Looking for Action/Fighting/Friendship/Plottwisted Anime

[Mephisto2k]

Recently I watched the newest episodes of Mai-Otome up until ep17, and while it was just some ecchi yuri school comedy with some fights in a wierd world in the beginning, it turned become quite interesting and actionfilled again, with plot twist and breaking friendships and drama. It remembered me so much of watching Mai-Hime.
Basicly it remembered me of all the actionfilled, plottwisted, dramatic, fighting, superpower action adventures that keep you hooked each episode and you cant await to see the next episode to see what happens next.
I realized that I recently watch way to much lighthearted comedy/harem/romance stuff (which doesnt mean that i wont watch those series non the less); and now i want more of those action filled fighting stories that keep you hooked like:
Mai-hime/otome
X
Naruto (before the fillers at least)
Bleach (while the current arc after soul society is boring somehow)
Shingetsutan tsukihime
shakugan no shana
Tenjou tenge
Full metal alchemist
Blood+ (~somehow)
Fate stay/night (if it turn out as good as i hope)
Escaflowne
Trinity blood (wasnt that good, but somehow exactly the genre im looking for, and somehow remembered me of scrapped princess)
Scrapped princess
....

But to describe better what i want, i can simply put my finger at Mai-Otome ep17 and say "thats what I want" (for those who have seen it).
I need some entertaining awesome action that keep you hooked and intersested with an great plot and breaking friendships and drama and tears and fights and deep characters and interesting flashbacks/pasts.
I appreciate every recommendation, but be awere; I have seen a lot but i cant possibly list everything here, so i guess Ill most probably have allready seen or at least set an eye onto most series that will be recommended, but i hope ill find some new stuff.
Thx in advance....

[Mr.Hawq]

Gungrave The best action/Friendship/plot twist anime hands down. It's gpt everysing detail you are looking for, Betrayal, Half the show is about the past about 2 friends, and the ending is very dramatic, dont really know maybe it might make you cry.

[Mephisto2k]

Yeah I allready heared gungrave is a sad dramatic dark action fulled side and really worth watching and from what ive seen from many AMVs its really good. Im a sucker for storys that make me cry i and i think ill indeed cry when watching this serie (cry = wet eyes/tears).
I have the complete serie allready but I havnt started watching it yet.
Im somehow allways afraid to start up new finished series when im still wathing lots of ongoing ones.
But ill watch it soon.

[mxg]

I definately reccomend Berserk also i second Gungrave and also Now and then here and there. Great animes that i always like to re watch.

[Mephisto2k]

Im currently collecting all episodes of "now and then, here and there". It was allready recommended to me many times and i think it will be definitly be worth watching from what ive heared and seen allready.

I have also heared about berserk many times, but its somehow oldfashined animation and setting somehow stopped me from watching it. I think ill give it a try by watching the first episode and checking it out that way, even though i know that first episodes often doesnt do a series justice.

[SomeName]

Berserk is definitely an action/fighting anime. For the most part, its plot is fairly straight forward... for the most part. It'd certainly second it though.

However, I think One Piece is what you're really looking for. Action/fighting/friendship/flashbacks... it's got all those in a great mixture. The plot doesn't twist too often however, but the story telling is absolutely stunning. It does start a little slowly for some, since the show doesn't really attain all of its charm until you meet more of the main characters... but it's well worth it. Give it a try if you haven't already.

[miaka]

if you are looking for action/ friendship theme , try Hunter x hunter but it don't have female main character. This has a lot of fight scene and the story also gives special emphasis on friendship.
Get backer also a good candidate to watch since it has a lot fight scene, and interesting characters.
full metal alchemist- focus on sibling relationships and the plot is kinda unique.

for more info consult ANN for details.

[ultrataro]

Noein. I think it fulfills the criteria. fighting, friends fighting, a plot that has you scratching your head at first.
There's that lesbianism will save the world with godess of sun & goddess of moon one that aired same season as MaiHime I think, but I forgot it's name. I thought it was rather lame, but others liked it.
FMP, especially The Second Raid season, I liked it.

[Crimen Scythe]

could the lesbianism saved the world anime be Kannaduki no Miko?

[Mephisto2k]

ive read a few chapters of the kannazuki no miko manga and im currently dling the anime. But i think im more interested in the yuri relationship/story than in those awefully bad mecha fights (gods in appearence of mechas? my ASS!).

noein: currently following it but its not that good in my opinion. Allways when the plot seems to go somewhere its all broken up agains and gets boring. But im really interested in the end and how karasu will be able to fight his former friends and what all those timespaces and dragon torque is all about. Dont like the drawings though.

FMA/Fmp/fmpsr: ive seen fmp and it was pretty good. FMA was even better and ive seen the movie too. This whole world and story of fma is too awesome and good, that im sad its allready finished. Thats why i started reading the manga and the manga is pretty good too, if not better. Maybe i started reading it because of the unsatisfying ending too.

hunter x hunter: seen a few amvs and episodes/ovas of it. I didnt liked it. Its kinda too much like dbz.

get backer: havnt seen and havnt heared too much of this serie. Ima check out few episodes of it.

[GoTz]

Originally Posted by Mephisto2k

hunter x hunter: seen a few amvs and episodes/ovas of it. I didnt liked it. Its kinda too much like dbz.

No offense...but WTF!? you need to watch the entire series my friend, for HxH is NOTHING like DBZ...and i'm sure when you're done with the series you won't have enough of it and will watch all of the OVAs

[wao]

I strongly suggest reading the Berserk manga over watching the anime. There's more details and the anime ends at a rather evil place... Trust me, it's got everything you want in there. Certainly lots of action and fighting, a nice relatively twisty plot, and friendships... the dark, evil type of friendship and the tragically impermanent types....
It might be a bit depressing, though, if you're expecting a "ok everything goes back to normal" kind of ending.

[Mephisto2k]

wow.
i just watched gungrave and it was so awesome. It was the best thing ive seen in quite some time. It had everything; big nostalgic flashbacks that explained their whole childhood and career, breaking friendships, dieing friends, sad moments, lots of action, and a good developed realistic autentic mature plot.
It is exctly what i was looking for.
if someone knows something similar to that, plzzz tell me.

[Mr.Hawq]

Berserk to me is the closest to that show. Just give berserk a try, it's got friendship,betrayal,romance,the whole show is a flash back. If you have not had enough of the show, then read the manga.

The thing is that I loved gungrave way more than berserk, but bererk is still worth a try.

[lemondude]

berserk is way worse. In a sick and disturbing way.

[InitialGT]

try watching basilisk

if u like basilisk, try gantz too

hellsing
cowboy bebop--classic
full metal panic- the second raid--good scenes

[Bloodseeker]

Originally Posted by Mephisto2k

Im currently collecting all episodes of "now and then, here and there". It was allready recommended to me many times and i think it will be definitly be worth watching from what ive heared and seen allready.

I have also heared about berserk many times, but its somehow oldfashined animation and setting somehow stopped me from watching it. I think ill give it a try by watching the first episode and checking it out that way, even though i know that first episodes often doesnt do a series justice.

The first episode takes place in a completely different environment from most of the series. The first episode is set in a dark land with lots of demons. At the end of the first episode, it flashes back to a regular medieval setting and explains how things got to that point. That's one of the things that's really cool about Berserk. The entire time that you're watching Guts' and Griffith's friendship build, while you're watching the Band of the Hawk build its reputation and move up in society, you know that Griffith is going to betray Guts and that the shit is really going to hit the fan when that happens. You just don't know when, how, or why. That's why I always say that Berserk has some of the best story telling that I've ever seen. Granted, it takes a little over ten episodes for that story telling to REALLY kick in. But as an anime fan, you're probably more than used to that.

Its my favorite anime. You need to watch it. (on a bit of a side note, the Berserk dub is one of the best... English Track Guts >>>>>>> Japanese Track Gatsu)

[Mephisto2k]

as you described it, it really is pretty much like gungrave if its not even build up completely identically. And I really like this kind of setting. But i guess ima go for the manga because its doesnt stop somewhere in the middle as ive heared from the berserkanime story and it doesnt use so much hdd space^^.

try watching basilisk

if u like basilisk, try gantz too

hellsing
cowboy bebop--classic
full metal panic- the second raid--good scenes

ive seen basilisk. i have heared gantz anime is a pretty bad adaptation from the famous and good manga. I have the manga but havnt laid a finger on it yet.
The hellsing was somewhat interesting but stopped too early and undeveloped. Here again the manga is said too be much better. Though im happy that the new hellsing ova serie came out that starts over from the beginning and focuses more an the manga and finish it completely as i hope. Ova1 was promesing.
Ive seen cowboy bebop on tv (its one of the few animes that aired in my country and really deserved the name anime, unlike all those dbz, pokemon, digimon,yogioh stuff....). Maybe i missed some episodes but its wasnt as good as many ppl tell me. But the last 2 episodes of it were really good and awesome, same as the cb movie.
Also allready seen fmp and fmp tsr. Was good and funny and ok. Good but nothing special or outrangeous. Im just wandering if the fommuffo sequel (which i havnt seen yet) is good and worth downloading.

[Mr.Hawq]

Well it does not have what you are looking for, but the friendship part, and loads of comedy. You may enjoy it.