Anime archetypes when it comes to male characters is an unavoidable part of watching and experiencing anime.

In anime, archetypes aren't just about what role they play in the story—they can be about how they express themselves as people. Here are the most common anime character archetypes, what those archetypes entail, and notable examples of each.

The literal meaning of Shōnen is a boy. This type of anime is generally targeted toward teen boys (12-18 years old) but even teen girls like to watch them. The Shonen anime or manga has a central male protagonist (female in rare cases), and it includes a mix of a wide variety of genres such as adventure, action, drama, sci-fi, and more.

Much like in any harem anime, these four types of dere male characters are standard in reverse harem and bishounen anime catering to girls. If you are to look around, you may even come across other dere characters like undere, kamidere, and so on.

Even though every guy is different, you can still see the similarities between the characters in anime — let’s list some of them here: We all know these anime boys, who are 17, but look like...