly targeted for a mature audience.


This is pretty much it Mina! If there are still genres which I might have forgotten, you can warn me through the comments.

Oyasuminasai.