Anime for beginners

A few basics on anime that a lot of people have asked me.

Anime categories:

Shojo / Shoujo - Manga or anime aimed at young women such as Shugo Chara or Kirarin Revolution

Josei - Manga or anime aimed at older women for example Nana or Loveless

Shonen - Manga or anime aimed at young men for example One piece or Naruto

Seinen - Manga or anime aimed at older men for example, Ghost in the shell or Elfen lied

Kodomomuke -Manga or anime aimed at children such as Pokemon, Lilpri and Digimon 

Anime types/genres:

Ecchi - refers to a dirty anime, with rude jokes and sexual elements of characters usually goes hand in hand with fan service ( examples are Mariaholic and To love ru)

Hentai - refers to anime with sex scenes and porn ( think Princess lover or Sex taxi)

Lolicon - anime featuring young girls in an erotic way such as Ro-Kyu-Bu! ( very controversial, currently being debated in japan as to legality )

Harem - usually one male character and lots of female characters ( think Angel tales or The world god only knows)

Reverse- harem - is of course one female to lots of males ( think Angelique or Hiiro no kakera)

Magical girl/ Maho shojo - is any anime revolving around girls with super powers ( think Puella magi madoka or Cardcaptor Sakura)

Mecha - anime with big robots ( think Kamisama dolls or Full metal panic!)

Yaoi - anime based on a romance between male characters that may feature sex ( think Maiden rose or Fuyu no semi )

Shonen ai - anime about romantic feelings between males but no sex ( think Antique bakery or Gravitation )

Yuri - anime with girl on girl love and sex scenes ( think Mnemosyne)

Shojo ai - anime with girl love but no sex (Revolutionary girl utena or Strawberry panic)

Other common terms :

Itadakimasu - usually shouted before meals in anime it's a way of thanking for the food but it means i humbly recieve! 

Bishojo - Beautiful young women

Bishonen - beutiful young men

Tsundre - A girl who is abrasive sometimes boyish but is really kind hearted. (think Sailor Jupiter or Hikari Hanazono)

Steampunk - a future where steam is still used to power trains etc and people dress in english victorian styles and use mechanised futuristic inventions ( think steam detectives and last exile)
chibi - basically means small person but is often used for when older people are drawn as if they were small kids.

ova - original video animation - basically anime made that went straight to dvd like ( angelique or tenchi muyo! - which both became popular series)

ona - original net animation - anime released straight onto the internet, ( can't think of any of hand, sorry!)

Visual novels - interactive games - a lot like choose your own adventure books. The most popular kind are dating sims or Otome games