Anime That Makes You THINK?

[Mr.Squishy]

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha. Simply put: medieval economics and politics made incredibly engaging.
It's the sort of thing I hold up as an example whenever someone says 'Oh we need more bland hero's journey schlock'. And this anime starts out as that, and has elements of it, but it's very subversive and quite smart.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Code Geass

Only if you were thinking "How the fuck can this get any more ludicrous?"
*sees first two episodes of R2*

Well, that's how. Still pisses me off.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

One day I'm gonna find another anime to watch.

I loved Cowboy Bebop but I can't find the effort to find another one to watch. All my friend recommends is Naruto and One Piece

Check out the film Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Commentary on 1960s Japan disguised as allegory dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. And one hell of a soundtrack.

 

[Ranthus]

Wow, has no one mentioned "Wolf's Rain" yet? It's not at all my favorite series, but holy cow is it packed with symbolism and religious/philosophical references. At the very least it will make you wonder why things are happening the way they are happening, and think about what it might mean.

Yeah, I was going to mention it but now you did, so this.
Except Wolf's Rain is my favorite series ;P

 

[DrunkenMonkey]

"Psycho-Pass" is currently simulcasting on Funimation that really makes you think, I recommend everybody giving it a shot.
"Welcome to the NHK" and "the Tatami Galaxy" really make you examine your life if you are in your emerging adulthood stage, or college years.

All three anime should be given the chance really.

edit:

Currently re-watching 'Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex' and I realized how few 'cerebral' anime I seem to have found...

So...ya'll have any you can think of?

Psycho-Pass has the same feel as Ghost in the Shell, some of the staff is from GiTS is working on it, it's much more cerebral though.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

Since it seems like most everything else has been said, Elfen Lied. I liked the idea of trying to protect humanity but in the end being forced to do terrible things because of it. I spent alot of time with that one trying to decide whether I wanted Lucy to die or just repent. Also I actually ended up kinda rooting for the military group (forgot its name), sure they are hunting down, torturing, and killing little girls but each one of them tends to leave a trail of blood and guts where ever they go, so yeah hunting them is probably the smart thing to do.

 

[Vhite]

Closest as I ever got to such anime would be Full Metal Alchemist which I just started watching but even there they just repeat dozen times each episode that to gain something you must sacrifice something else and only thought that ever sparked in my mind is "Disagree".

 

[Souleks]

Steins;Gate

DAMN that was a good, smart anime.

Also, to a lesser extent, Gundam 00 season 1.

Steins;Gate was packed full of fridge logic it was my AOTY but probably not one you want to go super deep into.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha. Simply put: medieval economics and politics made incredibly engaging.
It's the sort of thing I hold up as an example whenever someone says 'Oh we need more bland hero's journey schlock'. And this anime starts out as that, and has elements of it, but it's very subversive and quite smart.

I watch Maoyuu for the plot.

 

[Abomination]

Most anime makes me think "Why would you react like that in that given situation? Are you bipolar or incapable of rational thought?" or "What is stopping you from shooting them? They're RIGHT THERE. Stop staring with your mouth open. You can end this right now."

 

[xXGeckoXx]

Going with Ghost in the Shell as the most cerebral with Eva as most philosophical.

Gotta say that Kaiba was a good one.

I find that most hard science fiction pertaining to space usually gets me thinking about the future of mankind. Gunbuster and Planetes being the notable cases.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'd also like to throw in Princess Mononoke.

There's a lot going on with the characters in this movie, in particular San and even Moro.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Death Note
Not a thinking show. It's fantastic, it's my sixth favorite anime, but it's not a thinking show. The morality is black and white, and it has a strong, simple plot. The narrative is complex and loads of fun, but it doesn't ask you to think any more than Inception asks you to think.

Serial Experiments Lain
It might be asking you to think, but more accurately it's asking you to think at the level of its creators, which means it isn't so much a heightening of intellect as a lowering of intellect.

Ghost in the Shell
I wondered for a long time why people love Ghost in the Shell so much. Eventually I realized it's because it has the best title of all time. If it had been named like...I don't know, just making up a name at random here...Mobile Armored Riot Police [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell], it would be resting in the pile of the hundreds of other decent sci-fi anime.

Code Geass
Why the hell not? I've realized that most of the people who like Code Geass like it because EXPLOSIONS AND TITS!!11!!!!!!!1!. I love Code Geass because it's actually smarter than its creators. They thought they were making a great show and accidentally made a genius show instead. Which, naturally, is where most of its flaws stem from. Code Geass asks if there's such a thing as good and evil, but rather than asking "Is everyone evil?" it asks "Is everyone good?", and then asks that question not idealistically, but in a very cynical manner.

Bakemonogatari
It made me think about about how this is an anime I'd rather watch dubbed, because there's so much text on-screen at a time it's fucking ridiculous. It made me think about why Studio Shaft has a middle school girl fetish...okay, Madoka Magica made me think about that, too. Eh, sure, Bakemonogatari is a thinking anime.

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Pass.

Spice and Wolf
Really? Spice and Wolf? Well, I didn't know what the fuck was going on with all that economic stuff, so I guess in that sense Spice and Wolf is way smarter than I am.

Madoka Magica
Well, I think more thinking has been done about Madoka Magica than anything except possibly James Joyce and a couple religious texts...

...so it probably counts as a thinking anime by default.

And I can't think of anything else in which a girl gets symbolically raped by a magic cat, so...there's that.









If I were to pick one anime to add to the list of thinking anime, it'd probably be...

Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto
Partly to troll all the "eva n gost n da shell r vrey srs bsns" people, but also because Star Driver is a really subtle anime...

Spoiler: SUBTLETY

It really delves into the question of what anime is and why it is the way it is. And sex. It's also about sex.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Tis the Cowboy Bebop. It's rather straightforward in terms of plot, but it's narrative is absolutely packed with subtle commentary. I adore the intentional vagueness of the series, with nothing spelled out, you are left to fill in the blanks, encouraging you to watch for the minor details that could give you the bigger picture.

MARRY ME I mean uh yeah, Cowboy Bebop. The series is very rich with both subtext and backstories being spelled out in the dark, developing nicely rounded characters and working the central themes of loneliness and redemption in ways that are new and real and inventive according to each character. But above all, believable.

 

[maninahat]

Not many do to be honest. Their morality or dilemmas are often too simplistic to require much thought, and are easily revolved within the story itself. That said, I can think of a couple that got me thinking at the time.

One interesting dilemma came up in Trigun, where a boy is trying to save a butterfly from a spider's web. Another boy kills the spider then and there, explaining that there is no other alternative - after all, if you save the butterfly, the spider will starve, and if you leave it, the butterfly will die. That's a reference to an old Buddhist koan, in which a monk saves the prey from a predator. Realising that he's condemned the eagle/tiger (depending on the version), he resolves the issue by feeding it his own flesh.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

I`m not a heavy anime fan but i have one in my DVD collection - "Ninja Scroll".
This might not be exactly on topic but every time i watch it i think "why don`t they do something like this anymore?".
Anime of the early nineties is something i`m missing today.
Give me some fresh meat if you think i`m wrong, i`m totally out of the loop. The only japanese stuff i currently enjoy is the Blade of the Immortal manga and i can`t stand the anime (feels out of character - the drawing/animation quality is fine).

 

[amara2021]

Most anime makes me think "Why would you react like that in that given situation? Are you bipolar or incapable of rational thought?" or "What is stopping you from shooting them? They're RIGHT THERE. Stop staring with your mouth open. You can end this right now."

Exactly. That was my main problem with Mirai Nikki. I have absolutely no idea why certain characters are completely fine with blowing up schools full of children or shooting innocent people point blank to get to a certain target, but as soon as someone important -like, you know, THE ACTUAL FREAKING TARGET- shows up they suddenly develop crippling moral reservations. I guess that's why I think Yuno is the best character. She at least has her priorities straight from start to finish.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Neon Genesis Evangelion, although you'll mostly be thinking about how on Earth it could possibly make sense.

Baccano is another good one, with an anachronistic narrative that forces you to piece together the plot. Serial Experiments Lain is a bit of a mindfuck with some philosophical elements. You've already mentioned Ghost in the Shell, which is one of the most intelligent anime films ever made.

I would say Death Note, but I didn't actually like Death Note - the fact is that most of its suspense comes from the increasingly implausible gambits of the villain protagonist, in a way similar to the Saw films. And, like the Saw films, I stopped caring pretty quickly. It doesn't help that the protagonist is an utterly unsympathetic narcissist with zero redeeming qualities. I just didn't give a crap what happened to him. Your mileage may vary, obviously, so still give it a go.

I'm also tempted to suggest Code Geass, which despite being callously crafted to appeal to as many traditional demographics as possible, is still a really good show. It's not smart in the same way NGE or Ghost in the Shell are smart, but it's very clever in one specific area - the character arcs of its protagonist and deuteragonist, whose conflicting motives and opposing moral codes drive much of the drama. It's like Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham had a fistfight inside twenty-foot-tall robots on rollerskates. The writing falls apart in the second season, but I'd still suggest taking a look at it.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

No, you're not alone. I liked Eva when I was an awkward, angry teen dealing with some depression and other stuff. Once I grew up, stopped blaming everyone else in the world for my problems, and took some control over my life my mood improved dramatically and all of the angst in Evangelion seemed well, pointless.

I agree with you that the whole series isn't meant to symbolize some hidden meaning behind the story or behind the events that transpire. They are merely meant to visualize the angstyness and feelings of depression it's creator suffered from. But that is actually where this series draws it's appeal from: it's so completely mired in it's own feelings of darkness, negation, inadequacy and a profound misanthropy that it is just fascinating to behold. And that is what I think you are missing: this feeling of utter and complete angst IS the whole point of the series. The series is deep not because people interpret too much into the redundant pretentiousness that underlines this series but for the horrible beauty that this series has - the construction of a world and characters so broken that it just boggles the mind. The use of imagery that is so bleak, horrifying and surreal that you just can't help but wonder what the fuck the creator was thinking. It's like a bloody trainwreck. No matter how you try you can't look away. And, frankly, you shouldn't, because for all it is, it is a very vivid picture of this kind of depressed angstyness.

Oh and I'm saying this as someone who does not like NGE very much for a host of reasons, but you have to give credit where it's due.

So question. Am I the only anime can in existence who doesn't like Eva? Seriously I just didn't enjoy it at all. I could barely finish it, but then similar stories like rahxephon and asura cryin I couldn't stop watching. I mean this in an interested way and in no way as a thinly veiled insult/I'm better than you kinda thing

I actually wrote a whole review comparing NGE to Rahxephon because they are very similar to each other but differ significantly in in the technical execution and it's underlying stance. First, technically it's much more focused in terms of storyline, and it's characters aren't (for the most part) the walking mental illnesses of NGE. It's also much more coherent in it's themes. However, where it really differs is it's tone: where NGE is depressive, bleak and miserable, Rahxephon is hopeful, active and essentially optimistic - it is as such very positivist vision in contrast to NGE. So if you aren't particularly fond of being overly angsty, Rahxephon is much more appealing. Hence, I don't think it's really unusual that you would prefer Rahxephon over NGE. I sure do

I would also like to mention Death Note. The characters plowing their ways through the story offer a delightful stimulation for one to simultaneously contemplate on the possibilities and all of the mind games put into motion.

Okay...I think I have to ask. How the hell can you call Death Note deep? I mean okay, it's a very exciting ride and has some very strong artistry at times but it never really explores it's theme, discusses it's moral implications or, hell, has any kind of character development. I can see why it's interesting to explore the ways of the mindgames but I wouldn't exactly call that "deep". Oh and a disclaimer: I'm not out to troll, I'm really curious.

 

[Baneat]

Lain, Evangelion, PSYCHO-PASS, Madoka, Akira, GiTS

If you're not already following PSYCHO-PASS start doing so immediately.