2009-2010 Anime for Adults
 

I started watching anime seriously in 2006-2007 and was entranced by the large number of high-quality shows that could appeal to someone as old as me. They didn't need to include adults, necessarily; Dennou Coil and Kemono no Sou-ja Erin are excellent examples of shows for and about kids that held my attention as a adult throughout.

That said, I've found the offerings over the past year or so to be significantly inferior to the shows from the middle of this decade. So far, I could only identify half-a-dozen shows that I watched after scanning the entire list of shows airing in 2009-2010 at AniDB. These are:

Cross Game
Hanamaru Kindergarten
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Summer Wars
Higepiyo
House of Five Leaves

I've watched a few other obvious candidates like Tatami Galaxy and Durarara!!, but they haven't held my attention. I routinely check out every Noitamina show; neither of the current offerings floated my boat, either. (I enjoyed the Moyashimon anime, but I find most Japanese live-action shows employ a too "over-the-top" acting style for my taste.)

So what have I missed? I don't watch mecha or moe shows, prefer dramas to comedies, and prefer shows with characters older than twenty. Is there something like Moribito, Nodame Cantabile, or Kure-nai (to give three very different examples) that I just happened to miss over the past year?

If you'd like to see my favorites, hover over my signature with your mouse and look at the status bar at the bottom of your browser.

Casshern Sins is personally one of my favorite shows from the past year or so. I think you'd enjoy what it has to offer, especially with the different themes each episode deals with.

Are you interested in Katanagatari by any chance?

& i've just got to ask. Have you not seen Honey and Clover?

Some worthwhile shows from 2009..

Higashi no Eden
Ristorante Paradiso
Konnichiwa Anne
Guin Saga
FMA: Brotherhood
Aoi Hana
Canaan
Umi Monogatari

this show i'm going to recommend is for Adults it came out according to ANN around 2005 so since you started in 2006 you might have missed it..

Speed Grapher http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...me.php?id=4579

Now as for shows in the 2009-2010 range..

Another ADULT show.. would be Dance in the Vampire Bund http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=10948

Winter Sonata http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...me.php?id=9706

(this is the first time i have recommended a show i have not seen.., but its about adults.. please read the plot.)

but to make this faster.. here is a site that will help you see the shows that have come out and are coming out..

http://www.animehh.com/2009/12/list-...fall-2009.html

Sensei, it's going to be mighty tough for me to find anything you've not seen, I think. 2007 is the peak of modern anime, and you've mentioned what I consider the best of the last 2 years already. But there are still some pretty good options.

FMA Brotherhood - some of the smartest, deepest and most painful shounen you'll ever see. It will surprise you.

Seitokai no Ichizon - It's very otaku-centric, but I find this show amazingly smart and very, very funny. And (surprisingly) quite moving occasionally.

Natsu no Arashi (1st season) - Extremely underrated and definitely for grown-ups to appreciate.

Currently airing we have Shiki, Giant Killing (again, it will surprise you), Seikimatsu Occult Gakuen and Mitsudomoe. None of them are masterpieces on the level of a Moribito, but all of them are more than it appears on the surface and worth your time, IMHO.

I second FMA Brotherhood if you like Comedy, Action, Drama. It's one of the most amazing animes i've seen.


Im going to suggest 2 series that have no comedy in them, and i dont know what ''moe'' is. One of the shows has a 16 / 19 year old main character (atleast i think he's about that age) the serie is called Death note and might appeal to you, the story that is.

Great story, music and graphics. This show is really good, but at like ep 26 / 28 it goes downwards (atleast for me) when 2 new people get introduced in the serie.


The otherone is called Monster dont let the name fool you, its not about alien looking monsters but the monster a human being can be.

Read the text in the links i gave and see if it appeals to you, I think it will. Even though it aint really what you asked for.

There's Cowboy Bebop, Mushishi, Eden of the East, Darker than black and perhaps RAINBOW...for comedy/drama, see Clannad and Clannad:Afterstory.

I'm not sure that you will like this one but its currently airing..
Legend of the Legendary Heroes: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=11250

Guys, I think Seiji is asking for 2009-10 series here.

Some of the shows you all have mentioned, I've seen. Most of the rest I've considered and either ignored or dropped for various reasons.

@Shiroth
I've tried three times to watch H&C without much success. I "watched" the first episode of Katanagatari and fell asleep. Maybe I should try again when I'm more awake. I've been waiting for the subs to be completed.

Casshern Sins seems to get a lot of positive reviews. I might give that a try.

@ Patch&Quilt
Higashi no Eden - Since it's Noitamina, I watched that. I'd probably give it a B.
Ristorante Paradiso - Another B/B-
Konnichiwa Anne - I've not really explored the WMT shows. Maybe I should?
Guin Saga - Started well, but went down hill quickly when the focus shifted away from Guin. (I nominated Amnelis as the worst character of 2009, though Suni was a close second.)
FMA: Brotherhood - Never got into the original; didn't try the remake.
Aoi Hana - Watched an episode or two, but high-school romance, straight or gay, isn't my thing.
Canaan - First episode seemed rather generic so I dropped it.
Umi Monogatari - Wikipedia description doesn't make it sound very appealing.

@NervZero
Dance in the Vampire Bund - Watched a few episodes, but it didn't hold my attention.
Winter Sonata - Got very mixed reviews. I watched a bit, and my daughter watched a bit of the live-action drama. Neither of us were all that enthused.
Speed Grapher - Another show I've thought about trying from time to time.
Legend of the Legendary Heroes - I got bored quickly in the first episode, which I later learned is rather unlike the rest of the series. Perhaps it gets better?

@Enzo
Those are all shows that I might consider because the recommendation comes from you. Seikotai no Ichizon just looked too much like a generic high-school comedy when I watched the first episode. Natsu no Arashi doesn't sound like something I'd choose after reading the description at Wiki, but maybe I'll give it a try. Shiki would have had to get at least an order of magnitude better than it appeared to be in episode one, but I can always give it another try since it's at Funi. As for Giant Killing, I'm usually not into sports stories unless they have something extra like Cross Game did. As for Mitusdomoe, I was turned off by the descriptions because it sounded like Today in 5-2 which I found really repulsive in the way the kids were sexualized. Hanamaru Kindergarten had the "little-girl-with-crush-on-teacher" plot, but it was very lighthearted and not really sexual. Occult Academy didn't have much appeal from descriptions.

@Shinjite
Death Note - No, thanks.
Monster - In my top-five all time; that's Nina down there in my signature gallery if you didn't notice.

@Kafriel
Those are all older shows that I've either watched or decided not to watch. I watched one episode of RAINBOW and decided I didn't need to see that much brutality on a weekly basis.

Ya think? :D Especially since the thread title is "2009-2010 Anime for Adults?"

Here are some mature and sophisticated stories matching your parameters:

• Aoi Bungaku - collection of interpretations of some classics of Japanese literature
• Bakemonogatari - guy who helps girls around him who have problems of a supernatural nature
• Mouryou no Hako - detective story surrounding a girl's disembodied talking head in a box

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood If you thought the original had potential but were disappointed in the second half then you really should watch Brotherhood.

Big Windup (The 2nd season came out this year). It's another baseball show, that has a bit more to it- kind of like Cross Game. But instead of a romance, it's a bro-mance.

The love between a pitcher and his catcher!

It's one of the great loves that men can know for each other without threatening each others masculinity.

You might try Katanagatari again. Try going at least to the third episode. The first two episodes are rather wordy, but if you are intrigued by the third episode then you'll probably enjoy the whole thing.

An older than 2009 anime that you might have missed: Crest of the Stars

I wouldn't recommend Mistudomoe too you, although I do find it a bit of a guilty pleasure.

I don't think they really sexualize the children. More like the children are precocious and so make inappropriate comments about sexual subjects without really understanding what they are saying- resulting in major misunderstandings and over-reactions by other characters.

@drobertbaker
I've watched Aoi Bungaku and Mouryou no Hako and enjoyed them both. I forgot that the former was released in 2009; intuitively I thought it had been longer than a year. Mouryou no Hako is from 2008, though the subs weren't completed until early this year (Thanks again, Shinkun! How about another episode of Hidamari no Ki? ;)).

I'm rather more mixed on Bakemonogatari. Obviously it's very stylish and often witty, but I stopped watching somewhere around episode six or seven. Thinking about this a bit, I think I need to become emotionally invested in the characters to watch shows about kids and teens. That's probably why I stuck with Cross Game, despite its rather pedestrian animation, and didn't finish Bakemonogatari. If I look back at shows with children that I've enjoyed, they've usually been stories like Erin, Kure-nai, Dennou Coil, Noein, Nijuu Mensou, or Shion no Ou where I became invested in the characters.

@Sackett
I saw all of the "... of the Stars" shows back when I first started watching anime. While I certainly enjoyed it, it hasn't stuck with me the way some other shows have.
I think I'll give FMA:Brotherhood, Casshern Sins, and Katanagatari a try. This fall doesn't look too promising to me either. I'll watch Kuragehime because it's Noitamina and from Brains-Base, and I'll probably watch an episode or two of Panty&Stocking because it's GAINAX and, well, because it's called Panty&Stocking with Garterbelt! Beyond that I don't see much on my anime horizon in the weeks ahead.

Here's my feeling based on your comments:

SnI is anything but a generic HS comedy - if anything, it reminded me a bit of Kannagi. NnA - well, I'll only say that it has genuine heart and offers a highly original take on both the slice of life and ghost story genres. Shiki is a slam-dunk - it does indeed get much, much better after the first couple of episodes. Giant Killing is not Cross Game by any stretch - it really is about the sports, but the characters are very nuanced and believable. Mitsudomoe - well, this may not be your cup of tea if you disliked Class 5-2. I don't think the kids are sexualized, but the material is always on the knife's edge of "wrongness" (usually finding the right balance in my view). However, I liked Class 5-2 so take that for what it's worth. If you do sample Mitsudomoe remember that it gets much, much better after the first two eps.

As for Seikimatsu, when you look at the pedigree - great voice cast, A-1 Pictures, character designs by Gatou Asou (Seirei no Moribito) you get an idea of the overall class of the production. I think it's very smart, very funny and consistently inventive.

One last thought - have you seen Summer Wars? It's a movie, not a series, but one of the best pieces of anime over the last two years.

Umm, have you looked at my avatar lately? :D

There are probably people here who can make way better suggestions than I can, but Spice and Wolf is a favourite of mine and it has adult protagonists. It's no coincidence that it's one of very few anime I've considered showing to my dad - he has the same sort of aversion to non-adult protagonists.

SeijiSensei,

Unfortunately, I think you've done a pretty good job at picking out all of the more mature shows available from the past couple years. I have a couple ideas that haven't been mentioned, but not sure how well they'll work.

Senkou no Night Raid - This was one of the Anime no Chikara shows, which I feel went by pretty unnoticed or underrated, but I found it enjoyable enough. The characters are also older than those in the average anime. It also has some interesting elements of history woven in, though the plot itself is obviously fictional with some science fiction elements.

Arakawa Under the Bridge - A comedy made by SHAFT that is pretty subtle compared to their usual style of production. The characters are also almost all adults. There are some pretty good comedic moments, which is definitely focused on absurdist humor.

Also, I know you mentioned Tatami Galaxy in the opening post, but I thought I'd just mention that because of the repetitive style of the early episodes, the humor becomes cleverer as the show goes on. The episode style also begins to change and builds up to a very intellectually stimulating climax. I don't know how far you made it, but it definitely begins to shine about the halfway point.

Good luck in your search.

LOL!

If you didn't change it so often that wouldn't be a problem...

Rainbow Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin is one of the best shows of the 2009-2010 season, so I would urge you to reconsider and watch the show for a few episodes.

Additionally, Ansalem recommendations are pretty good (I especially liked Arakawa, then again I've been starving for a decent over-the-top adult comedy (that didn't star lolis (and no, Guu is not a loli :)) for quite awhile).

Gekijouban Bungaku Shoujo is a pretty good film, well worth a watchsee. It also spawned an OVA series...that I haven't watched yet :).

I'm also really having fun with the Broken Blade/Break Blade films.

Kimi ni Todoke can be quite fun, but the first 6 or so episodes are very uneven. Kaichou wa Maid-sama! has similar problems, but is still worth the price of admission...

Tamayura has, more or less, just started, but it has held my interest so far and Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin, as a token mystery, follows similar lines.

Shiki is decent, and Giant Killing is surprisingly good.

There's also the theatrical version of Eve no Jikan...

I keep a running "to watch" list of what I consider relatively high production quality series. I'm going to toss it in spoilers to save space:



Some of them I haven't seen yet, but if I was to give you the top 5 from that list based on quality of storyline, characters, and production values they would be:

(excluding what you've listed as already seen)
1. Book of Bantorra
2. Michko e Hatchin
3. Bounen no Xamdou
4. Skip Beat
5. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode

take a look at this show.. I'm thinking you might enjoy this a little more.. its kind of random though..

Kaichō wa Maid-sama!: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=11037

and TLOTLH ... hmm The Legend of the Legendary Heroes gets much better.. I felt the same way after watching the first episode.. I stopped watching it and picked it back up out of having no other options.. and i'm really happy that I did..

I must second this, though if you haven't seen it yet, should check out the six episode OVA series first. I say this because the film adds many more layers to the story, and are best experienced after you already know the story set-up. Plus the series can be viewed for free over on Crunchyroll. :)

& i don't think SeijiSensei will enjoy Kaichou wa Maid-sama. Kimi ni Todoke is different though, which i'd also second.

Hmm, I also thought H&C & H&C II might interest you, isn't it's humour similar to that in 'Summer Wars'? (which I liked much more than TwKS btw).
As for Katanagatari, your impression was absolutely right, it is terribly boring and terribly trivial too IMO (I have seen all subbed episodes so far).

First episode of Katanagatari may be a bit on the slow moving side, though ever episode since then has been anything but that, with some of the best character interaction i've seen for a good while now.

It is obvious that I am not a great fan of this sort of show :p, but I must say that I enjoyed Spice &Wolf I & II, which is also dialogue driven, much, much more; it got excellent episodes from time to time, the story of 'Katanagatari' IMO has not built up any depth so far.

EDIT:
@SejiSensei
Stay away from 'Book of Bantorra', that show is just so...awful. Reminds me of 'Glass Fleet' somehow. :)

I can second 'Michiko to Hatchin', just keep in mind that some episodes are a complete miss, others on the other hand are top notch. Overall a top show with a good and fitting ending.

hmm.. cant believe this has not been recommended yet.. Hakuōki: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=11286

the second season is coming out soon!.. But i believe most of the char.. in this are older than 20 maybe not the girl but most of the guys are.. I think..

ghost hound
toshokan sensou
true tears
maybe natsume yuujinchou

& i'd recommend SejiSensei Book of Bantorra. Going by his tastes, he'll enjoy it quite a bit. Especially the mature appeal of the series.

:D, seems he really has to watch it to see who of us has made the right assumptions.
I have a hunch that he will find it interesting at first, but be disappointed how the story progresses after the death of a certain interesting character.
BTW, what do you think about Michiko to Hatchin?

I think that 2009-2010 has been a little lean in the way of really good shows, but there are a few that I can recommend wholeheartedly:

Spice and Wolf - If you haven't already watched this, then it's an obvious choice. Holo shares a lot of similarity to the characters you have in your signature, and she's an easy favorite. Most of the appeal of this show centers around her interplay with Lawrence - it's one of the more fun interactions of the last year. There's even a wonderfully whistful ED theme (with horrible Engrish) to go with it.

Taishou Yakyuu Musume - This is a baseball-themed comedy based in 1925 Japan. While some people may consider it to be a moe show, I think that the main appeal lies in the interaction between the characters, the fact that the comedy is funny without relying on anime tropes, and the way the setting is infused into the show. By the latter, I'm referring to the way the setting introduces challenges (girls not supposed to play baseball is a biggie) and sets the mood for the characters. It's one of those shows that are designed for teenagers, but works better for adults.

Maria-sama ga Miteru - I'm cheating a bit since it originally came out in 2004, but the last installment was released in 2009. The appeal of Marimite is largely in the wonderful expressed characters and the way they interact with one another. The pace of the show takes some time to get used to, so it's best to give it a couple of episodes. Don't worry if you end up hating Sachiko at first - that's not very uncommon. The real joy is in seeing how Yumi grows over the course of the series.

Casshern is a very depressing and bleak action show. The first episode is very much like what you're going to get for the first few shows, and I can't say that the dialogue is very appealing. However, a lot of people seem to like it, so it might work for you.

I'm also watching the Book of Bantorra right now, and while it's pretty decent, it is still very much an action show. The character interplay is quite decent at times, but I get the feeling that the setting is a bit on the remote side to relate to. Having said that, there are some pretty high quality scenes in the show.

You know, Seiji, the first adult anime that comes to my mind are High School Of The Dead and Princess Lover. :heh:

Could I interest you giving Canaan another chance? I wouldn't say it's brilliant but I do think it becomes less generic as you go along. I will also second Senko no Night Raid. I thought the edning was a little disappoiting tbh but I still thought it was interesting. It involves politics before the second Sino-Japanese war.

the last good animes that came out where mushisi ghost hound and seirei no moribito...so no i cant help you...

I really enjoyed Himitsu: The Revelation... true, it can be slow at times, but overall it's a great little series.