What I call typical anime is gundam or dbz or those with big-eyed teen-aged characters (let's not argue this - it's just a fuzzy categorization) or basically anime directed aimed at younger teenagers.

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Previously, I liked non-typical anime like Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo, but recently, I have been getting into a baseball anime called "One Outs".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Outs

It mixes baseball with gambling (always a fun mix, considering the history of baseball) along with pitchers and batters as heroes.

This episode got me into it:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-d0q7pttA

It's about a track-runner named "Johnson" who joins the team and steals all the bases.
This episode is easy to understand, but there are versions with subtitles on youtube.

I am starting from the beginning now.

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Do you have any favorite non-typical anime that you like?

I'd say Monster and Beck.

Monster is about a Japanese doctor in Germany looking for a psychotic former patient. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. No weird expression or that stuff. I'm planning on using it for listening practice. (70+ eps)

Beck is about a HS kid that joins a rock band. blah blah blah. If nothing else you get to hear a few good songs. (26 eps)

キノの旅
Kino and her talking motorcycle journey to different worlds.

プラネテス (Planetes)
Hard sci-fi about collecting space debris. Its a lot better than it sounds

The Fuccons. A screwed up family that moves from America to Japan. It is shot entirely with mannequins. I bought a lot of 50 various animes off Ebay and it was included. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen on DVD.

I'd also suggest Monster, great anime.. I'd suggest 20th Century Boys too (by the same creator), but it's only a manga.

I don't know much for anime other than that, as I prefer manga much more.

Edit: Also, maybe Bokurano, but I haven't watched the anime, only read the manga.

Gilgamesh - These kids in the world after a catastrophic terrorist attack that led to all technology being useless and a big mirror instead of a sky. They have these kind of psychic powers and then there is this other group of guys who also have psychic powers and then this cool guy with a robot army of psychic babies or something that fight the one group of people kick their asses or something. I doubt anybody here has heard of this, but it's a very serious anime. (Not a robot anime or that type of thing, fyi)

Serial experiments lain - Cool girl develops multiple personalities on a kind of futuristic "internet on crack" type thing. Very abstract, but very enjoyable.

Noir - To hot chicks who are hit men in France. Awesome music. This one girl is totally deadly with pointy objects. They kill a lot of people. Not a bloody anime and has a good story behind it.

Hellsing - Vampire with a big gun. Very good. Not only that, but he fights nazis. I mean, a super vampire who's named "Alucard (dracula) goes around with a big ass gun shooting nazi vampires, it's gotta be good. Mature.

What you call "typical anime" sound like (1) mecha anime and (2) harem anime.

Sure, there are many anime outside these categories.

灰羽連盟 Rakka awakens into an unfamiliar world with only a strange dream of falling from the sky as her only memory. Philosophical in an entertaining way.

N・H・Kにようこそ! Satou Tatsuhiro, a 22 year old young man, is a NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) and a hikikomori. Explores many social problems.

Descriptions from MyAnimeList.net.

Paranoia Agent (psychological thriller) - An elementary school kid dubbed with the title "shounen bat" has been going around attacking people with his bent, golden bat. Now, two detectives are investigating so they can stop this kid from making any more attacks, but they will find out soon enough... that this case is much more than they expected.

Baccano! (action thriller, mafia) - The stories in the series involves several unrelated plots intersecting and crossing each other as events spiral farther and farther out of control. Immortal alchemists, mafia operated speakeasies, and many other elements of pulp fiction mashed together for a world straight out of the movies.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (comedy, satire) - Itoshiki Nozomu is always in despair! Even simple things like paying for the toll on the subway can send him to a despair so deep only attempted suicide is the answer. How Strange is it then, that he should be the teacher of a High School Class filled with students with even more emotional problems than his.

And here are two series people already mentioned, but that are so good they deserve to be mentioned again.

Kino no Tabi (philosophy) - Destination is a state of mind. A tale of one girl and her bike and the road ahead. Kino wanders around the world on the back of Hermes, her unusual, anthropomorphic motorcycle, only staying in each country for three days. During their adventures, they find happiness, sadness, pain, decadence, violence, beauty, and wisdom. But through it all, they never lose their sense of freedom. They discover that because of the world's imperfections, is is actually a thing of beauty. "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is."

Haibane Renmei (fantasy, drama) - In the town of Glie, the Haibane, a group of people with angelic wings, eke out a living with whatever work they can find. The arrival of a new Haibane, Rakka, is met with occasion since the entire community must help integrate her into life in Glie. To Rakka, though, the world is very unfamiliar.

alyks Wrote:(Gilgamesh) I doubt anybody here has heard of this, but it's a very serious anime. (Not a robot anime or that type of thing, fyi)

I was actually in the mind of renting that.

Lain is definitely different, and I liked Paranoia Agent (or most things by Satoshi Kon).

I'd want to discuss the term untypical anime because I think it's incorrectly used in this tread. Shounen anime (which is what you are refering to) is not typical at all, it just happens to be most commonly known in the west.

As for listing anime, ハチミツ&クローバー and むしし > all!

EDIT: There we go, stupid IME.

I don't agree that anything listed here is 'non-typical anime'... They all fit into subgenres. I think what you're looking for are series that bring something new to the party, even if not totally original.

Baccano!, Paranoia Agent, Kino no Tabi, Scryed, Read or Die, NHK ni Yousoko, Monster, MyHime, .hack, Akira, Alien 9, Interlude, Melody of Oblivion, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Sexy Commando, Excel Saga... All of these have things to offer that's 'new'. There are more, of course... I've just listed the first ones that came to mind.

It's actually ハチミツとクローバー

Well, I know exactly what you mean, kfmfe04. But anyway, the list is probably already overwhelming, but I would like to add:

Samurai 7: a retelling of, well, you guessed it, in a semi-feudal, semi-futuristic setting. Nicely animated involved story with many characters.

The Freedom Project: a sci-fi about a technologically advanced colony on the moon (while Earth has lapsed into a "post-holocaust" state). Design consultant is the guy who did Akira, and it shows. Uses enhanced CGI techniques in the animation.

Mononoke: based on Japanese folklore and ghost stories in a period setting. Highly stylized animation gives this a very different "arty" look.

Detroit Metal City: a "boy next door" type goes to the city to be pop star (he likes "Swedish pop", and if you know what that means, you'll know what a wimp he is). He ends up fronting a death metal band. I've never laughed at anime so much in my life. Very bad language and sexual themes.

Tekkonkinkreet: a movie (directed by an American, but it is Japanese) about punk kids in a kind of retro-future setting. There's plenty of action, and the animation is amazing, but it has many thoughtful moments. One of my favourite animated movies.

There's Last Exile and Witch Hunter Robin.

Like Tobberoth said:
蟲師　Mushishi - Ginko, a specialist in creatures called Mushi wanders around helping people to deal with them. Mushi, a kind of life that most people can't percieve, are part of the primeval lifestream. People who can manipulate them can do all sorts of strange things, but they can also give bizarre sicknesses. Ginko is sort of a cross between Mulder & Scully and a wandering village doctor.

It has beautiful, watercolor type art and a very low-key and mysterious atmosphere.

(I just saw Tekkon Kinkreet, it was very cool)

lucky star -> great dialogues.

Now, I don't watch anime anymore. Even when I did, I think Hikaru no Go was the only one I watched completely (due to being a Go fan, and not anime).

Death Note - serious dialogue, follows the manga from what I heard.

5cm a Second - 60 minute anime movie, but looks gorgeous. Sparse on dialogue.

Hikaru no Go, Prince of Tennis, H2, etc. - Yeah, they're aimed at young boys, but each of these that look at aspects of hobby/interests in Japan is useful for expanding your knowledge on subjects. I do wonder if Japanese approach these hobbies with the intensity these characters tend to do.

One Piece - ha ha ha, just kidding.

I prefer "non-typical" anime - i.e. no robots, space, as real as possible, preferably set in modern day Japan, or in some period in Japanese history. Some that I have enjoyed include:

Monster - psychological thriller. Not set in Japan though (set in Europe), very long, about 80 episodes if I remember correctly.

Samurai Champloo - beautiful animation, enjoyable characters, quite historical

Rurouni Kenshin - historical, good stories, a little bit over the top in some parts

Welcome to the NHK - thought it was going to be dumb when I first read about it, but so far has been THE BEST anime I have ever watched. Very deep in many parts. You should look into the Japanese phenomenon of hikkokumori before watching it. Set in modern day Japan.

Paranoia Agent - psychological, some stories are a bit weird though. It is set in modern day Japan which I like.

Death Note - quite a bit of fantasy but since it is also set in modern day Japan I can accept it. The story is really good I think.

I've been having trouble getting into anime too.

These days it's easier for me to enjoy something like Initial D or Hajime no Ippo than something more .. well I've been so out of the anime loop recently that I can't even name an example.


But I've been finding more enjoyment out of realistic settings, even if it is over the top. But the thing is, I've always loved scifi and thoughtful stories too.. Then again, I think a lot of anime is garbage, so it's difficult to find something good, and I don't care to look.


I love Miyazaki's films though.. Anything with lots of effort put into it, I will probably enjoy.

What?! Nobody mentions FLCL? How can you get more non-typical?

Evil_Dragon Wrote:What?! Nobody mentions FLCL? How can you get more non-typical?

There. Finally a true 'non-typical' anime has been mentioned. That thing is... Well, I don't think it has a classification at all... Not even compared to books or tv or movies. It's just... crazy. Good crazy, but crazy.

A very non-typical anime, great for learning everyday japanese, is atashinchi.

there's not much I can add to the stuff listed here... Nobody mentioned 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, but I think it's fairly atypical.

Personally I think both Haruhi and FLCL sucks... People only like them because they are random and claim they find symbolism etc in them, when in fact they are just random. I prefer anime with actual substance... of course, that's just my opinion, the only reason I'm posting it is because those two animes are ALWAYS mentioned in topics like those and I just don't get it.

well, there's a big difference between calling something "random" and "not knowing what to do with it in a logical sense". Just because something does not appear to be logical does not mean that it is random. Human beings are NOT logical creatures. We are emotional creatures that invent so-called "logical" reasons to mask up the "un-logical", emotional decisions that we make. FLCL is of the same vein as movies like Mulholland Drive, or Lost Highway. Why does everything have to be "explainable" in a logical sense? The wonderfulness of FLCL and others of the sort is that it forces you to get involved with it in a very different way than other animes (which basically spoonfeed us with a "logical" plot). It forces us to think for ourselves, to create the meaning of things. In life, things just "happen". It is each of us that decides (creates) what the "happenings" mean to us, if they are good or bad, or if there is any symbolism in it. It is human beings that atribute symbolism and meaning to "happenings". In FLCL, you have to "go with the flow", forget judgefulness, forget common sense or logic, or maniqueism. A lot of music does not make sense, yet it inspires us and touches us in a way that a lot of "logical" works don't. When a musician is expressing his feelings on an instrument, sometimes there are passages which are not logical, or even stupid, and yet they touch us somehow.