Enter the World of Seinen Anime

What does “seinen” mean?

Quite literally, the word means “youth”, and it consists of anime that is targeted at young men. But wait? What’s the difference between that and “shonen” anime? Isn’t that targeted to young men as well? Yes and no, the Big Three of anime tend to be targeted at young men, but REALLY their target audience is adolescent boys. Boys with big dreams of being the greatest hokage or whatever. The stuff of dreams. But seinen anime aren’t afraid to ask the BIG questions: what’s it all mean? Doesn’t the desire to fight to become hokage unknowingly feed a greater cycle of violence and pain? Wouldn’t the world be better if we didn’t have to throw kunai knives at each other all the time? Those are the questions that seinen anime had to answer, usually through copious amounts of violence. And don’t we love it.

10. Monster

Monster is about the adult thing of taking RESPONSIBILITY for your actions, even when it’s hard (and could prove fatal). A brilliant Japanese brain surgeon rescues a young German boy who was shot in the head. Great right? Well, what happens when that kid grows up to become the most evil, twisted, monstrous serial killer the world has ever seen? Doc has to do something about it, right? And do something he does.

9. Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex

In the distant future, humans have been able to download their consciousnesses into cyborg bodies for enhanced psychical abilities and greater longevity. Motoko Kusanagi is one of these people, and she leads a team of crack soldiers in a government organization called Section 9, which defends Japan against cyberterrorist threats. But what’s it all mean, man? Is that computer virus actually conscious? Are you still you if your brain gets put in a new body? Do robots have souls? All these big questions need answers, and this series is gonna try.

8. Berserk

This may in fact be the darkest anime series known to man. A young mercenary named Guts ekes out a living by separating men from their ghosts with his sword. In a brutal medieval fantasy world, how else are you gonna make money? Eventually, he meets a charismatic young captain named Griffith, and decides to join Griffith’s mercenary group called Band of The Hawk in order to find riches and glory. They end up finding and fighting demons instead. And I don’t mean the inner kind.

7. Mushi-Shi

In the rural Japanese countryside, a man called Ginko travels around peddling his services as a Mushi master. But what are mushi and why do they need mastering? Mushi are semi-spiritual organisms that possess all sorts of magical properties. Sometimes a human being comes in contact with a mushi, and can be made ill by its effects. Consider the mushi that lives in the shadows of the tree in your backyard and then worms its way into your brain and eats your memories. Nobody has time for that. Call Ginko, he’ll help.

6. Psycho-Pass

In the not-so-distant future, a state-of-the-art surveillance system is able to determine which of the population are mentally healthy, and which have the potential to become dangerous criminals. The system assigns each person a “psycho pass”, which is a number determining their mental health. Should a person’s psycho-pass get too high, that person can be arrested or even executed. The story follows a young police officer responsible for arresting “latent criminals”, and her struggle to maintain her own mental composure.

5. Attack On Titan

A young group of children join a steampunk military in order to fight against giant humanoids that devour human flesh. After Eren Jaegar’s mother is eaten by one of these “Titans”, he swears that he will eradicate these monsters from the face of the earth. Little does he know, he may have to BECOME a monster to fight the monsters. Oooooo themes!

4. Samurai Champloo

Wandering warriors Jin and Mugen eke out a living in a hip-hop-inspired Edo-period Japan by selling their swords to the highest bidder. After a case of mistaken identity, the pair encounter the only swordsman they are not able to kill: each other. After their ensuing battle causes chaos in town, the pair are arrested and sentenced to death. Before the axe can fall, a young girl rescues them on the condition that they help her find “The Samurai Who Smells of Sunflowers”.

3. Death Note

This anime is made for young people who have emerged from the cocoon of adolescence and become goth butterflies. Brilliant and bored high schooler Light Yagami finds a mysterious black notebook on the grounds of his school. When he touches it, a god of death dressed like a Hot Topic model reveals that the book is called a Death Note, and any person whose name is written on its pages shall die. Light decides to use the book to become the all-powerful god of a new world of peace and prosperity. All he has to do is thwart the genius young detective known only as “L” who is hot on his trail.

2. Neon Genesis Evangelion

A fragile young boy named Shinji is coerced by his abusive father to pilot a biomechanical mech suit in order to fight off an invasion of interdimensional aliens known as “angels”. Yikes. This series is essentially about a boy who is forced to grow up too fast, and is forced to carry the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. Luckily, he’s got anime’s greatest tsundere to help him shoulder the burden. Be prepared for science fiction nonsense and brutal battles between alien and man!

1. Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is the quintessential seinen anime, and many view it as the anime responsible for elevating the genre beyond its reputation of “weird after school cartoons for kids”. In the not-so-distant future, a bounty hunter named Spike flies a spaceship through the Solar System looking for criminals to catch. While the series is rife with themes, the central one is that no matter what a person does, they cannot escape their past. It will always catch up with you, and when it does, be prepared to go down guns blazing.

(featured image: Gainax)

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