Quote:
Originally Posted by BladeStone
This is the thing . . she HATES anime. She's quite the close-minded person. The reason she's watching this is because I made a deal with her. So this is my one shot to get her hooked. If she doesn't like it, probability is high that she won't ever try it again. I'll watch through most of the suggestions.
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If that's the case, I'm not sure trying the mine the shallow vein of mystery anime is necessarily your best strategy. Like Saber Cherry, I think you may be setting yourself up for a fall.
Of course, no one here has any clue about your wife's tastes, other than "mystery," but might I suggest you consider some shows outside that genre as well? These are shows I think might appeal to adult women for a variety of reasons.
First, there's the feminist-influenced fantasy Asian shows like
Junni Kokki ("Twelve Kingdoms"),
Saiunkoku Monogatari, and
Seirei no Moribito ("Guardian of the Sacred Spirit"). All three showcase strong female characters in excellent costume dramas. Though all three stories take place in fantasy Asian empires that look rather like China, they share a modern, feminist sensibility. Rather than recounting the stories here, I'll point you to my signature which contains the links to their Wikipedia pages. All three are licensed, though only Junni Kokki is currently complete on R1 DVDs. The others belong to Geneon USA who are no longer distributing anime directly into R1.
Next, how about an office "slice-of-life" comedy/drama about a 28-yo woman trying to succeed as an editor in a Japanese publishing house? That's
Hataraki Man. It's unlicensed and includes one of my top-two female seiyuu performances of 2006, Tanaka Rie's rich portrayal of the main character, Hiroko. I can't imagine how any woman who's worked in a male-dominated office won't have something in common with Hiro-san. This show has a few underlying plot themes, but it's largely episodic. I find it's easier to "sell" an episodic series to anime novices because those shows require a much lower commitment of time and attention than do multi-week series.
Finally, how about
Nodame Cantabile? It's a delightful mix of classical music, romantic comedy, and personal drama set in a college-level music academy. The characters are young adults with mature sensibilities, all trying to pursue careers in professional music. There are no mysteries in NC, except the mysteries of life. It's also still, remarkably to my mind, unlicensed.
Edit: I'd also try a couple of episodes of
Bartender unless she's an absolute tee-totaller. You can browse the episode list at
Wikipedia and pick a couple that seem interesting or just start from the beginning (however episode one is rather slow). My favorite is episode two which tells the story of that pig-tailed little girl at the end of my signature.