Recommend an anime for EoE fan

[vassock]

SPOILERS included.

So I watched some anime and I must say I'm pretty happy with it. I am pretty much done with what I have so I was wondering if you have some recommendations on where to go from here. Here is some of what I've seen and what I thought:

DBZ: Decent anime, but it fails to stir emotion and it never really goes anywhere with its episodes. Death is not permanent and not really death and it just seems to drag on and on even if you ignore the "filler" episodes.

Fullmetal Alchemist + movie: Great one. Kind of sad at times and I was rather impressed. Impressive animation. Ending is sad, but not as bad as it could be.

NGE and End of Evangelion movie: By far the best anime I've seen. Horribly depressing if you watch EoE (Misato's death) and it has to be by far the most depressing series (if you include EoE) I have ever seen. I can't even think of any games, movies or anything else that comes close. My only gripe is that the ending of EoE could have given the viewers a bit more closure.

Watching now: Saikano. Kind of sad, but cannot even touch the sadness of EoE. I was expecting it to be even harder given the reviews I've read. Oh well, perhaps the last episode will do it for me. Did anyone else think that Saikano's animation was somewhat less expressive/emotional than that of EoE?

So where do I go from here? Can NGE be topped? I prefer English dubs.

[The Grey Crane]

Correct me if I'm wrong but you sound like you're looking for depressing stuff, right?

Forgive me, but in my opinion NGE doesn't even come close to thee stuff when it comes to being "sad":

Grave of the Fireflies - Will show you the harsh realities experienced by civilians in wartime Japan.

Barefoot Gen - Just like Grave of the Fireflies, shows you what people had to go through during the aftermath of the atomic bombing.

The Cockpit: Kamikaze Stories - Yes, wartime Japan again, but this time we are looking at the soldier's perspectives.

[vassock]

Correct me if I'm wrong but you sound like you're looking for depressing stuff, right?

Forgive me, but in my opinion NGE doesn't even come close to thee stuff when it comes to being "sad":

Grave of the Fireflies - Will show you the harsh realities experienced by civilians in wartime Japan.

Barefoot Gen - Just like Grave of the Fireflies, shows you what people had to go through during the aftermath of the atomic bombing.

The Cockpit: Kamikaze Stories - Yes, wartime Japan again, but this time we are looking at the soldier's perspectives.

I saw Grave of Fireflies, and while it was more sad in the short-term (especially if you watch the very beginning right after you watch the ending), I feel as though they could not get the viewers to become as attached to the characters as they could in NGE. They spend 24-25 episodes developing the characters and then they die just like that (and the Misato death scene is super sad). Well, I guess what is more depressing and haunting varies from person to person. I'll look into the latter two you mentioned since I saw the first one already.

It's not that I'm looking for depressing stuff, it's that I'm looking for deep stuff. And generally deep and depressing go together.

Also, what do you think about Outlaw Star? Barefoot Gen 2?

[The Grey Crane]

Gen and Cockpit are deep and serious and depressing, some major characters were even drawn in an unrealistic and odd way (by anime's standards). You know, drawn that way to bolster up the characters' jolly and happy-go-lucky personalities only to be killed brutally and do some heroic acts in the end.

Just imagine characters that look like a cross between Shin-Chan and Astro Boy being gunned-down...

Well, you know what i mean...

[vassock]

Gen and Cockpit are deep and serious and depressing, some major characters were even drawn in an unrealistic and odd way (by anime's standards). You know, drawn that way to bolster up the characters' jolly and happy-go-lucky personalities only to be killed brutally and do some heroic acts in the end.

Just imagine characters that look like a cross between Shin-Chan and Astro Boy being gunned-down...

Well, you know what i mean...

Couldn't really say as I haven't seen those. Personally, I like it when the series can develop a regular looking character and then kill it in a sad way. That's why I keep mentioning NGE and Misato.

[TheThunderBringer]

If it's deep/sad or whatever, Ergo Proxy is fantastic. Quite possibly my favorite anime (and I've seen NGE, it can be topped lol...just not easily =p)

[Doom85]

Code Geass
Cowboy Bebop
Fantastic Children
All Gundam series (except G Gundam, which is more goofy but not bad if you get in the mood for that sort of thing, and Seed Destiny, which is just awful)
Kino's Journey
Noein: To Your Other Self
Now and Then, Here and There
Paranoia Agent
Place Promised in Our Early Days
Princess Mononoke
Tekkonkinkreet
When They Cry ("Higurashi")

These may not top Evangelion, but they mostly have a nice mix of seriousness, sad moments, and some can be deep.

[AutisticOtakuGirl]

If you're interested in an anime with the same level of trippy symbolism and weirdness or something that makes you go "WTF!" I would suggest Adolescence of Utena. In fact I believe the same people who worked on End of Evangelion also worked on this one.