Monster simply aped psychological thrillers from the west. It's take on mental illness in particular was very childish. That being said, if you're a fan of Monster you may like Urasawa's other anime, 'Master Keaton' as well as his (arguably best) manga, '20th century boys' and his absolutely brilliant remake of Astroboy 'Pluto' (don't be put off by the whole Astroboy part, it's great.)maninahat said:Alright, you've all seen a topic posted like this every other day. This one is slighlty different however.
Basically, I'm tired of how immature anime is, and I want to watch a show that'll convince me that anime can be for a smart, adult audience. DO NOT RECOMMEND ME ELFEN LIED. That show is exactly the kind of childish, immaturity I am talking about: a show that pretends to be sober and intelligent, but resorts to cheesecake cat girls, inappropriate panty shots at dramatic moments, and sensationalist gore. Adult content does not equal maturity.
I have already seen The Grave of The Fire Flies and Monster, those two being examples of good, mature anime. If you can find me something along those lines, I'd be grateful.
How about naruto......wait that the opposite of what you want.....umm.....what about evangelion the main characters are Emo but they use giant robots -_-.I guess You could all ways try powerpuff girls z!maninahat said:Alright, you've all seen a topic posted like this every other day. This one is slighlty different however.
Basically, I'm tired of how immature anime is, and I want to watch a show that'll convince me that anime can be for a smart, adult audience. DO NOT RECOMMEND ME ELFEN LIED. That show is exactly the kind of childish, immaturity I am talking about: a show that pretends to be sober and intelligent, but resorts to cheesecake cat girls, inappropriate panty shots at dramatic moments, and sensationalist gore. Adult content does not equal maturity.
I have already seen The Grave of The Fire Flies and Monster, those two being examples of good, mature anime. If you can find me something along those lines, I'd be grateful.
Oh my god pluto was great but i never new there was an anime version [i read the manga] i might try and watch some seeing how the story was one of the few that made me cry.Grey Carter said:Monster simply aped psychological thrillers from the west. It's take on mental illness in particular was very childish. That being said, if you're a fan of Monster you may like Urasawa's other anime, 'Master Keaton' as well as his (arguably best) manga, '20th century boys' and his absolutely brilliant remake of Astroboy 'Pluto' (don't be put off by the whole Astroboy part, it's great.)maninahat said:Alright, you've all seen a topic posted like this every other day. This one is slighlty different however.
Basically, I'm tired of how immature anime is, and I want to watch a show that'll convince me that anime can be for a smart, adult audience. DO NOT RECOMMEND ME ELFEN LIED. That show is exactly the kind of childish, immaturity I am talking about: a show that pretends to be sober and intelligent, but resorts to cheesecake cat girls, inappropriate panty shots at dramatic moments, and sensationalist gore. Adult content does not equal maturity.
I have already seen The Grave of The Fire Flies and Monster, those two being examples of good, mature anime. If you can find me something along those lines, I'd be grateful.
'Himitsu:Top secret' Is a fairly mature series about a device that allows the police to view dead people's memories. I haven't seen it personally but my girlfriend highly recomends it.
'Welcome to the NHK' is a brilliant take on the Hikimori phenomenon and has some extremely dark humour. It's my personal favourite.
'Bakamonogatari' is an odd horror anime about a vampire and a girl who weighs nothing. It has some extremely striking visuals and some very witty back and forth between the characters. I'm thoroughly enjoying it thus far.
I'm seconding Ghost in the Shell: SAC and Black Lagoon. One for the poli-sci, sci-fi, philosophy, and tech... the other for campy 90's action movie fun. Also good to see someone else who enjoys the show over the movies.loc978 said:Just how cerebral do you require your anime to be?
...not that I disagree with you about Gantz and Elfen Lied...
Still, it's hard to recommend something without a list of popular anime series' you've seen.
At the risk of recommending things you've already seen, I'll just throw some favorites out there:
I'll recommend Black Lagoon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lagoon], like I do to everyone. It's sort of a rhapsody of childish entertainment (with adult content) and crime drama with a heavy dose of over-the-top pulp action. Unlike many anime, it really doesn't pander to a specific audience or pull punches in terms of how fucked up the world it depicts is though.
For a more serious recommendation: Planetes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes] (プラネテス, Ancient Greek: ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ "wanderers"). I consider it to be the most realistic depiction of near-future space-based sci-fi I've ever seen... aside from that, it's mostly a slice-of-life/romantic comedy show.
Another serious recommendation: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex]. Difficult to describe if you're completely unfamiliar with Ghost in the Shell... but suffice to say it's very complex sci-fi. There's very little character development to be had in the series, but if you enjoy well-written plots and engaging world-building, this is a very good series. The movies weren't bad, but this is better.
For a movie recommendation... Perfect Blue [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Blue]. Not your average anime, it's a psychological thriller revolving around a young female Japanese pop music idol. Quite gritty and a pretty massive mindfuck.
A couple characters getting shot in bebop i wouldn't exactly call that immature considering it was one of the best Animes of the 90's.maninahat said:Again, I wouldn't exactly call them mature. I've already seen them both and loved them, but I see them as silly fun and not the sort of thing I am after at the moment.Dindril said:I would say Cowboy Bebop and Baccano... That's about all I can think of.
Actually, you, (and the OP) have reminded me of Studio Ghibli films in general.bahumat42 said:im suprised it took this long to come up as well.K1NG_IC3 said:Surprised nobody suggested Death Note, but maybe it is already well-known across the board. Far from an expert in anime that is outright smart but know some that have very nice psychological tones to it.
Ghost in the Shell and .hack// are some more popular ones that take itself more seriously than most. Neon Genesis Evangelion is popular two, very twisted even though its all teenagers (in fact, the point that all the focused protagonist are teenagers enhances the experience, making all their mental horror more believably).
"Welcome to NHK!" can work for some - http://myanimelist.net/anime/1210/Welcome_to_the_NHK!
All-in-all though, best to look back at classic animes that aren't too crazy. Older animes sometimes take themselves seriously through the whole thing without ridiculous plotholes and quirks. Characters still tend to be out there and outright cartoonish. Hope you get recommended some good ones!
Mind you it did drop off in the second half.
Film wise
Princess mononoke
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
and at a push akira, but only if your appreciative of good artwork, because the storyline is a clusterfuck (trying to condense what would be several seasons of an anime into one film was never gonna work well)
You bastard you ninja'd me on every damn one!Jonluw said:Clannad is great, but there's quite a lot of generic slice of life silliness.
FLCL is quite a mature growing-up story, I would say; but still very silly.
Welcome to the NHK. A very interesting story, but once again a lot of silliness.
Rin daughters of Mnemosyne has an intersting story, but I don't know if you'd think it handles its adult content maturely or not.
If you directly dismiss Elfen Lied I don't know if you are "mature". It has serious points on approval and the psychological impact of being left out. Sure, it has some scenes I couldn't care less if they removed. But they are few, and I could put forth an identical argument over any "mature" film.maninahat said:Alright, you've all seen a topic posted like this every other day. This one is slighlty different however.
Basically, I'm tired of how immature anime is, and I want to watch a show that'll convince me that anime can be for a smart, adult audience. DO NOT RECOMMEND ME ELFEN LIED. That show is exactly the kind of childish, immaturity I am talking about: a show that pretends to be sober and intelligent, but resorts to cheesecake cat girls, inappropriate panty shots at dramatic moments, and sensationalist gore. Adult content does not equal maturity.
I have already seen The Grave of The Fire Flies and Monster, those two being examples of good, mature anime. If you can find me something along those lines, I'd be grateful.
The story follows a team of pirates/mercenaries known as Lagoon Company, that smuggles goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia in the early 1990s.[4] Their base of operations is located in the fictional harbor city of Roanapur in the south-east Thailand (somewhere in the Amphoe Mueang Trat district, likely on the mainland north/north-east of the Ko Chang island or on the island itself).[5] They transport goods in the 80-foot (24 m) Elco-type PT boat Black Lagoon. When on land, they move around and conduct business using Benny's 1968 Plymouth Road Runner. Lagoon Company does business with various clients, but has a particularly friendly relationship with the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow. The team takes on a variety of missions?which may involve violent firefights, hand-to-hand combat, and nautical battles?in various Southeast Asian locations and when not doing much, the members of the Lagoon Company spend much of their down time at The Yellow Flag, a bar in Roanapur which is often destroyed in firefights
I did consider adding TTGL as well...WrcklessIntent said:You bastard you ninja'd me on every damn one!Jonluw said:Clannad is great, but there's quite a lot of generic slice of life silliness.
FLCL is quite a mature growing-up story, I would say; but still very silly.
Welcome to the NHK. A very interesting story, but once again a lot of silliness.
Rin daughters of Mnemosyne has an intersting story, but I don't know if you'd think it handles its adult content maturely or not.
Well except Rin I mean i watched it and all but it was... lets go with different, thats a nice ambiguous word.
umm... I'll add tengen toppa Gurren Laggan.
I mean its got action and it takes itself seriously at the right moments.
I'm a former huge anime fan who has fallen out of love with anime and thinks 98% of it is garbage, so I consider myself quite capable of meeting your request.maninahat said:Alright, you've all seen a topic posted like this every other day. This one is slighlty different however.
Basically, I'm tired of how immature anime is, and I want to watch a show that'll convince me that anime can be for a smart, adult audience. DO NOT RECOMMEND ME ELFEN LIED. That show is exactly the kind of childish, immaturity I am talking about: a show that pretends to be sober and intelligent, but resorts to cheesecake cat girls, inappropriate panty shots at dramatic moments, and sensationalist gore. Adult content does not equal maturity.
I have already seen The Grave of The Fire Flies and Monster, those two being examples of good, mature anime. If you can find me something along those lines, I'd be grateful.
Fair point about Monster, its plot devices were pretty derivative and simplistic. Though I don't remember mental illness being a central theme (wasn't it more to do with brain washing?). By anime standards though, it is streets ahead in terms of mature viewing.Grey Carter said:Monster simply aped psychological thrillers from the west. It's take on mental illness in particular was very childish. That being said, if you're a fan of Monster you may like Urasawa's other anime, 'Master Keaton' as well as his (arguably best) manga, '20th century boys' and his absolutely brilliant remake of Astroboy 'Pluto' (don't be put off by the whole Astroboy part, it's great.)
'Himitsu:Top secret' Is a fairly mature series about a device that allows the police to view dead people's memories. I haven't seen it personally but my girlfriend highly recomends it.
'Welcome to the NHK' is a brilliant take on the Hikimori phenomenon and has some extremely dark humour. It's my personal favourite.
'Bakamonogatari' is an odd horror anime about a vampire and a girl who weighs nothing. It has some extremely striking visuals and some very witty back and forth between the characters. I'm thoroughly enjoying it thus far.