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Two Sides of the Same Coin: Anime Tones

How many types of anime can you think of? Need some time? The truth is that anime is as varied and diverse as the many fish in the sea. But for right now, we can divide the entire anime market into two different styles; “Mature” and “Light”. Others would call them “Dark” and “Lighthearted” but no matter the case, every anime can be traced to fall within one of these categories.

Opposites Attract

No matter how much of an Otaku one claims to be, few will be able to name off the top of their head all the genres and sub-genres that encompass anime because of how they are usually too varied and lose fitting to apply to several shows at once. Thats when it becomes a lot easier to encapsulate the general feel and tone of a show into a simple, general word. I personally think this is great as much as it might be ambiguous.
Anime deals with a heaping amount of themes and plots, so trying to classify them all can get messy. Many times fans will take a look at the box and try to pinpoint something in the artwork, or the taglines that lets them know the general deal of the show.

Mature shows will usually deal with themes that are best reserved for adults, whether it’s because it’s full of gory chunks, gratuitous nudity or because the show revolves around ideas that are more oriented towards an adult (or young adult’s) mindset. Things like dealing with relationships without the candy coating and magic, delving into social and political issues or exploring philosophical matters that would go over younger viewers’ heads. However, this doesn’t mean that light anime will always be kid friendly.

If it’s true that mature anime aims towards the older spectrum of the demographics, then light anime can dance between the younger audiences and jump into the darker side just fine. Light anime deals with “feel good” themes and emotional drama that has been born either from the sudden absence of joy or the overbearing presence of grief; whereas mature anime will set drama through a more cynical and dry set of tools.

In some cases there is an odd middle ground where both categories mingle. Anime such as “Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan” is a comedy supported by blood and twisted shock humor with the occasional flash of flesh, but it’s still something many wouldn’t call “Mature” because it is more immature than anything (and frankly freaking awesome because of that).

The “Gray Areas”

A mature show doesn’t have to be overtly violent or sexual for it to be considered to be such and the same goes for lighter anime, it doesn’t need to be all pink and fluffy with the occasional tears. Both sides of the anime spectrum collide in the middle to form a sub-genre of their own but it would still be possible to qualify a title by the predominant side. At the end of the day, though, it depends on the viewer what to look for in an anime. It certainly helps to narrow the options a bit.

You’ll find that the middle area is mostly taken by shonen anime, titles such as Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and Dragon Ball. The titles will usually contain blood, violence and simple crisis to be faced by the cast but they will also contain a high amount of comedy relief so that the anime will never linger on any side of the spectrum for too long.

So in the end, saying that mature anime is nothing but a display of guts and violence made while trying to get as close to hentai as possible is as pointless as saying that lighthearted anime is childish and sugarcoated. It is up to you as the viewer to decide which side to pick and from there on explore the myriad of sub-genres present within it.

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