Yet another rec thread: Intelligent anime

Watching anime, I've often felt that it has a particular predilection toward loose plots. Nonsensical premises, conspicuous holes in worldbuilding and backstory, insufficiently followed ramifications of the setting's features, characters being dumb or acting totally unrealistic, and various general Fridge Logic. I still enjoy it immensely in spite of (heck, sometimes because of) this, even if I often have to hogtie my brain and glue on my Willing Suspension of Disbelief like a cheap toupee, but an occasional break would still be appreciated.

One of the first anime I seriously got into was Fullmetal Alchemist. It's not perfect, but when I channel surfed into the Ed vs. Scar fight in Lior I found it such a breath of fresh air. This respect only grew as I saw the rest of the series and appreciated how well everything fit together, how good all the characters were, how the tiniest details came back repeatedly, how there was virtually no B.S., it just blew me away. In my attempts to find anything nearly on par since, probably the only thing even close was Starship Operators (absolutely incredible fights, solid story, but very dry characters.)

Perhaps I'm kinda' asking for it since I tend toward less mundane genres (action, SF, fantasy, etc…) and watch a lot of shonen, but a substantial portion of similar occidental media (juvenile novels, computer games and such) seem to defy that stereotype. Can anyone recommend a few more tightly written anime?

Eve No Jikan is beautiful. So is Mononoke.

If you're looking for something that's, well, unique, you could always try Suzumiya Haruhi. It's not for everyone, especially given Haruhi's personality in the first few books, but even she's likeable in her own right, and the plot is tight in each story (there are several sequential mini-arcs). It also certainly falls under 'intelligent' anime, given the sheer amount of Viewers Are Geniuses... the author's a theoretical physicist, I believe.

Monster and Paranoia Agent.

Ghost In The Shell?

Seconding Monster.

Kino's Journey and Haibane Renmei.

Kara No Kyoukai (Anachronic Order) and Rah Xephon (Jigsaw Puzzle Plot)

Well, you mentioned liking FMA, so I'm legally obligated to suggest Brotherhood, the other version of FMA. I admit that the first dozen or so episodes of that aren't great by any means. But… from what you're saying, I believe it would suit your taste once you get into the good parts. To sum up what I feel to be the difference between the two using as little Flame Bait as possible, Brotherhood isn't as character-based, but is wider in scope and has continuity that's a little tighter.

Can't actually disagree with the suggestions of anyone else who's posted here, though.

Seconding Mononoke Kino No Tabi (squeeee!), Haibane Renmei (double squeeeee!) and Paranoia Agent.

Serial Experiments Lain is one of the classic navel-contemplating anime, and has a genuine heart and ingeniously terse direction once you get past the veneer of Shown Their Work. FLCL may or may not fit here, depending on who you ask. Kaiba is more recent-ish, and is well worth your time, articulately if you like sci-fi, even if the second half does not hold up as well as the first. Legend Of The Galactic Heroes is an excellent political/war drama, but asks a lot of your time and concentration.

Film wise, the works of Satoshi Kon and the Kara No Kyoukai adaptations are superb, though I can't say I know much here.

edited 8th Nov '10 1:31:34 PM by KillerRabbit

What exactly do you mean by "intelligent" anime? Are we just talking something that's tightly written, with internally consistent worldbuilding and character development (which it sounds like you're asking for, but...), or do you want something a bit more ambitious and thought-provoking?

The former. The latter is certainly welcome on top of that though.

The consensus seems to be on Monster, though what little I know sounds an awful lot like all of Death Note's flaws without it's two best aspects.

@Nat The Writer: I've seen Paranoia Agent, and now that you mention it that actually is pretty solid from what I remember. It seems so random at first, but looking back now, there were always little hints toward exactly why or how things happened. The giant anvil dropped at the end was also incredible,.

@Tzetze: Yeah, I've been meaning to check out GITS for quite a while. What should I start with?

@Gilphon: Heh, no brainer, I ate that up the moment it came out. What Brotherhood really exemplified for me was FMA's ability to simultaneously have an incredibly smart, airtight plot, AND somehow ramp up the action to nearly TTGL-level epicness without the show coming apart at the seams.

@Killer Rabbit: I was extremely disappointed by Lain. It seemed so complex and mysterious at first, but as I proceeded onward it ended up obvious it was a dumb, silly story buried under pretentious nonsense. At least Ergo Proxy had better fights and wasn't afraid to poke fun at itself.

edited 8th Nov '10 2:30:24 PM by EricDVH

I'd say start with the series, Stand Alone Complex. The film had a ton of influence even outside Japan but I personally found it boring, kind of like Two Thousand One, but it was quite pretty and you might try starting there if you want something shorter than a full season. The sequel film, Innocence, is supposed to be really great, however. And I don't know anything about the manga except that it's more sexually explicit and that the various adaptations are pretty loose.

And while I haven't seen or read Monster, I'm not sure that I've ever heard anything bad about it at all, including from kashchei the lit major. Plus I have read and liked another manga by the same author.

As for the others... Serial Experiments Lain is awesome, though somewhat incomprehensible. It references everything from Schumman resonance to Vannevar Bush to John C Lilly, too. It was thought-provoking, but not really about worldbuilding.

Kinos Journey is sort of like The Little Prince with motorcycles, gunfights, and the occasional robot, a philosophical fantasy travelogue that I really liked.

Nthing Monster.

I personally think that Yoshihiro Togashi's works are intelligent, but that might just be compared to other shounen.

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni

edited 8th Nov '10 2:46:56 PM by EternalSeptember

The consensus seems to be on Monster, though what little I know sounds an awful lot like all of Death Note's flaws without it's two best aspects.

As a fan of both I can tell you that they're nothing alike. I would also recommend Monster as something that's a well-paced and put-together psychological drama.

Definitely agreeing with Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex. (The movie is decent as well, but I'm with Tzetze on this one. The series is far, far better.)

I'll also second RahXephon. It's, uh, complicated, but unlike some things it actually makes sense by the end (if you pay attention).

Darker Than Black may also be of interest.

edited 8th Nov '10 3:39:48 PM by Nyktos

Agreeing with Ghost In The Shell and also throwing Crest Of The Stars into the ring. A lot of interesting world building as well as engaging characters.

Definitely supporting those two, although with Darker Than Black, one reason I kind of question the intelligent part is that it ultimately (if you take everything following the first season) never really explains the setting and its limitations (if any).

You might also check out Samurai Champloo and/or Cowboy Bebop.

Better no explanation than a stupid one, imo. If something like that is a deal-breaker, don't watch it, but it does have a lot to offer.

I'd suggest Zatch Bell. It's a bit odd, but it remains internally consistent and it's usually a very fun read. Not sure if it's what your looking for though.

Seconding Cowboy Bebop if you haven't seen it already; it's very tight in terms of both worldbuilding and character history, has high-quality animation despite its age, notoriously awesome music, and is generally all around awesome.

Ghost In The Shell (well, Stand Alone Complex at least, haven't seen the rest) strikes me as more "pretentious" than "intelligent", really. It falls into the classic cyberpunk problem of being so caught up in its own cyberpunkness that it sort of forgets to actually tell an interesting story. The second season is a significant improvement in this regard, though — you can skip the first one without losing much of anything.

Monster is something I just got into, I heavily recommend it.

Baccano and BlackLagoon are both good places to start for internally consistent character developtment and good plots although BL is more Episodic having 3-4 episode arcs, and neither is that thinkey.

Bebop is seconded as well if you haven't seen it, if you like that check out it's spiritual sequel as well.

You mentioned one of Deathnotes redeeming features was World of Ham so I'm recomending Code Geass based solely on that alone.

If you're a fan of Full Metal Alchemist I'd suggest Soul Eater on the shounen front, the two are both good and if you only take one of my suggestions, this should be it.

Also One Piece which is an absolute juggernaut when it comes to keeping fridge logic at bay.

I've seen Baccano!, Soul Eater, and Code Geass. The characters in Baccano! I found such a bunch of aggravatingly random knuckleheads they almost turned me off it, but the show was just so shocking and weird that it was still worth watching. The worldbuilding (mostly) and story actually made sense by the end, but the characters were… Completely unbelievable, both in their behavior and the way Charles Atlas Superpower was stretched way beyond my breaking point.

I really like Soul Eater, but it's pretty much the opposite of what I'm looking for in this thread. Not quite to the level of… Bleach for instance, but the entire show basically runs on MST3K Mantra, though it fits better in this case since the theme IS insanity (I love how the heroes aren't mad like “ooh, kooky and eccentric” but mad like “STRUGGLING BORDERLINE NONFUNCTIONAL LUNATIC!”, and they're still the world's best hope.)

Code Geass had potential, with a medium-soft SF/AH/fantasy setting combined with a sort of humanized spin on Death Note's characters and plot, but the whole thing sort of cracked apart slowly over the first season, eventually culminating in what I believe may be the dumbest Wall Banger I've seen in fiction, ever. Needless to say, I have purposely avoided R2.

Still, lots of great suggestions so far, I'll definitely be checking some out.

You mean The Euphinator?

Yeah. R2 had a lot of absolutely ridiculous plot twists and random Character Derailment, but nothing else in the series actually made me quit watching the show. Seriously, after seeing that episode of Geass, for like 2 or 3 months I just said "Fuck this shit" and watched something else.