

The two main ones that I know are shounen and seinen (if that is how you spell
them). I’ve also heard of other names like Isekai and ecchi. I’m not sure what
ecchi is, but I think isekai is when you are summoned to another world or
something. How do you differentiate between the different types of anime? Is
it due to how gory one is or the story?


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anime-production
How can you differentiate between the different types of anime?


_Shounen_ , _Seinen_ , _Shoujo_ and _Josei_ are terms for four of the main
demographics that manga and anime are marketed to. Broadly:

  * People aged between about 12 and 18 are in the [_Shounen_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dnen_manga) demographic if they're male, or [_Shoujo_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Djo_manga) if they're female.

  * People aged from 18 to about 45 are in the [_Seinen_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinen_manga) demographic if they're male, or [_Josei_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josei_manga) if they're female.

Ultimately, the distinction between the demographics is based on which manga
magazine publishes the work. The more adult genres (seinen and josei) are more
likely to cover adult topics and have more explicit depictions of content such
as sex and violence, but it's not an absolute thing - _Fist of the North Star_
is much more graphic in its depiction of violence than _One Punch Man_ , for
example, but Fist is defined as shounen while OPM is seinen. Osamu Tezuka's
manga series [_Phoenix_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_\(manga\)) was
published across 3 or 4 different magazines that covered the shounen, seinen
and shoujo demographics, although the art style and content varies a bit
across them. The age and sex of the lead character can often be a hint to the
demographic - it's rare for a seinen manga to have a little girl protagonist,
for example - but it's not a guarantee either.

The demographics can intersect with almost all genres - there are shounen
romantic comedies and shoujo horrors and josei isekai and practically every
other combination if you look hard enough.

Some of the other terms you asked about are better described as genres or
subgenres, and in particular:

  * [_Isekai_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isekai) literally means "other world" and refers to stories where a person is transported to a different world. Most commonly, a person from Earth is sent to a fantasy world, sometimes as a reincarnation, but at this point "Japanese schoolgirl dies and is reincarnated as a character in a dating simulation video game" is a rapidly growing sub-genre. "Reverse Isekai" is sometimes used to describe stories where characters from a fantasy world are pulled to Earth, but it's not quite as broadly known.

  * [_Ecchi_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecchi) comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the letter "H" (for "Hentai", meaning perverted, but is also a general euphemism for sex or sexual topics). Ecchi manga are ones with lots of flashes of adult content without being overly explicit with them. They're usually comedies, often rom-coms, and most frequently targeted to older teens (so they do tend to land on the border of shounen and seinen).


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