Serious Animes

[Tselis]

Gantz, if you can deal with the gore. Wolf's Rain is also good. And as a small aside, Trigun gets much better as it goes on, and the anime is a compilation of the first 2 manga books. The manga is much, and I mean MUCH, different from the anime. Oh yeah, GITS, Ghost In The Shell, is also really fucking awesome.

 

[Azure Sky]

Still... Given what you've mentioned there's still a fairly large chance you won't like it.
But I figured it was worth mentioning.

In addition to that, I would like to mention Vandread, for similar reasons.
Albeit, it's not quite so serious for most of it. =3

 

[plugav]

Serious anime similar to CB? I wouldn't know.

Serious anime worth a watch? Paprika (a feature length animation). It may be a bit naive at points and inexplicably goes from sci-fi thriller to psychedelic action flick halfway through, but I still think it could eat Inception for breakfast.

I might also mention a recent guilty pleasure of mine in the form of Claymore - a grimdark fantasy series about a caste of half-demonic warrior women protecting humanity from ghoulish monsters, whilst also battling the evil within. It gets pretty messed up.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Serious anime similar to CB? I wouldn't know.

Serious anime worth a watch? Paprika (a feature length animation). It may be a bit naive at points and inexplicably goes from sci-fi thriller to psychedelic action flick halfway through, but I still think it could eat Inception for breakfast.

I might also mention a recent guilty pleasure of mine in the form of Claymore - a grimdark fantasy series about a caste of half-demonic warrior women protecting humanity from ghoulish monsters, whilst also battling the evil within. It gets pretty messed up.

Claymore is great, but I felt that it really lost steam around 2 thirds of the way through the series.

From what I hear, it was being made while the manga was still ongoing, so that would explain the dropoff in quality.

 

[Smertnik]

Darker Than Black is quite similar is style, although inferiour to Bebop, at least in my opinion.

I could also recommend Black Lagoon. Pretty brutal realistic (in a wide sense) action anime, well animated, too.
Other than that there's Madlax and Noir, which don't really follow Bebop's pattern but still worth checking out for you, I think.

 

[Azure Sky]

Serious anime similar to CB? I wouldn't know.

Serious anime worth a watch? Paprika (a feature length animation). It may be a bit naive at points and inexplicably goes from sci-fi thriller to psychedelic action flick halfway through, but I still think it could eat Inception for breakfast.

I might also mention a recent guilty pleasure of mine in the form of Claymore - a grimdark fantasy series about a caste of half-demonic warrior women protecting humanity from ghoulish monsters, whilst also battling the evil within. It gets pretty messed up.

Claymore is great, but I felt that it really lost steam around 2 thirds of the way through the series.

From what I hear, it was being made while the manga was still ongoing, so that would explain the dropoff in quality.

Agreed, I noticed a rather large shift around that point.
I mean, the entire story revolves around Raki for the first half, then they drop him of the face of the earth for most of the rest?

 

[NapalmBob]

Besides Ghost in the Shell:

Texhnolyze and Serial Experiments Lain are two I always suggest to people sick of Naruto and Pokemon-type anime, simply because they are so different and thought provoking (one is about the end of the mankind and the other is about ... just watch it). Lain raised so many questions for me and I haven't been able to watch Texhnolyze since the first viewing (but I remember every scene, it has quite the impact if you watch it end to end).

Initial D and Wangan Midnight are excellent if you are into cars. Wangan is both pro and anti-street racing if you watch it enough times. Initial D is legendary and the season when they start touring around Japan with their amateur race team is easily the best.

Elfen Lied and Gantz are borderline. They are both masterpieces and are quite different to other animes, but they both have annoying characters in them (gantz less so since nearly everyone dies on a regular basis).

Bubblegum Crisis is also quite entertaining, as is Battle Angel Alita and Armitage III, if you can find them. All of them have very strong female leads. Movie-wise, Akira and Spriggan are true classics, both pretty end-of-the-world-y.

Oh, and Evangelion is worth it, but it drags on and the lead is a pain in the ass.

EDIT: Noir is great, even though you can see the twist coming, it has awesome shootouts with the two female assassin lead characters. Black Lagoon is also very entertaining, definitely worth a look if you like gunfights. Darker than Black is worth a look, even though it has a super-natural premise. And Full Metal Jacket if you want some laughs, especially season two, called Fumoffu!

 

[Lilani]

So I just finished watching Cowboy Bebop my first trek into the anime genre and I loved it. I then went looking for anime shows supposedly similar to Bebop.

I watched the first episode of Trigun and was disgusted, it was basically everything I don't want it an anime. Bad/childish voice acting, weird anime faces, and a bunch of little kids/girls running around with guns.

Are there any serious animes out there that are similar to Cowboy Bebop?

I don't know if it's "similar" to Bebop as far as story and concept, but you might want to give Durarara a try. Like Bebop it has good music and the animation is gorgeous, and the story and characters are entertaining and well developed. The basic story is very hard to explain about an underground courier for gangs in Ikebukuro Japan, named Celty. The thing about Celty...she's a Dullahan--basically a headless horseman type of creature from Irish lore. It's set in the present, so the "gangs" actually communicate and operate through message boards and chat rooms on the Internet. Celty is known only as the "Black Rider" to the public of Japan, as she rides a black motorcycle with no lights (and the motorcycle is actually a modern incarnation of the horse she would have used in Ireland).

There are lots of subplots and simply awesome minor characters involved, including a few high school kids in the mix, a guy with super strength, a Russian guy who sells sushi, and the legendary sword Saika. At the very end it all comes together in an absolutely incredible finale that is both surprising and satisfying. It's a mystery, thriller, high school, horror, and romance anime all at the same time, without all the bad side effects. There are a lot of characters, but each of them is unique in their own way and actually have a reason for being there. And it's got a great sense of humor. Here's the opening (which is one of the best openings I've ever seen for an anime, in my opinion).

 

[Azure Sky]

Movie-wise, Akira and Spriggan are true classics, both pretty end-of-the-world-y.

Oh, and Evangelion is worth it, but it drags on and the lead is a pain in the ass.

I always liked GitS and the Ghibli works over Akira, but that's probably taste.

Shinji is leagues better in the rebuild too, don't want to draw back and punt anywhere near as much.

 

[Rainbowloid]

I've never actually seen Cowboy Bebop, so I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for, but I would recommend Baccano! if you're just looking for something more mature. It takes a couple of episodes for it to start making sense, but it's definitely worth watching all the way through. If you like it, try Durarara!!, which is pretty similar since it was written by the same person.

 

[Piecewise]

Outlaw star: Probably pretty close to what you're looking for. Space faring bounty hunters fighting against an intergalactic crime syndicate. Has some of the weird shit anime is famous for, but no more so then cowboy.

Big O: otherwise know as Japanese batman. Follows a private investigator, his eternally emotionless android maid, and his giant robot as they seek to solve crimes and beat the shit out of people in a city without memories.

PlanetES: Probably the only Hard science fiction anime I've ever seen. It has its moments of zaniness and over dramatic speeches, but it actually really good if you like coming of age stories.
Mushishi: already been covered.

Ergo proxy: Pretty good, but it descends into massive angst and emo nearly immediately. Main character looks like a background dancer for my chemical romance or something. Some find this aesthetic and the fact that it can come off as pretentious to be a turn off.

Darker then black: OCD secret agents with superpowers which must obsessively do something everytime they use their powers. First bad guy they show has the ability to control gravity, but must break one of his fingers everytime he does it. Extrapolate from there.

Read or Die (ova): It's like 3 episodes and it has a librarian who can control paper fighting a clone of Beethoven playing a song that kills anyone who hears it from inside a giant sky fortress. Well animated, with some great fighting, and a premise that is as balls out awesome as is it is insane.

Also, take a look here if you want.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.225263-Anime-suggestion-list-Look-here-before-asking-what-anime-to-watch-next

 

[Shivhappy]

More serious animes that i recommend-(i too can't stand the action/with humor animes)

Darker than Black
Ghost in the Shell
Karas
Devil May Cry
Sword of the Stranger
Kite(yes its a little girl with a gun, but it's serious i swear)
The Sky Crawlers(personal fav)
Samurai Champloo
Claymore
Samurai 7
Jin-Roh the wolf brigade
Last Exile(i found it to be a little too kid friendly for my tastes, but good enough)
Wolfs Rain(a bit depressing, but entertaining)

almost forgot-Witch Hunter Robin

 

[Azure Sky]

OT The studio ghibli movies in general (specifically princess mononoke, naucissa s(sp?)) have strong adult themes and brilliant animations quality.

Agreed, Nausicaa and Laputa are still some of my favorites of all time.
Though, I have always prefered Miyazaki's work over Takahata's.

 

[Piecewise]

Kite(yes its a little girl with a gun, but it's serious i swear)

You forgot the gratuitous sex scenes involving the main character as a 13 year old.

 

[Feylynn]

Not sure how well these fit but they'd be my recommendations, hopefully you like some of them.

-Samurai Champloo
-Ergo Proxy
-Darker Than Black
-Katanagatari
-Code Geass
-Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
-Serial Experiments Lain
-Ghost Hound

I was going to try and give you little blurbs of what I think but you can likely find much better descriptions using google or something as I'm terrible at explaining these things.
Some of them are less than total serious all the time but sometimes some juxtaposition is needed to give truly serious events a real impact.

 

[godofallu]

So I just finished watching Cowboy Bebop my first trek into the anime genre and I loved it. I then went looking for anime shows supposedly similar to Bebop.

I watched the first episode of Trigun and was disgusted, it was basically everything I don't want it an anime. Bad/childish voice acting, weird anime faces, and a bunch of little kids/girls running around with guns.

Are there any serious animes out there that are similar to Cowboy Bebop?

I don't know if it's "similar" to Bebop as far as story and concept, but you might want to give Durarara a try. Like Bebop it has good music and the animation is gorgeous, and the story and characters are entertaining and well developed. The basic story is very hard to explain about an underground courier for gangs in Ikebukuro Japan, named Celty. The thing about Celty...she's a Dullahan--basically a headless horseman type of creature from Irish lore. It's set in the present, so the "gangs" actually communicate and operate through message boards and chat rooms on the Internet. Celty is known only as the "Black Rider" to the public of Japan, as she rides a black motorcycle with no lights (and the motorcycle is actually a modern incarnation of the horse she would have used in Ireland).

There are lots of subplots and simply awesome minor characters involved, including a few high school kids in the mix, a guy with super strength, a Russian guy who sells sushi, and the legendary sword Saika. At the very end it all comes together in an absolutely incredible finale that is both surprising and satisfying. It's a mystery, thriller, high school, horror, and romance anime all at the same time, without all the bad side effects. There are a lot of characters, but each of them is unique in their own way and actually have a reason for being there. And it's got a great sense of humor. Here's the opening (which is one of the best openings I've ever seen for an anime, in my opinion).

im always suprised when people reccomend durararararara (i dont know the spelling) over baccano, just seemes odd to me anyway.

OT The studio ghibli movies in general (specifically princess mononoke, naucissa s(sp?)) have strong adult themes and brilliant animations quality.

Also as people have said death note , samurai champloo. Both are very good picks.

And my surprise recommendation is full metal alchemist, if you do like good characterisations.

Honestly I hate children/highschoolers and just the idea of a bunch of them being in the show really kills it for me.

Samurai champloo's opening was all I needed to see before nexting it. I'm just too old for the whole hip-hop garbage.

 

[Azure Sky]

Kite(yes its a little girl with a gun, but it's serious i swear)

Kite is a 'H', not an anime, please refrain from calling it such.

It's misleading.

[Edit: I fail at quoting this morning it seems]

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

I 2nd Elfen lied and Blue Gender

And Ghost in the Shell movies and series for that mater

 

[NapalmBob]

OT The studio ghibli movies in general (specifically princess mononoke, naucissa s(sp?)) have strong adult themes and brilliant animations quality.

Also as people have said death note , samurai champloo. Both are very good picks.

And my surprise recommendation is full metal alchemist, if you do like good characterisations.

Studio Ghibli is excellent, Princess Mononoke is very environmentally minded, but is a truely impressive film, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is similar, but is just amazing in the visuals (considering it is from 1984). Grave of the fireflies is possibly both the saddest and happiest film ever made, animated or not. My neighbour Totoro is also legendary.

Full Metal Alchemist is well written and sucks you along, and Samurai Champloo is one of the best period-set animes ever (along with The Ninja Scrolls, both are classics).

For other mature/serious animated stuff; Afro Samurai is great, the Aeon Flux series is very different (the lead character dies nearly every episode and some of the story-lines are totally inspired) and for less serious: Metalocalypse or Archer both have hilarious characters.