What's your favourite genre?

I don't recall seeing any conversation about this here, so here it is. Just a little curious about the kind of anime/manga/light novels that you guys like.

In my case, I tend to enjoy Slice-of-life, Psychological and generally dark works (pretty big difference there, I know), even some fairly niche shows (Ergo Proxy comes to mind, if that counts). I do like myself some good Action and Romance shows from time to time, and comedy is pretty high on my list too.

...though I don't like having too much fanservice; it gets irritating after the male lead has plunged face first into a female's chest for about the 100th time that episode.

My favourite types are:

Idols - I watch them for the slice-of-life elements plus lots of good songs and performances.

Mechanical Toys - I wished that I can own one and play them like the characters too. Being generally good in terms of quality helps too.

Iyashikei - You need something to get rid your work stress too.

Card Games - I watch them for the card battles. Some very good ones even tie them into the characters.

The ones that I generally avoid are:

Ecchi - I can watch then if I want, but I have little to no privacy in my house and I will get into massive trouble if I get caught.

Harem - I'm not into situations where a lot of girls are pinning for a guy. Strike The Blood does it right by putting that side as a background element.

Romantic Comedy - Scars of Sakurasou haunts me. Then again, Servant × Service has elements of it and that side was done well.

edited 26th Dec '13 6:58:42 AM by murazrai

When i read manga it's mainly horror or horror-comedy, so i would say my favourite is horror.

Hm.

Likes:

• Yuri. <3 <3 <3 I admit it, I regret nothing, now kiss already, ladies!
• Humongous Mecha anime (starting with Robotech) were my first love, anime-wise.
• Magical Girl shows were my second. (Why, yes, I am a Nanoha fan, though I think the shark has been well and truly jumped there.)
• Fantasy and sci-fi in general.

Neutral on:

• Horror/mystery/psychological thriller anime. This is a case where I sorta dislike the genre itself, but lots of works in it have my ass riveted to the seat. Death Note and From the New World come to mind.
• Harem shows. Again, I dislike the basic premise of harem comedies ("which girl would you choose?"), and the fact that if anyone involved could act like goddamned adults there wouldn't be a show, but the non-harem elements in a harem show often have Negima-level quality and keep me interested even when the romantic hijinx start to pall. (Tenchi, take a bow.)
• Ecchi. If there's nothing beyond the fanservice I'll usually pass, but fanservice is always a good thing when there's more to the plot than just that.
• Slice of Life. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Dislikes:

• Mind Screw. FLCL is not True Art. Convoluted plots are awesome, but excessive surrealism and acid trips are not. Likewise, Evangelion and Utena (particularly The Movie) get marks down in my book for using Mind Screw to substitute for plot coherence. (CLAMP is excused from this dislike. They have excessively complicated Gambit Pileups, but it's not the same thing as "just inject an acid trip into it and call it a plot.")
• In general, if a series doesn't have anything going for it but comedy, it'll have trouble keeping my interest.

edited 26th Dec '13 10:42:08 AM by Ramidel

I like slice of life and iyashikei, but I especially like them when combined with supernatural elements. I like series with a lot of world building and settings far different from our reality, or removed by one element with the consequences being explored in great detail. And comedy in general. I like to see action and drama here and there, drama moreso than action, but I don't like those elements to dominate the show especially since I have trouble deciphering what is going on during flashy fight scenes and why I should care when the story will only be moved forward by the end result. And het is ew. Even as a 23-year-old.

Hmm.

• Fighting Series: so what every "True anime Fan" hates them, I still think they are entertaining
• Humongous Mecha: Because Nerds like Giant Robots too, ladys.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Particularly Pretty Cure.
• Sci-fi and fantasy as well.

Sci-Fi! Sci-Fi with little to no romance. I don't mind character drama, but romance is usually written so poorly in sci-fi that it makes my teeth hurt.

Sci fi can actually be a good motivator for the plot of a story, which saddens me to see it done poorly.

Plug-in girl, for example is pretty good.

It's amazing how many genres I forgot to mention (iyashikei is one of them).

Something else I forgot to mention: I generally just watch whatever seems interesting regardless of genre, though there are some genres I usually stay away from (like Mecha, for example).

My all-time favourite anime/manga are pretty much dominated by Shoujo. Like ARIA for example.

edited 26th Dec '13 7:56:40 PM by HanabiraKage

I think I have genre preferences, but in practice I watch almost everything.

ARIA is Shounen.....

As it proves, just for being in that demographic, genres span across entire demographics, and not just limited to just one of them.

Unfortunately, not every viewer/blogger do that. ZX Ignition is considered kids' anime just because it's a card game anime despite most promotional material show that it is going to be seinen.

edited 27th Dec '13 4:12:58 AM by murazrai

x2 Huh...Wikipedia says it's both, oddly enough. It's so not shounen-like, but I suppose what demographic it's targeted at depends on which magazine it's published in huh?

I can't think of any shoujo in my list of all-time favourites...Kimini Todoke gets close enough to being in the list I guess. Ah yeah, I liked After School Nightmare too.