I think I've never once seen a reference to Crater Lake, lol. It is quite a lovely area...
But yeah, hmmm, so there are three ways to categorize anime according to
a post in yahoo answers:
By Genre:
1) Action/adventure: martial arts, weapons, battles,etc.
2) Drama: character developments, emotional, relationships
3) Game Based: based on game, card game, or board game such as yu gi oh
4) Horror:darker or supernatural themes
5) Sci Fi: futuristic, science, technology
6) Progressive:extremely stylized art films
By Target Audience:
1)Shojo- young girls
2)Shonen-- young boys
3)Seinen--teenage boys or young male
4)Josei-- young women
5) Kodomo-- children, little kids (hello kitty)
By Theme:
1) Bishojo--beautiful girls
2) Bishonen--pretty guys with girlish beauty.
3)Sentai-- fighting teams
4)Robot/Mecha-- robots machines (gundam)
5)Post-Apocalyptic-- post apocalyptic world
6)Maho Shojo-- magical girl stories
7)Maho Shonen--magical boy stories
8)) Moe--perky, cute, weak, or naive characters
9))Expertise-- sports, arts, cooking, etc.
10))Lolicon-- sexualization of underaged female
11))Shotacon- sexualization of underaged male
12)Harem--- men with lots of women romance
13)Reverse Harem -- female character with lots of men
14)Magical Girlfriend--- one man and a inhuman GF. alien or supernatural
15)Ecchi-- indecent sexuality
16)Hentai--- sexually explicit
17)Yuri or shojo ai---- bisexual or lesbian girls
18)Shonen ai----- gay without sex scenes
19)Yaoi --- Gay with sex scenes
Obviously anime series and movies can involve several combinations of the above - which lends to the uniqueness of the piece. But I suppose the trend you've identified in the OP, Jumpman, would also be evident in several of these individual categories, and moreso evident in specific categories over others. I would also say that anime in general tends to be more depressing than american cartoons. There just seems to be a point in just about every anime I've watched where the main character(s) undergo a serious development that either devastates them emotionally or physically or both, and what they do about it tends to move the story in either a positive or negative emotional direction (whether they overcome their adversity or succumb to it).
I would say overall though that I tend to favor anime that end in catharsis. Though arguably animes with tragic elements do so by design, some do so far more effectively than others. If I don't feel as if it was all worth it at the end (the characters' suffering) then the point has failed.
@Holder; agreed! So many of these series are so darn short! The only one I've seen where I was genuinely okay with it coming to an end has been Murder Princess. That one I felt was a complete story, and though good, I can safely say I don't NEED to see more. This also may be due to the fact that the world itself within the story changed so dramatically during the plot development, and so it ends on more of a final note than most other series which tend to be open-ended.
