Looking for some excellent anime

I think Planetes is exactly what you're looking for. It's one of the more realistic anime, it takes place in outer space, and it has just a little bit of action.

If you like thrillers then I would also recommend Monster, which is also one of the more realistic anime.

This is tough, because most of the more realistic anime do tend to be quite school-based/slice of life. And a lot of the very best anime I've seen have fantasy or supernatural elements, which would therefore make them unrealistic. So, based on your criteria, I would recommend the following:

-films by Makoto Shinkai (for example: Five Centimetres Per Second or Garden of Words); also, his short anime She and Her Cat

-Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 -- a very realistic portrayal of people coping after a natural disaster.

-Space Brothers -- even though it does have a bit to do with UFOs, it's more about two brothers who are astronauts and the complicated relationship between them over time.

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Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

Yes, I am very harsh on movies. But Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, I already saw, it was alright.

I don't know that I would necessarily call that harsh so much as I question whether or not anime is what you want to be watching. Most of the stuff you listed in your OP are general characteristics and tropes of anime that appear, in some shape or other. You're really limiting your options to take that many things out of the equation.

I had other things to suggest, but I thought better of them in the end because I kept thinking, no, they would bug you in some way -- by being too unrealistic or melodramatic, or the fact that the girls look cute (even if they don't necessarily act overly cutesy).

Just watch Boku no Pico and Bible Black.

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Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

What other things do you suggest? Have you even watched that many anime? And why are you recommending me hentai? I don't like hentai very much and I'm only 17!

I'll try the other things that you suggested.

I like some studio ghibli films like Howl's Moving Castle, and Castle in the Sky, but there's several of them I don't care much for. And I like Cowboy Bebop.

If you enjoy realistic and space anime then you should definitely take a look at Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Its downright epic and considered one of the best anime out there! Guess I should warn you though that its quite long (over 100 episodes) and came out in the late 80s, so yeah, the animation is older. Not sure whether that matters to you or not haha.


Based on anime you've liked, like Howl's Moving Castle and Cowboy Bebop, perhaps you don't mind sci-fi and fantasy elements themselves but rather unrealistic characters and story? I mean, Ouran High School Host Club is set in regular modern day Japan, characters have no super powers or anything like that but the story and characters are a lot sillier and a lot less realistic than Parasyte, Time of Eve or Psycho-Pass for example, which do have a bit of sci-fi but the characters and situations are handled more realistically.

Oh, yeah, I guess I am not the biggest fan of realistic anime.

So, about the legend of the galactic heroes, that is long! I might not be patient with that but older anime is alright with me, too.^_^

Hmm. Going solely off the fact that you like Cowboy Bebop, my personal favorite anime... You can always start with one of the creator, Shinichiro Watanabe, other works. Samurai Champloo is his best I'd say after Bebop, and Space Dandy is likely his most popular. Terror in Resonance is an excellent, albeit short series.

Wolf's Rain, however, is the only show from the studio who created Bebop, that has everyone involved from the music and the artwork, all the way to the story. It's fantastic.

It seems the first stop people make with anime is FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood, so you can start there. Trigun is also an absolute must if you're a fan of Bebop. It's similar in a lot of ways. Especially its way of telling a subtle overarching story. I'm betting you'd love The Big O, a great thriller mystery that takes place in a dystopian futuristic NYC where everyone has lost their memories from 40 years prior. A negotiator named Roger Smith (voiced by the same actor as Spike from Bebop) takes it on himself to figure out what happened.

My own recommendations.

Mushi-Shi. It's the anime equivalent of Six Feet Under. It drags you into its world with its atmosphere and never lets go. It's about a wanderer who travels into various locations when he hears of mysterious phenomenons happening. Each episode gives you a bit more insight into what exactly the mushi are. This show is art.

Gun X Sword: It took me a couple of viewings to fully appreciate this show. It's about a wandering depressed man in a tux named Van looking for a man with a claw. Simple sounding but it's a very layered world with rich characters and development. Even the filler episodes have little hidden tidbits of info advancing the plot.

Heat Guy J: I'm probably adding this because it's the show I've most recently watched. It's from 03-04 and I just had heard about it in the last couple of years. The only thing I had heard about it is that it takes place in a futuristic city where everything is treated as a commodity and advanced tech like androids are outlawed. It has some bad pacing (it's highly episodic after it sets up the story/characters) but there is a lot to like in
just about every episode.

I'll second Psycho Pass, the first season is excellent. Season Two sucks though, and the movie is a just a passable wrap up to the first season.

If you're looking for recent shows, My favorites that have came out on DVD/BR this year are Garo: The Animation, Rage of Bahamut, and Laughing Under the Clouds. Those three have excellent stories.

Can ya tell I've watched a lot of anime? Lol.