### First of all...

Anime & Manga Stack Exchange still accepts some kinds of identification requests, *particularly if the series is known*:

1. [Characters from a known series][1]

1. Episodes from a known series (this includes some anime/manga-style series of non-Japanese origin)

1. Cosplay/merchandise/*itasha*, [but with some exceptions][2]

*Note that this list is not intended to be exhaustive*. The above list contains the types that are *known to be acceptable* by the community.

If you are still not sure if your identification request is acceptable here, feel free to [post a new discussion on the meta][3] (requires 5 reputation). If you have enough reputation to [participate in chat][4] (requires 20 reputation), feel free to join our [chat room][5]. Otherwise, just [ask the question][6], and the community will evaluate it naturally.

---

### But wait...

- If the series has *some sci-fi/fantasy elements*, our sister site [Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange][7] accepts it, but **please ensure to follow [their guidelines][8] first!**

- For a more general *manga*/(light) novel, our sister site [Literature Stack Exchange][9] accepts it, but **please ensure to follow the guidelines on [the tag info][10] and [their meta][11] first!**

- If you have an image of an anime/manga/character, try doing a reverse image search: https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/21618

- If you feel adventurous, you can also try searching through various databases based on criteria such as genre, etc.: https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4696

---

### Otherwise...

 - **MyAnimeList** has [anime identification][12] and [manga identification][13] threads
 - [**Animesuki Forums**][14] for general anime/manga/game identification help
 - [**Baka-Updates Manga**][15] for anime & manga identification
 - **Reddit** has some subreddits like [/r/anime][16], [/r/Animesuggest][17], [/r/manga][18], [/r/tipofmytongue][19], etc. but *please read the rules on the sidebar of each respective subreddit beforehand!*
 - **Quora** has ['Anime Identification' topic][20]
 - **TV Tropes** has ["You Know That Show..."][21]


  [1]: https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4187/im-watching-an-anime-and-dont-recognise-one-of-the-characters-can-i-ask-who-h
  [2]: https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4142/are-questions-regarding-cosplay-or-anime-related-items-still-on-topic
  [3]: https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/ask?tags=discussion,identification-questions
  [4]: https://anime.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/chat
  [5]: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/6697
  [6]: https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/ask
  [7]: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/
  [8]: https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/11874/how-to-ask-a-good-anime-manga-story-id-question
  [9]: https://literature.stackexchange.com/
  [10]: https://literature.stackexchange.com/tags/story-identification/info
  [11]: https://literature.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/778/guidelines-for-good-story-id-questions
  [12]: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?board=1
  [13]: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?board=2
  [14]: https://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=11904
  [15]: https://www.mangaupdates.com/topics.php?fid=10373
  [16]: https://www.reddit.com/r/anime
  [17]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Animesuggest/
  [18]: https://www.reddit.com/r/manga
  [19]: https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/
  [20]: https://www.quora.com/topic/Anime-Identification
  [21]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?type=ykts