Request for Suspenseful Anime

October 27, 2008 3:32 PM

With very few exceptions I have never really liked anime. Recently I watched Death Note on hulu and got a huge kick out of it. I'd like to watch some more anime that isn't about people who are awesome at fighting fighting other people who are awesome at fighting and is generally suspenseful and tightly serialized.

I have also have penchant for works of art with convoluted stories, bizarre premises, and strange narrative conceits. So Death Note, despite some pretty serious flaws, was almost exactly up my alley. Any recommendations?

posted by I Foody to media & arts (48 comments total)

Pretty much the only anime I have ever gotten into was Cowboy Bebop. Kind of like an anime Firefly. Some fighting, but a good storyline (I think).
posted by sararah at 3:42 PM on October 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

If you want convoluted stories, I would check out Evangelion. There are mechas, yes, but that really isn't the point of the show. I loved it.
posted by InsanePenguin at 3:43 PM on October 27, 2008

I love me some anime, but my collection is selective and small.
I'd wholeheartedly recommend
1) Ghost In The Shell, Stand Alone Complex
2) Last Exile
3) Witch Hunter Robin
4) Neon Genesis Evangelion
posted by willmize at 3:45 PM on October 27, 2008

Well it does involve a healthy dose of fighting (and giant semi-organic robots), but Neon Genesis Evangalion is generally regarded as one of the most influential works of anime in the past few decades. The fighting is in arguably a vehicle for what the creator(s) want to say about people and relationships, or at least about the mythology they've created. It's definitely got the "tightly serialized" aspect, and it's ridiculously convoluted. Also heavy on Freudian psychology, if you're into that, which in my book counts as "strange narrative conceits."

I'm not that big into anime myself, but this was at least interestingly bizarre.
posted by valkyryn at 3:45 PM on October 27, 2008

these are movies, so they won't fulfill your "tightly serialized requirement" but they will fulfill the convoluted story, bizarre premise, strange narrative conceit & generally suspenseful desires

also, they are just awesome movies & you should just like them anyways - ahem

- Paprika
- Millenium Actress

and really, there's no one "awesome at fighting" in Akira, so why not suggest that too?

* settles back to watch this thread with interest *
posted by jammy at 3:48 PM on October 27, 2008

Oh, definitely second Ghost In the Shell and Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence. The related Standalone Complex isn't quite as interesting, but still entertaining in its own way.
posted by valkyryn at 3:48 PM on October 27, 2008

Try Chaos Head.
posted by guniang at 3:51 PM on October 27, 2008

Appleseed?
posted by SaintCynr at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2008

You definitely want Perfect Blue as well as Paprika and Millennium Actress (same director).
posted by infinityjinx at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2008

Paprika was great, I think you'll like it- pretty bizarre.
posted by sunshinesky at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2008

Oh! And of course - FLCL (Fooly Cooly).
posted by infinityjinx at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2008

I second the recommendation for Ghost In The Shell:SAC (both series), both are somewhat convoluted. I'd also recommend Noir, which is about a pair of assassins investigating a secret conspiracy/society, and Gunslinger Girl, which follows several cybernetically-enhanced schoolgirls (yeah, I know) who work for a secret Agency within the Italian (!?!) government. Both have modern-day gunfighting (as opposed to mystical magic and martial arts-type combat)

Much simpler is my favourite anime, Planetes, which is basically hard sci-fi in anime form.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2008

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai are also pretty good.
posted by guniang at 3:55 PM on October 27, 2008

I have also have penchant for works of art with convoluted stories, bizarre premises, and strange narrative conceits.

That would be Haibane Renmei. Much recommended. It starts slow; the real story begins in the sixth episode. Eps 2-5 are mainly character building, and though they are extremely important to the series story line, they don't seem to go anywhere when you watch the series the first time.

Haibane Renmei is everything you said you wanted: it is suspenseful, tightly serialized, convoluted, has a bizarre premise, and it has strange narrative conceits.

It's about a small group of girls who have halos and grey wings, who live in a town full of humans. The entire area is surrounded by magical walls and no one in the town, human or haibane, knows what is outside. The humans are born, grow old, and die just like us. The haibane, on the other hand, hatch from cocoons which spontaneously appear in the place they live, which is called a "nest".

While the haibane grow in their cocoons, they dream. When they hatch, they are named after whatever it was they dreamed about. The protagonist, Rakka (落下), is named that because she dreamed about falling.

Many American anime fans consider it to be the single best anime series ever made.

I don't recomment Cowboy Bebop, mostly because the ending is a punch in the gut. I hated the ending, and it retroactively ruined the series for me.

The ending of Haibane Renmei is magnificent.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:55 PM on October 27, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

"convoluted stories, bizarre premises, and strange narrative conceits" sounds like Paranoia Agent to me. No fighting, but weirdness galore. It will not seem tightly serialized on first viewing, but if you pay attention, the second time around you might be surprised...

I also second Haibane Renmei.
posted by vorfeed at 3:58 PM on October 27, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I'll mention that I've seen Paprika and Akira and I liked them both because of their visual splendor and wtf'ness, but they didn't really draw me in with the sort of arbitrary plots. Cowboy Bebop is definitely cool and I plan to give it another chance but it seemed really episodic more than serialized if you know what I mean. Some great suggestions though, thanks so much.
posted by I Foody at 3:59 PM on October 27, 2008

Serial Experiments: Lain is my favorite anime of all time, and it definitely qualifies under "bizarre".

Also, seconding Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
posted by shaka, when the walls fell at 4:00 PM on October 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I hate anime, always have...but I couldn't get enough Fooly Cooly.
posted by davejay at 4:02 PM on October 27, 2008

Serial Experiments Lain certainly fits the "convoluted stories" requirement.
posted by murphy slaw at 4:02 PM on October 27, 2008

I have some frame grabs from the first episode of Haibane Renmei here.

My own experience is that any time anyone asks for recommendations for anime, they will get a memory dump of every anime series that anyone has ever heard of, no matter whether it fits the stated requirements or not. For instance:

Neon Genesis Evangelion is definitely famous and influential. But part of the reason it is famous is because the ending is a total trainwreck. Evangelion and Mahoromatic, both from studio Gainax, are the two series which gave fandom the term "Gainax Ending" -- which is not a compliment.

Noir is a superb series, with an extremely tightly plotted series story, but it has a lot of combat and you said you didn't want combat.

FLCL is idiocy. Planetes put me to sleep. Higurashi is horror; don't watch it unless you like blood.

A lot of the other series mentioned above aren't legally available in R1. If you want to watch them you either have to download fansubs or buy R2 disks, which won't be subtitled in English.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:05 PM on October 27, 2008

Thirding Lain. Awesome, awesome, awesome show.
posted by sacrifix at 4:18 PM on October 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Full Metal Alchemist. It has it's share of fighting, but it has one of the most riveting plots that I've ever seen. Cowboy Bebop is also great, and Miyazaki films will always hold a special place in my heart.
posted by RKaushik at 4:22 PM on October 27, 2008

oh, geez, how could I forget Lain?! Definitely , definitely!
posted by sunshinesky at 4:36 PM on October 27, 2008

Death Note is a magnificent show. I'll try and avoid Steven C. Den Beste's Anime Memory Dump and recommend shows to you based on the elements that made Death Note great:

If you liked gradually figuring out "how the system works," try The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which appears on the surface to be your normal high school anime and slowly unfolds into something cosmic. Self-aware, tricky, comic, and cute, with production values through the roof.

Evangelion is a coming-of-age story that deconstructs itself over the course of the series. The story is pleasantly convoluted. I thought its depictions of the calm before the storm (and by storm I mean apocalypse) were appropriately chilling, especially considering the mild comic elements mixed in. There's a retelling coming out now in the form of a movie tetralogy, and if you know how you can get your hands on a subtitled copy of the first one.
posted by svolix at 4:37 PM on October 27, 2008

Full Metal Alchemist is very different from Deathnote, but yes, it was a very good series.

It's an tragedy of two brothers who lost a part of themselves using alchemy as young kids to bring their mother back. They are a quest to get the "Philosophers stone", so to speak, and meet various people whose stories demonstrate the price of obtaining power.

The movie that followed the series was very good too, in my opinion. The thing about Full Metal Alchemist is that, for all the fighting and so on, there characters don't get away from their problems. They always end up having to give something to get something.

If you haven't seen Full Metal Alchemist, I would encourage you to watch it. I watched both the English Dub and subtitled version and found both to be good. If you have a younger brother, this story will be especially touching.
posted by abdulf at 4:40 PM on October 27, 2008

.hack//sign.

It takes place within an MMORPG and mostly involves characters having long conversations about life. It's the opposite of "fighters fighting fighters buffalo buffalo" and is very much character driven with some really cool concepts enabled by virtue of its setting.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 4:58 PM on October 27, 2008

I second almost all the recommendations here, adding Monster and Noein to the list.
posted by Memo at 5:00 PM on October 27, 2008

I really like Bebop, Ghost in the Shell (original, stand alone complex 1&2) and Paranoid Agent but also found Eureka Seven, Witch Hunter Robin and Hellsing and recently Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo really engaging.

I would also highly recommend Fullmetal Alchemist for an anime series that starts off seemingly simple and rapidly unfolds into a vastly deep and interesting storyline. It, and it's epilogue movie addition has rapidly become one of my favorites.
posted by eatdonuts at 5:21 PM on October 27, 2008

Miyazaki rules, of course. I'm not sure I can say I *enjoyed* "Night on the Galactic Railroad", but I've never seen a better movie about cats on a train in Esperanto. I'll also never forget "Night of the fireflies", although it is very disturbing.
posted by acrasis at 5:23 PM on October 27, 2008

Second Noein and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which were on my pre-preview list, odd and pretty tight, add Ergo Proxy here. Then there's Eureka Seven, Solty Rei, Black Cat and Trigun for some more things that progress from beginning through a middle and to an end. Mushi-shi is like the X-Files, episodic but with an underlying theme throughout, most episodes gave me the willies, good production quality.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:26 PM on October 27, 2008

Lain! Lain is great.

My all-time favorite anime is Shoujo Kakumei Utena. The first few episodes are whacked out and may have you thinking you're watching a revamped Sailor Moon. By the end you will be blown away. It is incredible. And I have wonderful memories of being up late with my friends with books of philosophy, mythology, and the Bible trying to interpret some of the shit that was going on. Oh man, so good.

As with any anime, watch the subtitled version, not the dubbed version. There are a lot of intracacies that will only be understood if/when you can hear the Japanese (like calling someone -san instead of -sama). Also, the series has some really great, really well-known voice actors. (Midorikawa Hikaru is my man)

I do recommend the movie, because it contains some of the most beautifully animated scenes I've ever seen (Toki ni Ai wa... omg), but watch it after the series. It's basically a parallel universe to the series that I'm pretty sure was written when the writers were on a lot of good drugs.
posted by olinerd at 5:26 PM on October 27, 2008

I came in here to recommend Shoujo Kakumei Utena, which is also known in the States as Revolutionary Girl Utena. So I'll just second olinerd. It is, technically, a fighting anime of sorts, but it's hard to take the fighting seriously because it's very stylized dueling, and the show's much more about the protagonist (that would be Utena) trying to figure out wtf is going on - and also the boundaries between reality vs. fiction, human nature, good vs. evil, so on and so forth.

If you like the idea of blinking at the TV screen and going, "Wait, did that just happen or was it meant to be symbolic?" then Utena will be right up your alley.
posted by bettafish at 5:39 PM on October 27, 2008

ditto Lain & Paranoia Agent.
posted by juv3nal at 5:40 PM on October 27, 2008

I agree that your request pretty much screams Paranoia Agent.

Fooly Cooly is unstoppably awesome, and is only 6 episodes long.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 5:41 PM on October 27, 2008

I would also add Shadow Star NaruTaru, Petite Cosette, and Texhnolyze in the interesting and strange category, though none of them are as good as Habane Renmei, Paranoia Agent, Serial Experiment Lain, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzuniya in regards to the style or themes you are looking for. Although I must say that Shadow Star Narutaru may have been as good as the others if it hadn't been canceled after thirteen episodes, the best of it was really quite compelling and unique. A similar story to Carnivale I guess...
posted by mr.grum at 6:05 PM on October 27, 2008

Mushishi. No fighting. Generally suspenseful and tightly serialized. A work of art with bizarre premises and strange narrative conceits.
posted by Sitegeist at 6:36 PM on October 27, 2008

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi and FLCL are very outrageous and random despite having an interesting plot. I also think that if you liked Death Note, you probably won't like Full Metal Alchemist and Utena since they don't have the same sort of intrigue that you're looking for. Both are heavily episodic(Utena especially) and are geared towards a younger audience.

Haibane Renmei is hardly suspenseful until the very last couple of episodes and the series is fairly slow paced. It has a good plot, it's a little cutesy at times and many things are left unsaid for viewers to theorize. I'm not sure if you want this sort of philosophical anime.

Evangelion is an interesting IMHO, but from an objective stand point, you probably won't like it for some of the fighting and some of the drawn out episodes.

Mushishi is VERY slow paced and there is generally no over-arching storyline so you could start in the middle of the series and still understand what's going on.

This is a shot in the dark, but you might be interested in Ergo Proxy if you are into Sci-Fi.
posted by nikkorizz at 8:11 PM on October 27, 2008

The best summary I've ever seen for "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi" is that it is an excellent 6-episode series with an additional 8 filler episodes.

When it was originally broadcast the episodes were mixed up so that they weren't in chronological order. The reason they did that was because those six episodes were the only thing that gave the series any structure, so they crammed the other 8 episodes (which are chronologically later, in story terms) in between them.

When the series was released in R1, there was a premium version which maintained broadcast order, and a cheap version which, for no reason that's obvious, rearranged them in chronological order. The 6 episodes show up as episodes 2-7 among the 8 episodes on the first two DVDs.

Those 6 episodes would be a good choice for you, if you watch them straight through without the others. If you're intrigued, you could watch ep 8 (baseball) and see if you're interested in the other fillers, and maybe get the other two cheap DVDs if so.

The first episode (movie) is bizarre and on first viewing I recommend skipping it.

-----
"Serial Experiments Lain" definitely fits your requirement, but it's a hard series to watch. It will confuse you, disturb you -- and that's good. But it won't lay out its story in easy to understand terms. I had to watch it three times and then do a bunch of research before I finally began to understand what it was about. (I ended up writing a blog post about it, but I won't link to it here.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:13 PM on October 27, 2008

I'll 3rd the suggestion for Mushishi - cool art style and interesting premise.

Oh, and it's a movie but Mind Game is probably the best anime I've seen.
posted by pilibeen at 8:59 PM on October 27, 2008

If you liked Death Note, you'll probably like Monster. The serial-killer villain is freaking magnificent (better than Light in my opinion) and you barely ever need to see him. Great stuff, I can't recommend it enough.

If you want convoluted stories, bizarre premises, and strange narrative conceits, then I would also recommend The Higurashi series, if you have the stomach for it. The back story goes deep like a rabbit hole, if you can find it (hell, you don't even know who the main villain is until halfway through the second series). The way the first season is told is in "question" and "answer" arcs where the method of the story telling is also in a way the story itself - but that isn't fully explained until later. What begins as a simple and very effective horror/thriller in the first four episodes breaks into a brain breaking mystery. The main strikes against it is the violence - it isn't fighty-type violence, but rather brutal horror violence, and it can be pretty disturbing, especially if you have a thing against children being hurt. The other strike is the cutesy stuff - there's a lot of traditional anime "cute" schoolkid fun going on in each arc before the bad things begin to happen. If you can deal with the violence and the cute, then this would probably be exactly the kind of thing you're looking for.

Note that the Monster Anime doesn't have an English language license, so you'd have to get fansubs. I don't know how you are with those, or even if you would have any interest of going that route. However, the manga has been released in an English translation and is also excellent. (Oh, and if you are willing to go the fansub route, I'd also recommend Ghost Hound for some slow moving psychological weirdness.)
posted by cimbrog at 9:36 PM on October 27, 2008

You cannot go wrong with Planetes and Last Exile.
posted by Kikkoman at 11:50 PM on October 27, 2008

Ghost in the Shell is a pretty damn good sci-fi anime. Just avoid the original movie, which was terrible. It's deals with the future of humanity, technology, the internet and Intelligence, told from the perspective of a cybercrime law enforcement agency. And full of violence but not in an innane way that makes combat the central point of the story. If you're interested but the violence turns you away, there's another series by the author airing right now called "Real Diver" (or something), that has a more utopian & detective slant about similar subjects.

I have also have penchant for works of art with convoluted stories, bizarre premises, and strange narrative conceits. So Death Note, despite some pretty serious flaws, was almost exactly up my alley. Any recommendations?

That would basically be FLCL, but a lot of it is parody of traditional "otaku" anime. Convoluted story, bizarre premise. I'm not sure what constitutes narrative conceit, but it probably has that too. And it has surprisingly deep and real characters.

The people who did FLCL also did the show Gunbuster, which is sort of a spoof of an older show from the same company. About giant robots. In space. And women in schoolgirl skirts. So clearly, theres something to be parodied there, and it does it pretty well. Anyways, between the superserious Ghost in the Shell and the super not serious FLCL, I think you're covered.
posted by pwnguin at 12:56 AM on October 28, 2008

Kino no Tabi is a really great anime about a traveler that visits countries that all possess very unique cultures and the resulting clash.

I second Last Exile and Gankutsuou.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is another great recent anime movie.
posted by robofunk at 1:03 AM on October 28, 2008

(a little late here)

I've only started watching Death Note quite recently, and the first thing that came to mind when I started watching it was an anime I'd watched a few years back called "Spiral". It's a mystery series, and while I wasn't terribly thrilled with the ending of the series, it carries a lot of similar characteristics to Death Note. Detailed analysis of 'cases' that are going on episode by episode, great character design, etc.

(not to mention you can make a drinking game out of the number of times the phrase "Blade Children" is used... ;))

I'd also recommend Fushigi Yuugi, X(tv series), Tsubasa Chronicles, and xxxHolic(in that order). All have excellent storylines, good character development, suspenseful, and not all based on fighting.
posted by irishkitten at 5:57 AM on October 28, 2008

I haven't seen mention of Gantz or Speed Grapher, two of my favorite series.

I will warn you that both have a good deal of action-oriented content, but not in the "people who are awesome at fighting" way. They are serialized, and there is no doubt that the premises are bizarre. Also, if you're averse to sexual content(not hardcore hentai or anything like that, but still pretty edgy), you'll want to avoid these series.

Otherwise, I can throw in another vote for Spiral(seriously... who are the Blade Children?), Paranoia Agent, and Serial Experiments: LAIN as recommended above.
posted by owtytrof at 10:31 AM on October 28, 2008

Haruhi

One of my favorite animes of all time... note that there are two orders to watch the show in, the one that skips about in time but introduces plot points in a specific order keeping the mystery going longer, and the one that's strictly chronological. Very fun & quirky.

The Girl Who Lept Through Time

Awesome movie, and sort of a sequel to an early 80's movie with a similar name ("the little girl who conquered time"). Highly recommended and amazing quality too.

Gantz

Bizarre & action oriented, a bit slow too because the manga wasn't finished when the anime came out, but seriously messed up in a twisted way. I think this is the most closely related to Death Note in terms of tone.

I didn't like LAIN after the first few episodes, it was incredibly depressing.

I didn't like Cowboy Bebop after the first couple of episodes.

Paprika was good in an "about dreams" twisted way.

Gun Slinger Girl is a sort of episodic version of La Femme Nikita, where pre-adolescent girls are roped into becoming hit men (who would suspect little girls of being hit men?), but I found it a bit dry and incredibly depressing and stopped watching after the 2nd episode.

Mind Game was awesome in a "spiritually uplifting" kind of way. Highly recommended, the early parts don't even begin to hint at how awesome the 2nd and 3rd acts are.

I found Mushishi rather boring & formulaic. It's episodic & each episode follows a similar formula of a guy who can see little bacteria like creatures from another world (what you see behind your eyelids when you close your eyes or stare at the light).

Great Teacher Onizuka is an anime that could work as well as a TV show (and indeed the show is just as good if not better) about a (don't laugh) school teacher who works with troubled students... it's actually much better than it sounds, honest.

Chobitz is a bit girly, but is a very cute love story about a guy who finds a female robot in the garbage outside his house. He basically teachers her how to live in this world in a rather endearing way.

Elfen Lied is sort of a sinister version of Chobitz about girls with psychic powers that escape from a medical lab & try to live in the real world.

Full Moon Wo Sagashite is, well, an adolecent girl's anime about a 12 year old girl diagnosed with throat cancer that, with the help of a couple of shinigami (death gods) gets to live her dream of becoming a singer.

Miyazaki/Studio Gibli does some very beautiful movies... Spirited Away being one of their most famous. It's sort of a Japanese Triplets of Bellville. Princess Mononoke was turned into an American movie complete with famous voice actors, but it wasn't as good as Spirited Away.

I enjoyed the Nodame Cantibile anime, but my girlfriend found it boring... the TV series was much better in any case, I loved the TV series. It's love story about a quirky girl & an austere, talented guy in a music academy.

xxxHolic iss from the studio CLAMP (also behind Chobitz). I found it bit boring & didn't get past the first few episodes.

As you can see, my tastes range quite a bit & I get bored of animes very easily if they their plot is slow to ramp up. I watched all of these with my girlfriend & she enjoyed them too. We're currently working our way through Death Note.
posted by Muffy at 12:24 PM on November 16, 2008

Witch Hunter Robin I stopped watching after a few episodes... it was pretty good, but not great or anything.

Ghost In The Shell was pretty good, the movie anyway, there was a series too right? It was a bit too.... i dunno, cardboard cutout. I honestly don't remember it that well except for the overly wrought monologues.

ef A Tale of Memories looks interesting, but I don't think my girlfriend liked it too much so we stopped watching it after a few episodes... It is a bit slow and girly and the dual plot lines make it a bit confusing, but the premise seemed interesting.
posted by Muffy at 12:27 PM on November 16, 2008

I've given some of these a shot.
Lain: Was cool, a little bit depressing but I could deal with it.

Speed Grapher: Was pretty dumb and kind of smutty. The smuttiness didn't bother me. The dumbness did. At first it seemed like it might be cool. But then it decided that instead it would be about a guy with a boring super power (his camera is a cool gun) fighting other people with cool powers.

Monster: I'm watching monster it's good. It moves a little bit slowly for me and the number of episodes is sort of intimidating. But after a dozen or so episodes it's probably my favorite.

Paranoia agent: I watched the series. I can give it a solid recommendation. I didn't think it was spectacular or anything but it was a good self contained series.

Ergo Proxy: I watched the first couple episodes. I really liked the art style but ultimately it was confusing without being intriguing if that makes sense might take another stab at it.

Finally Haibane Renmei: I couldn't stand this. I heard got five episodes in but the first five episodes were some of the most boring television I've put myself through. Wow was this boring. I know people said it started slow, but it's crazy how slow it starts. Maybe it's one of those things like in zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance with the list of equipment the guy brings on the trip. So there is a point where you just get fed up but if you get passed that point it's really cool. Maybe it's like that. But I don't know because I got fed up, and there was nothing about the show that even hinted that it would end up being good. But yeah, the first five and a half episodes nothing interesting happens.
posted by I Foody at 12:33 PM on December 22, 2008