| I think Award Winning should be separated from "genres" because it's rather something more like a tag, it has nothing to do with any narrative element. Also, maybe keep mecha as a genre due to its significance and historical integrity as such? Music as well I think, it's an encompassing category of two types of anime with a big presence in the database, music videos and idol shows. On the other hand, yay for finally adopting a system that removes the confusing labels of gay and lesbian romance shows. And for the Erotica one as well, it will bring some nuance to a binary I felt was a bit limited. Working Life and Gourmet don't seem much like full genres to me, but if these types of animes are on the rise they could be useful. Consider please iyashikei and isekai (or whatever english equivalent you prefer to use), which are very relevant in the current landscape of anime and have increasingly grown a category of genre themselves. And finally getting rid of Dementia, which was not only a genre impossible to describe correctly but a sort of demeaning buzzword for unconventional art. That's the best news. Absurdo_N said: why the "erotica"? is it just to refer to yuris and bls with erotic content? Because ecchi tends to be associated with a raunchy presentation and is mostly associated to comedy, while hentai is plain porn. Erotica could go well in both and also in those shows that have a level of explicit sexual tension that does not express itself in the ways conventional ecchi and hentai shows do. Think Bloom into you for instance. |
jal90Sep 15, 2021 5:38 AM
| I like this in general but I think it'd be better if Gourmet, Work Life and Award Winning were Themes instead of Genres (and I also don't see why Award Winning was added but it won't hurt anyone I suppose), and if Magic were added back again, as a Genre or Theme, or at least in some other way like if it were split into Magical Girls/Boys but that would still not account for all magic anime so probably Magic should stay as a seperate tag. (Also, I know this is unrelated but... dark mode please, we all want it!) HiroseAoki said: what happened to the psychological genre? It's a Theme now (check https://myanimelist.net/anime.php) |
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| Was surprised to see the change but nice ig. |
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| All for the new rollout! |
| Pretty great update I won't lie, nice how there's now even a few new genres. Not sure I like how thriller was renamed to 'suspense' but I guess it works, it just makes it a lot more broad now so a lot more stuff can be added there. Which means less anime I'll be interested in from it. Also not sure why mecha was removed |
| I miss Magic and Psychological as genres. My opinion is that Award Winning shouldn't be a genre (maybe only a tag or something). Also, Work Life would be better as a theme - since School is a theme now, what's the difference? The other changes seems okay to me. Keep up the good work, MAL Team! Edit: Noticed after posting, Psychological is a theme now. It's a theme now. Mod edit: Combined double posts |
ArdanazSep 16, 2021 3:11 AM
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| Sounds like quite a few interesting changes, I'm looking forward to see how that all plays out. Like a few others I'm also not too sure on all of these genres and themes, but it's probably just the matter of it all being new rather than actually bad. I imagine quite a lot of thought went into this process. I am however worried about how the voting on themes will be done. If it's not done completely autonomous I don't see it actually working over a long period of time. For me the entire site has a bad reputation when it comes to moderator approval, because everything takes forever. Pokétoon finished last week; on the day it ended I made a change to the date because it officially ended, but just something simple like that still hasn't been approved. And adding new anime that are not the hype of the season takes even longer, there are unapproved shows out there that are stuck in approval limbo for a year or more. If tag approval will work even remotely similar to this, it will take forever for any tag to get approved and the moderators will be drowned in tag requests by hundreds of thousands of users. So I guess when the time comes I'll grab my popcorn and see how it pans out. |
| Very good, it's very rare to see changes or improvements in MAL for a good few years, good to see that they are trying better and the genres were in need of this separation, I hope you hear some pertinent comments from the community, because there is still something there that shouldn't be be genre. And, by the way, when the episodes tab that is in each anime will start to put the name of the episodes there and the information about them, some few animes have this tab with the proper information filled in, it's past time to pay attention to these things . |
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| Glad to see Shounen and Shoujo ai become B/GL, since the former is used to refer to pedophilia in Japan. I'm just not really thrilled about having to see the shota OVAs alongside the rest of the BL but unless they were a separate genre/theme nothing can be done about that A genre overhaul was long overdue though, glad to see it finally happen |
| I like MAL finally branching out to allow more themes. Since you merged Shounen Ai/Yaoi and Shoujo Ai/Yuri though, it now makes it hard to just look for soft Boy's Love and Girl's Love compared to smut, because you can only include or exclude genres using the search function, not both. Please update the advanced search function to allow both include and exclude! Also, I hope the Magic genre returns. At least I find Avant-Garde a better term than Dementia for all those arty shorts. |
 🎶🎼🎻🪈🎵 Thank you to my wonderful Secret Santa for the beautiful Hamel set!!! <3 🎶🎼🎻🪈🎵 |
| This is gonna be hard to get used to. Award Winning should definitely not be a genre tho |
| Well. Where.is.Magic?! Bring it back! It's not only magical girls and boys, you know. And Work Life should be Theme like School, they are both part of Slice of Life. Gourmet is also a Theme I think. And why Music is not a genre? It's not only about idols and music clips. Award Winning is totally not a genre. But it is not a Theme too. Maybe, some info badge somewhere on the page? Dauphine said: We also need a Reverse Harem theme as almost all reverse harem are missing this and some are even falsely labeled as harem, when the two are vastly different and target different demographics!!!! I don't want to wade through thousands of "normal" harems to find that one mislabeled reverse harem anime in there! I agree. And we need a theme "Isekai" (it's not a genre, most of all isekai are fantasy and some - sci-fi). Separating Demographics from genres is very good. |
World_HoupSep 15, 2021 8:43 AM
| I'm slightly confused here. What about Mystery and Thriller? |
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Puchkov said: I'm slightly confused here. What about Mystery and Thriller? Mystery is still a core genre. And so is Thriller, but it's been renamed "Suspense". kataneer said: So, no more Psychological and Shounen/Seinen tags? Psychological still exists as a "theme" tag (the full list of those will be revealed "soon"). Shounen & Seinen still exist as "Demographics" tags. |
| I don't think changing "Thriller" for "Suspense" is a good idea Yeah most of the thrillers have suspense, but a thriller is about the main character(s) getting better or worse |
| y'all should watch haibane renmei |
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Wyvern22Sep 15, 2021 11:14 AM
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| Okay, this was very expected change, good, good. But why removing/combining shounen ai, shoujo ai, yaoi and yuri? I bet there's a lot of people who want to watch gay/lesbian romance but not gay/lesbian hentai. Also at least as non English speaking person "Avant Garde" and "Suspense" say way less to me than "Dementia" and "Thriller" Also there seems to be some genres that seem more like themes and some themes that seem more like genres |
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| Doujinshi tag really should stop the work from being removed from ranking by default, there's plenty of completely safe for work doujinshi in the database. Other than that, the changes make sense. Just use Smut instead of Erotica though, no need to try to sound fancy. |
abystoma2Sep 15, 2021 10:01 AM
You all need to watch Nami. |
| I'm glad at least some things are changing, but as @Swagernator said having this user-voted mod moderated thing feels like it's gonna be a massive shitshow. Like the mods are already pretty slow as is (they probably have a lot of work to do so understandable ofc) an I can only imagine they'll get flooded with different tags some of which are just going to be blatantly incorrect (unless I'm misinterpreting how this procedure will go) also why remove the Music genre but add in Gourmet lmao? Seems kinda asinine to remove a big genre and instead add a lesser-known one Absurdo_N said: why the "erotica"? is it just to refer to yuris and bls with erotic content? It's probably gonna be used more for manga, because while MAL seriously lacks in it, there are some josei smut in the db (ones that are more erotic than ecchi but less erotic than hentai) that are straight romances. I don't think many anime will have this tag, maybe ones like Aki Sora I can see having it Why they don't just use 'Smut' instead idek |
 'On-Hold' is another way for a completionist to say 'Dropped' |
| This is probably the best change to MAL in the past two weeks! With this, finally, 4-koma can be added to manga. So I don't have to check the "Source" on the anime adaptations page to check if the MANGA is 4-koma or not! I am really happy with this change. |
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| Not sure that I really understand the difference between Genre and Themes - I see what you've defined them as, but when I see what's actually in each one it doesn't really make much sense. I don't think Gourmet, Award-winning, and and Work life should be considered Genres. Would also like Magic to come back, or at least some variation of it. I also am not sure that the way you want to use tags will work as intended... many users use the tag section in their list to leave themselves comments/critiques about the anime or use it to keep track of stuff for anime challenge clubs. |
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| yaoi and yuri weren't on rankings now that they became erotica will they still not appear or appear jsut like i assume boys love/ girls love does?, i also like the idea of themes good work edit: i'm an idiot i thought it wasn't updated yet, theya ren't no need to reply |
| Interesting update. I would love to see it going. |
  What Does Pot of Greed do?  |
| Voting with your tags is a really welcome new feature. As one of many user currently I'm using the Tags field for mini-reviews and notes. To be able to take part in the "voting by tagging", there needs to be a migration path. 1) A list setting option to make the Comments field visible in public lists. 2) A one click solution to move all "Tags" content to the "Comments" field With 1500+ anime to re-tag, doing 2) manually is ridiculously time consuming without server support. I could write a script mangling the XML export, but why force all users to find a 3rd party solution for a common problem. Also: Please make the new "Demographics" field a "sorting header" field in list display. |
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| Some questionable choices like gourmet, work life, and award winning in genre's. Also not sure why magic got completely erased. But other than that, it's a good update. |
| I am happy as well as doubtful of this new update. glad that demographic is separated from others. Renaming thriller as suspense kind of feels wrong to be because mystery is a separate genre. also renaming dementia as avant grade also feels wrong because mononoke is avant grade. I actually like the sound of gourmet and work life genre, they are something which peaks my interest I really wonder what will happen to mal graph with all these new changes |
AdampkSep 15, 2021 11:01 AM
  Click for a anime mashup! Still not gone bandwagon u, keep crying. Here u are welcome to CRINGE at my EXISTENCE |
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| Nice updates. I really appreciate the new Gourmet tag, but I think Magic should not have been removed and a Magical Girl tag should be added. |
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| Hopefully this is related, but is this Overhaul the reason why nothing shows up when I click seasonal anime? |
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raiderublaze said: Hopefully this is related, but is this Overhaul the reason why nothing shows up when I click seasonal anime? I'm guessing you have both "Kids" and "18+" checked? The filtering has changed and that would mean "Show only kids anime that's rated 18+" |
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Karinara said: I'm guessing you have both "Kids" and "18+" checked? The filtering has changed and that would mean "Show only kids anime that's rated 18+" Well that solved the problem easily, thanks for the quick tip. |
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| Nice updates! This is a much-needed "easy categorizing" of genres and themes because there're unique material falling under these conditions. |
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| Okay, cool so Isekai genre when? People have been asking this for years. Tho I would prefer if the "Theme" is changed to "Setting" for convenience purpose since this is a little confusing. I don't understand how Psychological isn't categorized as a "Genre" when it perfectly fits in that. Should've removed Mystery from the Genre as well and add it into Theme if you're doing that for Psychological. Work life should've been in Theme instead of "Genre" as it is yet another "Setting" Why add Erotica? What's the purpose of that? It would be nice if you give an elaborate definition of "Avant Garde" Fario-P said: Nice updates. I really appreciate the new Gourmet tag, but I think Magic should not have been removed and a Magical Girl tag should be added. Yeah, you're definitely right. I don't understand why they even considered removing Magic, cuz Supernatural and Magic obviously differs A LOT if you've seen enough anime to differentiate them. |
ScordoloSep 15, 2021 11:45 AM
 Scordolo's Recent Reviews To your eternity Vanitas no Karte |
| @short_circut got it, thanks for the explanation. |
| Its a great change , honestly Its way better right now. |
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| I like it. Sorta like the 'descriptors' on rym. |
| Still waiting to see the final product but while I'm okay with some of these changes, I'm not a fan of others. Like others have said, Award-Winning should not be a genre. I don't understand how Award-Winning is considered a genre but Magic and Music aren't. I don't even think it should be a theme, but regarding it as a genre, have you heard anyone say "I'm in the mood for an Award-Winning anime today!" Going back to Magic, I don't understand how it isn't already a predetermined theme if it's not gonna be a genre. It had hundreds of entries under it, did it not? I don't understand Thriller being changed to Suspense. Suspense just sounds like everything in the Mystery genre plus whatever was in Thriller. I also think Work Life is a theme, and not a genre. Separating the demographics and renaming Dementia to Avant Garde are good changes. I definitely like the overall idea of separating genres and themes - MAL has been lacking in that for long before I came here, apparently. "Allow all users to vote on pre-defined themes by using the "Tags" section of their Anime/Manga Lists" A lot of people including myself use the tag section for things not tag-related. This is gonna suck for that since I don't think (?) there's an easy way to transfer everything from the tag section to the comments section for hundreds of shows. Is there a reason why we can't just vote for themes on the anime pages themselves (like AniList does)? Will everyone's tag sections be cleared once theme voting goes into effect? Will we only be allowed to use the tag section for theme voting (so you can't type whatever you want there anymore)? "Allow all users to vote," so are there gonna be no restrictions on who can assign tags? For example, is there gonna be a restriction regarding account age, or can trolls make new accounts and immediately just start messing with the tags of tons of entries? --- Maybe we just have different opinions on the best way for things to be done, but the genre system is clearly half-finished rather than fully finished (specifically regarding genres. I have no issue with tags being addressed later), so I don’t understand why it was already pushed out. For example, Erotica is labelled as between Ecchi and Hentai, but right now it's full of Hentai. It's obviously gonna go through changes, but right now it directly contradicts what the genre is supposed to be. There's also the step of "Create new and strong definitions for each genre so that its usage is better defined." Why was it a better choice to not finish this before adding all the changes and new genres to the site? |
MIMx32Sep 15, 2021 2:08 PM
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| As mentioned in previous comments, I don't understand what Avant-Garde is supposed to be, and Award-Winning is definitely not a genre. Thriller seemed fine as it was, it's a word commonly used for films/books understood by all. I also think Gourmet and Work Life should be themes, not genres. Although I don't think that I will be using it much, Erotica seems quite obscure to me. I do like to filter out Ecchi anime, and that felt specific enough to me. If 'Erotica' is supposed to mean 'Explicit', why not name it as such? (Smut is harder to understand for non-natives I would say.) To add to the list, I don't understand why Historical became a theme rather than a genre. Especially when I see things such as Gourmet and Workl Life being added as genres. I am also surprised to see Magic has disappeared altogether. I can understand it being a theme under Fantasy or something like that, but theme is definitely a minimum. You have given a list of new genres with a bit of explanation, but the reasoning behind removing genres is missing, making it obscure. A theme I think could be added to the list is dystopian. Now, about the concept of voting on themes using tags. First of all, I do hope that my tags will remain as they are and that I will be able to keep using them as I have. Not all of them (none if I'm being honest) are meant to be themes, I only use them so that I can filter my list that way. Then, this is a concept I have seen elsewhere, for instance on Goodreads, and I can't say that it has been accurate. I have had many surprises when reading books I had selected based on the most popular tags, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend such a system as it doesn't help with calrity and accuracy. I am surprised this changed so suddenly as I believe you could have benefited greatly from feedback from the community to help you make this system more robust before working on implementing it and starting changing the genres/themes. Despite all this, I'd like to thank you for working towards making it easier to search the database. As suggested by others before, being able to include and exclude tags at the same time would be a great improvement as well! |
zani36Sep 15, 2021 12:46 PM
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| I feel like the themes category will be a very easy way to get spoiled, so having some king of warning would be nice. I'm thinking of something similar to VNDB (example) where you need to click on "spoil me" to show spoiler tags (or change your "spoiler level" in your account settings if you want to see them by default). |
| I agree with most of your message, Scordolo, but I'll try to explain where I don't or what is my take on some of these: Scordolo said: I don't understand how Psychological isn't categorized as a "Genre" when it perfectly fits in that. My biggest disagreement comes here. I don't think Psychological constitutes a genre, and as it was used in MAL it was rather a mishmash of very wildly different narratives that as a common thread had... mind games? Being deep about emotions? In short, I think it was intended to work as a theme for starters. Shows aren't usually just labelled "psychological". They are "psychological dramas", "psychological thrillers", etc. Should've removed Mystery from the Genre as well and add it into Theme if you're doing that for Psychological. Also disagreed here. Every detective show, every show that is focused around a mystery. There are many and it constitutes a clear enough element to build a genre category around it. Think Detective Conan, Monster, Odd Taxi to name very different shows you could group into this tag very easily. It's also not an element or a theme, it's something that drives and conditions the narrative in specific ways: the need to solve a question or understand something unknown. Perhaps, as said by another user, we should have the Mystery and Thriller categories instead of Mystery and Suspense, which are more prone to overlap. Why add Erotica? What's the purpose of that? I commented that before, but it's just that there's a number of stuff that is about sex or about sexual tension but it doesn't quite fit in the other two categories. Hentai is porn, ecchi is raunchy and meant to satisfy the fetishes of an audience, and also very often associated to pervy comedy. But think for instance Bloom into you, which has elements of sexual awakening that are relevant to the story. Or School Days, where sex is a very relevant element but it's not portrayed as something remotely desirable to the audience. I think Erotica should work as an all-encompassing category (which means I'd consider Ecchi and Hentai part of it), for every work that includes sex, sexual drive or sexual tension as a main theme. The category in general where this, Ecchi and Hentai are included works as some sort of NSFW warning. It would be nice if you give an elaborate definition of "Avant Garde" Avant Garde is just the fancy French term for "experimental". Experimental is how we define almost every work in an artform that doesn't follow the aesthetic and/or narrative guidelines that are universally accepted. It's a term that is often used in cinema, music, literature and other categories, and it's sometimes quite quiestonable and ill-defined, but when you see it you can expect something not conventional or that introduced and pioneered a later trend. It is not without its drawbacks, but we are coming from the absolutely unacceptable Dementia genre, which does not only have quite bad connotations for the shows included (like they are crazy!!! They will twist your mind, so weird!!!), but it was in a bit of a grey area with the Psychological genre out there as well. |
jal90Sep 15, 2021 1:30 PM
| So brave, so audacious of MAL to finally take accountability for popularizing the useless and erroneous distinction between the terms shounen ai/shoujo ai and yaoi/yuri. I'm moved by this. So courageous, such wow. On a more serious note, it does sound like a good start to not have vampire or cars as a genre. |
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| Oh, this is something I've really been hoping the site would implement. I really hope the rollout for this goes smoothly. |
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