Hollidays => too much free time => need some new anime to watch
 

Most of the my exams in college have ended so I have a few weeks of free time to kill and what better way to spend those blazing hot days then to watch some anime:cool:

I would appreciate if someone would recommend some new anime series (no manga or movies). I wont bother you with a list of what I watched (about 40 series and droped 20) so just recommend what you like based on the following conditions and I'm sure there will be pleanty of stuff I haven't seen.

- mature anime with no kids as main character (like less then 15 years old) ... even if the anime is really good and aimed for adults, anime about kids (as main characters) don't really interest me

- long, at least 20+ episodes ... like I said I have some time to kill so I'm not really into watching short anime series or OVAs even though some of my favorite anime are short like Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen

- I prefer action, comedy, fantasy, drama but I will watch just about anything except magic girl, sports, slice of life (unless its not a main theme ... watching 26 episodes of cute highschool girls going on about love, friendship and stuff is my definition of horror :frustrated:)

- anime that is consistently good or improves along the way (Twelve Kingdoms) ... I really hate anime that starts good and then suddenly throws in mecha/sci fi (not that I dont like mecha or sci-fi, I just think it doesnt belong everywhere) like Scrapped Princess/Utawarerumono or doesn't go anywhere and just repeats flashbacks (X TV)

-no Bleach, Naruto, InuYasha or One Piece

- no action anime where people just won't die and keep coming back ... so basicly no naruto/gundam kind of fighting, I prefer Basilisk or Berzerk style

- no wierd (xxxHolic/Vandread) or old animation like Escaflowne ... I'm not saying every older anime has "bad" animation (I loved Cowboy Bebop style) but Escaflowne/InuYasha style really annoys me (well not just the animation, those 2 series ware something I definitly dont like)

Just finished watching Monster, Seirei no Moribito and Claymore and all ware really good (except for the lame ending in Claymore).

Thanks in advance for your recomendations.

If you enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, you might want to give Samurai Champloo a shot. It's definitely one of the most stylish and awesome depictions of feudal Japan I've ever seen.

When it comes to modern action series, it doesn't get any better than Black Lagoon if you ask me. Great series about a group of criminals doing criminal stuff.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but these should at least fit your requirements.

Mushishi
Planetes
Darker than Black
Samurai Champloo (seconding)
Black Lagoon (seconding aswell ;p)

I checked the description for Samurai Champloo and even though I'm not a huge fan of hip-hop it looks really interesting so I will definitly give it a shot.

Saw both seasons a little while back and it really is a great series with some of coolest characters I have ever seen.

Thanks for the recommendations and keep em coming :p

Yeah, do give it a chance. It might help put your worries at ease that I normally loathe hip-hop, but I still loved Samurai Champloo.

Have you seen Gungrave? It's a mafia-based action/drama series, and pretty damn bad-ass. The only thing that holds it back is its unfortunate inclusion of fantasy in what I thought would have been more powerful as gritty realism. Consider giving it a shot if you've yet to see it, though. (And watch at least 2 episodes, a lot of people, myself included, hated the first episode.)

I second Mushishi - right up your alley.

Try Code Geass, for it includes all of action, comedy, fantasy and drama. And it's overall just incredibly entertaining.

Based on the stuff you don't like and the ones you are seeking, it seems as though we like similar animes and thus, I can give you some good suggestions:

Black Lagoon: The protagonist Rock is your average Japanese salary businessman but unfortunately, his collegues and superiors sort of betrayed him somehow and he ended up with a group of sea pirates, nothing to do with Somalia, of course. This anime already have two seasons and it will get a third one sometimes by the end of the year or the next.

Death Note: I don't really like any of the characters but Tsugumi Ohba is no doubt a genius and thus, you should give it a try. Or perhaps, you have already seen this.

Devil May Cry: This is the promotional anime series for the games and disappointing thing is that Dante will never use Devil Trigger with a slight possibility near the end though.

Higashi no Eden: This anime starts off like a rip-off of the Jason Bourne films but it changes into something totally different. Generally, the protagonist is definitely not Jason Bourne as that his goals are to protect and save the NEETs from warmongers and the ambitious bunch. Nonetheless, there are still multiple instances of mysteries and political conspiracies. The opening theme is done by Oasis which is pretty good. Its rare for an European group to do anime songs.

Kara no Kyoukai: This series of films of a varied lengths are very good and the fact that it is from TYPE-MOON and is part of the Naru-verse makes it slightly better. Not sure if you would consider this as strange stuff as that the female lead have a tendency of killing people.

Persona -trinity soul-: Like the series of games, this is not for kids. Aside from the fact that the story was somewhat confusing at the beginning and for the most part but you do get a reasonable explanation by the end of the series if you have the time and patience.

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~: I know the protagonist in the original visual novel was a high schooler but the entire story had quite some major changes and thus, it fits your description perfectly.

Shikabane Hime: Unless you have the patience to watch both seasons, you might end up dropping it at the beginning like I almost did. For the first few episodes, I found the high schooler protagonist to be out of place. The guy is wandering around in the middle of the night getting involved with the undead for no reasons at all. Its like he is one of the braindead zombies. However, the series is very good after awhile. Not sure if you will feel the same way though. It is somewhat annoying at the beginning of the series when the guy acts that way.. Just to let you know though, you might find the female lead to be a rip-off of Dante from DMC for the first few episodes but that changes real quick afterwards. That was the reason why I started watching the anime in the first place, I thought Makina looked like a clone of Dante in the trailer but it changes later..

Speed Grapher: I have no clue what this is about as that I have never seen it but the poster looks somewhat cool. The least to say, the main characters are mostly adults and the story is nothing of a laughing matter. Probably some serious politics or scientific experiements of some sort. No idea!

Thanks for all your suggestions. I have seen Code Geass, Black Lagoon, Death Note and Speed Grapher. I started watching Samurai Champloo now and its great. I will definitly check Mushishi and Gungrave next but the series all of you have recomended sound interesting so I will put them on my want to watch list.

Yeah this series is quite dark and violent and while I wouldn't call it a masterpiece its worth watching ... only thing that bothered me was that I found most of the villains lame.

I know you mentioned no old animation, but i'll still recommend Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The character design isn't your standard 90's anime style like the ones you listed. It'll also take a fair amount of time to watch, with 110 episodes, a few movies, and two prequel series' at 26 episodes each. One of my favorite sci-fi shows, not limited to just anime.

Like I said its not that I dont like every older animation, its just some things like huge eyes that bother me (but I can get past those if the rest is fine) but the things that really pisses me off to the point where I just can't watch the show anymore are wierd pointy noses and vertical lines under the eyes that look like scratches (not sure if they are meant to be shades or blush ... its just annoys me).

Anyway I checked the trailer for Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the animation (specially character design) is really great for such an old series so I will watch a few episodes later on to see if I like it.

Phantom requiem - Kara no Kyoukai - Afro Samurai

(For me Persona is slow and lame i suggest you don't try it )

yakitate japan-long enough for ya :D