Serious Animes

[Dr. wonderful]

I DO NOT recommend Evangelion. Maybe you'll like it, but I fucking hated it. It's already depressing from the get go but then it goes down an infinite well of disgusting and emo and never comes back up. I've never wanted to punch a cartoon character as much as I have Shinji, and I've never wanted to admit a person to a psych ward as much as that show's creator.

.

Again, a funny story about Anno. He WAS in a mental rot while doing that story. So if you wanted to do it, go the hell ahead. But 16 or 17 years later the man is fine and married. He's also doing Evangelion again as Rebuild: Evangelion.

Shinji, to be honest and a LOT of people argue with me on this, He DOES have a reason to be emo. It just that the fans (and the actual series) pretty much told him to "suck it up."

Anyway the Rebuild and Manga versio are both better characters because of him.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

I recommend Baccano! to any Cowboy Bebop fan. Although the title made me think of the works of Satoshi Kon...

 

[Fanfic_warper]

I find that serious animes are actually the odd ones out of the norm for anime. I'm not too fond of cowboy beebop, but it's ok. I guess if I had to say, Black Butler is also pretty serious mostly.

 

[huigho1215]

GunGrave

 

[Aleate]

Mnemosyne (Hard name to remember, so here's a link http://www.kuroanime.com/anime-series/mnemosyne/ )
Its very dark, very weird, very "Adult", and I thought it was actually quite interesting. Also only 6 episodes long.
(Going for one I didn't see anyone here post by the way)

 

[Nikki Fallingstar]

If it ever gets translated to English (Or if you don't care it's in Japanese) Bakuman

It's beautifully done. Amazing voice acting and awesome music. It's about two highschool students becoming mangaka. It's also beautifully animated.

 

[crhoades]

Hellsing ova.

 

[Technicolor]

Seriously, not diss anyone who likes Evangelion or Elfen Lied, but these animes are practically nothing like Cowboy Bebop. I think its best that we suggest shows that are close to Bebop's east meets west style.

Anyway OP, I suggest sticking through TriGun, the first episodes are the weakest, and are far less dramatic than the second half of the show.

However I would've suggested before Tri-gun, you try Samurai Champloo, it has the same style as Bebop, its a east meets west blend, generally same voice cast as Bebop (english that being), and the same hi-quality animation from the Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe
The next would be Baccano!, which despite its stlyistic setting in 1920's chicago, has some magical elements, if you can get past that aspect of the show, you will enjoy it. (Despite the light hearted opening, it is a deadly serious show, pretty short too at only 13 episodes)
Finally there would be a classic giant mech anime, known as BIG O. Unlike any othe mech anime, it has a heavy film noir style, very similar to Bebop, and was clearly inspired by the dark noirish styling of Batman:The Animated Series. Its a pretty damn good show, and I think adult swim still shows it uncensored on Saturday nights

 

[crono738]

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?

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.

Funny thing, he takes several levels in badass after the time-skip in the manga.

 

[Kalikin]

It's kind of hard to determine what kind of watcher you are just from the fact you enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, so I'll leave a list of anime with an action focus and no school kids for you to look into if you're interested.
Baccano!
Berserk (medium gore warning, minimal nudity, no conclusion)
Black Lagoon
Blood+ (theoretically does contain school kids,but that fact isn't important)
Claymore (has some silly shounen action anime tropes particularly at the end, medium gore,
no conclusion)
Coyote Ragtime Show (Involves space pirates but much less awesome than CB)
Darker than Black
Elfen Lied (Extreme gore warning, gratuitous nudity, generally unpleasant)
Read or Die (Has a great DVD season and a subpar TV run that are mostly unrelated)
Samurai 7
Samurai Champloo (same studio as CB)
Tiger and Bunny (Japanese take on Western superheroes; finishes airing next week)

And don't forget that action isn't all, or even necessarily the best, of what anime has to offer!

 

[hooksashands]

If you want to see one with realistic characterization and a really intriguing plot, do yourself a favor and watch Eden of the East.

 

[Ovoon]

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.

I get what you mean about Trigun, but trust me, you MUST finish it. The show starts out with very poor production values and lousy/unfunny humor. But it gets miles better. Everything about that show scales up as you watch it more. 9 episodes in is where it truly starts. I highly recommend giving it a chance. Before you do that, watch the brand new movie that just came out this year. It pretty much sums up everything that makes trigun great, or most of it at least. As far as your initial request for serious shows (Cowboy Bebop is my favorite anime ever, so I'll make up a list based off of that.)

- Planetes (This show has hardly any action, and isn't as stylish, but is serious, and amazingly good.)
- Samurai X - Trust and Betrayal (The really good Ruroni Kenshin OVA. I never cared for Ruroni Kenshin and it's silly overly shonen style, but I LOVED this OVA. It is completely different than anything ever seen in the show.
-Samurai Champloo
- Welcome to The NHK! (Amazing show, only appeals to certain people though.)
- Eden of The East (The BEST english dub you will EVER hear. I'm not kidding. Excellent plot too.)
- Baccano! (VERY classy and serious. Well done dub cast too.)
- Durarara!! (first 5 episodes are about as boring as a sleeping pill. But it gets much MUCH better.)



Keep in mind, all of these shows get better as they go on, even Cowboy Bebop did. None of them usually are very gripping from the beginning (except for Eden of The East).

 

[kuposenpai]

Boogiepop Phantom, Shigufumi, Hell Girl

 

[cainx10a]

Macross Zero
Macross Plus
Gundam U.C's OVAs (08th MS Team, war in the pocket, Stardust memories)
Gundam Seed's OVA (stargazer - surprisingly better than the entirety of the actual seed show)
Turn A Gundam (definitely the better gundam, since it's not so much about pewpew-lazer-spam as it is about character development and politics in a pre-industrial age)

And no one mentioned Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It's A Song of Ice and Fire ... IN SPACE!

Others I have watched: Berserk (Watch it without reading the manga, Gats' backstory does well on its own), Claymore (Sure the ending is different from the manga, but again on its own it's great), Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Skip FMA, Brotherhood seems to have more cohesion in its storytelling since it's purely canon, sure it's more Good vs Evil this time around, but it's damn good), Black Lagoon ( 2 Seasons + mini-ova 5 Episodes ... great action scenes, great characters ) and my favorite being Monster (loved the characters, and story about the little monster who's always ready to devour us).

 

[RaikuFA]

kinos journey. looks lighthearted but very serious

jojos bizzare adventure, its sort of like castlevania the anime/manga(although the anime only covered the 3rd saga, you really dont need to know what happened in parts one and two but if you want to google and wikipedia are your friend) in the fact that a family bloodline fights a vampire who wants humanity to suffer. the dvds are hard to find but once again googles your friend

and believe it or not, season zero yugioh. barely even covers cards games, people are killed off and a lot of blood and horror. after you watch it, youll go "kids watch this?"

 

[Kolby Jack]

I DO NOT recommend Evangelion. Maybe you'll like it, but I fucking hated it. It's already depressing from the get go but then it goes down an infinite well of disgusting and emo and never comes back up. I've never wanted to punch a cartoon character as much as I have Shinji, and I've never wanted to admit a person to a psych ward as much as that show's creator.

.

Again, a funny story about Anno. He WAS in a mental rot while doing that story. So if you wanted to do it, go the hell ahead. But 16 or 17 years later the man is fine and married. He's also doing Evangelion again as Rebuild: Evangelion.

Shinji, to be honest and a LOT of people argue with me on this, He DOES have a reason to be emo. It just that the fans (and the actual series) pretty much told him to "suck it up."

Anyway the Rebuild and Manga versio are both better characters because of him.

I'm sure his reason for being emo is valid, considering the world around him apparently exists solely to drive him insane, but that doesn't mean it's forgivable. It's really just a matter of personal taste; I like characters who are good people who stand for something and don't give up on others. Superman is my second favorite hero because of this, even though most people think he's boring for it. What I don't like is stories full of irredeemable asshole characters that seem to serve no purpose other than tearing down the world around them, intentionally or not. They aren't edgy, they're just pricks.

 

[TheKramers]

Watch Hellsing. I think you'd like it.

I'm not going to explain it to try to convince you to watch it, I think it can do it's own convincing, just look it up.

 

[Ovoon]

Also, I'm going to counter some recommendations.

Last Exile starts well enough, but it really sucks at the end. It also has the WORST CG ever.

Evangelion? Sure, but do yourself a favor and just watch the rebuild. Evangelion 1.0 and 2.0

The show may be good but it is HIGHLY flawed, and drags on. Its also a total mind F in the end.

Death Note is great, but at the same time, drags on for an eternity. It's 37 episodes long and feels like it should be 15.

Akira? Great movie until the last 30 minutes. Then it turns into complete senseless garbage. Read the manga instead, it actually concludes it.

Outlaw Star? It's good, but it's probably not your show, because it's pretty goofy in many ways.

Black Lagoon I recommend, but it's not exactly filled with substance. The action is the same quality as Bebop though.

Code Geass is rather silly, but at the same time awesome. Recommended for sure, but it's not at all like Bebop, and at first I wasn't crazy about it.

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

Gungrave is great. Good Characters, lot's of action, very good developement. It's not really funny though.

Berserk is one of my all time favorites. It's philosophically deep like Bebop, and all though it's almost unrelentingly dark it's very funny. Downsides are low production values and the ending is pretty upsetting.

 

[Noyes33]

GunGrave is a fantastic series. The character development in this mafia style anime is one of the best. (video has spoilers but shows the meat of the show)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3NCAKQWjwY&feature=channel_video_title

Mushishi is not full of action but is so very interesting and not silly or childish at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcoZHk3M3io

Darker Than Black is one of my favorites as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRVj2e182-o&feature=relmfu