Try Paranoia Agent. Somewhat similar in tone to Lain and created by Satoshi Kon who – if you haven’t already seen them – was responsible for the films Perfect Blue and Millenium Actress. They’re both classic examples of the kind of genre that you’re looking for. PA is dark and compulsive viewing.
Cannot recommend Planetes highly enough. Sci-fi, but it’s about the lives of people in space, rather than battles. It’s characters grow and change while dealing with the moral and philosophical questions that daily life asks. Well made and surprisingly touching.
If you’re torrenting this stuff, my Planetes from KAA has a few screwy subtitles. Not enough to ruin it, but a bit irritating on occasion.
EDIT: Now using Zoom Player and it works like a dream. Sumimasen KickAssAnime.
– Asatte no houkou: marvelous story anda amazing development of all characters. A little jewel in anime.
– Kimi ga Nozomu Eien: the living proof that anime can deal with serious themes, not only college comedies.
– Shingetsutan Tsukihime: an extraordinary story and lovable characters. One of my favourite animes in all time.
And I suscribe all that was said about "PlanetES", another excellent series focused in characters, with a great story behind.
Planetes has the added benefit of being Hard sci fi, with all the principles used in the show based in reality. They even interviewed Nasa scientists while making the show to maintain the accuracy of the depictions of life and working in space. I was really impressed with this show.
If you want really, really stylish designs and animation with thought provoking, mature storylines, go with Mononoke (no relation to the princess). I’m constantly impressed by that show.
It is actually pretty much ONLY character development, although it is episodic. You learn why each mononoke is around on the earth, usually going deeply into the psyche of one of the secondary characters, this goes on for an episode or three, and then the next storyline happens. It SOUNDS like it would be choppy, but it really isn’t. It flows very well, with a great deal of style.
– Death Note I think this series is good too.
You’d have to download it because it’s unlicensed, but I also think you’d really love Monster.
i suggest trying Texhnolyze, a sci-fi series about a city completely underground. a lot of the production staff for Lain worked on Texhnolyze, notably Yoshitoshi ABe, Chiaki J. Konaka, and Yasuyuki Ueda, (scriptwriter and producer of Lain, respectively). I didn’t find it as satisfying as Lain, but it’s still a very solid work.
Ergo Proxy is also good if you like the whole "character study in a future dystopia" genre.
Lucky Star: It’s hilariously funny and interesting, considering how it parodies a bunch of stuff. Definite win.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: There’s a bit of action there, but it’s one of the greatest series out there. Watch it cause it’s awesome!
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COME ON MY NAME IS ASH KETCHUM!
-Ghost in the Shell (first movie)
-Project A-ko (The first 4)
-Birdy the Mighty
-Ninja Scroll (first movie)
-Tenchi Muyo, Universe & Movies I & II (In Tokyo was a little weird for me, and I haven’t seen movie 3 or any of the latetr series.)
-Slayers (Especially the first three volumes)
-Samurai Champloo (story is pretty good, animation is quite good)
-Full Metal Alchemist (Strays comepletely from the manga early on, however its intriguing storyline and development make up for it :D)
-Outlaw Star (It’s a pretty good anime. The uncut versions are better, though that accounts for most anime.)
I hope this series gets better, I’m on episode 2 or 3. It’s pretty slow so far.
I must thank you for creating this thread for me. I must suggest you do a thorough Googling of the "cyberpunk" genre. As for now, I give you the Devil may Cry series though it is in its infancy, Battle programmer Shirase, and for an odd reason I must insist Bebop and Full Metal Alchemist.
devil may cry
Therefore, thread over.