Recommend me an anime(that isn't about kids in high school.)

[Moderated]

Elfen Lied
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni
Clannad
Sword Art ONline
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Mirai Nikki(Technically they are highschoolers, but other than the first episode the highschool scenes are during a terrorist bombing and the show isn't about highschool life)
Deadman Wonderland
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
Oda Nobuna no Yabou
Welcome to the NHK

 

[Hugh Wright]

Asked this question to my regular anime board after a few years away, but also threw in the caveats that it had to have roughly equal gender ratios and not be as depressing as my love life. For thier answers follow the link [http://forums.animeuknews.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17539&start=0], but i was a little dieheartened as most of the recomendations are five years old or more. Curse the Moe fandom.
My own additions are
Erin [http://www.crunchyroll.com/erin]- while it deals with a child and she goes to a 'school' it is set in a non European or Eastern medieval kingdom and has some of the best understanding of biology, ecology and natural history I've seen a show.
Yugo the Negotiator - very good drama about a hostage (mostly) negotiator
Mushishi- a bit episodic, but since supernatural investigation show.
Last Exile- Leads are kids but it's got a good bit of war, politics and dog fighting.

 

[FearlessFaber]

Planetes
This is the hardest sci-fi I've seen in any medium, it makes 2001: A Space Odyssey look like Star Wars.
It's about a group of astronauts charge with cleaning up space debris.
So yes, its space garbage men... its alot better then the premise suggest.
Also despite the hard sci-fi, its pretty easy watching.
Really goes in depth into the human side of casual orbital space flight, also brings up alot of things that astronauts really experience but you don't really hear much about.

This. I especially enjoyed the first part of the series (episodes 1-17 or something like that). Without giving anything away, those episodes normally focused on the individual characters and their backstories. Just excellent.

 

[Dwarfman]

Basically the title,and yes that also excludes anime with high-school esque academy settings(like Infinite stratos.)
Also just to save you some time,i've seen pretty much all the anime thats aired on adult swim so you can skip the obvious ones like cowboy bebop and FMA.

Was going to say Bebop but you cut me of...okay here we go...

Trigun
Wolf's Rain
One Piece
Monster
Macross/Robotech
Black Lagoon
Bubblegum Crisis
Samurai Champloo
Initial D
Afro Samurai

 

[SirDeadly]

70 posts before someone mentioned One Piece, that is quite disappointing. One Piece is my favourite by far, I love the story and the characters.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

If you want confusing as fuck go for Baccano or Umineko no Kara ni.
They're also insanely graphic, so if you don't like limbs being thrown around or faces scratched you should pass on those too.

Gurren Lagann (best mecha anime ever)
Welcome to the NHK (confusing stuff)
Black Lagoon
Darker Than Black
Planetes (space garbage-men, surprisingly good)
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

 

[Fractral]

All the best anime are about kids in high school.

I'll throw in a vote for Hunter X Hunter, although it got pretty weird by episode 40 or so with this magic stuff being introduced. I gave up about the time they left the battle tower, but the first part where they're doing the hunter training is solid.
I'm currently burning through Attack on Titan, and if you're one of the few people who haven't watched it you should go do that now. The battles are great to watch- fast paced and gorgeous- the characters are great and the story is gripping. Plus it has a pretty good soundtrack.

 

[SantoUno]

Hopefully the OP and other people will still see this post.

Digimon Tamers.

Seriously, if you decide to just watch ONE series of the Digimon anime franchise, please watch Digimon Tamers, in Japanese with English for the love of god, please.

The reason why? Because this is one of those rare series that completely departs from a previous iteration's canon and takes its universe and tropes to an entirely new level. Don't get me wrong, the first two seasons/series, Digimon Adventure and Adventure 02 are still great. Real fun, and full of great, emotional, and realistic character development. But Tamers takes the majority of those succeses and breaks their boundaries completely. This is a children's anime that heavily references philosophy, the history of computer technology and landmark advancements, the human condition and experience, and foreign cultures. But the best part is that it absolutely is not afraid to jump into kid-unfriendly and extremely dark, gritty, and heartbreaking territory. I mean, the ending. THE ENDING. I seriously do not remember any ending that has really made me cry so much. Even thinking about it now makes me want to tear up. In terms of sadness-inducing tragedy/joy, it blows Toy's Story 3 ending out of the water.

Oh, and I really, REALLY advise you to watch the original Japanese version instead of the English dub. There's just absolutely no way you will appreciate the full effect of this series with the dub. While not an atrocity, the dub still severely downplays a lot of the series's best and most heavy moments.

Hope this peaked your interest and you will decide to check it out! Let me remind you that this series is set in an entirely different canon that it's predecessors, so you will have absolutely no sense of unfamiliarity. It's basically Digimon built from the ground up when compared to the previous ones.

Oh and to prove just how much more vast and deep Tamers is over it's predecessors:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/DigimonAdventure?from=Main.DigimonAdventure

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/DigimonAdventure02

And now here is Tamers:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/DigimonTamers

The TV tropes for Tamers is two or three times as long as the Adventure/02 pages!

 

[Lord Rothschild]

MEZZO DSA is a good one
REQUIEM is also good alittle wierd
basicaly any GUNDAM seires thats set in universal century
MOTHER FUCKING ZOIDS

 

[Cpu46]

... Takes deep breath.

Shows not based in a school:

Eureka Seven
Gurren Lagann
Blue Submarine No.6 (OVA)
Gundam (ALL OF THEM)
Hellsing Ultimate (OVA)
Spice & Wolf
Kurokami
Last Exile
Marian Successor Nadesko
Tenchi Muyo
Sengoku Basara
The Devil is a Part Timer
Attack On Titan
Log Horizon

Shows set in or around a school you should still check out:

Soul Eater
Asura Cryin
Kill La Kill

 

[The White Hunter]

Got a week or so to kill?

One Piece.

It's pretty much the only long running shounen series worth partaking of, though the manga is far better.

On the shorter side at the moment I would recommend watching Baccano, and watch it in english as the dub is very good indeed.

 

[The White Hunter]

70 posts before someone mentioned One Piece, that is quite disappointing. One Piece is my favourite by far, I love the story and the characters.

People around here tend to prefer shorter series and turn their nose up at One Piece because it's long running shounen without every giving it a chance or watching more than a few episodes. And the sheer length at this point is dawning, hence I recommend the manga over the anime these days.

Shame the one piece group on here is so freaking dead.

 

[CriticalMiss]

One Piece! It's got pirates. And some of the pirates have massive boobs! It's all you need to know... Oh and it's a really long series, so you'll want to set aside a few days to watch it all. The animation apparently gets a bit crap at times because it's so popular people will watch it regardless of the quality. But the story is good if you like piratey things. I prefer reading the manga myself but I occasionally watch the anime and always watch the movies too (which are hit and miss).

 

[Julius Terrell]

Planetes
This is the hardest sci-fi I've seen in any medium, it makes 2001: A Space Odyssey look like Star Wars.
It's about a group of astronauts charge with cleaning up space debris.
So yes, its space garbage men... its alot better then the premise suggest.
Also despite the hard sci-fi, its pretty easy watching.
Really goes in depth into the human side of casual orbital space flight, also brings up alot of things that astronauts really experience but you don't really hear much about.

This. I especially enjoyed the first part of the series (episodes 1-17 or something like that). Without giving anything away, those episodes normally focused on the individual characters and their backstories. Just excellent.

No....Wait???....Seriously!?!

There is NO WAY in a million years is Planetz going to compare to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sure it's a good series and all, but isn't earth shattering the way 2001 was. I think Eva comes far closer to coming after that title. Eva has some pretty good sci-fi going behind it.

and While I'm at it....

Gun Grave
Texinolized
You're under arrest
Inyuyasha
Wolf's rain (I forgot that one!)

And to the guy/girl that mentioned Excel Saga. That show is about as mature as fucking sesame street. I tried so hard to watch that show, but it kept giving me that fooly Cooly(sp?) vibe. I hate randomness

 

[Sylocat]

Agree with those who mentioned Last Exile, Spice and Wolf, and Black Lagoon.

Also check out:

Planetes
Outlaw Star
Steel Angel Kurumi
Samurai Champloo
Sword Art Online
Vision of Escaflowne (main character is a high schooler, but trapped in another world far from home, &c., no high school involved)
Fullmetal Alchemist

And so on and so forth.

 

[Platypus540]

First ones that come to mind:
Attack on Titan (aka Shingeki no Kyojin)
Gundam 00
Samurai Champloo (same studio as Cowboy Bebop)
The Sky Crawlers (a movie, not a show)
Gurren Lagann
The Devil is a Part Timer (aka Overlord at Work)

 

[Brotha Desmond]

My personal favorites include:

Fate/Zero (great action oriented anime)

Steins;Gate (anime about time travel, not an anime with time travel)

Death Note (Yes, the main character finds the note book while in High school, but for most of the series he is either in college or an official Police officer)

Blood lad (A short, 10 episode fighting anime)

 

[SinisterDeath]

Okay, at this point I'm sure these have been mentioned before.

Attack on Titan.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan
Black Lagoon
D.Gray Man.
Monster*
Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)
Hajime no Ippo**
GunGrave
Moonlight Mile***
Beserk****

* Monster,
is incredibly slow paced, and has a huge number of episodes. But if you stick with it, you may be surprised. I like it for its depth and maturity. If you can stick it out for 30-40 episodes, it will grow on you. OR you'll just go insane and kill someone..

** Hajime No Ippo,
is an anime about Boxing. Your criteria stated not a high school anime, about characters in high school. Well, this isn't a high school anime. Though it does start with a character in High School, but it goes beyond that, into graduation as he continues his career in boxing. I saw one episode of the '3rd' season, and enjoyed it so much, I marathoned the rest of the series in a week. I really, really enjoyed this show.

*** Moonlight Mile.
Okay, many of you have probably never heard of this epic masterpiece of awesomeness.
This is one of those superbly RARE anime, with an Adult Cast, that does adult things, without it degrading into hentai or echi comedy fan service crap.
It is full of combat, action, sex, loss, adventure, you name it. I highly recommend anyone who wants something mature without degrading into the realm of hentai to watch this series.

**** Beserk
Is a very gorey anime, not quite elfen lied, but its still worth a watch.

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

Kaiji, it's about a gambling addict who get's in way over his head to pay off his debts. If you liked the battle of wits aspect of death note you'll probably like this to an extent at least. The second season is especially good.

 

[Julius Terrell]

No....Wait???....Seriously!?!

There is NO WAY in a million years is Planetz going to compare to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sure it's a good series and all, but isn't earth shattering the way 2001 was. I think Eva comes far closer to coming after that title. Eva has some pretty good sci-fi going behind it.

He was commenting how realistically technology and the physics of space is portrayed in Planetes, and in that regard Planetes is exceptional. Most of the technologies presented in that show are either within our reach today, or not far off from being developed and thus feasible.

Eva (I assume you're talking about Evangelion) is a good sci-fi show, but hard sci-fi it is most definitely not.

I can agree with that.

I feel like a total dunce for not mentioning outlaw star. I remember watching that show the whole time it ran on toonami. I also can't forget G-force or it's original name gotchaman. Danmn I couldn't get enough of that show. Also, fucking Ronin warriors!! I haven't seen that show in quite a while. Good stuff indeed! Most of these shows I'm mentioning and in my other posts had GREAT English dub tracks. I think back then companies cared more about providing a good dub. I know central park media had a good track record for English dubs. I'm rambling now, but yup.