Anime Fan Speak

Terms used by anime fandom, not all of which are real Japanese words. Some terms (such as "otaku" and "mecha") are used by fans in different ways than the Japanese use them.

Anime Demographics

Some fans like to pigeonhole anime works into demographics by which magazines published the source manga. With the increasing use of light novels instead of manga as inspirations for anime and Anime First works that don't have source inspirations at all, this is less useful than it was in the past.

Shounen → aimed at boys.
Seinen → aimed at 18-40 year old men.
Shoujo → aimed at girls.
Josei → aimed at 18-40 year old women.
Kodomomuke → aimed at younger children, mostly unaffected by the Animation Age Ghetto.
Mina → Multiple Demographic Appeal

Anime Genres

Hentai → Means "pervert" or "perversion", used by English fans to label porn. (The usual terms in Japanese are "ero-manga" for comics, and "ero-anime" for animation.)
Jidai Geki → Historical drama, usually Feudal Japan.
Magical Girl (Mahou Shoujo) → Young female superheroes, often an Ordinary High School Student, gain powers and fight evil.
Mecha → Referring to the genre and many subgenres of giant robot shows as well as the giant robots that star in them. Usually divided into two categories.
- Real Robot → Mecha Anime the usually runs on 'hard' science, or at the very least a general adherence to what would happen in real life. Hard specs for mechs are common, as are darker themes. (Examples include most iterations of Gundam, The Big O, etc.)
- Super Robot → Hard specs are usually thrown out the window in favor of Rule of Cool, Rule of Drama, and other such 'soft' science like powering your robot with love, courage, friendship, or, in a pinch high velocity music. Generally Lighter and Softer, though not always. (Examples include GaoGaiGar, G Gundam, Gurren Lagann, and the like.)

Character Types

Bishoujo → An attractive girl or woman.
Bishonen→ An attractive boy or man.
Bokukko → A Tomboy that refers to herself with the masculine Japanese Pronouns.
Dandere → Shrinking Violet
Dojikko → Cute Clumsy Girl
Genki Girl → Genki means "energetic". Very energetic.
Kawaiiko → Little-girl cuteness personified, to Tastes Like Diabetes and beyond
Kichiku → Sexy, sadistic boyfriend
Kichiku Megane → Sexy, sadistic boyfriend with hot little glasses
Kuudere → A Sugar and Ice Personality, icy with a sugary interior.
Megane → Boys with glasses, for glasses-fetish fangirls. Available in several flavours.
Meganekko → Literally "Glasses Girl", mixed with a good dose of Moe; unlike the western stereotype, the glasses are essential to her attractiveness.
Moe → Tooth-achingly cute and Woobieish, which some apparently find very adorable, and others apparently find very sexy. (A two-syllable word.)
Seme → The dominant male partner in a Yaoi story.
Tsundere → She says she's not your girlfriend, but she alternates between swooning over you, sulking at you and dishing out physical abuse.
Tsunshun → Acts rude and haughty, but in reality is very depressed and probably lonely.
Uke → The submissive male partner in a Yaoi story.
Yandere → She loves you. She really does. She just has a peculiar way of showing it.
Yamato Nadeshiko → The "personification of an idealized Japanese woman", to quote Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary.
Yangire → Cute but insanely homicidal girl. Non-romantic.

Fandom Terms

Baka → One of the Japanese words for "dummy." In some but not all contexts, "aho" is interchangeable with "baka".
Cosplay Otaku Girl → A girl who really likes to play dress-up.
Densha Otaku → A major fan of trains.
Doujinshi → Fan comics and fanzines; Fanfic elevated to its own cottage industry in Japan.
Fujoshi → The stereotypical female Yaoi fan. Literally means 'rotten girl'. See also Yuri Fan.
Kawaisa → Japanese cuteness
Nakama → A group of mostly unrelated people that have bonded into something like a family.^{[please verify]} Not used that way in Japan.
Occidental Otaku → Affectionate Parody of non-Japanese fans of Japanese stuff.
Otaku → Hardcore nerd. English anime fans adopted the term to refer to themselves, but it is not a compliment in Japan.
Otaku O'Clock → the Watershed^{[please verify]}
Pettanko → Flat-chested character, normally always that of a girl's chest. Is also known as DFC (Delicious Flat Chest) on Image Boards.
Takahashi Couple → Unresolved Sexual Tension^{[please verify]} or Belligerent Sexual Tension, depending on whether you're discussing earlier or later Takahashi works.
Zettai Ryouiki → thigh-high socks fetish^{[please verify]}