Familiarize yourself with the anime industry titles for genres so you can more easily identify which types of anime you like. You can search by familiar genre titles such as "comedy," "horror," "action" or "fantasy." You may also run into a few Japanese genre titles during your search. The most common ones include "shojo," anime that emphasizes romance and character development, and "shonen," which is heavy on action and battles.
Try before you buy. You can watch sample clips and sometimes complete episodes of anime titles for free, using websites such as Crunchyroll, Funimation and Vizanime, which offer legally licensed anime. Paid membership to a streaming website allows you greater access to a backlog of titles, but take advantage of the free samples to see if you like an anime before you spend any money.
Sample other anime in the same genre once you find an anime title you like. If you appreciate the romance in one shojo title, you may like the similar love theme in other shojo anime. If you know you're a fan of a particular genre, you may feel more confident buying a membership to an anime streaming site or purchasing DVDs or Blu-rays of series in that genre.
Keep up with anime reviews. If you can't sample an anime episode from a particular series online or you don't have time to watch all of the shows available online in a genre you like, you can make a better decision regarding which anime titles you may like by reading a review. News and review websites such as Anime News Network frequently update with reviews of the latest releases and classic anime.