What Does Seinen Mean in Anime | Get Younger Each Day in 2024

Terms used in anime are not always unconventional or new to the viewers. Some of the terms are even used outside the world of the anime. Similarly, there is one such term Seinen. Do you know what does Seinen mean in anime? If not get the answers now.

These terms are used to depict special genres of anime. It might also be used for animes that refer to a particular group of people or a particular situation. These are specially used terms and viewers new to the anime world may not come across these terms often.

Hence, to help you understand the significance of what does seinen mean in anime you can spare a few minutes and read the blog in detail. I am sure at the end you will get your answers.

What Does Seinen Mean in Anime?

Generally, the word Seinen refers to youth in Japanese. Hence, the manga or anime that are specially made keeping in mind the male youth-adult audience are the Seinen anime. When manga or anime are created targeting the female audience they are referred to as Josei anime.

There are many subgenres of the Seinen manga. There are horror, fantasy, isekai science fiction, and many more. The term refers to the marketing practices and the characteristics that refer to the young male gender or even teens of the age group 18 to 45.

This generally does not mean that only the male population can watch these anime. You might be surprised to know some of the famous anime are seinen in genre.

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Some Seinen Animes

Many seinen animes have mesmerized their audience. To name a few are Hellsing, Tokyo Ghoul, Berserk, and more. Such seinen works have a certain characterization and classification. Hence, the viewers have a certain amount of expectation from them. There are seinen anime that do not cater to the male gender but are marketed as seinen. The Apothecary Diaries is a women-centered anime but was marketed as a seinen. Another anime Rozen Maiden was a story about ball-jointed dolls. They fought in favor of their creator. It was serialized and then released as a seinen magazine. Even dark and horror works or anime are also categorized as seinen. An example of such a magazine is Elfen Lied. Death Note was serialized in the Shonen Jump magazine.

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Difference Between Seinen And Shounen

Shounen titles are the ones that generally appeal to the younger audience between the age group of 13 to 17. The stories have protagonist who are teenagers and do not include intense situations or actions.

In the anime, Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man include young protagonists who are quite lively and youthful. However, there is not a major difference between the seinen and shounen genres of anime.

The audience generally enjoys any anime irrespective of the genre it belongs to. The audience even does not care much about the storyline which is male-centric or female-centric.  Irrespective of the likes of the audience there are certain specifications and characteristics of the seinen and the shounen anime which help them to classify it mentally.

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Conclusion

So, now the question of what does seinen mean in anime is clear to you. These genres of anime appeal to a specific audience. While creating these anime the category is also kept in mind so that the specific group of young audience can relate with the anime. But the audience does not mind when the creator relaxes with the rules overlapping for creating such anime.

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