Anime series for grown-ups; suggestions please.

Sephiroth_dude · 06-03-2009 9:32pm

fist of the north star

lanysmiles:) · 14-03-2009 2:47am

avatar!! ^_^ awesomesauce!

dr_funkenstein · 17-03-2009 2:09am

I can't believe no one has mentioned NHK ni Yokoso (Welcome to the NHK). It really is an awesome series that doesn't involve magic/robots/aliens/etc. It's about the NEET (not involved in employment, education or training) culture in Japan. I absolutely love it!

laurashambles · 17-03-2009 1:10pm

dr_funkenstein wrote: »

I can't believe no one has mentioned NHK ni Yokoso (Welcome to the NHK). It really is an awesome series that doesn't involve magic/robots/aliens/etc. It's about the NEET (not involved in employment, education or training) culture in Japan. I absolutely love it!

Agreed, I love that show so much. I watched it in three days. The novel is pretty good too.

I've seen someone else plug Monster, but it's so amazing I have to mention it again. I'm really bad at summarising things so this is copied from myanimelist:

Kenzou Tenma, a brilliant Japanese brain surgeon working in Germany, saves the life of a small boy who has been shot in the head. Little does he know that doing so would destroy his entire career at the hospital and that his fiancé would leave him. When the hospital director and doctors of the hospital staff are suddenly murdered, he gets a second chance but also renders him as the main suspect to the murders. Life goes on for Tenma as he saves people at the hospital, and he goes back to the joy of being a surgeon again.

Years later, an injured thief gets brought to the hospital. After Tenma saves his life, he finds out that the thief is involved with the rising count of serial murders happening in Germany. Suddenly Tenma is involved in it all when the little boy, who is now a young man, turns up and kills the thief in cold blood right in front of Tenma. Now Tenma must clear his name, find out more about the boy he saved in the past, and reevaluate what the value of life is.

dr_funkenstein · 18-03-2009 7:42pm

ohh ohh.. and GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka!) .. awesome show

OrigamiDragon · 20-03-2009 8:16am

Well, I consider anime as intended for grown-ups if it is not overwhelmed with emotions to begin with.
Monster is definitely a seinen - for grown-ups. Kodomo no Jikan - for those who don't freak out cause of their specific humor in the series. xxxHOLiC - definitely. Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horrors is too emotional I guess, but some may say it's intended for adults. And of course Shinseki Evangelion - don't look at the mecha, and you have another adult anime. Ghost Hound, Hakaba Kitarou, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. And - don't laugh - Lucky Star, yes. Mushishi, Paranoia Agent, Serial Experiments Lain, and surely Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu ^_^

All of these can be considered as series for grown-ups in some sense. Also, there is Chi's Sweet Home - pure kawaii'ness, intended for cat lovers primarily, but I wouldn't call it as for kids.

You can find a lot more ideas if you just search in anime databases for "seinen". Anidb.net, myanimelist.net to name a few.

Professey Chin · 21-03-2009 2:30am

GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYVEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Sorry.Just got my hands on the 1989 series for the 1st time in about 12 years:o

pierrot · 21-03-2009 2:35am

My former boss (40 year old Japanese guy) used swear by One-Piece.

Faylum · 21-03-2009 5:32am

Haven't really read all the pages here but over the past 2 years i've really gotten into anime and have gone thru a massive list. Mainly sticking to main stream but if your interested then i'd say any of these would be worth a watch:

Naruto
Naruto Shippuden
Avatar
Full Metal Alchemist
Claymore
Berserk
Bleach
D.Gray-man
Elfen Lied
Code Geass
(My Favourite) Death Note
Any of the Dragonball
Shaman King
Ghost In A Shell
Cowboy Bebop

If anyones got time can they give me a list of Ninja Related Animes, ones that are quite good? Also wondering if anyone knows where i can stream Akira?

Thx

tman · 21-03-2009 8:15am

Faylum wrote: »

If anyones got time can they give me a list of Ninja Related Animes, ones that are quite good?

Check out Samurai Champloo and Basilisk for starters
And no, we can't give you a streaming link to Akira

OrigamiDragon · 21-03-2009 10:19pm

Faylum, most of the stuff you've posted is far from definition of a grown-up anime. And even Death Note is one of my favorites as well, I don't consider it as grown-up anime, Elfen Lied, Code Geasss and Claymore too.

Try watching Afro Samurai btw. Oh, and of course Mononoke. Yeah, Mononoke is pretty grown-up anime alright. Why would you want to watch streaming anime? The quality is awful!

thecountessp · 22-03-2009 4:08pm

I've seen most of the Studio Ghibli stuff, some much better than others. Just watched The Sky Crawlers too, which was fine.

On the series suggestions I've received so far, I've checked out and enjoyed Black Lagoon, Blood + (which is a little bit Buffy, but what the hell...), Texhnolyze may take me a few eps to get into, but has me interested.

I'm definitely going to watch Afro Samurai (Adult Swim picking something up is usually a good sign for me) and Cowboy Beebop (got the subbed version at last).

I'll keep checking out everyone's suggestions, thanks again!

OrigamiDragon · 23-03-2009 9:38pm

I personally don't consider Afro Samurai as a grown-up anime. I suggested it to Faylum as ninja anime or whatever. Don't get me wrong, Afro Samurai is awesome. It's just not really grown-up. Do watch it anyway 8)

Cunning Alias · 24-03-2009 3:01am

Im also starting to find alot of stuff childish nowadays.
Always loved "Last Exile". Starts a bit slow but has a great story. Saw it on amazon for around £25.

Agasarsis · 26-03-2009 2:44am

I've found Wolfs Rain to be a very good series also if you're looking for something messed up, have a look at Gantz.

Macsimus · 28-03-2009 12:50am

lovertits wrote: »

I'm always really stuck for anime; I loved Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Series 1, 2 Solid State Society & Innocence), Paranoia Agent and I'm in serious withdrawal after Samurai Champloo (very, very highly recommended). Every other series seems to be too kiddie, too look-at-my-massive-sword, too fantasy (mystical furrie babes with pointy ears) or too tits-and-ass.

I'm watching Cowboy Bebop and I'm going to be really stuck when I'm done. Any suggestions welcome. Non-cheesy j-pop laden, a decent fan-sub and three dimensional characters a good starting point. I like to think I'm an intelligent woman, so hentai and Death Note ain't gonna cut it...

Have not seen my favorite in the previous posts:

Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White - have not seen the film yet but the book is most excellent - not really fantasy set, more of a pre apocalyptic near future - Kind of a manga Clock Work Orange but a real thought provoking read.

White rocks :cool:

Faylum · 30-03-2009 1:28pm

Well i suppose its not exactly a list of Adult Anime, but to me its the best Anime's I've seen. Have watched some of the Afro Samurai and others, gotta say they were very boring.

I suppose the more childish the anime the more fun it is to watch them.

And how can you say Death Note wasn't aimed at Adults, i mean i'm sure most kids would get bored of it fast but i assumed the aim was for teenagers and above!

Cy_Revenant · 30-03-2009 4:02pm

Death Note is a shounen, like all shounen it is aimed at teenage boys.

Say 14-21.

OrigamiDragon · 31-03-2009 11:05pm

Indeed. But I wouldn't say that Death Note would be boring for a grownup. Quite the contrary ^_^

HelenMcc · 01-04-2009 6:09am

Master Keaton is a good one - all about the problems of being an ex-husband, father, academic, worker and dreamer and not quite feeling you're getting any of your roles right! Yugo The Negotiator is low-key but considering the world political situation it's very relevant. Area 88 always works for me - I prefer the classic version to the more recent one but both have a lot to offer.

HelenMcc · 01-04-2009 6:12am

Macsimus wrote: »

Have not seen my favorite in the previous posts:

Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White - have not seen the film yet but the book is most excellent - not really fantasy set, more of a pre apocalyptic near future - Kind of a manga Clock Work Orange but a real thought provoking read.

White rocks :cool:

The movie ending strays a bit from the manga and it's been slammed by some critics, but you can't really damn a movie for not being a comic - the two forms need different approaches. I love Tekkonkinkreet in both forms. I've shown the movie to two very different audiences in the past few months (GSCE media studies students, and the mainly-over-20 Barbican anime audience) and both found it very moving and gorgeous to look at.

Macsimus · 08-04-2009 12:50am

HelenMcc wrote: »

The movie ending strays a bit from the manga and it's been slammed by some critics, but you can't really damn a movie for not being a comic - the two forms need different approaches. I love Tekkonkinkreet in both forms. I've shown the movie to two very different audiences in the past few months (GSCE media studies students, and the mainly-over-20 Barbican anime audience) and both found it very moving and gorgeous to look at.

just saw the anime - they certainly jumbled up the story but i was still fairly happy with it - thought they remained true to the soul of the manga and did a beautiful job of converting Matsumoto's style to Anime.:)

Jonny Blaze · 18-04-2009 1:45am

I dunno I think Blade of the Immortal is a good one... only 13 episoeds though and once a month!!!

But it's quite mature and is really well animated!

Stillworks · 20-04-2009 9:05pm

I have a few to mention, one of which I'm surprised nobody mentioned yet.
.hack//SIGN(very good for character development)
Dennou Coil(You'll have to pirate this one I'm afraid, highly recommended)
Planetes(If you ever wanted to see a fairly realistic sci-fi show here it is)