Let me tell you why I absolutely HATE this question.

Okay, I get it. You know nothing about anime and someone asked you this question and you are just asking me the same exact question they asked you. No harm, no foul. Except, THERE IS NO WAY TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION THAT HELPS YOU.

“Anime” is a style – it literally means ‘Japanese animation’ and there are over 20,000 anime titles. It’d be like walking into the New York City Public Library and asking “do you have any fiction?” What kind if fiction? Romance, action-adventure, science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, suspense/thriller, young adult, new adult, horror, mystery, crime, historical, western, women’s fiction, literary fiction? WHAAAAT?!?!?

And to make it worse, people have PREFERRED anime. Much like people have preferred comedy. A person who loves the Three Stooges may hate Jim Carey. A person who loves Robin Williams may hate Will Farrell. Similarly, a person who loves Miyazaki may hate Shingeki no Kyojin.

So what to do? Well, when you get asked this question ask for SPECIFICS – what title? What character? If you didn’t have a chance to ask more probing questions, here is the general anime tab on the website and pick what YOU like and next time – ask them what they are looking for but don’t be surprised when they say “I don’t know. I know my kid likes anime so I’m looking for them.” NOW you have the chance to be the teacher and you can explain to them just as I have explained to you!