Psychological or Philosophical Anime

[Ouroboros Anarchy]

Kinda a spin off thread from the Controversial Anime thread.

Anyone here a fan of anime that are heavy on the psychological or philosophical aspects of the story? Some key examples being Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost In The Shell and Serial Experiments Lain. All three deal with both subjects.

Recommend me a few too.

[-Shinigami-]

Psychological thriller is one of my favorite genre of anime.
Yes, I enjoyed Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I recommend the anime "Monster"; a very serious anime with lots of psychological elements.
Maybe you'd also like Angel Sanctuary? (3 episode OVA & manga series)

[Ouroboros Anarchy]

From what I've noticed, Neon Genesis has one of those weird 'do you love it or do you hate it' things where the people who enjoy it are the ones that understand it, and the ones who dont like it are the ones that didnt get all the psychological and philosophical tones of the series.

[lcl]

the ones who dont like it are the ones that didnt get all the psychological and philosophical tones of the series.[/quote]

i liked it but dont quite understand it in episode 25-26

[sa5m]

Some really good ones are the ones with long names...

There's one that I've seen called "Hanbun.... no Sora" and another called "Hotori: ..."

See, I don't remember their whole names!

But they're highly emotional and really great animes!

[sasunarubishoujo]

Deathnote its pretty psychological. Its a big game of cat and mouse really and when you think one has the upper hand the other comes to be one step ahead of him.

[SGI]

Well Jinglefox, the series you're talking about "Hanbun no Tsuko ga Noboru Sora" is definately one of the better more psychologically oriented series. It's certainly up there with "Oniisama E...".

As well as the usual suspects I bring forward that great philisophical/psychological/symbolic anime Shoujo Kakumei Utena.

[kirameki]

I love series like that. I haven't seen too many though. I second the DeathNote recommendation. I'll have to check out some of these recs.

[Undrave Limito]

NGE Philosophical? HAHAHAHAHAHA. All the symbolism and stuff in NGE is for show and nothing else. Thinking there is a deeper meaning to the show is just fooling yourself. Yes you can talk about character psychology but there is nothing philosophical about it.

Monster is a much better example. Zipang is a great one as well.

A GREAT exemple though is Kino's Journey. That one's awesome!

[Shelley]

Everything has some sort of philosophy in it. Simple stories can be philosophical when viewed at a certain angle; just look at Shakespeare. Stories are simple...

Take Macbeth - he kills people, he hears his future, he kills people, he kills some more people, he goes crazy, he kills some more people, he hears his future again, he kills some people, he kills some more people, he comes to a realization that he's crazy, then he gets killed.

Yet scholars and students can pour hours into the deeper meaning of things. What is insanity? A higher level of awareness? Is insanity relative? Is there fate? Is there freewill? Is man inherently evil? The obligatory "nature vs. nurture". And a whole buckletload of others.

So yes, NGE is philosophical. Are all beings a single entity, physically "seperated" though an "AT field"? What is the significance of individuality? What is individuality? Do humans really possess individuality?

[Ouroboros Anarchy]

*bows to Shelley*

My thoughts exactly, yes a lot of the iconography in NGE originally is just there for show, but the icongraphy in the show is theological, not philosophical.

There are theological aspects of the show too but most of it is as you show and the stuff that is actually meaningful only actually comes to in the final episodes and the End of Evangelion film. At first it is just name dropping like the monsters being called angels, having names of angels and demons in judeo-christian mythology, the magi, etc. but later when Kaoru mentions that humanity is the children of Lilith and not Adam it can be taken as saying in a theological sense that Humanity are the children of a demon.

[Undrave Limito]

Nah it has no theological meaning, it'S still name dropping. It's just that Lilith is one Angel and Adam is another (Adam is female in NGE BTW). The Angels are children of Adam, Adam and Lilith are two member of an alien Specie and all the Angels as well as humanity are various evolution of that specie.

Yeah sure any work of fiction, ESPECIALLY sci-fi (has it is one of it's main characteristic) can be the source of a philosophical discussion, but certain far more than other and I consider NGE to be nothing special in that regard. Not compared to the stuff brought up in Monster, Say Hello to Doctor Black Jack, Parasyte Kiseiju, Kino's Journey or even Zipang.

[Hamashimura]

I agree with Shelley...
Yes,you may want Angel Sanctuary,or Shinigami's Ballad...

[Shelley]

The theological references aren't randomly placed. I'd be damned if I ever saw such a good writer randomly insert loads of crap to make the story seem more interesting. It doesn't happen. Good writers put meaning into every single word they write.

The tree of life, and the egg which all life originated from, questions the purpose of man, which Gendo said was to build Eva, to reunite humanity into the perfect form; the sea of LCL.

The Lance of Longinus may be either man's atonement for sins for playing God. (The eva series which Asuka fights are seemingly crucified on those glowing white crosses in the last scene of EoE, alluding to Jesus)

Kaoru- "Humans are unable to create something out of nothing. They must have something to start with, because Humans aren't God."

SEELE - "But there's a man who seeks to gain power equal to God's. There's a man besides us who wants to reopen Pandora's Box. And wants to close the box, before hope appears."

Kaoru- "Hope? That's the Lilim's hope?"

(...)

Kaoru- "Shinji-kun's father, is he like me?"

(...)

SEELE - "People forget their foolishness and make the same mistakes. People won't change if they perform their own atonement." (Ep. 24)

The only way that NGE could possibly not contain any theological meaning is if the theological references were totally irrelevant, which they clearly aren't.

[Undrave Limito]

I can see philosophical stuff in NGE yes but to claim it's some sort of theological essay is exagerating.

Wether there is any depth or not to Evangelion I still think the hardcore fans see FAR MORE in it than there is. Just hang for a while at the Evangelion section of the Animenation board... those are the people who have a whole page on a website dedicating to analyzing EVERY SINGLE image present in the opening. Don't tell me that's not obsessive and exagerated.

[Shelley]

Are we obsessive or are you lazy?

A good story shouldn't spoon feed you everything.

[Undrave Limito]

Every single image in the opening? That's not just eating by yourself...that's stealing the entire buffet!

[yotsuba-chan]

I recommend the anime "Monster"; a very serious anime with lots of psychological elements.

Yes! I loved Monster, I couldn't put it down.
As for my recommendations, I'd say:
Doll-Mitsukazu Mihara
Beautiful People- Same
-
X-Day- Setona Mizushiro
After-School Nightmare- Same
-
Lament of the Lamb (Highly Recommended)- Kei Toume
-
Go With Grace (lighter, but great)- George Alexopolis

[ThePsychoticPuppy]

For philosophical I highly recommend Kino's Journey.

Other great series would be Texhnolyze, Kemonozume, Serial Experiments Lain, Nekojiru Gekijou, Black Jack, Blue Gender, Rahxephon, Berserk, Haibane Renamei, and Elfen Lied

FLCL and Excel Saga are also good if you want humor.

[rpgwiz99]

To tell you the truth I like every experiance anime gives me. I wouldent watch it if I didnt.