Tag Index
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4-koma Manga (2) Yonkoma manga (4コマ漫画, four cell manga, or 4-koma for short), a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. (They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2x2 style, depending on the layout requirements of the publication in which they appear.) Though the word yonkoma comes from the Japanese, the style also exists outside of Japan in other Asian countries as well as in the English-speaking market.
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Action (19) Action anime usually involve a fairly straightforward story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disputes are resolved by using physical force. It often contains a lot of shooting, explosions and fighting.
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Action Game (1) Any game where reflexes are the key to the gameplay, violence is optional.
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Adventure (8) Adventures are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Adventures are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the viewer. Rather than the predominant emphasis on violence and fighting that is found in pure action anime, however, the viewer of adventures can live vicariously through the travels, conquests, explorations, creation of empires, struggles and situations that confront the main characters, actual historical figures or protagonists. Under the category of adventures, we can include traditional swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical spectacles, searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts and quests, disaster films, and heroic journeys or searches for the unknown. Adventure films are often, but not always, set in an historical period, and may include adapted stories of historical or literary adventure heroes, kings, battles, rebellion, or piracy.
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Alien (1) This entity or creature was born on another world than the main characters.
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American Derived (1) A work which was created as a continuation/remake of an American based franchise or cartoon series. These works are completely Japan original, but which lack roots within Japanese media. See also: cartoon remake
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Android (2) An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human.
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Angst (5) A feeling of general discomfort and uneasiness is present due to either trivial or more serious reasons, often accompanied by depression. Warning: may contain copious amounts of brooding and sighing. Etymology: "Angst" is a German word meaning fear or anxiety.
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Baseball (1) Baseball is like a complicated version of Rounders. It involves hitting a ball with a stick, then running around several bases placed in the form of a diamond on a field. Big in the US, and also in Japan.
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BDSM (1) A form of "kinky sex". The acronym BDSM derives from BD (bondage and discipline), DS (dominance and submission) and SM (sadism and masochism). BDSM usually characterizes with one side being superior (active) over the other (passive), with each side being one or more participants. Whips, chains, handcuffs, ropes, blindfolds are common elements of BDSM.
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Bondage (1) Bondage is the use of restraints for the sexual pleasure of the parties involved. It may be used in its own right, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage, or as part of sexual activity or BDSM activity. When a person is sexually aroused by bondage, it may be considered a paraphilia, known as vincilagnia (from Latin vincio, to bind or fetter with chains, and lagneia, lust). [
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Comedy (17) Anime whose central struggle causes hilarious results. These stories are built upon funny characters, situations and events. A comedy anime is laced with humour and sets out to provoke laughter from the audience. Japanese humour can be a bit strange to westerners, so if you`re new to this type of humour, just bear with it; it`ll most likely grow on you if you`re a fan of other kinds of comedy.
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Conspiracy (4) The conspiracy thriller (or paranoid thriller) is a sub-genre of the thriller which flourished in the 1970s in the US (and was echoed in other parts of the world) in the wake of a number of high-profile scandals and controversies (most notably Vietnam, the assassination of President Kennedy, Chappaquiddick and Watergate), and which exposed what many people regarded as the clandestine machinations and conspiracies beneath the orderly fabric of political life. The protagonists of conspiracy thrillers are often journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves (often inadvertently) pulling on a small thread which unravels a vast conspiracy that ultimately goes "all the way to the top".
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Contemporary Fantasy (1) Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy, set in the present day. It is perhaps most popular for its sub-genre, urban fantasy. These terms are used to describe stories set in the putative real world (often referred to as consensus reality) in contemporary times, in which magic and magical creatures exist, either living in the interstices of our world or leaking over from alternate worlds. It thus has much in common with, and sometimes overlaps with secret history; a work of fantasy in which the magic could not remain secret or does not have any known relationship to known history would not fit into this subgenre. Occasionally certain contemporary fantasy novels will make reference to pop culture. Novels in which modern characters travel into alternate worlds, and all the magical action takes place there (except for the portal required to transport them), are not considered contemporary fantasy. Thus, C.S. Lewis`s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where all fantasy events take place in the land of Narnia which is reached via a magic wardrobe, would not count as contemporary fantasy; on the other hand, the part of The Magician`s Nephew, where the Empress Jadis gets to London, tries to take over the Earth and clashes with police and a crowd of cockneys, would qualify as such. Contemporary fantasy is also to be distinguished from horror fiction, which also often has contemporary settings. When encountering magical events and creatures, the protagonist of a horror novel is horrified, while the protagonist of a fantasy novel (contemporary or otherwise) is filled with a sense of joy and wonder. Horrifying events may happen, but the fundamental distinction is vital. In his preface to That Hideous Strength, one of the earlier works falling within this sub-genre, C.S. Lewis explained why, when writing a tale about "magicians, devils, pantomime animals and planetary angels", he chose to start it with a detailed depiction of narrow-minded academic politics at a provincial English university and the schemes of crooked real estate developers: "I am following the traditional fairy-tale. We do not always notice its method, because the cottages, castles, woodcutters and petty kings with which a fairy tale opens have become for us as remote as the witches and ogres to which it proceeds. But they were not remote at all to the men who first made and enjoyed the tales". The same is true for many of the later works in the genre, which often begin with a seemingly normal scene of modern daily life to then disclose supernatural and magical beings and events hidden behind the scenes.
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Cooking (2) Cooking is the process of preparing food by using heat.
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Cyberpunk (1) Cyberpunk focuses on computers or information technology, usually coupled with some degree of breakdown in social order. The plot often centres on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and mega corporations, tending to be set within a near-future dystopian Earth.
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Daily Life (7) The antics of the protagonists do not take place in some exotic setting or time, but in everyday life. When not "at the job" this means getting up in the morning, making meals, house cleaning, going shopping or out to eat, visiting the bath house or spa, leisure activities in the spare time, etc. The time "on the job" for students is School Life, for others working in their profession. Daily Life is basically a synonym for everything normal, repetitive, and trivial happening to your average person.
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Dark Fantasy (7) Focus set on darker themes in a fantasy setting, sometimes leaning towards horror elements. Bleak and pessimistic tones often dominate. Dark supernatural beings like vampires may play a significant role.
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Demon (6) In Western lore, demons are often described as minions from Hell, generally known to attack humans and feast on their flesh or possess the bodies of those with weak souls. In Eastern lore, on the other hand, they are generally supernatural, often but not always malevolent beings who can be more mischievous than actually evil, or simply supernatural spirits of no specific alignment.
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Dragon (1) Very intelligent mythical beings - a cross between a very large lizard and a dinosaur - that breath fire, and have a knack for kidnapping damsels, thus distressing them. In Fantasy anime this perceptive species often lives secluded from human civilisation, protectors of long lost knowledge. Dragons seem to be on the verge of extinction.
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Ecchi (3) Fan service is found in many anime, in many forms. When the service has a distinctly sexual slant to it, and it appears to be a major focus of the show, then it`s safe to assume you`re watching ecchi. The word "ecchi" is used by English-speaking anime fans to refer to refer to soft-core pornographic or sexually suggestive anime and manga. This is a western invention; in Japanese, it is a catch-all term for all things anyhow sexual in nature, not being limited to porn, but also not really considered a "milder" term, as it may also refer to sexual intercourse itself. The term "ecchi" in Japanese comes from the pronunciation of the letter "H" in English, which is rendered into Japanese syllabary as エッチ, which in turn is transliterated in the English alphabet as "ecchi" or "etchi". It is not, as many believe, short for "hentai" -- that, too, seems to be a western invention. It is, however, nearly as misunderstood and misapplied a term as "hentai". The line between ecchi and hentai, from the western perspective over these terms, can be hard to draw at times; one good rule of thumb is: if it was aired on Japanese public TV at all, it probably wasn`t hentai. Ecchi usually features all the specifics to human anatomy that can only be found in anime, and generally avoids full nudity, instead abusing of panty shots. Hentai, on the other hand, will usually show full frontal nudity in some explicit form, including genitalia, and full, intimate sex scenes. At its mildest, ecchi is composed of double entendres, big misunderstandings, and sexual farce; at its most explicit, it is still in the realm of softcore pornography, with full breast shots, full back nudity and similar content, but no display of genitalia. Another good way to distinguish the two is looking for animated sex scenes; if one is found, you have generally left the genre entirely, though a few borderline exceptions apply here. For AniDB`s purposes, the distinction between explicit ecchi and actual hentai is simple: if it was sold with a 18+ restriction in its country of origin, it is hentai; if it was sold without it, it is ecchi.
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Elf (2) The origin of Elves (Norse; álfar(elves), álfr(elf)) can be found in ancient Norse mythology, in which, elves are described as divine, or near-divine, race of humanoids (Vættir), likened to the Æsir. In common description they are described as sage and immortal beings occupying the threshold between humans and the gods. In some cases humans that were beloved by the gods became elves within their lives. Ancient Elves are delineated into a pair of similar but distinct races; Light Elves (Ljósálfar) and Dark Elves (Svartálfar), each originating from separate homes within the nine worlds of Yggdrasil. Within the Poetic Edda the differences are commonly ascribed as: "There is one place there that is called the Elf Home (Álfheimr which is the elven city). People live there that are named the light elves (Ljósálfar). But the dark elves (Dökkálfar) live below in earth, in caves and the dark forest and they are unlike them in appearance - and more unlike them in reality. The Light Elves are brighter than the sun in appearance, but the Dark Elves are blacker than pitch." (Snorri, Gylfaginning 17, Prose Edda)
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Erotic Torture (1) Erotic torture involves deliberately using (almost) any form of physical or excessive psychological abuse to inflict physical and/or mental pain, with the goal of inducing sexual pleasure. Examples include, among others, hot wax on skin, nipple clamps, electricity, extreme verbal and derogatory abuse, forced public exhibition, etc. This is distinct from the common, non-erotic torture, which is generally for the purpose of inflicting pain, to either fulfill a desire of the torturer, or to apply coercion to compel action from the victim.
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Fantasy (31) Fantasy is a genre of fiction that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in fictional worlds where magic is common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of (pseudo-)scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (which are subgenres of speculative fiction). In popular culture, the genre of fantasy is dominated by its medievalist form, especially since the worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings books by J. R. R. Tolkien. In its broadest sense however, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today. Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history, medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist theory of Tzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space, to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between medievalism and popular culture