Serious Animes

[Yopaz]

Theres always Case Closed and Detective Conan.
But their more light heated, so for a very serious one, scroll through the pages of serious anime which you asked for. The show has a certain charm if you want to check it out.

They do have some light humour from time to time, but it is a series that usually feature one or more murders each episode so it is kinda serious.
I do recommend watching this in any case.

Welcome to the NHK. That is an anime filled with dark humour and based loosely on the guy who made it. I am not sure of the genre of it

 

[tthor]

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?

trigun is a great anime, it does have a pretty serious storyline underneath the lightheartedness. tho if you don't like the sort of comedy to him, then i guess its not your type,

Off the top of my head? Ghost in the Shell and Black Lagoon are the most similar. At least out of all the anime I've watched, which admittedly isn't much...

So... give those a shot I guess. If I'm wrong or made a stupid recommendation, I'm sure people will be along to correct me and point you in the right direction.

Black Lagoon, definitely! Its a great anime, and seems pretty up your alley in that its played very straight/realistically(tho it takes a tiny bit of creativity to the fight scenes, tho not nearly as much as most animes)
Its very action-oriented. It can be very serious, has 3demensional characters, and doesn't play the hero card; in this show, there are NO heroes, everyone is a villian, or atleast neutral

 

[Garethp]

Steins;Gate

Brilliant series that toes the line between comedy and seriousness very well, as well as an intriguing and capturing plot, it's one of my favorite, and it's worth a watch for anyone who likes anything that's good.

Chaos;Head

Made by the same people, it's got an... interesting plot. It's a mixup of romance and insanity, worth a watch if you don't mind the fact that it's got romance in it once in a while. And if you like an anime that constantly fucks with your head =D

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Deathnote, Paranoia Agent, Gungrave are all amazing and with a more adult tone, serious tone than say something like bleach or fullmetal alchemist.

 

[Azure Sky]

Mhm, do not say the name "Near" around me. =3

How about Melo?

Heeeeeell no.

I was thankful for that. I absolutely hate Raki. That little ***** cried in almost every episode over stupid shit.
But I agree that Claymore lost some steam towards that point, it really could of explained more about the relationships between the characters.

I hated his as well, but omitting him that way took something away from it.

 

[Venats]

Xam'd and Last Exile have been mentioned so, I'll go off on a list of stuff I haven't seen, all of a more mature branch of anime:

-Break Blade (Watch this, everyone must watch this.)
-Karas
-Seirei no Moribito
-Grave of the Fireflies
-VOTOMs (its very old and hard to find, but does gritty mecha in the much more realistic portrayal than Gundam. You can, however, try the new VOTOMs OVAs that came out.)
-Gundam (Turn A, Z, ZZ, and to some degree Stardust Memories, 08th MS Team)
-Trigun (Trigun: Badlands Rumble, great movie.)
-Library Wars (Not bad, fantastical plot but fun story/characters,)

I'd need to look at my library for a better list, but that's not bad for now.

 

[tthor]

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

I almost forgot, my favorite anime of all time, Darker than Black.
<quote=Wikipedia>

Ten years ago, an inscrutable and abnormal territory known as Hell's Gate appeared in Tokyo, altering the sky and wreaking havoc on the landscape. The real stars disappeared, replaced by false stars. During this time, people possessing various special abilities emerged, each capable of different supernatural feats - these are known as Contractors. Each fake star has a corresponding Contractor, which reacts to their activities. As such, Contractors are usually identified by their star's Messier catalogue number. Kept secret from the masses, these individuals are known to murder in cold blood, smothering unnecessary emotions with logic and rationale. Their incredible abilities, however, are gained at the cost of their humanity - Contractors are thus named because of an involuntary compulsion to "pay the price" each time their power is used, which can range from eating particular foods and completing meaningless tasks, to self-harm and having their bodies change in peculiar ways. Various nations and organizations around the world train and utilize Contractors as spies and assassins, resulting in violent battles for valuable objects and information. Following the disastrous Heaven's War, the United States lost its dominant position as a superpower to a mysterious organization named the Syndicate. The story revolves around a Chinese contractor codenamed Hei as he undertakes various espionage and assassination missions in Tokyo under the direction of the aforementioned Syndicate.

Its a pretty dark anime, with a lot of death, and few happy endings. Best way to describe the main character, : Chinese-electric-batman. awesome.

Its also has a very good english dub, and is available on youtube by funimation (in english and japanese)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXJxd57cOmY

theres the link, watch the first episode, NOW!

<youtube=MXJxd57cOmY>

Darker than black is done by the same studio as bebop, I think, and is a good serious anime. Just don't expect it to answer all your questions. Also avoid the 2nd season for tis a different style, though i didn't mind it.

what he said

 

[bakan]

I'd recommend Higurashi no naku koro ni (in Japanese, not English!) but you'd have to get used to its Moe presentation and sometimes arbritary plot-line.

While I think the show has depth, many watch a few episodes and label it "Attack of the killer lolis".

I'm suprised that no one mentioned it up to page 3 because it is pretty disturbing and serious if you start to get the plot after some time.

Other animes I would add are 'Parasite Dollls' and 'Vampire Hunter D'.
And maybe: 'Witchblade' (though I didn't like it that much),
'Witch Hunter Robin',
'The Sky Crawlers',
'Shadowstar Narutaru',
'They were 11'
'Bokurano' (don't know if anyone mentioned it)

Well, other animes are already mentioned.

Btw keep in mind that I only watched the japanese synchro (when it was available).

 

[CerealKiller214]

Kaiji is definitly a very serious and good anime.
The plot in a nutshell: Kaiji likes to gamble, has debts with the wrong people, needs to gamble in some kind of tournament to get the money he owns.
It's extremely good apart from the massive amounts of cliffhangers and the characters look a bit weird but you get used to it. If you enjoyed it, there is also a 2nd season and an anime by the same guys called Akagi.
Another good and serious one is Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai or short Ano Hana.
Plot in a nutshell: group of friends gets torn apart after one of them dies, one of them distances from school and spends all day home, after about 5 years he starts to see the 'ghost' of his friend who died.
It's basically about the main character trying to get along with the fact that a very good friend of him died. Everything looks pretty good and it has a serious theme.

 

[andriod]

dont know if people have said it but xxxHolic is one of my favorites, the main char. starts off innocent then you slowly see him change

 

[Nexus4]

Naoki Urasawa's 'Monster', kinda like a murder-mystery anime with one of the greatest antagonists ever (Think Light from Deathnote without supernatural notebooks).
Serial Experiments Lain, that is if you don't mind your mind being turned to mush briefly.
Noir, assassin/amnesia flick; quite enjoyable if you want a Tarrentino/Woo (I am probably spelling his name wrong ) style action romp.
Jin-Roh: Wolf Brigade was pretty good if you enjoy the kind of dystopia-alternate history where the axis powers won WW2 sorta story.
And thats kinda all I can think of at the moment.

 

[Tizzmarelda]

Outlaw star and samurai champloo are both fantastic.

 

[Pariah164]

Serial Experiments Lain. Best anime ever. Also, Kite.

 

[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.

hmm, dont remember-been a few years. I clearly remember the bathroom assassination scene.

You may have seen the "clean" version. Like his earlier work "mezzo forte", Yasuomi Umetsu released kite across multiple versions, most of which were censored to some degree.

 

[DarthSka]

Before I reply, I must say, please give Trigun another chance. It starts off immature for a reason. As for serious ones, I'd say Ghost in the Shell, East of Eden, and FMA: Brotherhood.

 

[YesIPlayTheBagpipes]

I'd recommend Baccano! it's very good.

 

[ZiggyE]

Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

It's a time sink but it's one hell of a classy adventure.

 

[Tselis]

I posted before, but I forget, did I mention D-Grey Man. This is also an excellently done anime. Heat Guy J (just ignore the funny name) is pretty good too.

 

[Sunrider]

I recommend Baccano!. There are some characters who are there mainly for humour and nothing else, but other than that, it has a serious setting and a great atmosphere.