Serious Romance/Drama
 

So been watching a lot of Gory old school anime and now I want to switch it up, as my wife hates watching them :(.

Looking for a anime which primarily focuses on Romance, not looking for a childish romance, relationships that go somewhere. I would like it to have more then just 3 main characters, something like a group of friends would be perfect. Drama is needed too, some school life would be brilliant too.

What I don't want is:
Comedy, even though its nice, watched too many :p
Love triangles, not really interested unless its a really good one.
Childish Romance.
Musical influence, like Nana.

I'm probably being to fussy, but any suggestions are welcomed :)
I haven't watched many serious romance/drama animes, but I have watched Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien, Toradora and school days. If that is any help :p
Thanks for your time.

Clannad, Ef series, Bokura ga Ita, Marmalade Boy and Suzuka.

Okay here's what I have.

Macross Frontier, Clannad, Ano Hana, and White Album. So what do you think?

Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien, Toradora and school days all had atleast a love triangle though.

If you haven't seen it yet, i recommend Ef a tale of memories (one story had a love triangle though) and EF a tale of melodies

Clannad, Marmalade boy and Ef I have seen, sorry. I thought they were good, but not what I am looking for right now.
As for Ano Hana I disliked it, but my wife loved it.

@Hyl Toradora has a love triangle? don't remember that, as for the others I watched them like 3 years ago so :p bad memory.

Will check out Macross Frontier and Myself;Yourself. Keep the suggestions coming :)

How about Kare Kano?

Kare Kano tried to get into it, but didn't like it. Probably because of art style.

Oh really? Too bad then. Anyway, I would have recommended you to read the manga instead of the anime version. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Honey and Clover.

Honey and Clover does it focus on a group of people?
When I get the chance then I will read the manga, but trying to find a anime I can watch with my wife :)

Yes, seeing that Minori and Taiga both had a crush on Ryuuji and he also liked the both of them. Ami also liked Ryuuji but it was one sided, so that doesn't fit in the triangle. That's why i called it a love triangle.

Macross Frontier is also more of a love triangle between Alto, Sheryl and Ranka though.

If you don't mind love triangles (because the animes that you listed on your first post all have them) then if you haven't seen it yet, i would recommend true tears .

Yup, it focus on a group of friends. The romance plot is quite complicated and is not at all childish.

Ok Will look into Honey and Clover, Macross Frontier and True Tears.
Keep on suggesting, would like to have a nice list :)

You could give AnoHana a try. It's eleven episodes, but really well done.

I'll second Suzuka. Was one of the first Romance/Drama that I got into. I also recommend White Album. The 1980's theme had me completely entranced.

if that doesn't tickle your fancy, then you can watch what I'm currently watching. Kimikiss Pure Rouge. Also, you can't go wrong with Myself;Yourself. I'll second that as well.

If you decide you want more comedy thrown in. I would go with B Gata H Kei

True Tears was... Boring to say the least. At least, IMO having watched many, many anime.

I am currently watching Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, a pretty good romance/drama IMO, although the comedy is there at the beginning (it's only three episodes for the moment since it's ongoing). The main character is pure yet honest boy, and the main heroine looks hot despite having a dark past that can be served as a plot point to the story. Once the twelve episodes are out, you could watch it.

Serious romances for mature audiences are not something anime does well. Still here are a few suggestions that meet some of your requirements.

Despite your restrictions about comedy and music, I'm going to begin by suggesting Nodame Cantabile. It has a rather large cast and is set in a college-level music conservatory. The sequels take place in Europe. Yes, it's about music, but it's not at all like Nana. There are performance sequences in many episodes with works ranging from Mozart and Brahms to Gershwin and Elgar. Yes, there is often comedy, but there are many serious dramatic stretches as well, especially over the last quarter of the show. I strongly recommend this as something to watch with your wife. If you would prefer dubs, Sony streams its English-dubbed Animax Asia version of Nodame on its Crackle site.

Another show that immediately comes to mind is Saiunkoku Monogatari. This one is tough to find nowadays because it went out-of-print after Geneon USA closed up shop here. There are torrents out there on a well-known site that I can't mention here because it contains licensed materials. If you have a Netflix subscription, I believe you can watch it there.

Another possibility is Cross Game. Even though it is putatively about baseball, it's much more a show about relationships. Like most anime, the romance takes the entire show to develop. It's set in high school and has quite a large cast.

Adult romances often have a senpai/kouhai aspect to them, Nodame being a good example. (Of course, being Japan, the senpai is always male.) Two other choices in that vein are Planetes, about a bunch of space "trash collectors," and Toshokan Sensou, about a near-future Japan where armed librarians fight armed censors.

Another possibility is REC, with a mix of comedy and drama. The couple are young adults, though there isn't a large group of friends involved.

I'm also going to suggest Usagi Drop. No, it doesn't have much romance, but I'm going to bet your wife at least will enjoy it, and maybe you will, too!

Finally if you're just looking for something dramatic, I'll suggest Seirei no Moribito.

Hmmm, that's a hard list of requirements. I can suggest some anime that match parts of what you want but not all of the requirements.

I'd probably go with:

Cross Game which is focused around a highschool romance, although it takes the whole series to develop it. The themes are not childish at all, there is some school life aspect, comedy isn't too heavy. However, while certainly the major theme, the romance is very low key.

Maison Ikkoku which is a romantic comedy, following a young man entering college and his landlady, a young widow. It has a lot of character development, and a very fulfilling ending to the romance. It is certainly not childish, although the main male character does go through quite a bit of growing up (from 19 to 24). There is quite a bit of comedy, the main male character is a bit of a hard luck fellow, and much of the comedy revolves around him being the universe's chew toy. It is considered one of the best anime romances ever. There are quite a few love triangles, although I thought they were resolved rather well. Warning: There is a see through nightgown in the first episode wore by one of the minor characters- she walks around in it again for the end of the first season, and then never wears it again. Not a major part of the plot, but thought you'd want to know before showing it to your wife.

Kimi Ni Todoke which is a cotton candy sweet romance about a shy highschool girl getting to make friends and slowly develop a romance with a nice boy. Very sweet, lots of school life, although mainly targeted at women, so it's from a female perspective. The romance is very innocent and so might be considered childish.

Ah My Goddess Flagship for the Magical Girlfriend genre. Young man in college (technical college, he's a motorhead) is visited by an angel who grants him a wish. Being wiser then most fellows, he wishes for the angel to stay with him forever. So she does. The romance doesn't progress very much beyond that, but it is a rather fun premise, that starts to develop into something like "Bewitched."

Thanks for all the replies :) so fast.
I don't like dubs at all, and I can understand Japanese pretty well so I prefer English subs :)
I will be trying out Myself;Yourself,White album,Suzuka,True tears and Honey and Clover. I won't be watching Usagi drop or Cross game, but bet my wife will like them :p
Thanks everyone. Don't need anymore suggestions.

Though I'm not sure about it since I didn't watch it, I heard that Sakamichi no appolon ( or kids on the slope) had some romance and since it's talking about college students and not high school it may be better depending your tastes.

It's about jazz and so music, but to put it on the same level as Nana doesn't feel right, well try it if you have time.