Know of any mature/serious anime?

[Old Father Eternity]

Guardian of the Sacred Spirit seems to have been left out so far.

 

[Seracen]

Yeah, avoid NG:E unless you want to have an aneurysm. I am also one of those rare people who didn't care much for Ghost in the Shell. While interesting, I always deemed it too slow for an action anime, and not paced properly for a detective thriller. It'll go from stop to 100 MPH over the span of one scene, and the effect can be jarring (snooze...oh HELLO...snoooze...)

Some of these have been mentioned, but...

Dead Man Wonderland
Mirai Nikki

Edgier subject matter, & serious repercussions to the characters. Sci-fi/supernatural, but "grounded" believably.


Attack on Titan
Berserk
Claymore
Gantz
Elfen Lied

These are all graphically violent and somewhat disturbing at times (Gantz and Berserk moreso than others).


FMA: Brotherhood, esp If you enjoyed Full Metal Alchemist


Jormungand, basically trying to copy the formula from Black Lagoon, to varying degrees of success/failure, but it's fun.

Roberta's Blood Trail, a sequel to Black Lagoon.


Zetsuen no Tempest (Civiliation Blaster)
Code Breaker
Night Head Genesis

More supernatural stuff in a somewhat modern world. Not a lot of silliness here, so it's easy to take seriously.



Chaos Head
Stein's Gate
Robotic Notes

All of the same type, and for the mindset of those who liked the slower bits of Ghost in the Shell


Psycho Pass
Parasite Dolls
Armitage III Poly Matrix (sequel is called "Dual Matrix")

Faster paced cyberpunk, more along the lines of the action-packed parts of G.I.T.S.

 

[thehermit2]

Noir. Story of two cute-girl assassins wrapped up in some nonsense mystery cult thing. Best watched to see the creative ways the Japanese schoolgirl assassin kills people with unconventional weapons. Very serious tone.

Break Blade. This is a military action drama about two armies battling it out with telekinetically powered low-tech mechs. I think it's scheduled to be released pretty soon. It ran as a series of hour-long movies.

Katanagatari. Surrealistic drama/comedy about a highly skilled warrior being recruited by a genius strategist to retrieve twelve super-powered swords from their wielders.

Planetes. This is probably the most realistic depiction I've seen of what working in outer space in the near future would actually be like. A serious slice-of-life drama with light comedy and romance.

Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. This is a serious action-fantasy set in a beautifully imagined fantasy world. Any of the weird stuff appears normal in context. A female bodyguard is hired to protect the second son of the local emperor against the emperor's own attempts to kill him because of a misunderstood prophecy. Fairly serious tone with some light comedy and romance.

Sword Art Online. Not sure what you'll think of this, but it is just starting to air on the Cartoon Network. This is the story of a serious gamer who, along with 10,000 other people, become trapped in a fully immersive MMORPG and told they can only leave if they beat the game. It takes them a few years. Mostly sci-fi/fantasy action, but the romance gets a little too harem-like for my tastes.

Ga-Rei Zero. Supernatural horrors battled by serious high-school girls. Just watch the first two episodes and see what you think. The tone seems about right for what you're looking for.

Occult Academy. If the X-files were remade as a high school girl anime, this would be it.

Steins;Gate. Science fiction show about a crazy self-proclaimed mad scientist who accidentally builds a time machine. Gets off to a great start, then gets a little thick with the harem stuff, but the tone seems about right.

Tatami Galaxy. This is a surrealistic slice-of-life comedy with a rapid-fire pace about a college student joining different clubs during his first year of college. Funimation owns the rights to this, and you used to be able to watch it for free on their youtube channel.

Bakemonogatari and the Monogatari series: Nekomonogatari, Nisemonogatari, etc. These are surrealistic, exquisitely animated supernatural high-school romances. I like to describe this show as raising the harem genre and the act of teasing to an art form. Highly recommended.

Genshiken I throw in because I love Genshiken. It's a sitcom about a college-age club for otakus.

Also, keep an eye out for Psycho Pass, Shinsekai Yori, Zetsuen no Tempest, Another the Animation, and Btooom in case they ever get released.

 

[Sing]

Monster The first anime that comes to mind when I think of mature anime.

This. Freaking this.
Monster is great cause the artsyle feels so realistic/down to earth and you easily feel with the characters. Plus it's a badass pyschological thriller. What more could you want?

As another person suggested, From the new world is also pretty "serious". It can be quite weird at times, but in a good "I-don't-get-it-but-it's-so-awesome" way. Don't let the art style fool you. From the new world is psychological in it's own disturbing way.

 

[BitterLemon]

I haven't watched anime for quite a time, but here's some:

Wings of Honneamise: It's the first work of Gainax, it's a mature story and I think it's a beautiful movie. It's about a steam punk world where a country is about to launch their first manned ship to space. The main character is a slacker dude who works in the space force, a project which no one cares about and he's just there, dragging his life without a purpose... it's not an action anime, thou, and have a slow pace, but there's no anime ultrapower mega impossible heroes or fan service at all.

Rurouni Kenshin - Trust and Betrayal: It's a OVA with 4 chapters that's a prequel to the TV Series, but it has a completely different tone from the series, way much more darker. You can watch even if you never seen anything about Rurouni Kenshin, it works well as a stand alone piece. It's a animation classic, very good. Be warned that's a bit violent in some scenes, but it's completely free from anime weirdness and it's a good story with very good direction.

About Evangelion, it's worth watching by yourself. I like a lot, the ending never frustrated me... but if you are the kind of viewer that like mysteries stories where every detail is tied in with full rational explanations in the end, you'll get disappointed. The story is much more concerned in giving characters emotional resolution than explaining every detail of it's world and it's symbols. The religious stuff is really just a mishmash of symbols to create a context, kind of a MacGuffin... don't overanalyze it and you'll be good.

 

[Bruce]

Seconding Paranoia Agent. It is one of the best horror stories I've seen, mainly because it takes it from a totally different direction.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Only one vote for Ergo Proxy? Wow. This is one that I cannot recommend enough. Monster is also a brilliant anime that strays away from the cleches and tropes that plagues the medium.

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

a great classic would be Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Wolf's Rain is fantastic, Another is interesting. Black Lagoon is extremely fun. Full Metal Panic! is fantastic. if you are looking for something a bit more out there and very adventurous Boku No Pico, though I wouldn't recommend THAT to the faint of heart #it'satrap. also I recommend anything by Satoshi Kon, Millennium Actress is my favorite Satoshi Kon film.

 

[Little Woodsman]

From what you specified in your OP (there seem to be a lot of people here ignoring the aversion to 'weird'...)

My standard warning: Most of my recommendations are 'old school'.
Also I only watch subs, so I have no idea the quality of dubs on any of these.

Monster. Absolutely everyone who mentioned this is completely correct.
Wings of Honneamise.
The Place Promised in our Early Days
Voices of a Distant Star. (Warning, this is incredibly depressing. Like Grave of the Fireflies depressing)
Ruroni Kenshin. OVA & Tv
Tsukikage Ran: Carried by the Wind
Princess Nine: (Has one 'weird' bit that can be taken/left by the viewer)
They Were 11
Most of the different Gundam series.
Most Lupin movies.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Definitely Steins;Gate. It can get a little silly, but it never goes over-the-top. It's brilliantly animated, with good characters and an excellent story. This is one anime where I would encourage watching the dub over watching it with subtitles; for most anime, I don't really care, but the writing and voice acting in the dub are absolutely superb.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is another of my favourites. It's an interesting take on the whole "magical girl" thing. It might not look like your kind of anime, but give it a shot; it's a lot darker than it might appear at first. The production staff is an all-star lineup, featuring Akiyuki Shinbo as the director, Yuki Kajiura as the music composer, Gen Urobuchi as the writer and Studio Shaft doing the animation. They're all absolutely amazing.

Spice and Wolf is pretty serious and down-to-earth. There's a tiny bit of fanservice, but from what I remember, it's less than Code Geass. It mostly focuses on economics, as the main character is a merchant, and the relationship between the main character and his travelling companion, a wolf goddess who longs to return to her home. I couldn't really wrap my head around the economic stuff, but it's a very down-to-earth sort of series.

If you liked Fullmetal Alchemist, then you'll probably like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I preferred Brotherhood over the original FMA, actually; it's a lot more tightly written, the ending's more satisfying and fewer things feel like an ass-pull.

If you liked Baccano, you might like Durarara. The guy who wrote Baccano also wrote Durarara, so there are some similarities between them. There's also a cameo from Isaac and Miria, if I remember correctly. I think it's a bit sillier than Baccano, though.

 

[Flizzick]

I'll throw in another recommendation for Darker than Black, because I enjoyed the balance between the serious and lighthearted moments.

As for Elfen Lied, it was enjoyable for the most part, though I wouldn't watch it if you aren't a fan of shock value.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Black Lagoon is also pretty cool (They have a WWII PT Boat, dammit!), it sometimes isn't very realistic, but it never really goes silly (Except for maybe the Maid).

But fuck me, that maid is scary!

I haven't watched anime for quite a time, but here's some:

Wings of Honneamise: It's the first work of Gainax, it's a mature story and I think it's a beautiful movie. It's about a steam punk world where a country is about to launch their first manned ship to space. The main character is a slacker dude who works in the space force, a project which no one cares about and he's just there, dragging his life without a purpose... it's not an action anime, thou, and have a slow pace, but there's no anime ultrapower mega impossible heroes or fan service at all.

Rurouni Kenshin - Trust and Betrayal: It's a OVA with 4 chapters that's a prequel to the TV Series, but it has a completely different tone from the series, way much more darker. You can watch even if you never seen anything about Rurouni Kenshin, it works well as a stand alone piece. It's a animation classic, very good. Be warned that's a bit violent in some scenes, but it's completely free from anime weirdness and it's a good story with very good direction.

About Evangelion, it's worth watching by yourself. I like a lot, the ending never frustrated me... but if you are the kind of viewer that like mysteries stories where every detail is tied in with full rational explanations in the end, you'll get disappointed. The story is much more concerned in giving characters emotional resolution than explaining every detail of it's world and it's symbols. The religious stuff is really just a mishmash of symbols to create a context, kind of a MacGuffin... don't overanalyze it and you'll be good.

pretty much all of this. I've heard great stuff about RSF: Wings of Honneamise and can vouch for Kenshin: trust and betrayal as a great serious piece. It lacks the light-heartedness of the main series and can be enjoyed by non-fans.

 

[EbonBehelit]

Berserk
Watch it through to the end and you'll see why. The anime only covers one arc of the manga.

Samurai Champloo
By the same people as Cowboy Bebop. While Bebop is Sci-Fi with Jazz/blues, Champloo is Feudal Japan with Hip-Hop (not a fan, but it works well enough). It's also pretty damn good.

Hellsing Ultimate
Never watched the original Hellsing. Ultimate is gory as hell and pretty stylish to boot, though Seras' comedy scenes are a bit jarring.

Samurai7
An anime take on Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai'. Same overall premise, but the bandits are mechs and the setting gives off a steampunk vibe. Pretty solid stuff.

 

[Yopaz]

Welcome to the NHK might be interesting. It does include some weird stuff but it's not presented as the normal state of affairs. Every single character is very clearly dysfunctional. And what follows is the most hilariously sad story I've seen in quite a while. Not quite sure what genre this would be, I don't really think it's any... Is there a dysfunctional characters incapable of coping with society genre?

I was basically just looking for the first post to suggest this and agree with it. Welcome To The NHK is a great anime.

You'll actually laugh as you're getting depressed over how fucked up it is and how realistic and plausible the plot actually is. The author of the book wrote it based on his own personal experiences being in a similar situation. It's hilarious without being over the top. Seriously, this is a series you should watch if you want a mature anime.

 

[w00tage]

Black Lagoon: It may not seem serious at all. Then you hit Hansel and Gretel.

One of my favorite action series. Except for the Vampire Twins arc. I do not watch those eps :\

Allow me to put in a couple of suggestions.

Moribito, Guardian of the Spirit - A decent medieval Japan fantasy story, slow paced with times of intense and fantastically executed action, overall really well drawn.

Samurai X videos. Adult OVAs of the Rurouni Kenshin kiddie anime series. You will very likely enjoy them, though you may end up with a bro lump-in-your-throat.

Claymore. ....god I wish they'd done better with this. The manga is at 140 eps, but they rewrote the anime to end about volume 60? or so? The opening is cheesy, the ending has a good theme, the story is multilayered with horror, brutality and doomed heroism on top and creepy undercurrents beneath (4.5 stars), the characters are very well done and drawn, the Japanese voices are superb and OH MY GOD RAKI WILL YOU STOP CRYING ALREADY - sorry, a main char in the manga was rewritten into a whiner in the anime. Give it a watch, despite its flaws you ought to enjoy it.

Now for adult stories in a younger presentation, 'cause Japan rolls like that:

Hajime no Ippo. Nothing deep here (mama's boy discovers boxing), but a really engaging slice-of-life story that you can just watch anytime. One of the last of the old-style anime and presented for young teens. The fight scenes are done pretty well and it will get its hooks into you if you're not careful

Black Blood Brothers. 12 eps, sraightforward story with no time wasted on fluff. Presented for a fairly young audience, there's nothing childish about this vampire storyline. Best female villain ever, every character is well developed, and the story has a couple of very good twists. Great effort, though they ran out of money and had to cheese on a couple of the key action scenes at the end of the series. Bonus points for actually turning a funereal march into an action theme, complete with electric guitars lol.


Edit: adding +1s for Last Exile and Planetes.

 

[thesilentman]

snip

I come into this thread, and you take all of the suggestions I had. Even Mardock Scramble. So I just have to second all of them, and add some Akira to that list. You can't have enough Akira. Beserk is also great, as well as Monster and 20th Century Boys (but that's a manga). You may want to get some subs for all of them, as well, it's just better subbed. The only dub I recommend is Darker than Black's though, those voices just grew on me more.

 

[Cied]

I'm surprised Shiki hasn't been mentioned, it's a great anime that explores the morality of being a vampire. It starts a bit slow, but it's not bad at all and it's one of my favorites.

Sword Art Online is something I definitely wouldn't recommend as it never holds onto a plot. One episode the main character teams up with a blacksmith (whom you'll see maybe one or two more times in the rest of the series) to make a sword he doesn't even want to use for a good portion of the damn show, and in another episode is dedicated to him fishing. For how great it could have been, it settled for being a mediocre anime with mediocre character development and hopes you'll like it because it's "interesting".

Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) is an anime about cellphones (and other means of communication, I suppose) that can predict the future. The twelve of them that possess such cellphones are then placed into a battle royale by the god governing the world they live in. The winner takes his place as god and the rest are, well, dead.

Attack on Titan is a show with a shoddy protagonist, but does have a great concept and great supporting characters. Any time Eren gets screen time I get a little bit sadder, but with time he gets to be a little less reckless and an irrational pain in the ass as the story focuses on other characters.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Puella Magi Madoka Magica- Magical girl neon genesis evangelion only without the crappy flaws from EVA. Super highly recommended (It's only 12 eps watch it naow)

I marathoned this yesterday, and can back up its 'like Eva but for magical girls minus the flaws' like the really bad characters in Eva. Also, ^^ be prepared to hate one of the characters if you watch this, a lot.


but if you MUST watch Eva (I don't recommend it, its awful), and want an ending that makes some fucking sense, skip the last two eps in the series and just go with the 'End of' movie, that'll at least save you the migraine of trying to figure out what the fuck is going on

 

[thefascistpig]

I'd reccomend casshern sins and blue exorcist. Also gintama though thats mainly comedy though it has a lot of serious arcs

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Gantz

Nope, as said by others before you. From what I gather, it's basically what you would get if you somehow turned the phrase "ANIME ISNT 4 KIDS!!!!!!!" into a TV series.

Berserk

I actually just finished watching Berserk yesterday. It strengthened my suspicions that the "best anime ever" are actually just whatever happened to be picked up by Adult Swim in the early 2000's. Not that it's a bad show by any stretch of the imagination, but it ends at the moment the plot begins. Literally. Episodes 2-25 are an enormous flashback to previous events, and while the manga then returns to the present, the anime never does. It ends on the cliffhangeriest cliffhanger I've seen in my entire life.

Elfen Lied

I'd be inclined to say don't watch Elfen Lied because it's a terrible show, but of course I shouldn't say that because people like this show. Those people are dumb (Hate the sinner, not the sin, I say). Luckily, you're averse to anime tropes, because Elfen Lied has most of them, so I can just say don't watch it for that reason instead.

If you want something grounded in reality, watch Monster. It's a good series in its own right (though it is slow paced and emotionally draining at times) and basically my de-facto "anime recommendation for people who hate anime" due to its lack of fantastical elements.

I personally found Monster too slow-paced to keep watching it (the art didn't help either), but based on the praise it gets I have no intention of writing it off, and it does seem to be what you're looking for.

I'd like to point out, though, that you may not like what you think you like (insert Jimquisition episode on focus groups here). For example, everyone says: no highschool, no fanservice, no mecha, and the more homophobic and/or repressed ones say no effeminate guys. Well Code Geass has all of that, and everybody likes Code Geass*.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Confirmed by scientific study in 2009. Based on random genetic sampling, people who do not like Code Geass are actually alien invaders, not humans.

snip

Are you...are you serious

I think you're the first person who has claimed that the absolutely miniscule level of fanservice in Code Geass (I can't even remember anything off the top of my head, but it's been a while) is ruining it for you.

Code Geass is something that consistently features in pretty much everyone's top anime lists. A lot. There's a reason for that. It's not perfect, but out of whatever gripes one could possibly have with the show (I have a few myself)...fanservice?

In that case DEFINITELY stay away from Gantz and Elfen Lied. If you think Code Geass was sexualised, then watching those two may turn you away from anime forever.

There's also the possibility of me having watched enough anime to get completely desensitized to fanservice, to the point of my brain not even registering/remembering it. Not unless it is brutally shoved into my face...oh on that note, do NOT watch Highschool Of The Dead.

He's not the only one. Code Geass is my second-favorite anime (unhorsed from first by a certain diabolical bunny-cat), but I would still say the fanservice detracted from my experience. What I'm looking for from pretty much every story is a strongly woven emotional experience. That's why I liked Code Geass, why I liked Madoka, why I liked Steins;Gate, why I liked Evangelion, why I liked Gurren Lagann. For that matter, it's why I liked Iron Man 3. And fanservice is poison to that emotional IV drip (except when used appropriately, as in Bakemonogatari, Gurren Lagann, and...no, that's about it). That's how I see it, anyway.

However, if you want a "serious" anime, I suggest Monster.

My recommendation have been stated before but I'll throw in my suggestions as well:

Monster The first anime that comes to mind when I think of mature anime. It's slow paced but very well grounded. It's all about a young surgeon who saves the life a young boy that grows into (well he sort of already was) a murderous sociopath. His whole life gets thrown upside down and he's got to stop the Monster he created.

Monster, just Monster.

Definitely sounds interesting. Is the dub any good, or should I watch it with subtitles?

You...you could watch it on Hulu both subbed and dubbed - assuming you live in the land where the light of Hulu touches - but it seems like it's not there anymore. Odd.

That's what I was about to say:

(Is this shot really necessary? None of the male characters are filmed like this...)

(Why?!)

I realise Code Geass is far from the worst offender, but I find any of that stuff annoying. I notice every time a female character inexplicably wears a stripperific outfit, or their breasts jiggle when they move slightly. The fact that it's (comparatively) more subtle in Code Geass almost makes it worse. It's obvious they don't need to do it, so I don't know why they choose to.

Argh scale those down, way too big :S

The fact you said "None of the male characters are filmed like this..." makes me feel you are very new to anime. Code Geass very much falls within Shounen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dnen_manga]genre, a category where female fanservice is common and male fanservice is extremely rare for obvious reasons.

You find it annoying, and that's fine, but a lot of the fanbase doesn't. Code Geass for the most part stays well within the bounds of keeping fanservice exactly that - a little something for the fans. You either appreciate it, develop a tolerance to it, or outright despise it. People in the last group will have a difficult time enjoying quite a few anime that are generally considered to be worth watching, since every bit of fanservice will constantly put them off. I can't really help with that.

I'm someone who usually appreciates fanservice it as long as it's kept on a leash and isn't allowed to run rampant pushing-over the other elements of the anime/manga. I can happily say "wooo go Karen you sexy mecha pilot!" and at the same time respect her as a character with significant influence. As for the Ashford Academy girls, they aren't exactly particularly deep characters but holy SHIT I found myself crying so hard at some of the later...umm...don't wanna spoil it for you, finish that anime first

I'd disagree with you on two counts at least. One, that fanservice is archetypal of shounen, and two, that Code Geass is a shounen. I mean, it's a misuse of the term to begin with, since it really only applies to manga (and I suppose by extension adaptations of manga), while Code Geass is an original anime. And Code Geass's manga adaptation was shounen, so that kind of weakens my position. But I'm still right, because reasons!

I really only say this because people have a habit of drawing some kind of magic line between shounen and seinen. Like, shounen is okay if you're a shit casual, but the pros are up here watching DEEP, SERIOUS seinen stuff, completing forgetting that everything terrible they've ever seen was also seinen.

Have I gone on too long?

Elfen Lied is worth watching, but it is very... bipolar. It is a dark sci-fi story that is intermingled with a comedic dorm anime (ala Love Hina). It's done for contrast, to make the dark/brutal stuff stand out more when compared to the funny cutesy stuff. It's a very effective technique, but the extreme tone changes can be off-putting. (the dub is fine, although a few characters sound like they huff helium to get high)

Let me just write down another point in support of "people like the dubs of things they like". The dub for Elfen Lied is quite bad. It was done by Sentai Filmworks. But I repeat myself.

Serial Experiments Lain is also damn good. (SUB only! Dub is awful.)

Or perhaps not. The delivery of the Japanese in Lain is so flat I'd consider it and the dub to be all but interchangeable. Although in Japanese the antagonist is voiced by Sho Hayami, who also voices Aizen in Bleach, so that experience is kind of orgasmic.

Yeah, avoid NG:E unless you want to have an aneurysm. I am also one of those rare people who didn't care much for Ghost in the Shell. While interesting, I always deemed it too slow for an action anime, and not paced properly for a detective thriller. It'll go from stop to 100 MPH over the span of one scene, and the effect can be jarring (snooze...oh HELLO...snoooze...)

Ah, right, Ghost in the Shell is also a TV series. I've seen an episode or two of Stand Alone Complex, plus the original (well, not actually "original", but...) movie, and I thought they were both pretty bad. I thought the movie was pretentious as hell. And I liked Evangelion, so that's saying something.

Also, keep an eye out for Psycho Pass, Shinsekai Yori, Zetsuen no Tempest, Another the Animation, and Btooom in case they ever get released.

Another's been released, and Tempest as well, I think. Plus, everything you've mentioned except Katanagatari is streaming...if you live in the right country, anyway.

Rin, Daughter of Mnemosyne. About One immortal woman living in the a society like ours and the story progresses into the near future. Women who become immortal by a seed from the tree of life and the men get the same but turn to demon like monsters.

Also has what may be the highest tits/minute ratio of anything this side of hentai. Including Queen's Blade. It wishes it was torture porn but couldn't be for whatever reason, so they had to tell a story instead.

So, yeah, the OP should probably pass on that.

Eva series - You may as well watch it and make your own mind, it's overrated, pretentious and grating but that comes with analysis and time

Yeah, I agree complete - whoops, I thought we were talking about Wolf's Rain. My mistake.