I'm the type who watches serious anime. I don't want kids stuff and those 'special' powers crap that prepubescent teens talk about (Naruto, I'm looking at you). So far, I've finished Witch Hunter Robin, Ergo Proxy, and Beck and I'm moving on to Wolf's Rain and Texhnolyze. Can anyone recommend me Darker Than Black?
shareI have a feeling most of you that watched DTB couldn't fully appreciate the story part and wanted more action. If that's the case, there are plenty other anime focused on action out there, there's no need to linger here. DTB was all about the story, nothing else. I can scarcely remember an action scene. All hopes for a third season or more manga/novels.
Now on to some "SERIOUS" recommendations:
Durarara!! - only if you have a sense of humor. Watched recently, it went straight to my top 10 best ever anime. It's got everything, and everything's good.
Higurashii - 4 series, a psychological anime with lots of mistery and gore, a must see for anyone who likes... serious anime. DON'T watch them in order, it will ruin the effect, watch the second before the first series, then the other two.
Another - it's a bit like higurashii, I liked the horror atmosphere. Should be watched at night, with the lights closed, for a better viewing experience.
Mirai Nikki - psychological anime with a very intense story, that only gets more intense. Highly recommended if you like the above.
Toradora! - OK... I know you may be a bit reluctant to try this at first, but trust me, after so much murder, violence and gore, you need a little romance. Just give it a world, see what happens.
I found all of the above to be extremely entertaining and in my opinion they all have wonderful and original stories. Of course, it's hard to find good anime with adult characters, mostly because we see them first and they appear much too rarely. The ones I wrote are mostly about teenagers and young adults, however, you can easily make an abstraction considering the events that unfold.
Here are three great anime that have adult main characters:
Monster, Mushishi, Aoi Bungaku - truly gems of the animation world. I recommend having patience with these. They are story driven and are unlike anything their respective genre has to offer.
Not sure I would recommend Higurashi for a person who's more after titles such as Ergo Proxy and Witch Hunter Robin. Higurashi has a different vibe and the storytelling is also overall very different.
Darker Than Black is ultimately a mystery drama trying to pretend to be an action/thriller because there is action in it, but there is no real drama in Higurashi and it falls closer to psychological horror at times than say, (neo-)noir, which I'd say Darker Than Black qualifies as.
If it's mystery drama series with focus on plot then I can imagine titles such as Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei (in fact, I think Haibane Renmei is probably a very good choice for most DTB fans that can forgive its lack of action scenes) or even Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The connection to Evangelion is there if anything for the sample fact that the screen writers of DTB decided to pull an Evangelion ending which unfortunately feels as dissatisfying as it felt in the original where it first appeared, although I think the strings were pulled together a little better in DTB, but nevertheless.
I might agree to Lain but definitely not Haibane Renmei. If you like DTB you'll get really bored with HR, not for the lack of action, but rather the very slow pacing. The whole story could fit in three episodes, but it's one of those animes that likes to linger a while, most of the time on very simple emotions. It was a nice story though, I'll give it that.
Higurashi isn't meant for everyone, but you'll realize much sooner if you like it than in HR for example, where you keep hoping that something great will finally reveal itself.
I felt the ending to DTB was very well done. It made me want to search for everything related to it just to know more. The ending to the second series was confusing though. I do hope they finish the story some day and don't leave it hanging.