Sometimes we see people commenting about animes, genres, terms, and we get lost? This Glossary divided into categories aims to explain in detail the genres and things that otaku say that you don’t understand.
Table of Contents
General
Manga: is the word used to designate comic stories made in the Japanese style. In Japan, the term refers to any comic stories.
Anime: is any animation produced in Japan. In Japan, this word refers to any type of animation.
Light Novel: They are published romance books, with some illustrated pages and various original stories.
Visual Novel: They are text games, accompanied by scenes, usually romantic. Relationship games.
Eroge: Hentai games, erotic, often visual novels.
Dōjinshi: is a Japanese term for independent publications, usually magazines, mangas, or novels.
Otaku: is a term used in Japan to designate a fan of a particular subject. In the West, the word is used as slang to label fans of animes and mangas in general, in a clear shift of meaning from the original language of the term.
Otome: is used to generalize the term Otaku for women, thus forming a feminine word. However, this is only used in the West. Otome means Girl, Pure, Princess.
About Mangas
Mangaka: It is the Japanese word for a comic artist. Outside Japan, mangakas refer to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese.
Tankohon: Tankohon or tankobon is a term from the Japanese language that the manga industry uses to identify brochures of chapters that may be part of a series. Let’s say that every month a chapter is released, and when a certain number of chapters are completed, they gather these chapters into a complete manga, called tankohon.
Half-tanko: It is half of a tankohon. Let’s say a tankohon has 10 chapters, a half-tanko has 5 chapters.
Spine: It is the side of a manga.
Oneshot: It is a term used for mangas that contain only one chapter and are not part of a series, whether short and posted all at once or long and posted in parts.
About Animes
Arc: It is an anime saga.
Season: Do I really need to say what it means?
Filler: is used to denote episodes (even entire arcs) that do not exist in the original series of the manga, novel, or game. They are usually produced to prevent the TV series from catching up to the current publications of the series – which is slow, avoiding interruptions. This allows the franchise to still be commercially explored, maintaining its popularity – even if not always positively.
OVA: is an animation format that consists of one or more episodes of anime released directly to the video market (DVD and Blu-ray), without prior airing on television or in cinemas in Japan. OVAs serve as complements or parallels in the original story, usually having a duration equal to or slightly longer than the standard duration of an anime episode (25 minutes), but never reaching the duration of a feature film.
OAD: It is an extra episode just like OVA. However, it usually comes along with a special edition of the manga.
Seiyuu: They are the original voice actors of an anime.
Live Action: They are movies, usually American or Japanese, made by real actors, flesh and blood, and often based on animes.
Anime Genres
Kodomo: Children’s anime genre. Ex: Pokemon, Beyblade, Dinosaur King.
Shoujo: Romantic anime genre, dedicated to girls. Ex: Kaichou wa maid-sama, Kimi ni todoke, Toradora.
Shounen: Anime genre, usually of fighting, dedicated to boys. Ex: One Piece, Bleach, Naruto.
Josei: Anime genre dedicated to women over 20 years old, which may contain violence or sex. Ex: Gokusen, Nodame Cantabile.
Seinen: Anime genre dedicated to men over 20 years old, which may contain violence or sex. Ex: Death Note, Gantz.
Mecha: Anime genre where one of the main characters are robots or are inside the robot and fight, or control with a remote, or something of the sort. Ex: Evangelion, Full Metal Panic!
Mahou Shoujo: Anime genre with the same meaning as shoujo, but with a type of young female character with magical powers. Ex: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, The Powerpuff Girls Generation Z.
Harem: Anime genre that features a male or female character who lives surrounded by several characters of the opposite sex. Ex: Sora No Otoshimono, Love Hina, Rosario + Vampire.
Shounen-ai: They are almost yaoi, but tell other stories, and are much lighter.
Shoujo-ai: They are almost yuri, but tell many other stories, and are much lighter.
Terms
Kawaii: It is a Japanese adjective that means cute, lovely, pretty, among others, and is widely used in animes and mangas and by fans of these genres.
Bishoujo: It is a Japanese term used to refer to young and beautiful girls, usually under university age.
Chibi: It is a Japanese term used in the context of anime or manga to describe a very stylized character drawing style, with heads the same size as the bodies, usually to achieve a comic or more sentimental effect. A striking feature of chibi is that the nose is almost always not drawn, the mouth line is not always finished, and the lines in general are well simplified.
Light Novel: They are romance books with illustrations in the anime/manga style, usually targeting teenagers and young adults. They are also called ranobe or rainobe.
Moe: It is a term used by otakus to designate something cute or adorable.
Omake: It is a term for extra chapters or strips in mangas, and are the extras of DVDs and in games included with the purchase of a product. In the West, it refers only to the extras that come included with the purchase of anime or manga. Sometimes it is an extra chapter in an anime.
Tsundere: It is a Japanese term for a personality that is initially aggressive and then changes to a kinder one. Tsundere is a combination of two words, tsuntsun and deredere. Tsuntsun is the onomatopoeia for “cold, brusque,” and deredere means “to become kind/loving.”
Yandere: It is a Japanese term for a personality that is initially friendly but becomes violent later.
Honorific Titles and Treatments
In Japanese, we use many honorific treatment titles. See below some honorifics that Otakus know from watching animes and reading mangas:
-san: ”mister”, ”miss”, ”mrs”. Respectful treatment when there is no intimacy with the person.
-senpai: From Japanese ”veteran”. When used with a name, it indicates the acceptance of a hierarchy.
-sama: ”your honor”, extremely respectful treatment, used to highlight a hierarchical difference.
-kun: used for boys, respectful treatment equivalent to ”-san”. It can indicate a hierarchy when the man in a commanding position uses it addressing a subordinate woman.
Onii-tan: is a cute way to say older brother/sister in Japanese.
Onii-chan: is the affectionate way to call older brother/sister in Japanese.
Onii-sama: is the most respectful way to call older brother/sister in Japanese.
Fan Words
Some terms were created to designate things related to anime fans. See below:
Fudanshi: It is the name designated for male fans of Yaoi or Lemon.
Cosplay: Representation of a character in costume. It is when an otaku dresses in clothes similar to those of anime or vocaloid characters.
Fujoshi: It is the name designated for female fans of Yaoi or Lemon. The word literally means Spoiled Girl.
Scanlation: It is the scanning, translation, editing, and distribution of comic stories from Japan to the distributor’s language (in our case, Portuguese).
Music
J-POP: It is Japanese pop. Ex: Yui
J-ROCK: It is Japanese rock. It is very popular. Ex: UVERworld.
K-POP: It is the style of Korean pop music. Ex: 2NE1.
K-ROCK: It is the style of rock music from Korea.
Erotic Genres
Ecchi: Anime genre that presents sensuality as the main theme, but does not display sex at any moment. (This is ironic because in Japanese ecchi means sex.)
Hentai: Anime genre that presents explicit pornography. (even more ironic, because Hentai is a common word that means perverted.)
Lolicon: Anime genres that depict underage girls (from 6 to 14 years) in sexual situations or nudity.
Yuri: Anime genre that presents romantic relationships between women.
Yaoi: Anime genre that presents homosexual content. It is only called Yaoi in the West. In Japan, it is called BL (Boy’s love – love between boys).
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