Anime series and films may look like cartoons, but many of them are far from them. This collection is for adults only. Some have even been rated R for sex and violence. In general, this is far from the world of Pokémon.
1. Basilisk
This is "Romeo and Juliet in the era of the samurai" who are in love with each other. Young descendants of two warring ninja clans. They were sentenced to fight each other to the death. Each is equipped with a mind-boggling array of otherworldly powers. However, it will be more difficult for them to protect themselves from their emotions.
For a mature audience: filled with extreme brutality and an abundance of grotesque. You can also find political machinations here and tragic lost love that spanned several generations.
2. Pirates of the Black Lagoon
What would you do if you were a hapless office worker stranded in a filthy port city in Thailand, held hostage by pirates pointing pistols at your head? What if your company decides to write off your loss as an accident and throw you to the wolves?
That's right, you will run to these wolves yourself and join the team that saved you. Such is the premise of the "Black Lagoon". This anime is very similar to Hollywood and Hong Kong action films, combined into one.
For a mature audience: violence, profanity and a dirty attitude towards everything.
3. Berserker
In a war-torn country, Guts works as a swordsman for hire. He becomes an ally of a group of mercenaries, better known as the "Gang of Hawks".
Guts is fascinated by one of the soldiers (the lovely Casca) and the leader of the hawks (the charismatic Griffith). All three will have to test their strength, as they will soon find themselves catapulted into what may well become a battle at the ends of the world. This three-sided love triangle is one of the most attractive in the anime to date.
For a mature audience: You will find violence in almost every plot. The anime includes supernatural sexual assault, which is one of the softest scenes in the entire series.
4. Cat soup
This is a great surreal mind-blowing example of anime as an art form. The cat and the cat travel to Odyssey to bring back their souls from the land of the dead. However, it becomes like Moby Dick, about a guy hunting a big fish. "Cat's Soup" is no longer printed, and for this reason it is all the more worth trying to get hold of.
For a mature audience: Contains a variety of surreal, sexy, vulgar and thought-provoking imagery. The film also contains fragments such as death and resurrection, which can astound even adult audiences.
5. East of Paradise
A young Japanese man wakes up near the White House with a pistol in one hand and a phone in the other, unconscious and in torn clothes. The phone connects him to an operator who can deliver him almost anything he wants. From this point on, it is a mixture of Bourne Identity and Social Media as the hero tries to solve mysteries, and the strange game for which he was chosen.
For a mature audience: contains a variety of political machinations, addressing contemporary social issues such as generational alienation.
6. First Squad, Moment of Truth
This non-standard Japanese-Russian co-production (Japan for the animation style, Russia for the storyline) tells the story of the Second World War, in which the Russian army was supported by secret shots of young psychics. Their common enemy: the Nazi brigade, whose fascination with the dark arts could turn the tide of the war in their favor.
For a mature audience: violence and a kind of surreal exploration of the underworld. Do I need to say more?
7. Ghost in the Shell. Loner syndrome
Members of the elite "Section 9" defend Japan's immediate future against cybercriminals of all kinds. They do this using not only advanced technology, but also their own minds and skills. However, their greatest enemies may be within their government.
It is widely recognized as one of the most outstanding anime and it is not hard to see why. Quite superbly filmed, sharp and thoughtful storyline; make it possible for most of the top TV channels to make money live.
The standalone (pun intended) feature films Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence are also noteworthy for many of the same reasons. However, the show is the most accessible and mainstream of all on our list.
For a mature audience: there is violence and sexual innuendo. It also contains deep political machinations and some dizzying thoughts about social organization, artificial intelligence, and the complex nature of government and corporate secrets in an all-digital, information age.
8. House of five leaves
Insecure samurai, in need of work, he gets a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious man. He turns out to be one of the criminals who kidnap (and ransom) for profit. Unable to quit his job, the samurai begins to delve deeper into the work of these professionals, who call themselves the "five leaves." In the process, he learns many unexpected things about them and about himself.
For a mature audience: Not because of the slow, engaging, and focused storyline on the character, but more generally because of the mature storytelling. This is not an anime where everything is decided with the help of sword fighting.
9. Werewolves. Wolf Pack
In an alternate version of Japanese history, an authoritarian central government ruthlessly suppresses dissent through its elite squad of heavily armed police. One of the participants begins to doubt his loyalty when a dissident finds a way to his heart, but love rarely conquers everything in real life. This dark but closely watched drama has the same cynicism about humanity as a political animal as one of Graham Greene's novels.
For a mature audience: violence, politics, and an aura of ruthless cynicism. This anime is not for those who prefer a happy ending.
10. Millennium actress
Worshiping Satoshi Kon, the Japanese film industry, as a dream factory is pretty dreamy overall. This is exactly what you'd expect from a filmmaker who has made the (blurred) line between illusion and reality with his favorite subject.
The actress in question was unusually talented, she disappeared at the height of her creative success. The film takes us back to her own cinematic past as well as Japanese history.
For a mature audience: The way the film explores reality, compares fantasy and imagination, should appeal to adults as much as younger audiences. Perhaps even more so.
11. Monster
Dr. Tenma's life is ruined when he decides to operate on a little boy who has been the victim of a home invasion instead of the mayor of the city where he lives.
The boy disappears and Tenma discovers disturbing evidence that the boy is a serial killer. Determined to fix everything, the doctor descends into the underworld of Europe to find him and stop him in any way.
Adapted from equally mesmerizing drawings, the psychological thriller has more in common with SE7EN, The Silence of the Lambs or Alex Cross's acting than many other anime series.
Once you start watching, it is almost impossible not to watch it to a quiet, destructive end.It is also one of the few anime that does not take place in Japan, although the doctor himself is Japanese.
12. Moribito: guardian of the sacred spirit
The action "Moribito" takes place on a land that is a mixture of many Asian cultures (mainly Japan and Tibet), and tells the story of the hired spearman Balsa, who was entrusted to Chagum, the heir to the throne. The authorities want a boy, and the two of them are forced to flee. They change their identities, fight many enemies, struggle to survive, and expose deception after deception. This story was taken from a series of adult novels written by a woman who was also a professor of sociology.
For a mature audience: Some violence is present (anime is primarily a grand adventure saga). Basically, the show's concept is this: a nation tries to live up to its own mythology.
13. Paprika
Dr. Atsuko Chiba lives two lives. By day, she is a researcher working on a revolutionary device that allows people to enter each other's dream spaces ("Inception"). At night, she is “Paprika,” a cocky black market dream therapist who uses the device to help those where conventional medicine is powerless. When the device is stolen, her alter ego must save the day before reality is buried under the torrent of insanity in her sleep.
Yasutaki Tsutsui is a stand-alone science fiction novel that reads like a short version of Michael Crichton. Director Satoshi Kon brought it to life just as vividly and in a broader format. Unfortunately, this was Cohn's last feature film. He died of pancreatic cancer while working on his next film, Dream Machines.
For a mature audience: An abundance of sexy and obscene material (the film is rated R). Like Cohn's other films, he explores issues of identity and illusion that can be best appreciated by older audiences.
14. Agent of paranoia
It was Satoshi Kon's only tryout on the show, and it's amazing.
There is an urban legend about a mysterious figure named "Little Slugger" who can save you from suffering if your life is crumbling. A couple of detectives discover that Little Slugger may actually be real. The more they dig, the more they expose one layer of lies and delusion after another, until the very fabric of reality begins to crumble.
For a mature audience: There is violence and some sexual content, but mostly because of the pervasive feeling of paranoia - hence the name. The more you think about it, the more creepy this show gets.
15. True sadness
If the "agent of paranoia" was Satoshi Kon, who saw Hitchcock, then this is the time of Dario Argento Kon.
The pop star leaves her vocal career to try to become an actress. Her life begins to turn to madness when someone tries to drive her crazy. Or is she just driving herself crazy?
It was Cohn's first full-length production as a director after having worked as a secondary employee on many other projects. His work has the confidence and courage of an experienced director.
For mature audiences: The film features violent and sexual scenes. The anime includes a truly disturbing "simulated" rape scene that is somehow particularly disturbing. You will also find many horrible moments that can turn your head and make your heart beat faster and stronger.
16. Red line
An epic of the distant future about the most dangerous, illegal and long-awaited race in the entire galaxy. This makes the traffic in Fast and Furious look like children are playing with matchbox cars.
The Sonoshi members struggle not only with their projectiles, but also with each other's emotions. At the same time, nefarious forces on all sides are conspiring to either set up the race, stop it, or strike at the kingdom. It took seven years to create all of this, and you can see it in every carefully hand-drawn frame.
For a mature audience: profanity and some kind of cruelty, but mainly because of how it resonates with the work of Ralph Bakshi. This animation director in the 1970s tried to bring animation to an adult (R-rated) audience with titles like The Hard Way, Pop America, and The Magicians. Redline is reminiscent of the funky aesthetic of the era, but with a modern sensibility to dynamic anime.
17.Royal Space Corps: Wings of Honneamiz
The Honnamise nation has been proud of its space program for some time. In fact, this is nothing more than an excuse to invest in a PR program that claims its accomplishments in order to intimidate other nations.
When a man is chosen to launch into space - the gentle, single-minded Lhadatt - the people behind this mindless mission find themselves teaming up to do the impossible, despite their own cynicism.
Superbly animated by GAINAX, the same company as Evangelion, it feels like a documentary story about a time and place that never existed.
For a mature audience: Those of you old enough to remember when the Nile first set foot on the moon or when the shuttle first left the tower will have more than a little flashback thrill with this movie.
The anime is also recommended for mature audiences due to the poorly crafted scene of the protagonist's attempted sexual assault. This is by far the film's biggest flaw.
18. Tramp Kenshin
The introduction to the TV series "Tramp Kenshin" tells about Kenshin's origins.
Kenshin was rescued by an orphan who trained him to be an assassin (better than being sold into slavery) and the killer of a revolutionary squad. When he falls in love with the sister of the man he was tasked with killing, the last thing he expects is that she will respond to him with the same feelings.
Impeccable artistry of storytelling and animation turns this almost unbearably sad story into something beyond.
For a mature audience: violence (a visual representation of bloodshed), political intrigue and a story of doomed love, from which the body of the most violent viewers will shudder.
19. Obsessed with death
Two fighters - one blind, the other crippled - are preparing to fight in an unequal duel. This series is the story of how they became rivals in both love and honor, against the backdrop of samurai Japan, slowly suffocating from its own decline. This is not a very beautiful painting, but it is so skillfully composed that its very “ugliness” is also mesmerizing.
For a mature audience: violence and sex, both individually and together. "Graphics" and "anxiety" are some of the most characteristic words for this series. Was the name insufficient for a tip?
20. Speed Grafer
Former action photographer Saiga plunges into a bizarre underworld where the super-rich can grant any wish - and even others they don't yet know about. Suddenly he became one of the "Euphoric", a subclass of humanity with abilities for which others are willing to kill or die.
If you add superpowers to people, you get "X-Men" with an abundance of fetishism and eroticism. The anime also has a complex and compelling story about a time when the rich get richer and everyone else is digging in the sand.
For a mature audience: violence, sex, perversion and political corruption.
21. Once Upon a Time in Tokyo
Satoshi Kon presided over this very loose interpretation of John Wayne's Three Godfathers. Instead of the Wild West, the action takes place in urban Tokyo.
A trio of homeless losers - an alcoholic, an escaped teenage girl and a transsexual - stumbled upon an abandoned baby and are trying to return it to their parents.This sets in motion a whole chain of crazy misunderstandings.
For Mature Audiences: The film explores many situations in adulthood, including homelessness and gender resentment. In addition, the film harkens back to the wacky comedies of classic Hollywood.
We recommend watching:
10 of the best anime with an interesting plot that will interest any adult.
