Forum - View topic

Best adult-oriented (non-hentai) anime?

Too much pure listing in this thread, people. You must annotate or I will have no choice but to close this thread down - and I'd really prefer not to do that.

Last edited by Key on Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

Key wrote:

Too much pure listing in this thread, people. You must[/b] annotate or I will have no choice but to close this thread down - and I'd really prefer not to do that.

um not meaning to be offensive, but you read the intro right?

mileylovestina wrote:

and i mean things that are for us older folk like hellsing ova,black lagoon,gantz and so forth.things that have violence,sex,nudity,drug use and themes kids wouldn't quite understand. so whats your favs and any lesser known ones i should give a watch ?

Not only is it informal(well not how its usually done here), but its lacking and purely created on a whim + half of his or her list is comprised of anime that was made for kids. Furthermore, clearly mileylovestina doesn't care about this thread which undoubtedly says something. Anyway, I'd change the intro, but whatever (imagine sentences pplz lazy):

[u]Monster

-Adult themes concepts relationships
-deals with the intricacies of lust, love, and betrayal
-not kiddy problems obviously or high school crushes
-Story is complex sophisticated and not ur typical "oh I see enemy. Attack"
-some actual thought was put into it and it is surprisingly intelligent
-One of its flaws however is that it's a freaking never ending soap opera. Sorry needlessly long.

Rainbow

-Same as above
-more psychological and not focused on flash and flare
-it's only adult because the anime covers the extreme topics of male on male rape, prison life, adverse affects of isolation, corruption, bonding, struggling, prostitution, child abuse, suffering, torture, physical abuse, mental abuse, psychological abuse....
-basically think of the worse adult problems and put it in a melting pot. That's Rainbow.

Perfect Blue

-Extremely psychological
-deals with the problem of coping, self-esteem, success, anger, control
-can't say what anime is really about or no point in watching it (Psychological thriller. What's the point if you know the answer)
-creates intensity through the manipulation of psychological themes
-A brat is not going to understand this anime like he would Naruto and Bleach
-requires a higher level of thinking
-shouldn't have been done as an anime. Well Black Swan so there you go.

I wonder how long it will be before people start to think of children as more than merely partially formed adults. Both of my daughters (six and nine years old) are perfectly capable of understanding and enjoying shows like Kino's Journey. It seems like these days we expect more and more from our children intellectually, while we continue to disallow their emotional growth.
It's been said countless times that media availability is causing our kids to grow up too fast, but that's only half the truth. While it's true to some degree that our children have an unprecedented degree of access to adult material, the media they absorb only falls under a very marginal and juvenile definition of "adult" or "mature."
I know this has all been said a thousand times before; but as long as we continue to judge an anime's relevance to adults based on the number of exposed breasts or mutilated henchmen, people will continue to view anime fans as little more than children in adult bodies.

wanderlustking wrote:

I know this has all been said a thousand times before; but as long as we continue to judge an anime's relevance to adults based on the number of exposed breasts or mutilated henchmen, people will continue to view anime fans as little more than children in adult bodies.

I both agree and disagree with you, respectfully. I agree that if people refuse to acknowledge the relevance and depth of series like Ghost In The Shell or Kino's Journey, both of which could be considered "mature" as you mentioned in your post, then yes people will continue to recognize "adult" anime as violent and based on boobs. However, that is a trapping of some "Seinen" or "mature" anime, and in fact if you look at the encyclopedia here on this site you'll see that any time an anime is classified as "Seinen", there is usually a notice that it may contain gratuitous blood or nudity/partial nudity, even for series where no such nudity exists, like your Kino's Journey . Based on that part of the fault must lie in how "Seinen" is classified, rather than the fact that we as fans classify "mature" anime based solely on guns and boobs.

I'm not saying that everything that has no real depth other than it's violence or breast content can be dubbed "mature", I'm simply putting forth that it a particular section of the "seinen" genre that exists in anime and as such can't really be ignored. People simply should be educated on the different types and forms the "seinen" category can take.

Last edited by Thorn of Camorr on Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:30 am; edited 1 time in total

wanderlustking wrote:

I wonder how long it will be before people start to think of children as more than merely partially formed adults.

It's all cyclical. This was the prevailing attitude back in the Middle Ages and Renaissance period in Europe, even up to the 1700s, IIRC form my history studies. In fact, children being looked at as purely childish is a relatively recent development.

Eh... I'm not an adult but judging from the original post... I guess I can say Aoi Bungaku is one...

Aoi Bungaku

It's an adaption of 6 classic Japanese novels, and separated into 6 arcs for each novel, the darkest novel being No Longer Human. They don't adapt the novels fully but certain parts of it. The sources adapted are dark literature.

No Longer Human arc:
- Has use of drugs (not much of it though)
- Themes of suicide and human alienation
- Questions one's humanity

Kokoro arc:
- Dual perspective
- Theme of betrayal and jealousy

It's easier to understand once you've watched it.

Another series is Welcome To The NHK

- A realistic view of the lives of hikkomoris/NEETs/otakus/"troubled" people
- Use of drugs (not implied much though)
- Conspiracy Theories

Bokurano might also be another series.

Credit goes to the Original person who wrote this summary:

Quote:

The chances are that you will not enjoy this series - you will require some taste for bleak, depressing stories which involve making sadistic choices, dilemmas and double binds. However, the fundamental reason to why this series is so effective is that each characters' development and reactions are so diverse when they are faced with an inevitable death. The series also touches upon various cynical criticisms and taboos, such as child abuse, rape, and attempted suicides. To sum the series in short: it shows the humanity at its worst, but also the children, the humanity at its best. While the series itself may cause you to feel miserable, this series is a must watch if you enjoy tragedies with a great psychological depth and distress.

I've never really though about adult targeted anime. As other people have suggested, it's more to do with the themes at play than the images on screen.

Kemonozume:
At heart it's a Romeo+Juliet love story but there are a lot of other elements at play. I can't imagine a kid sitting down to watch this.

Mushishi:
I'm not sure if it's adult orientated, but it is void of anything you'd associate with a younger audience. The strengths lie in its beautiful story-telling.

Mnemosyne:
If you've seen it, then you know it's pretty full on.

Thorn of Camorr wrote:

I'm not saying that everything that has no real depth other than it's violence or breast content can be dubbed "mature", I'm simply putting forth that it a particular section of the "seinen" genre that exists in anime and as such can't really be ignored. People simply should be educated on the different types and forms the "seinen" category can take.

I'm not even saying there's anything wrong with a little bit of titillation now and again. What I do have a problem with is that titillation is the only defining quality of "adult" entertainment. One problem I've always had with the way we rate movies is that realistic depictions of violence are considered worse than cartoony ones. I've always thought it should be the other way around; the less consequence you apply to violence (like Tom and Jerry style shenanigans), the more acceptable it seems. Say what you want about shows like Darker Than Black or Black Lagoon, at least when get flattened by anvils they don't just re-inflate themselves and go about their business.

Key wrote:

It's all cyclical. This was the prevailing attitude back in the Middle Ages and Renaissance period in Europe, even up to the 1700s, IIRC form my history studies. In fact, children being looked at as purely childish is a relatively recent development.

True. I think the renaissance was the beginning of the trend I mentioned earlier; we expect our kids to learn algebra in grade school, but we don't want them being exposed to sexuality (I'm not talking about sex; there is a big difference between the physical act of sex, and sexuality) or gasp!, gender issues; to say nothing of things like death or the subjective nature of morality. These are all things that our kids need to start understanding before they can grow up, rather than things that suddenly make sense once you turn eighteen.

wanderlustking wrote:

Say what you want about shows like Darker Than Black or Black Lagoon, at least when get flattened by anvils they don't just re-inflate themselves and go about their business.

While I agree with your overall point, surely you're not suggesting the violence in Black Lagoon is "realistic" in any way? Revy doesn't get flattened by anvils, but she should have become a piece of Swiss cheese after the exchange with Roberta at the docks. If anything, BL adheres to the age-old meme that the main characters can't get killed no matter how dangerous the situation in which they find themselves.

I certainly consider Black Lagoon "mature" for its story content, but not for its depiction of violence.

Allow me to strongly suggest A Wind Named Amnesia.

In the more "adult" sense: Ai City, Megazone 23, and Genocyber.

as they say on TV Tropes, Your Mileage May Vary... but I think they're pretty cool. Wind Named Amnesia is a universal recommendation, though.

Another anime that jumped into my mind earlier today is one I own called The Place Promised in Our Early Days. It's a story that revolves around two friends that begin to construct a plane and how they bring in the girl they know to work with them and each young boys interactions with the girl. There is a deep level of understanding their role in the world throughout the film especially as the kids get older and the resolution to the conflict is so beautiful you may find yourself getting choked up towards the end of the piece.

yuna49 wrote:

wanderlustking wrote: Say what you want about shows like Darker Than Black or Black Lagoon, at least when get flattened by anvils they don't just re-inflate themselves and go about their business. While I agree with your overall point, surely you're not suggesting the violence in Black Lagoon is "realistic" in any way? Revy doesn't get flattened by anvils, but she should have become a piece of Swiss cheese after the exchange with Roberta at the docks. If anything, BL adheres to the age-old meme that the main characters can't get killed no matter how dangerous the situation in which they find themselves. I certainly consider Black Lagoon "mature" for its story content, but not for its depiction of violence.

I did say "say what you want," didn't I? I'm not saying Black Lagoon is a perfect example, or that we should start showing it to our kids; in fact I mentioned it because it's violence is so ridiculous, and yet still preferable to that of Tom and Jerry's.

Another fantastic mature anime that I've seen is 5 Centimeters per Second. It's about a pair of kids, they're in Jr. High I believe and they end up forming this relationship together through some years for awhile. The over arching story is more so about how this boy and girl mature into a man and woman and the many twists and turns that are thrown at them through their lives. After awhile there becomes that sense of 'will they/won't they' that could be considered all too familiar in soap operas or sitcoms but this one is done in such a way and ends in such a way that is so worth it. It has a very powerful ending that personally left me getting a little teary-eyed the first time I saw it.

@Thorn, you also mentioned The Place Promised In Our Early Days, which is a work of Makoto Shinkai. 5 CM Per Second is one his works, as well as Voices Of A Distant Star. Most of his works have the same themes, they're about bonds/connections, but each have different types of meanings. 5 CM Per Second is about spoiler[growing apart] and while it was short, you grew with the characters. I cannot put into words properly what I think of it, but it was amazing. It took a certain level of understanding to bond with the characters and understand the circumstances of the characters. The ending did not put me into tears, but it was a heartwarming work yet at the same time, heart-wrenching. Instead of giving you a "everyone's happy" ending, this ending was made in a realistic sense.

EDITED: Corrected a part that might be a spoiler.

Last edited by EmbraceMe on Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:44 am; edited 1 time in total

EmbraceMe wrote:

spoiler[5 CM Per Second is about growing apart and while it was short, you grew with the characters.]The ending did not put me into tears, but it was a heartwarming work yet at the same time, heart-wrenching. Instead of giving you a "everyone's happy" ending, this ending was made in a realistic sense.

What I was attempting to do was to give them a taste of the movie without giving away the ending for those that haven't discovered it yet. I think it's important in things like this to skirt the ending so it isn't ruined.