Looking for Deep, Meaningful, and Emotional Animes.

[ArcticFlame]

Hello everyone, and thank you in advance for helping me. I've hit a rut when it comes to deep, meaningful, and/or emotional anime, and I know that more of them are out there. I'll provide a list of some of my favorites, and if you know any titles in the same vein as them, I'd be deeply indebted to you.

Current Favorites:

Jin Roh - Symbolism abounds, dark, and thought-provoking.

Saikano - Touching and dark. I don't mind darkness at all, as long as it has emotional impact.

Boogiebop Phantom - A thinking title, for sure.

Grave of the Fireflies - The king of pathetic tragedy in anime, in my most humble opinion.

Voices of a Distant Star - Once again, filled to the brink of emotion. Related to this is Beyond the Clouds, which I also saw, and enjoyed immensely. Both of them are wonderful animes.

What I'm looking for is emotion and depth throughout - not simply emotion in one episode or a few episodes, a la Gundam Seed (which I enjoyed nonetheless, but...), or, for example, Trigun. I'm in search of a genuinely thought-provoking, meaningful, and emotional title.

All your help is appreciated! Thanks so much.

~Arc

[jedinat]

By order of preference:
Haibane Renmei
Hachimitsu to Clover
Mushishi
Figure 17
Serial Experiments Lain
Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Paste them in the search bar here for details.

[miaka]

I second with Mushishi - its very thought provoking and episodic.
Kino no Tabi - also has a deep meaning.
KANON - its my favorite. First few episode is easy to watch and it get emotional at the very end. The story is very meaningful and heart-warming. There is a remake by kyoto animation that will be airred sometime this year.

[eternal]

Deep ,meaningful and emotional varies accoding to different individual.To me,deep meaning darkness,meaningful means umm...something which has no meaning in life,emotional means ....i'm almost speechless.

Anyway,my anime fo you:
1)Noir (my no1 anime of all time) -DEEP
2)Madlax (many ppl compare this to noir,and produced by the same company Bee Train ,music composed by Yuki Kaijura as well)-DEEP
3)Shoujo kakumei utena (it's actually quite dark for the later part.However,it's meaningful to me only because it's a shoujo ai anime.Still,it's one of the most meaningful shoujo ai anime ever)-DEEP
4)Gundam Seed (real life darkness,meaningful,great music,and it's also the only mecha anime that can get me excited over those bloody "Ship ready to launch,38 degrees to left,load catridge,fire towards 27 alpha left command)-MEANINGFUL
5)Gundam seed destiny
6)Air (sad,emotional...this anime really made me cry.this is meanigful and emotional!!)-MEANINGFUL and EMOTIONAL
7)yami to boushi to hon no tabibito-the saddest shoujo ai anime ever -EMOTIONAL

[Chiibi]

Full Moon!
Kareshi Kanojo No Jijou is really deep-more pyschological than emotional but Full Moon will definitely make you cry. Several times.

[Yotsuba]

I would say Full Moon manga is a bit more dark than the anime, though. It seems typical shoujo at first, but it really has dark and depressing undertones, especially towards the end. Hachimitsu to Clover is also very emotional, so I second that. Serial Experiments Lain is VERY deep and sort of scary. It's one of those things you have to watch a few times to really get it. It was one of my first anime and it really got me thinking about a lot of things I probably would have been better off not thinking about at that age, haha.

[Lambda]

Similar to things you've mentioned:

Jin Roh: Pretty much any other Oshii film, that is the Ghost in the Shell films, the Patlabor films (1 and 2), and if you're interested in something completely and unabashedly arty, Angel's Egg.

Boogiebop Phantom: Serial Experiments Lain, the original and best. Paranoia Agent is also in the same subgenre, though I feel it suffers significantly from the law of diminishing returns.

Grave of the Fireflies: I think that Now and Then, Here and There is a whole lot better at this actually, since it's interesting as well.

Other important series:

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The original groundbreaking anime which made the production of most of the other series here possible. Everyone has a different opinion about it, but it's something which everybody should see, even if only so they can make up their own mind about it!

Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Absolutely a work of art. Nothing else can boast the amount of metaphor, symbolism and avant-garde direction of this series. It's got a great sense of humour too.

Princess Tutu: Easily qualifies in both categories. If there's a single anime to which I would ascribe perfection, it would be this one.

[Chiibi]

Originally Posted by Yotsuba

I would say Full Moon manga is a bit more dark than the anime, though. It seems typical shoujo at first, but it really has dark and depressing undertones, especially towards the end.

Yeah, like dur. But we're talking about anime here, not manga.

[Kyousuke]

Now and Then, Here and There - Adventure, Drama, Military

[Mr.Hawq]

you got to try gankuksuo. A show about revenge, in it's sweetest way. It's got love, heavy doses of different relationships, and the story itself is quite dark. Don't think that the last episode was really bad, and dark, the last episode I can guarantee that you will enjoy it. It's the adaption of the book Monte Cristo.

[Kyousuke]

The bad thing about Gankutsuou is that they mixed the past and the future. Aristrocats shouldn't exist in the future.

[Mr.Hawq]

Originally Posted by Kyousuke

The bad thing about Gankutsuou is that they mixed the past and the future. Aristrocats shouldn't exist in the future.

Well it afterall an anime, anime's do inimaginable things, so it really does not matter if the setting of the anime takes place in the future. It does have his requirments, so that is the biggie

[Mirai]

"The bad thing about Gankutsuou is the colors"

FIXED

[Silent_One]

[QUOTE=eternal]Deep ,meaningful and emotional varies accoding to different individual.

I agree so mine might be what you want but it was for me

Fruits Basket- not sure they will finish this as anime or only manga so might want to just read the manga either way its good.

[sophismata]

Now and Then, Here and There.

Easily the best anime I have ever seen.

[i am the walrus]

I would suggest Kino's Journey. Its pretty good although sometimes i think it tries to hard to be deep. If you're the analytical type that loves to find the meaning in things you would like it. It's entertaining. Well I hope that helps you out.

[Mephisto2k]

Kimi ga nozomu eien

X serie

elfen lied

check anidb for info and i can tell you each of them are deep meaningfull dramas.

[Scorch]

I'll also add my name to the pile recommending Honey and Clover. It's a really great slice of life show. I didn't like it after the first episode, but by #2 or 3 I was hooked.

If you like Honey and Clover, watch the first 8 episodes of Twin Spica. After that, it really goes downhill (in my opinion), but the first 8 episodes are entirely worth watching.

Haibane Renmei is also excellent. It starts slow, but has one of the most emotional endings of any show I've seen. There's so many layers to it that you'll catch more of the symbolism every time you watch it. I was personally much more emotionally affected by it than Grave of the Fireflies.

Lain, by the same director as Haibane Renmei, is good, but I'd suggest you watch Haibane first. They're totally different styles, but Haibane sounds closer to your taste. Lain messes with your head and is really interesting as well, it's just not as emotionally powerful.

Not an anime, but consider checking out Band of Brothers. I cannot give that mini-series enough praise.

[doctorwu]

At first, when Lamba mentioned Princess Tutu, I though the comment was sarcastic.

Then, I said to myself, "Self, what the hell, why not?" and watched an episode.

Seriously. Perfection.

[jedinat]

Originally Posted by doctorwu

At first, when Lamba mentioned Princess Tutu, I though the comment was sarcastic.

Then, I said to myself, "Self, what the hell, why not?" and watched an episode.

Seriously. Perfection.

Yeah it is good. I just could never really come to terms with the main character really only being a duck...