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We've seen an influx of anime and manga questions since Anime:SE stopped accepting them in 2016. Our top tag is with over 10,000 questions and we already have an excellent guide to help people answer them in "How to ask a good story-ID question?" that users can direct querents towards.

What additional advice can we offer on writing a good story-identification question aimed at locating an anime or manga property?

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    Possible duplicate of How to ask a good story-ID question?
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 19:51
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    @Randal'Thor - The goal was to develop a specific checklist for Anime/Manga rather than simply adding them to the bottom of the list for general story-ID where they'll get ignored. Your link is very much appreciated though.
    – Valorum
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 19:55
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    @Randal'Thor shouldn't this be tagged faq?
    – SQB
    Commented Sep 13, 2018 at 10:34

1 Answer 1

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With gratitude to Hakase's answer on Meta.Anime

In addition to the elements we've already discussed in How to ask a good story-ID question?, anime- and manga-specific questions that the poster could identify include:

Anime

  • What type of anime was it?
    Did it feel like a feature film, a made-for-tv film (commonly known as an OVA) or was it a TV series or a webseries?

  • What was the animation style?
    More specifically, was it Japanese-style animation or Western-Style animation?

  • Where did you watch it?
    Did you see it on a mainstream TV channel like Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, somewhere online (i.e. a streaming service or YouTube snippet), or on a DVD/VHS?

  • What was the year of production?
    If you're not certain, at least hazard a guess. Modern anime tends to use computer-based shading and dynamic lighting effects (and CGI) whereas older anime tends to be a flatter hand-drawn style.

  • What's the genre?
    Obviously it's sci-fi or fantasy (or else you wouldn't be asking it here) but what else was it? Does it have elements of romance, is it a slice-of-life, family, coming-of-age, ecchi, etc?

  • What language did you see it in?
    Was it dubbed or subtitled? Was the dubbing of a high quality (matching the mouth sounds) or low quality (basically just dubbed over)

  • If you've got a screen-shot of the show or one of the characters, where did you get that shot from?

  • Setting
    Is the show set in the past, present or future? Was it set in Japan or another country (or outer space)?

  • Animation quirks
    Was there anything noticeable or unique about the animation style? Have you seen any other shows that look similar? Can you guess at the animation studio even if you don't know the show?

Manga

  • Where did you read it?
    If you read it in paper format, where did you get it from? If you read it online, which site did you see it on or what sites do you regularly use?

  • Art Style
    Was it a drawn comic or a Japanese Manga? If you're not sure, it might be helpful to know that western comics tend to be in colour whereas manga will tend to have colour pages but the majority in black and white. Manga will tend to be released in short books (called Tankōbon) whereas western comics will tend to be on flimsy paper. Japanese manga will, even if translated, generally retain their distinctive right-to-left reading order rather than being mirrored.

  • Manga & Anime?
    Are you aware of the manga also being made into an anime?


General helpful stuff

  • Characters
    What were their ages? What were their names? Did they have any distinctive features, notably eye-colour, hair colour and/or defining marks on their face, body or clothing?

  • Fantasy creatures?
    If the anime or manga features fantastical animals or monsters, what did they look like? What were they called in-universe? Were they summoned? Did they have any unique powers of their own? Are they intelligent and sentient?

  • Target Audience
    Who do you think the property is targeted at; Kodomomuke (colourful shows and manga aimed at children aged 3-12) Shōnen (shows for younger males aged up to 15), Seinen (shows aimed at males aged 15-30), Shōjo (shows aimed at girls aged 10-18), Josei (dramatic works aimed at adult women aged 18 to middle-age), Ecchi (mild, often comedic adult content typically aimed at males aged 16+), or something else?

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    As much as i like the idea of Anime and Manga being highlighted, most of this is applicable to any form of entertainment id request so it's not really "anime- and manga-specific questions" which would have this stuff. infact the only point that could be specific to Anime and Manga is the third point of the Manga section
    – Memor-X
    Commented May 7, 2018 at 23:58
  • @Memor-X - What other, more specifically manga/anime related questions do you think we could ask?
    – Valorum
    Commented May 8, 2018 at 5:51
  • @Valorum to be honest not a lot. mostly anything you would ask for iding anime or manga you could ask for anything other media like TV, Movies, Comics or Novels. only thing really is that Anime might have some more unique types like the Ecchi Genre or the OVA Type. i could say maybe how you read a book given that Manga are read backwards (from right-to-left) but even that's not a hard fast rule as the Kingdom Hearts Manga is read left-to-right
    – Memor-X
    Commented May 8, 2018 at 6:17
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    (cont.) though i would admit that japanese animation studios/mangaka art styles may be more easily identifiable than western counterparts but that's more me not knowing any stand out animation studios except for the studio who did Wallace and Gromit and Pixar
    – Memor-X
    Commented May 8, 2018 at 6:17
  • @Memor-X If you were wondering, the studio behind Wallace and Gromit is Aardman Commented May 12, 2018 at 10:13

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