Mature Anime/Manga Recommendations?

I must admit I'm completely lost since I started looking into this area. Its simply too huge for me to wade through.

Background. I've seen a few manga type films that really impressed me a few years ago. They've stuck in my head, and I want to see similiar types now. However, most of what I've found has been too childish, or even primitive looking.

I've seen the Doomed Metropolis series, Legend of the 4 Kings (Legend of the Dragon Kings), Akira, & Ghost in the Shell.

What I'm looking for is something similiar. Aimed towards the adult audience, with similiar production value. That nice level of finish....

I'm a great lover of magic & the supernatural/Daemons in animation, so I'd love to see this type of manga/Anime. A bit of nudity/Flesh is a help, but I'm more interested in the actual storyline and animation. However despite sifting through a good few websites over the last few days, I haven't been able to complie a good buy list. perhaps you Guys/Gals could suggest a few?

I wanted to add that I hated the Metropolis and Spirited Away style of Anime. It just didn't float my boat.

sharingan

Are you concentrating exclusively on films? Heres a short list of films targeted at an adult audience (I am keeping in mind titles that are easier to come by):

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Political thriller combined with Grimm fairy tale. Inspired.

The Wings of Honneamise - Alternative History of the space race. *That* ending.

Millenium Actress - an interview with a retired actress becomes an allegory for the sweep of japanese history retold through the history of japanese film (as arthouse as it gets)

Perfect Blue - pop idol Mima burns her bridges and tries to break into film. Along the way she is manipulated into sexing up her image, angers her fanbase, inherits a murderous stalker and loses her touch on sanity as she tracks the online history of another version of herself (who stuck with music and became successful).

Tokyo Godfathers - three homeless people discover a new born infant while going through trash on new years eve. Trying to unite the child with its mother isn't as easy as it sounds, but there's magic in the air ...

Grave of the Fireflies - Seita and his infant sister Setsuko survive the firebombing of Kobe during WW2, only to face greater problems as they attempt to survive in the wake of it. Ghibli - character design will be familiar from their other works.

Patlabor Mobile Police - its the near future and humanities response to rising sea levels is massive construction faciliated by huge mecha (Labors). But with Labor use comes Labor crime, hence the establishment of a Labor police unit, staffed by an odd bunch of talented misfits unwelcome in other police departments. (you should really visit the TV series before the movies, but thats import only).

Other honourable mentions that I am too lazy to synopsise:
Steamboy, Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Cowboy Bebop: the Movie, Ninja Scroll

Short run straight to home video series (OVAs)

Macross Plus - anime's version of top gun. Except with depth and intensity, and featuring the most famous transformable mecha ever.

Orguss 02 - more mecha, except the prevailing technology in the world is WW2 level, and the mecha themselves are excavated from a prior more advanced culture.

Read or Die - think x-men meets james bond, except our heroine is a scruffy bibliophile & works days as a schoolteacher.

Memories - 3 independent short stories, quite arty.

Ah My Goddess (OVA & Movie) - unlucky undergraduate Keiichi Morisato has his pizza callout misdirected to the Goddess help line, who have recognised that his extended bad luck has gone unchecked for too long. A blurted out wish results in the goddess Belldandy becoming a permanent fixture in his life. A lot more light hearted than the other titles mentioned here. If you like it, check out You're Under Arrest (OVA) and Video Girl Ai (OVA).

Edit: addressing these comments.

Deleted User wrote:

What I'm looking for is something similiar. Aimed towards the adult audience, with similiar production value. That nice level of finish....

Quite obviously there is very little theatrical anime that approaches Akira-level production values. It takes a lot of money, multiple studios must collaborate and there are only a limited number of directors that would be trusted with the money involved. Namely: Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, Katsushiro Otomo (Akira, Memories, Steamboy), Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, Jin Roh, Angels Egg) and Satashi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers).

Most anime movies are spin-offs of existing TV shows or comic series. Original theatrical movies are very rare, and are highly anticipated when they are coming from the above directors (all of them are working on new projects).

The OVAs I have mentioned have good production values, but they are not up there with the big movies (they will give a TV-spinoff movie a shake up though)

Deleted User wrote:

I'm a great lover of magic & the supernatural/Daemons in animation, so I'd love to see this type of manga/Anime.

There is a lot magic/fantasy anime, the japanese love it too, but it is almost exclusively TV anime, or direct to video (OVA) anime. Whatever movies exist were spinoffs from such series. And generally these movies are inferior to the TV series (think slayers, escaflowne movie etc.).

And oh yeah, demons are probably a better word than Daemons (a greek concept) though the japanese concept of the supernatural rarely has any convenient direct mappings with western equivalents. At least 'demon' (youkai) fits half the time (the violent aggressive evil kinds of youkai).

The Inu Yasha TV series is probably right up your alley. There have been numerous movies produced also from it (and each one gets better).

You might get some much older anime like Lemnear which had high production values in a fantasy concept, and was aimed at a more mature audience (by the amount of violence & nudity in it), though it wasn't that good really. There is precious little else I can think of, unless you want to start revisiting Ghibli animation.

very comprehensive post. I wish I could say that this is what I was looking for, but I'm afriad its not what interests me. Sorry abt that.

I was more interested in the action/violent manga style animation. Apocalyse style storylines, or those involving demonology, magic, Samurai/Medieval or sci-fi.

honru

Although the animation isn't absolutely amazing (not jokingly bad, mind, but nothing of high production value), Berserk seems to fit perfectly into your criteria. It's also bloody as hell.

Only problem is that it hasn't had a release over here, so you'll have to import. It's also a series, 25 episodes. Well worth it though.

honru

Ding.

That's a bargain right there. €53 shipped.

Zen 2nd

Apocalyse style storylines, or those involving demonology, magic, Samurai/Medieval or sci-fi.

Get the Hellsing manga then! The animé is okay but doesn't compare to the manga.

but I'm more interested in the actual storyline and animation

That would be NOIR

I'm a great lover of magic & the supernatural/Daemons in animation,

That would be Fullmetal Alchemist

I'll mention a few more if you are interested in those.

Also how could I forget Cowboy Bebop? Just get it!

Capt'nSpaulding

From the details youve given i would say that these may interest you;
Vampire princess miyu - A really well told story, with vampires and demons.
Sword for truth - if you want brutal samurai action!
Wicked city- Contains demons, nudity and lots of horror and violence! A great film, even if it looks a quite dated.
Demon city shinjuku- Similar to wicked city
Vampire hunter D
Ghost in the shell 2 innocence - Absolutely gorgeous, ground breaking visuals,as well as a great story, make this a worthy sequel to ghost in the shell, its probably one of the best animated films of recent years
Ichi the killer - should be violent enough for you!

Hope some of those films appeal to you!!

sharingan

Deleted User wrote:

very comprehensive post. I wish I could say that this is what I was looking for, but I'm afriad its not what interests me. Sorry abt that.

I was more interested in the action/violent manga style animation. Apocalyse style storylines, or those involving demonology, magic, Samurai/Medieval or sci-fi.

You should have been more specific - stating that you were interested specifically in violent stuff. I took it that you were looking more for stuff with Akira levels of produciton values.

Frankly violent/exploitation type anime has an appallingly low standard of quality. Manga ent. and the other distributers picked up anything that fit the bill and much of it is heavily cut, badly dubbed or just plain awful to start with.

On import you can get a few titles that are pretty interesting. Mezzo Forte & Kite have high production values, and also levels of content that are pornographic, but are primarily very violent action flicks. Pretty good though.

Urotsukidoji is easy to find too. Considering it was almost the ultimate kind of horror hentai, for its time, and even since, its actually pretty Okay to watch. Dub is ugh, but not as terrible as it could have been.

Also one of the Street Fighter anime movies is not bad. There is also quite a lot of fighting anime out there, but its usually TV anime. Theres a Shadow Skill boxset that should be easy to get. Didn't do a lot for me, but the dub was pretty poor - even way back then I could tell that. The TV series is considered to be very under-rated, but the OVAs actually have some good animation quality.

Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin OVAs (Trust & Betrayal) are excellent, even better considering the treatment of violence within it.

Bubblegum Crisis OVA series. The classic cyberpunk series. Looking dated now, but the design work shines through.

Capt'nSpaulding wrote:

From the details youve given i would say that these may interest you;
Sword for truth - if you want brutal samurai action!
Ichi the killer - should be violent enough for you!

Hope some of those films appeal to you!!

Both of those titles are just brutal. I have seen manga better animated than Sword for Truth. Watch the film of Ichi the Killer instead, the anime is a waste of time.

I will let other people advise you of TV anime that is going to cost a packet to boy.

Raziel

sharingan wrote:

Frankly violent/exploitation type anime has an appallingly low standard of quality. Manga ent. and the other distributers picked up anything that fit the bill and much of it is heavily cut, badly dubbed or just plain awful to start with.

Two words. 'Violence Jack.':D

Thanks Guys .I should have been mor specific from the start, but I suppose my thoughts were a bit disjointed on the matter. Again sorry about that.

The lists are brilliant, and I'll definetly pick up a selection of them. Cheers

Senbotsu

Try 'Adventure Duo' the anime that single handedly gave all anime a bad name. I've only seen it once and thats the way it will stay.

nadir

f®eak s&#169 wrote: »

Although the animation isn't absolutely amazing (not jokingly bad, mind, but nothing of high production value), Berserk seems to fit perfectly into your criteria. It's also bloody as hell.

Only problem is that it hasn't had a release over here, so you'll have to import. It's also a series, 25 episodes. Well worth it though.

for what you are looking for

Berserk

for sure, the best.
also check out Juuni Kouki '12 kingdoms'