Can you guys recommend me any "realistic" anime shows?

[C117]

Other than that, there's always Elfen Lied. Not that realistic, granted (virus making humans give birth to telekinetic mutants isn't something that appears very often IRL), but still very mature and dark. Watch the first two or three episodes and see what you think.

While I do like Elfen Lied, I don't think it's a good anime to start with. It has too much unnecessary nudity and blood in my opinion.

You may be right... but it was the second anime I ever saw (the first one was Pokémon)!

 

[Doctor Insanovic]

Try Welcome to the NHK. It's real world to the point where it could have been made as a live action tv show with very few drawbacks. I personally liked it a lot. it's basically a 26 part series about the life of a guy who has no life. sounds boring but it isn't. so that's worth checking out if you want something that isn't giant robots and ghost hunters etc. (not that those things are bad either)

 

[Macgyvercas]

If you can forgive the massive unrealism of a wolf deity, I highly recommend Spice & Wolf. The author descrbed it as a "unique fantasy" since it strays away from the sword and sorcerery of traditional fantasy in favor of the rather unconventional topics of peddling and economics.

Set in a stylized version of what appears to me to be medieval Europe, Spice & Wolf is a about a 25 year old travelling merchent who encounters a wolf deity named Holo. With her wisdom, he is able to increase his profits, but she has a tendency to draw unwanted attention from the Church.

 

[Evidencebased]

Eden of the East <= a naked young man with amnesia and a mysterious cellphone has to save Japan... or else.
Library War (Toshokan Senso) <= in a slightly alternate reality, military-trained librarians literally fight government censorship.
House of Five Leaves <= a cowardly samurai reluctantly gets to know a band of kidnappers and their enigmatic leader.

Edit: The last one has a very thoughtful and almost melancholy pace, but it's pretty unique and very realistic. Just a snapshot of a small group of people in Edo Japan.

The other two are faster-paced and more adventurous, imho.

 

[Ocelano]

What are you talking about? Black Lagoon had awkward love triangle. Revy, Rock and Dutch. Watch it again, youll see.

Anyway, id recommend Mushi-Shi. Its about a guy called Ginko who is a Mushi Master (lit Bug Master, but deals with spirits called Mushi, which im pretty sure means bug. Now im confused).

Anyway, its set in a Japan-esque area in something like 300AD. Theres only villages, no countries or regions. Ginko travels around finding weird phenomena caused by Mushi and helping people fix them. Theres new people and locations in every episode. Ginko is the only reccuring Character apart from a certain doctor who appears from time to time.

I agree how could they not see revy and dutch's battles for who would dominate rock and make him their little b**h

Hmm hmm sorry couldn't resist but If you want a nice realisticish no super powers type anime Bamboo blade is fun being mostly persona driven. Although I'm sure you could probably count MiyaMiya's instant sweetie to savage killer persona flipping as superpowered

 

[Ocelano]

Other than that, there's always Elfen Lied. Not that realistic, granted (virus making humans give birth to telekinetic mutants isn't something that appears very often IRL), but still very mature and dark. Watch the first two or three episodes and see what you think.

While I do like Elfen Lied, I don't think it's a good anime to start with. It has too much unnecessary nudity and blood in my opinion.

You may be right... but it was the second anime I ever saw (the first one was Pokémon)!

Holy hell that must of been a jaring transition for you. from the most severe damage anyone takes being a bruise to whole limbs being torn of and eyes gouged with invisible arms

 

[ChocoFace]

Not sure if it's been said, but Beck. It's got great original music as well.

 

[Shirokurou]

Darker Than Black is about super-powers, however they are very realistically handled. Also quite a lot emphasis on gadgets.

But if you're in the mood for some romance

 

[Polyg0n]

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, an amazing movie about a special unit cop who sees a young terrorist girl blow herself up and gets into trouble for not shooting/stopping her.

Planetes, a realistic story about a group of people collecting space debris from the earths orbit. No-one has superpowers and there is no interplanetary travel or anything like that. Emphasis of the story is on the relationships between the characters. This is one series that everyone should see!!

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Darker Than Black is about super-powers, however they are very realistically handled. Also quite a lot emphasis on gadgets.

Yeah, Darker than Black was pretty realistic compared to most of the other anime I've seen. Catchy theme tunes too- but I'd avoid the second series.

Hmm, I'd probably second/third/etc whoever put Ghost in the Shell. That about as realistic as you can get when you're ruminating on so many sociopolitical and philosophical principles with robots.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Are there similar shows like this? I did a brief Google search and the only ones I could find that kid of fit this mold were Golgo 13 and (maybe) Ghost in the Shell, although I'm not really sure I want to get into Ghost because that may be too much cyberpunk for my tastes.

If you don't like the look of cyber-punk, then yeah, GitS probably isn't for you, however from a story stand-point it's rather post-cyberpunk. I found the series to be a little easier to get into, but the movie is well worth a watch (although, be aware that the 2 Mamoru Oshii movies are in a separate continuity to the series and Solid State Society movie).

Also, if you don't mine some mind-bending, I'd strongly recommend giving the works of Satoshi Kon [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SatoshiKon] a watch.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Already been mentioned:

GitS, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Saraiya Goyou (House of Five Petals), Eden of the East, Ergo Proxy, Darker than BLACK, PlanetES etc.

And a couple other ones that (sort of) fit what you're after:

Yomigaeru Sora - Rescue Wings (about a reluctant pilot who gets assigned to a search & rescue squadron, very well done even if the story is not finished properly)
Genshiken (surprised no-one's mentioned this, about a university club which is effectively a parody/snapshot of otaku culture)
Moyashimon (talking microbes pretty much sums it up, and is a must if you're into ecology/microbiology)

All I can think of for now...

 

[RollingThunder]

I agree that Arakawa Under The Bridge is fantastic, but I don't know that it's massively realistic...It's a bit like Alice in Wonderland in that Kou, a regular character, is surrounded by completely insane characters and comments on it.


My suggestion: Naruto!
jokes.
Samurai Champloo is good, Toradora has a tolerable mix of teenage wuv and comedy. Death Note is fantastic, but supernatural...
wait, are there any realistic animes out there?!

Well, how about Master Keaton? he's a half British half Japanese ex British SAS member turned insurance investigator but sometimes get involved with his old acquaintances or direct request from the British government taking care of sensitive problems (hostage release, helping shell shocked fellow soldiers, murdered ex east German spy etc etc), this were done in most realistic way possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Keaton

There's also another manga that almost like Keaton and it's called Yugo the Negotiator who work as hostage negotiator who dealing with high level cases (political hostages, political kidnappings) but he's a little bit fantastic in handling the problem (tortured by water, tortured by holding a (burning hot)hot glass, tortured by... well you read it yourself) and gain the trust from his opponents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugo_(manga)

Well, my last recommendation is not that great of an anime, but it is about Seiyuu/Voice Actress life when she try to go into voice acting business.

 

[NiPah]

[/quote]

Jin-Roh

 

[emeraldrafael]

Duran Duran does the theme music.

Well, you know

<spoiler=Unless you want to have the English opening><youtube=HE7SOXBFeA4>

Personally, I think the English one is better, especially since it fits the series nature that most of the episodes take and begin with, instead of that incessant shutter clicking and cheesy crap that sounds like it should be in a 70s or 80s sitcom. Or in one of the Chips Ahoy commercials.

But I would recommend Speed Grapher as well. Other then that... hm. Probably everything has been said already, but I always thought The Big O was rather realistic. I mean, besides the guy piloting a big ass fucking robot, he's basically an amnesiatic batman who loves an android.

There's also Cased Closed (its called something different too, I know, thats just what I know it as)
Blue Gender was somewhat real (aside from fighting insects in mechs), then again, I'm probably just a big fan of the show.
Lupin the 3rd is pretty real.


ANd if you want supernatural, Paranoia Agent and Hell Girl are both realistic, since they deal with real issues and things like that with the supernatural background. Hell, in the latter, the main human protagonist makes a bunch of remarks to his daughter that if she doesnt drink her milk, she wont grow a pair of breasts (which is creepy, but always struck me as the most real thing an anime character ever said).

 

[Ikaruga33]

Welcome to the nhk
Its a show about a completely socially inept man and he and his two freinds efforts to break him out of his foul bachelour cave

Its realistac for an anime and by that I mean the female lead doesnt have boobs the size geourge lucases ego