I'm not sure what you want to refer to as genre, sub-genre, and what the purpose of tags will play in it. Let's just say that sub-genres are still considered genres, they're just a deeper dive. Are we now saying that a Romantic Comedy sub-genre has to be listed as both Comedy and Romance? Or Psychological Thriller or Crime Thriller has to be listed as both its individual genres?

Those questions being asked for consideration aside; even in Western television/movie listings, these are considered official "genres" not sub-genres and should be listed [some Western examples provided for clarity]:

*Manga adaptations with living people is consider a whole genre in itself: Live-Action Drama.

*A drama with a different story and a different set of characters in each episode: Anthology Series

*Extended dramas: Soap Operas

*A program depicting some sort of historical or current news event, with specific changes or fabrications for legal, continuity or entertainment reasons: Docudrama

*A drama about music is not the same as a singing drama: Musical

*The stories revolve around a crime that has been committed and must be solved by the end of the episode following a very generic and usually unchanging structure of events are not considered "legal" dramas, i.e. law & order, dragnet: Police Procedural Drama

*Type of drama series with a major focus on teenage characters, i.e Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson's Creek, Gossip Girl, etc.: Teen Drama

*Depicting a real contest, typically a trivia competition or physical challenge, with rewards in prizes or money: Game Show

*A genre that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unknown individuals rather than professional actors: Reality-TV

*Entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism and is normally introduced by a "Master of Ceremonies" or host, i.e. Saturday Night Live, Running Man, Royal Variety Performance: Variety Show

After adding the above additional genres to the list of General Genres, I'd consider the list complete, and I am okay with moving the finer descriptions of a drama/movie to the tag location.  Also, it would be nice to have the tags streamlined and cleaned of duplicate information. =)

 Wandering_Queen:

Another Removal: 

  • Music: Not necessary unless this is a Musical genre rather than about any music. It can definitely just be a tag. 
  • Medical: This can go under the Procedural genre I mentioned for Law & Investigation. Especially if there are plans to remove Law. Tags will help identify the type they are but they all fall under the same thing. 

I completely disagree.  Music genre and Musical are completely 2 different things.  A drama about BTS or Big Bang and filming them prepping and then doing their latest album and tour is not the same as a drama using the script for Phantom of the Opera.  One is a drama about Music, the other is a Musical.  These should be separated for ease of locating the proper type, and that's the reason MDL has genres in the first place.  No one wants to sift through dramas about K-pop when they're actually looking for a Musical, don't you think?

Procedural is specific to LAW ENFORCEMENT.  What does "MEDICAL" have to do with that? People don't want to have to sift through dramas about police investigations to find a proper medical drama, don't you think?

Streamlining genres should be done to make it EASIER for a MDL user to locate the kinds of things they want to watch, NOT HARDER. lol. ;)

"I completely disagree.  Music genre and Musical are completely 2 different things.  A drama about BTS or Big Bang and filming them prepping and then doing their latest album and tour is not the same as a drama using the script for Phantom of the Opera.  One is a drama about Music, the other is a Musical.  These should be separated for ease of locating the proper type, and that's the reason MDL has genres in the first place.  No one wants to sift through dramas about K-pop when they're actually looking for a Musical, don't you think?"


A 'drama' about BTS or Big Bang prepping isn't a drama but a reality documentary and a different category genre. I'm talking about what is the primary of the tv show/drama aka the main part. Music has very few dramas centered around people making music or related to music, hence why it would be best to move it to tags. Musical are a very different category which is why I said, unless the Music genre was referring to Musicals, then it should be changed accordingly because I don't understand why we have a music genre to begin with. 

As for Medical being switched under Procedural, that was a bit of a stretch on my part. I know it doesn't go there but I wanted to shove it in XD so point taken

I'm okay with sending some genres to tags, although it's going to be a huge job to clean up.  And it needs to be announced on the Feeds so that everyone who edits will be aware of it.  It's too easy to miss things in the forums.

I think I'd have to side with @Mengosteen on Wuxia-Wuxias are not truly historicals.    It would help if we could define Historical as dramas and movies that are grounded in the real world (Story of Yanxi Palace or Arsenal Military) and reality even if time travel elements (Moon Lovers Ryeo) are introduced.  Xianxia mixes folklore and mythology which seems at odds with the Historical genre. 

I also agree with OAL that it would be nice to be able to add all of an actor's catalogue of work, whether Asian or Western.  Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li, and Donnie Yen are in movies that I would like to at least have acknowledged on their pages. 

I'm one of those who would also like to keep 'Wuxia' under genres. Happy to have 'Xianxia' under tags as it is a sub-genre of 'Wuxia' anyway. 

I am 100℅ agree with NoirRoseHeart and Cooking ALike Queen to keep Friendship as genre! There are many drama/movie that have friendship as main theme.

Hessa Volunteer Staff

Personally, I don't agree with Friendship being a genre. Friendship is a theme, not a genre. I have never seen a film website/database that has Friendship as a genre.

Yuanwei Volunteer Staff

Up! Hopefully, more users will vote and/or express their opinion on this. ^^

About the LIFE genre

Yeah it's not an official genre. Only here on mdl that's why I would say umbrella term.
But the life genre that came to be on here is definitely not the same as slice of life or the literal definition of it you can look up on the net
That's what I want to clear up.

So it's not accurate to just put everything under slice of life now.
Life is more closer to drama in surten aspects

Here's my explanation in a post: https://mydramalist.com/profile/7533349/feeds/pzqroFP

Pls don't cramp them together. The problem is that alot if people do not know the definition of the slice if life tag and just put it everywhere .

Maybe thete could be made a permanent genre  and tag handbook/ definition article or something for ppl to look up. Atleast for the most used tags and genres, because alot of it is being improperly labeled and duplicated

My problem with Life and Slice of Life is they often get used interchangeably.  @Peppersqueak you are right on target we do need a listing of genre and most used tag definitions and perhaps an example for each.   It's a tag but variety show is another one that is not used per the actual definition.  During the challenge I found it utterly confusing to determine what measuring stick was being used to define variety show.  It's fine if MDL wants to make up their own definitions for how the community wants to define Life, Slice of Life, and Variety Show (and whatever other genre/tag is in a gray zone), but it does need to be written down and stuck, pinned, or stapled in an easy to find place so that everyone knows how to use them.

Hessa Volunteer Staff

All genres are already explained here: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/support/17285-guidelines-editing-and-submitting-new-dramas-movies-and-actors


Misuse comes from the user's unfamiliarity with the guidelines.

 Hessa:

All genres are already explained here: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/support/17285-guidelines-editing-and-submitting-new-dramas-movies-and-actors


Misuse comes from the user's unfamiliarity with the guidelines.

Thanks Hessa! As always you are on top of things.  :) 

" Life/Slice of Life: a genre that describes a drama/movie that might have no plot but represents a portion of (everyday) life."  To Peppersqueak's point they are lumped together but used separately-sometimes. During the challenge they were considered separate entities and there were requirements for both  "Watch a drama/movie about School, Lifeor Youth ""Watch a Slice of Life drama/movie " And there were discussions on that forum about the difference between Life and Slice of Life.  I honestly do not have a dog in this fight I just care about consensus of usage--are they separate genres, separate tags, one is a genre the other a tag, or to be used the same way?

 Hessa:

All genres are already explained here: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/support/17285-guidelines-editing-and-submitting-new-dramas-movies-and-actors


Misuse comes from the user's unfamiliarity with the guidelines.

Yeah but where do you find this handbook?

It's not open enough for everyone to see.

It's in the discussions forum, wich not all MDLers visit and quite frankly alot of ppl get lost. It's great that it exists but alot of people don't even know. 

Me included till you just posted the link (thank you for that)

It should be much more visible I think

 The Butterfly:

Thanks Hessa! As always you are on top of things.  :) 

" Life/Slice of Life: a genre that describes a drama/movie that might have no plot but represents a portion of (everyday) life."  To Peppersqueak's point they are lumped together but used separately-sometimes. During the challenge they were considered separate entities and there were requirements for both  "Watch a drama/movie about School, Lifeor Youth ""Watch a Slice of Life drama/movie " And there were discussions on that forum about the difference between Life and Slice of Life.  I honestly do not have a dog in this fight I just care about consensus of usage--are they separate genres, separate tags, one is a genre the other a tag, or to be used the same way?

So Life is actually not a genre at all.

MDL basically incented it and it's more closer to drama than let's say slice of life.


Slice of life on here is still a tag, but actually it's a standalone genre much beloved in the anime community probably it's best known there. 


Basically slice of life has a official definition and page and lif does not.

Ao I'd say it's better if lufe gets absorbed into drama and slice of life gets a genre slot. In that way it's also officially "correct"

Hessa Volunteer Staff
 The Butterfly:
are they separate genres, separate tags, one is a genre the other a tag, or to be used the same way?

It is called Life in the genres, but in the tags, it uses the correct title, which is slice of life. I told the admins for years to fix the life to slice of life, but I guess they are busy or forgot about it.