Anime
As defined by common fan usage, is simply any animation that is made in Japan for a Japanese audience. In Japan the word simply means any animation made anywhere in the world.
Manga
The Japanese equivalent of comics with a unique style and following, in reality it is a much more complex subject. Manga can include almost every subject imaginable from funny stories to serious literature. Technical manuals and even legal case histories have been released in manga format
** Genre and terms in anime & manga **
Action
A work typically depicting fighting, violence, chaos, and fast paced motion.
Adult
Contains content that is suitable only for adults. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.
Adventure
If a character in the story goes on a trip or along that line, your best bet is that it is an adventure manga. Otherwise, it’s up to your personal prejudice on this case.
Usually refers to the bishounen, or “beautiful boys” in girls’ manga
Chibi
Manga characters who are experiencing embarassment, anger, or other strong emotions and revert to chubby, childlike versions of their normal selves
Doujinshi
Fan based art inspired by official anime or manga.
Drama
A work meant to bring on an emotional response, such as instilling sadness or tension.
Ecchi
Describes manga containing arousing fanservice. Stuff like pantyshots, etc. Possibly the line between hentai and non-hentai, ecchi usually refers to fanservice put in to attract a certain group of fans.
Fanservice
Contents added to please the fans. Stuff like ecchiness; technical explanations or mech designs would also be fanservice.
Fantasy
Anything that involves, but not limited to, magic, dream world, and fairy tales.
Gekiiga
Dramatic pictures. A type of realistic manga for, mainly male, older teens and adults developed in the 1950s which often includes antiheroes such as gangsters, poor samurai and the urban poor, often in violent and sexual situations. Today such stories are common in manga intended for adult consumption.
Gender Bender
Girls dressing up as guys, guys dressing up as girls. Guys turning into girls, girls turning into guys.. I think you get the picture.
Hentai
Erotic manga. Adult sexual content in an illustrated form where the focus of the manga is placed on sexually graphic acts.
Historical
Having to do with old or ancient times.
Horror
A painful emotion of fear, dread, and abhorrence; a shuddering with terror and detestation; the feeling inspired by something frightful and shocking.
Josei
Literally “Woman”. A more mature manga intended for women. Targets women 18-30. Female equivalent to seinen. Unlike shoujo the romance is more realistic and less idealized. The storytelling is more explicit and mature.
Lolicon
Representing a sexual attraction to young or under-age girls.
Martial Arts
As the name suggests, anything martial arts related. Any of several arts of combat or self-defense, such as aikido, karate, judo, or tae kwon do, kendo, fencing, and so on and so forth.
Mature
Contains subject matter which may be too extreme for people under the age of 17. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
Mecha
A work involving and usually concentrating on all types of large robotic machines.
Mystery
Usually an unexplained event occurs, and the main protagonist attempts to find out what caused it.
Note
There are no hentai/yuri/yaoi on this site
Oneshot
A manga consisting out of one volume or less (the mangaka just took one shot at it).
Otaku
A word originally used as a polite way to refer to someone. It has undergone several changes to a newer use to refer to highly serious fans. The term can be derogatory or neutral depending on the situation. While increasingly the Japanese term is used rather than trying to find a rough translation common translations include, fan, fanboy, geek and nerd.
OVA
Original Video Animation. These are anime released directly to video. This method of release allows companies to target specialized audiences in a way that is not financially or socially possible with TV or movie releases. Sometime you will see this spelled OAV in English worksA manga consisting out of one volume or less (the mangaka just took one shot at it).
Psychological
Usually deals with the philosophy of a state of mind, in most cases detailing abnormal psychology.
Romance
Any love related story. We will define love as between man and woman in this case. Other than that, it is up to your own imagination of what love is.
School Life
Having a major setting of the story deal with some type of school.
Sci-fi
Short for science fiction, these works involve twists on technology and other science related phenomena which are contrary or stretches of the modern day scientific world.
Seinen
From Google: seinen means “young man”. A more mature manga intended for men. Manga and anime that specifically targets young adult males around the ages of 18 to 25 are seinen titles. The stories in seinen works appeal to university students and those in the working world. Typically the story lines deal with the issues of adulthood.
Shotacon
Representing a sexual attraction to young or under-age boys.
Shoujo
A manga intended for young girls. A work intended and primarily written for females. Usually involves a lot of romance and strong character development.
Shoujo Ai
A manga focusing on a love relationship between two girls. Often synonymous with yuri, this can be thought of as somewhat less extreme. “Girl’s Love”, so to speak.
Shounen
A manga intended for young boys. A work intended and primarily written for males. These works usually involve fighting and/or violence.
Shounen Ai
A manga focusing on a love relationship between two boys. Often synonymous with yaoi, this can be thought of as somewhat less extreme. “Boy’s Love”, so to speak.
Slice of Life
As the name suggests, this genre represents day-to-day tribulations of one/many character(s). These challenges/events could technically happen in real life and are often -if not all the time- set in the present timeline in a world that mirrors our own.
Smut
No Description
Sports
As the name suggests, anything sports related. Baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, and racing just to name a few.
Supernatural
Usually entails amazing and unexplained powers or events which defy the laws of physics.
Tragedy
Contains events resulting in great loss and misfortune.
Yaoi
Same as yuri, only with guys. This work usually involves intimate relationships between men.
Yuri
Lesbian erotic manga. This work usually involves intimate relationships between women.
From:
deedhoet 
18 April 2009 at 3:53
Interesting i have something like this as well on my blog 🙂
22 November 2009 at 7:34
fantastic read, thanks. It’s so true, their characters are so lovely. I’ve tried drawing them but im not very good.