Manga/Anime Topics

Or, What Hasn't Been Turned Into Comics in Japan?

Topics Used in Manga

Note that oftentimes these distinctions are arbitrary; most works can't easily be classified under just one category

• Ads. (You know, ads for anti-balding treatments)
• Acting (e.g., Garasu no Kamen (thanks to the person who wrote in with the title!))
• Action/Adventure (e.g., Black Angels, Ranma 1/2; usually has some SF/Fantasy/Comedy mixed in)
• Animals (e.g., Leo (Kimba), Ginga; usually action/adventure)
• Ballet (e.g., Swan)
• Baseball (e.g., H2, Dokaben. frequently combined with romance or normal life)
• Basketball (e.g., Slamdunk)
• Boxing (e.g., Tomorrow's Joe (sad story, the guy dies at the end))
• Business (e.g., corporate power struggles)
• Cops, Robbers, Crime
  • The main characters are cops (e.g., I'm Going to Arrest You)
  • The main characters avoid cops (e.g., Cat's Eye, Lupin III (action/adventure?))
• Cooking (frequently combined with Normal Life) (e.g., Shouta No Sushi, which I mention on this page about manga philosophy)
• Demons and Angels (e.g., Akuma no Houteishiki and others that are darker and more sinister. Similar to fantasy, and usually for girls.)
• Detective/Murder-mystery (e.g., Detective Conan)
• Fantasy (e.g., Nausicaa, Record of Lodoss War, The Heroic Legend of Arislan, Dragon Quest, Ribbon Knight. High Fantasy, usually with SF elements).
• Firefighting (e.g., Daigo of Company `Me'; action/adventure elements)
• Fishing (e.g., Tsurikichi Sanpei)
• Ghost Stories
• Golf (e.g., Dandoh! and many others)
• Gymnastics (Ganbah! Fly High!)
• Hair-dressing/hair cutting.
• Historical (Japanese or Western or other)
  • Fictionalized history (e.g., Masurao)
  • More fiction-than-history history (e.g., The Rose of Versailles, To Adolf)
  • Much more fiction than history (e.g., Rurouni Kenshin, Candy Candy, Yokohama Story)
  • True history (e.g., the Japanese History series, Brains, about the historic development of computers.)
• Horror (e.g., Beni-gumo. Often related to Psychic. Usually girls' comics)
• Horse Breeding/Racing (e.g., Grooming Up!)
• Humor/Comedy (in this case, the ones whose main intent is humor (Some Ranma 1/2 qualifies here))
• Instructive (e.g., Manga Gakuen, How to Draw Manga)
• Martial Arts (Yume o Gyutto Ne!, Natsuki Crisis)
• Medicine/Surgery (e.g., BlackJack, The Intern)
• Normal Life / Life Lessons
  • Action/Adventure Normal Life (e.g., Tokyo Banchou)
  • Personal Normal Life (e.g., Sometime Lover. Frequently hard to distinguish from romance.)
  • Slightly unusual-situation life lessons (Takahashi Rumiko, author of Ranma 1/2, has numerous wonderful, funny, and heart-warming short stories -- one compilation is Senmu no Inu).
• Paranormal/Psychic (Silent Moebius, Ghost Sweeper Mikami, the later Cyborg 009 (these are arguably action/adventure))
• Personal Growth (of the characters). Included here because most good manga/anime contain large doses of this; many SF and/or romance stories (like maybe Video Girl Ai) almost fit in here.
• Puppeteering.
• Racing (Cars, Motorcycles)
• Rock and Roll Bands (e.g., Make The Desk a Stage (romance?) and lots of others)
• Romance (Where romance is the primary focus):
  • Happy endings (e.g. Maison Ikkoku,, Wine Light, or 50% of girls' comics; the girl wins the guy or vice versa)
  • Open-ended endings (e.g., Kimagure Orange Road (?); the 3-way triangles stays, etc)
  • Sad endings (e.g., opportunities lost; people die)
• Rugby (e.g., Noside (though this has a heavy weird-stuff element))
• Sex
  • Just sex, no plot
  • Plot with sex (Sometimes Like a Girl Who Looks Good with Roses, Auction House?)
  • Perverted Hentai Stuff
• Science Fiction
  • SF Action (e.g., Akira, Macross, Appleseed, Gunnm; cyberpunk, etc)
  • SF Normal World (e.g., Level E; the main character is roommates with an alien, the main character's girlfriend is an android, and such)
  • SF Space Epic (e.g. Galaxy Express 999, Cobra, Gundam, Chojin Locke; rise and fall of space empires, etc)
  • SF gag/humor (e.g., Doraemon)
• Soccer (e.g., Captain Tsubasa, Our Field)
• Tennis (e.g., Aim for the Ace!, Love)
• Veterinary study (e.g., Doubutsu No Oishasan ("The Animal Doctor"))
• Video Games (e.g., Game Center Arashi)
• War stories (true as well as semi-historical)

Common Combinations

(Just a sample)

• Science fiction and Cops
• Science fiction and fantasy and romance
• Normal life and cooking
• Baseball and romance
• Detectives and Paranormal
• War and romance
• Video games and fantasy
• Humor and action/adventure
• Business and sex