Serious Animes

[Casual Shinji]

Berserk. You'll have to read the manga after you finish watching the anime since it never went past the first arc.

Or he could just start reading the manga from the start and avoid the bad animation, art direction, and voice acting all together.

Watched maybe an episode of anime after reading the entire manga (holy shit it's long, even for a 20 years of existence). Wasn't nearly as good as manga... Great on its own, but manga blows it out of the sky.

Absolutely!

I tried watching Berserk a long time ago, but I couldn't get past even the first episode. After that I never even bothered trying the manga because the anime left such a bad taste in my mouth. Untill about 2 years ago when I decided to give the manga a look just because I had nothing better to do.

And well, now it's basically one of the most amazing things I've ever read.

 

[mitchell271]

Off the top of my head?
Death Note
Black Lagoon
Fullmetal Alchemist (the only good english dub on this list)
Elfen Lied
Full Metal Panic!

Just go to animefreak.tv and use their search function, and you'll get TONS of different results
Also, watch anime in japanese. the english dubs are usually terrible

 

[Jonluw]

The most serious one I can think of right now is Serial experiments Lain.

To be honest I didn't really get it; but I'm sure it was very deep.

Oh, and Welcome to the NHK is great. And at least I got that one.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Berserk. You'll have to read the manga after you finish watching the anime since it never went past the first arc.

Or he could just start reading the manga from the start and avoid the bad animation, art direction, and voice acting all together.

I've seen worse lol

Berserk (the manga) has just such unbelievable artwork that no anime without a colossal budget could hope to replicate that.

However, those promo anime clips made for the release of the 35th volume look unbelievable.


If they could make the entire series with this level of production value, I'd be all over that shit... But then you'd still have to deal with the heavy censorship.

 

[godofallu]

When I made this thread I expected maybe a few replies, just enough to start a small list going. At the moment my list is 18 shows long, and I have been pretty stingy with what advice I actually take.

So I actually sat down and watched the first episode of Samurai Champloo and you guys were right, it was awesome. For all those people quoting me and pushing me to actually give the show a watch, thank you.

I will not, however, be watching anymore Trigun. I hated it, and I don't care that the main character was just acting silly to mask the evil inside him or whatever. The show was repulsively wrong for me.

People note that by serious I didn't just mean no joking 24/7, I meant more of a realistic style. People with superpowers or crazy assassin robot children really aren't up my ally. I don't want some emo teenager who just happens to be a badass or is involved with the mob.

Anyways I have a lot of anime to start watching, thanks everyone.

PS: I learned something from you guys anime is the plural of itself, cool.

 

[littlewisp]

Seirei no Moribito http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdKiPOkh0K8

Yes, I know it is slow to start, but the characterization is amazing. There's a bit of the supernatural in it, but for the most part it's quite realistic. I hope this gets added to your list.

 

[xWestie]

I'd Recommend Wolf's Rain. One of my favourite animes, and is produced by the same studios that made Cowboy Bebop =)

 

[NapalmBob]

...Elfen Lied...masterpieces...

Please tell me you're joking.

Ok, so 'masterpieces' is an overstatement. They are both really good though and I like them.

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

I´m going to join the Death Note crow. Intelligent suspenceful plot with great cliffhangers might be just what you need.

 

[Kotaro]

Serious anime? Hm...
Well, it's not much like "Cowboy Bebop," but "Darker Than Black" is pretty good. Even if it is completely mind-screwy.
"You were expecting an explanation? We gave you a perfectly good set of cryptic conversations, confusing flashbacks, unreliable expositors, and even a mind-screwy journey to the center of the mind. You figure it out. We'll wait."

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Darker Than Black.

All of the episodes are on youtube.
[small]Freakin' ninja'd. [/small]

 

[Leemaster777]

Death Note.
its about a guy who can kill anyone with their face and name.
so he kills criminals.

THEN GOES BUGFUCK CRAZY.

I'd agree. Until that happens.

You know what I'm talking about. The series took a nosedive for the worst about halfway through.

Agreed. Once I discovered the show, I marathoned the first half of the series in a few days... but once I hit the second half, it took me half a year to force myself to finish it.

I did kinda like the ending... but I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't accidentally spoiled it for myself.

OT: Outlaw Star is another one you might consider. It's one of my favorites. It's also space-based, like Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Jacque Michael]

"Now & Then" is seriously under rated. I've watched it like ten years ago & it stills affect me when I watch some of the snippets.

 

[TheOneBearded]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is pretty good. The other version is all right, but not nearly as good as Brotherhood - not even close. Brotherhood has the better story and the soundtrack is amazing. You can enjoy it too. All you have to do is look past the earfuck that is Edward Elric's voice.

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

I hated Durarara and Baccano, and I see those are popular suggestions. I was also not much of a fan of Death Note either. The Escapist really seems to love that anime...

Anyway,
Michiko & Hatchin
Samurai Champloo
Seirei no Moribito
Black Lagoon
Ergo Proxy
Katanagatari (it has some super corny bits though... "cheerio" is not funny)
Sword of the Stranger
Redline

Last two are movies.