Are there any "Smart Anime" set in a normal world?

[sextus the crazy]

Only recommended this last week, but it looks like more people need to be educated about The Kerberos Saga and Jin-Roh.

Alternate history Japan, Germany won WW2. Germany's occupation force just pulled out of Japan, left the military police to try and control civil unrest. Disgraced soldier falls in love with a terrorist girl's older sister, and proceeds to wrestle between his loyalty to the state and his feelings for Kei.

Seconded. Jin-Roh is one of those anime series that I'm pleasantly surprised exists because it's not terribly "anime" as far as following tropes go (at least for modern day stuff, I dunno about 90s tropes). It's slow and dark, but it's a really interesting story about a terrorist and police states.

On that note, Gunslinger Girl is similar to Jin-Roh in the topics it covers (the ethics of fighting terrorism and such), despite an out-word appearance as a "girls with guns" series. Like Jin-Roh, it's not as much about the combat as story and character development (although GsG still has more combat than Jin-Roh). I'd recommend the manga, which is complete, over the anime, which only got a season or two and just sort of ends without any resolution.

Welcome to the NHK is also a really interesting series, which covers the life of a Hikkomori. It's weird and darkly funny, but has a lot of emotional impact. I'd recommend watching it in dub, too, since the dub's got Chris Patton as the lead character.

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise is pretty cool, too. It's an old GAINAX movie about a space organization trying to launch a rocket into space for the first time. It's a good movie, although sometimes the story does have its problems at times.

Blah, Blah, Cowboy Bebop, Blah, Blah, Ghost in the Shell, Blah, Blah...

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Definitely Monster. Psychological thriller, focused on the pursuit of a serial killer. No magic, no sci-fi, set in Germany just a few years back. Some of the early dialogue isn't great but otherwise, it's a smart story.

Jin-Roh is amazing, but less "normal" in setting, as it's alternate history. Still not explicitly sci-fi and has no magic or super-powered teenagers or anything.

 

[Asita]

Monster fits the bill to a T.

Black Lagoon also fits much of your criteria but it's notably more...'hotblooded' than Monster is and more touches on the less savory aspects of life than it uses them for drama. But then, what do you expect when the protagonists are modern day pirates and perhaps the most significant secondary character (Balalaika) is ex-military turned Russian mob queen? Also worth noting that whereas Monster is almost religiously grounded in reality, Black Lagoon plays a little more fast and loose with it, but not to a degree where they invoke supernatural or sci-fi. Really, this difference could perhaps best be covered thusly: Monster belongs to the genre of Psychological Thriller, whereas Black Lagoon belongs to that of Action.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

So you want:

"Hard hitting real-life drama (Drugs, crime, arrogance, death etc)", and you want it to be "smart".

Yeah good luck with that, kid.

Great Teacher Onizuka that I recommended as my first pick does it all it is about an ex biker gang grand boss who becomes a teacher. The harmony of hardcore biker suicidal level stunts and violence mixed with him trying to teach life lessons to his students (often through those stunts) fits all of the above criteria. Mostly the smart one. It does it in a so blatantly stupid-seemimg way that the unique wisdom behind it is most striking.

 

[Tanis]

I remembered something:
'The Bitter Virgin'.

It's a manga.

 

[RogueNinja299]

Stiens;Gate would be my recommendation. It explores the consequences of time travel so it's not exactly normal in the sense you're looking for but the characters and story are amazing.

 

[Mechamorph]

If its smart drama in the real world....

Honey and Clover is about the lives of college students, one subplot is about a woman coming to terms with the death of her husband in an automobile accident as well as the physical and emotional scars she gained. A much younger man has fallen for her and he is trying to help her get past it.

Moyashimon is lighthearted and educational but also has a subplot about accepting who you are and has a transvestite character that for once is not played for laughs.

Silver Spoon is also lighthearted but it plays with the fish-out-of-water angle as a city boy goes to agricultural school in the boondocks.