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Best serious non emo teen angst anime?

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Sounds like Azumanga Daioh and Nichijou suit you better.

I've seen Azumanga before, but never Nichijou... I'll give that a look. When it comes to similar anime, I think I'd prefer Today in Class 4-2 more. It's kind of like Azumanga but a bit less innocent, which might seem a little odd. 😛

From this year.. my top favorites are Steins;Gate, Madoka and Ano Hana. Steins;Gate is easily the best anime of the year IMO.

I've been looking at Steins;Gate, but the premise sounds kind of odd... is there any anime (that I may have seen) that you could compare it to? I believe I saw episode 24 "become available".
 
I've been looking at Steins;Gate, but the premise sounds kind of odd... is there any anime (that I may have seen) that you could compare it to? I believe I saw episode 24 "become available".

I can't think of any to compare it to.. I know the studio also did Chaos Head. It does take a few episodes to get into also, which may be the only knock on it.
 
Thought of another:

Full Moon wo Sagashite

This is a 52 episode series that on the surface is about some preteen girl who wants to become a singer. However, it does delve into some serious issues such as death/dying, mean people, hope, etc.
 
Thought of another:

Full Moon wo Sagashite

This is a 52 episode series that on the surface is about some preteen girl who wants to become a singer. However, it does delve into some serious issues such as death/dying, mean people, hope, etc.

Your man card please
 
I watched Nichijou, and I donno... I think it might be too odd for me. I mean, if I want to watch an odd series, I'll just go rewatch Jungle wa again. 😀
True enough. I agree Nichijou does not eclipse Azumanga (or even GTO) in terms of 'jokes quality' as the jokes are often overdone. There are good, golden ones (high ROFLMAO-potential) scattered in separate episodes though, which make the series worthy enough to follow. Nothing else I know in recent years (not even Hayate The Combat Butler) can do this.
 
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True enough. I agree Nichijou does not eclipse Azumanga (or even GTO) in terms of 'jokes quality' as the jokes are often overdone. There are good, golden ones (high ROFLMAO-potential) scattered in separate episodes though, which make the series worthy enough to follow. Nothing else I know in recent years (not even Hayate The Combat Butler) can do this.

One of my favorite lines is from the beginning of Great Teacher Onizuka, "My driving is like Initial D!" 😎 I watched the entire live action (can't beat ~ Poison ~), but I never finished the anime. That reminds me... I've been meaning to read/watch Shounan Junai Gumi (prequel to GTO)!

I mostly watched Hayate no Gotoku to try and guess what they copyrighted thing they were bleeping out in the episodes. 😳

I might give Nichijou another shot, but it'll have to come after everything else!

If you want to see amusing, Jungle wa certainly has some great scenes. Like when Guu makes it snow in the jungle and tells her class that Santa Claus is actually a serial killer with a chainsaw. Of course, she then goes and dresses up as Santa. 😛
 
I never watched the live action GTO, only the anime (which started out great with Onizuka beating the crap out of two would-be robbers in the first few minutes of the first episode). The same episode got even better with him confronting gang members who were about to beat up his students and announcing, contrary to what most would expect, "They are my prey". 😀

I did watch Guu but as much as I liked the jokes (still not as well done as Azumanga's IMO), the jungle backstage and Guu's overly mysterious power just don't click well with me and I never re-watched any of it. The animation is quite 'meh' too (though Nichijou's is nearly the same relative to other 2009-2011 anime).

Speaking of 'funny' anime, there is also Abenobashi Shotengai. I remember quite liking it back then. Might just watch it again.
 
I never watched the live action GTO, only the anime (which started out great with Onizuka beating the crap out of two would-be robbers in the first few minutes of the first episode). The same episode got even better with him confronting gang members who were about to beat up his students and announcing, contrary to what most would expect, "They are my prey". 😀

The live action doesn't really differ too much from the beginning of the series... at least not from what I remember. If you like GTO, have you considered Gokusen? It's kind of similar, and there's also a live action (I think there are two seasons as well).

I did watch Guu but as much as I liked the jokes (still not as well done as Azumanga's IMO), the jungle backstage and Guu's overly mysterious power just don't click well with me and I never re-watched any of it. The animation is quite 'meh' too (though Nichijou's is nearly the same relative to other 2009-2011 anime).

Guu's really meant to be that unexplainable entity or enigma if you will. I kind of gave up wondering who/what Guu is about halfway through the original series. 😛

When I started watching the sequel (Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Gu Deluxe), I told my sister that I wanted to know the name of the new opening, so I sat down, got my Japanese dictionary out and translated it myself. She just said to me, "I bet it's Love Tropicana Deluxe!" (The original series' opening is Love Tropicana) Perturbed by her simplistic thought, "Shush... you are ruining my concentration!"

I start working on it... "Love Tropicana... De..." My head sank a bit, "It's... Love Tropicana Deluxe." :biggrin:

Speaking of 'funny' anime, there is also Abenobashi Shotengai. I remember quite liking it back then. Might just watch it again.

I'll check that one out too.

EDIT:

I thought of another amusing series for you... Detroit Metal City!
 
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From this year.. my top favorites are Steins;Gate, Madoka and Ano Hana. Steins;Gate is easily the best anime of the year IMO.

Finally! Yes it is, in fact Id say its the best anime of the decade even, though I absolutely love anything related to time travel so Im biased there

But really, Steins;Gate has the best plot of anything ever in ages, it makes you go back and watch the first episodes and then it blows your mind again
 
I can't remember... did Soul Eater either deviate from the manga or did it just not finish? I watched the anime, but never got around to reading the manga.

Dunno, I've never read any manga. But I do recall hearing something about Soul Eater deviating.

Best part about Soul Eater is definitely the openings... although, I'm a bit biased when it comes to TMR or Tommy Heavenly/February!

Yes, I watched opening 1 in every episode.
 
Thought of another:

Full Moon wo Sagashite

This is a 52 episode series that on the surface is about some preteen girl who wants to become a singer. However, it does delve into some serious issues such as death/dying, mean people, hope, etc.

myco never forget. 🙁
 
I just finished Steins;Gate today. Best anime of the year, for sure. Better than Death Note IMHO. Extremely thrilling and suspenseful. Downright pulse-pounding at times.
 
just started watching another,

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

just watched the first episode and so far so good.

it looks like it follows 2 assassins as they do their work.
 
I finished Clannad After Story the other day, and I have to say... that anime really gets to you. :'(

Although, I wasn't sure exactly what they were trying to convey.
What I'm pondering over is what exactly "the other world" meant and what it consisted of. It seems based on the end that the little girl contained the consciousness of Nagisa/Ushio and was most likely related to the sickness that they both had.

Although, I'm trying to figure out whether the "light" took Tomoya back in the past to allow him to choose whether he met Nagisa or not, or it simply "pulled a Scrooge" and showed him a possible future.

I've been looking into watching Baka to Test and Steins;Gate next.
 
I'm glad you liked After Story. Steins;gate will leave just about anyone thrilled.

I mentioned Toradora! earlier. It's slice-of-lifey, with its core being a love story. It's overall a better anime than Clannad [After Story] because you don't need to get through 30-some episodes to get to the truly good parts, but pales in comparison (just like every other anime when compared with AS) at the eventual ultimate emotional impact. Still a very good series, and second on my all-time favorites list next to After Story. (S;G is a very close 3rd)
 
I've been leaving anidb.net pages open to remind me to check out certain animes, and I'm pretty certain one of them is Toradora!. 🙂
 
It sounds like your interest in anime is similar to mine. I'm not interested in 99% of it. Regardless, the posters in this type of thread almost always ignore the OP's exclusions/criteria for recommendations ,and that gets annoying.

If your tastes are like mine, those four will pretty much be the best you will ever watch:

Samurai Champloo
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Berserk
 
I will have to go through my files, but when you say things like "No Mecha" are you saying that you do not want a CGI "Form blazing sword" kind of thing, or no sci-fi to speak of?

Full Metal Panic is not bad (not the best), with some decidedly impossible scenarios in High School, but entertaining overall.

Monster is great, and Death Note WAS great (Until we went to another letter, if you know what I mean). Claymore was really good as well, OUTSTANDING for a late 80's anime. Elfen Lied was also good, albeit very violent. Not quite as violent as Shigurui. That was great, but one of the most F'd up series I ever saw....


YMMV

I'm guessing he means no giant robots or robot suits.
 
Angel's Egg - surreal/existential art film, give it a chance, gorgeous artwork

To-Y - '80s J-rock, fun little OVA. I wouldn't necessarily call it serious though.
 
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