Looking for more seinen romance
 

going to try to actually be an active and unretarded member of the community, as i've lurked around here for ages.

Anyway... I need some good seinen level romance. I prefer cute, and when i say seinen I mean the way the relationship is handled...so it may drift technically into other genres as well. Being in my mid 20's i especially dig stuff where at least some of the characters are in their 20s as well (and not drawn overly mature or creepy like some shonen likes to do).

main thing is the relationship being a major point of the story, with actual and openly confessed feelings.

what is along the lines of what i am looking for (including stuff that is not actually seinen)



and I also dug Ouron Hosts club even though they skirt around the hardcore relationship stuff in the anime (and area only getting into the confessions in the current manga).



Moonphase was particularly amazing.

currently watching cross game, sola, Valkyria Chronicles and Planetes

Main things i am looking for:

A more cute/colorful style, the darker more realistic style has it's time and place and usually for me doesn't work for romance.
conclusive endings...this is forgivable in an ongoing series (like ouran, and various other series where the manga/light novel basis is still ongoing)
Just a more complete tone to the romance. I am pretty open here, just tired of the loser who doesn't grow as a character getting a stable of the hottest chicks available. Losers are fine, losers that don't evolve are not.
First loves are alright as long as it actually covers the complex emotions.
20somethings are better, but not a necessity, it just makes me feel better ;p
warm and fuzzy is good, ups and downs and complexities are fine, actual conveyance of emotion, genuine dropping of the L word etc

I'd recommend REC. The main characters are a salaryman and an aspiring voice actress. Their relationship goes through quite a few ups and downs over the course of the series while they deal with their personal hangups.

If you want to try something historical, Victorian Romance Emma is excellent. It's set in the Victorian era and deals with a romance across class lines - not generally an approved of thing.

emma was quite good, i already did that one, though I neglected listing it as i wasn't huge into the art style, i'm hoping cute and colourful

Not sure if you'll find the art cute enough, but here are a few musts you should see for seinen/josei with older characters and serious romantic elements without being like a soap opera.

Nodame Cantabile - This is a very amusing romantic comedy about two piano majors at a conservatoire in Japan. The male lead is Chiaki, a gifted son of a famous musician, who dreams of becoming a conductor, but is very by-the-book when it comes to music, and strict in his attitude towards talent, cleaning, and everything else. He meets Nodame, a fellow student who lives in the next apartment over, who is the polar opposite: she is is messy, goofy, and plays her music from emotions rather than the notes on the paper. The story develops from there. The third and final season is currently airing.

Honey and Clover - A story of an ensemble cast of art college students as they explore art, friendship, and love, and begin to graduate and enter the real world. The show begins very comically and become more meaningful as the show progresses. The show has two seasons and is complete.

Planetes - In this realistic portrayal of the near future, a young woman named Tanabe begins her new career as a debris hauler in outer space. Her department in the company is full of goofy employees and misfits, who have great hearts but are looked down upon by the more serious department employees. Her partner is Hachimaki, who despite working in a low-paying job dreams of one day owning his own space ship.

Nodame Cantabile is nowhere near seinen, but it is a good series.

Honey and Clover is a awasome series, but nowehere near seinen. Romance is a part of this series, but it plays a background to "life" pretty good series not the seinen/romance you might be looking for but well worth the time to watch.

planetes is more towards seinen.

try watching Full Metal Panic (high school romance/action), or Suzuka(high school romance/sports/and a shit load of drama)
your gonna have a hard time finding a senien/romance they are kind of rare and I think you have watch some of the few that are out there.

if you want to ruin all romance anime, as to how poorly they are made. watch Itazura na Kiss.

one that fits what you describe pretty good is Kimi ga Nozomu Eien a lot of drama/romance and fits into seinen pretty good, there is also a diferent ending if you dont like the original one

oh yeah something the goes pretty good like Karin did is Midori no Hibi (not a vampire anime but they have the same feeling).

if you are into the action/romance theme I can give you quite a few suggestions.

I have no idea what you mean by Nodame Cantabile and Honey and Clover are "nowhere near seinen", as they are both josei, as I mentioned the shows I recommended were josei and seinen. Josei is the same age demographic as seinen, but targeted toward women instead of men. Since the OP said "seinen level romance" and "I mean the way the relationship is handled...so it may drift technically into other genres as well" I don't see any problem with recommending josei, nor do I see what you are trying to imply by "nowhere near seinen."

Also, Planetes isn't "more towards" seinen, it is seinen.

thanks for all the suggestions.

art style killed honey and clover for me. though I enjoyed the actual content.


as stated, I used seinen as a guideline to try to get away from the spunky 15 yr old gets his first girlfriend anime's. Personally I care little for what label it falls under. Mainly just got tired of not feeling connected to what i was watching, or alternately falling into a lot of the romance cliche's that you get when the romance is secondary to the actual plot (the whole skirting around it), or alternately you get a harem with the cop out romance.

I would be interested in the Action/romance ones actually. Throwing fantastic elements into it is fine.

Thanks for the suggestions, Gf and I have been working too much to game recently so we've just been chilling and killing almost a series a night, so my backlog is starting to run out

Maison Ikkoku is the granddaddy of seinen romance. You definitely want to watch this show.

You might also try Cross Game, which is shounen, but more mature and complicated in the romance department then most.

Maybe Crest of the Stars? Also shounen, but more mature I thought.

have the entire crest/banner of the stars series. I agree, while the romance was very slow...TO this day that series has some of the best written characters. They were incredibly real.

Also already did maison Ikkoku, Takahashi's work got me started on anime way back when (thank you Urusei Yatsura!). I don't think i have ALL of it, because it's getting harder to find, but i've watched most of it.

thanks for the suggestions everyone! Sorry to be so picky >< But i appreciate suggestions, keep them coming.

again I used seinen as a guideline, because of a lot of the highschool cliche's, but anime demographics are kinda skewed, i can think of some series that some people consider seinen and others consider shounen.

Bokura ga Ita might be good for you also,
the characters are in high school in the anime, but the manga continues when they're in their 20's

Seikai no Senki/Monsho counts as shonen? I thought it was more towards seinen myself...

awesome, so much stuff to find, i guess i will need to set up a matx box for all the um..linux distro's i'll be getting.

keep them coming, i have some vacation time built up at work and i need something to kill the time between video games.

Ciguatera

Bitter Virgin

Haru Yo Koi

Honeymoon Salad

IO

Lament of the Lamb

Toshiue no Hito

Virgin na Kankei

Speed Grapher is rated M for being CRAZY.. LOL..

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

Blue Gender is also 18-30yr market its rated M for craziness as well..

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...ime.php?id=253

own Speed Grapher, Watched Blue Gender. :D


As a general Update, REC was really good!

How about Elfen Lied

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...me.php?id=4148

Are you looking for seinen romance anime? Because my recommendation list was full of manga. I thought you were looking for manga recommendations for some reason.

done :D. not bad, a little heavy on the thriller side, but i did enjoy it

either is fine, anime is preferred but I read a good deal of manga as well. I actually am really interested in a few of those on your list.


OP edited for clarity. I have actually seen way more than i listed, that was more reference to point to the "feel" as it were that I was looking for.

Here are some more I just thought of that I have seen and I enjoyed most of them lol..

berserk
http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/berserk (this website will give recommendations)

Basilisk
http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/basilisk

Samurai X
http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/ru...hin-tsuiokuhen

All of these shows are really good.. Samurai X is a movie or OAV but it is still really good..