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[Parsely]

-snip-

For the most part (since by children I also meant teenagers) this is exactly what I wanted, a list of anime that isn't totally led by children.

I cut out the ones I've seen. This list is still huge, but I might as well ask. Are there any any shows out of these that anyone would recommend?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nana, Ristarante Paradiso, Bartender, Antique, Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover, Skip Beat, Kuragehime, Paradise Kiss, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Saraiya Goyou, Barakamon, Hataraki Man, Golden Time, Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii, Akatsuki no Yona, Toshokan Sensou, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Ergo Proxy, Gangsta, Paranoia Agent, Tatami Galaxy, Death Parade, The Big O, Welcome to the NHK, Uchuu Senkan Yamato, Spice and Wolf, Detroit Metal City, Kuuchuu Buranko, Steins;Gate, Genshiken, Kemonozume, Kikou Souseiki Mospeada, RideBack, Kurozuka, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, Cuticle Tantei Inaba, Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, Suisei no Gargantia, Noragami, Overlord, Dimension W, Log Horizon, Darker than Black, Uchuu Kyoudai, Rowdy Sumo Matsutaro, Petshop of Horrors,Wolf's Rain, Gunsmith Cats, MD Geist, Genocyber, Onikirimaru, California_Crisis, Claymore, Golden Boy, Onikirimaru, The cockpit, Ah My Goddess (college-age male), Sekirei (also college-age male), Love Hina (college-age male), kara no kyoukai (most films are post-school age), Viper's Creed, Active Raid, Rail Wars, Plastic Memories, Black Bullet (there are lolis, but the MC is adult), Divergence Eve, Shirobako, Ojisan to Marshmallow, I can't understand What My Husband is Saying (thx itisnotlogical), Hen Zemi, Ninja Slayer, Kagewani, Sushi Police.

[Orange Wizard]

I cut out the ones I've seen. This list is still huge, but I might as well ask. Are there any any shows out of these that anyone would recommend?

Steins;Gate and Log Horizon are both pretty darn good, though they start off slow. The former is widely regarded as a classic, the latter is the trapped-in-a-video-game premise but done in a way that isn't shit.
Golden Time is romance. Characters are pretty well-developed, and the actual development is unique as far as I recall. Probably wouldn't recommend it but if you like romance you should give it a go.
I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying is 100% recommended, it's a really good slice of life.

[IronyOwl]

I'm familiar with, like, six of those.

I can recommend giving Detroit Metal City a shot because the humor/point gets set up pretty quick, so it should be pretty easy to glance at and decide if you're interested or not.

I don't think I'd generally recommend any of the others I recognize, but it depends on what you're after. Is it grunt stories? If it's grunt stories, I think Wolf's Rain might be depressing enough to sort of work, though the overarching plot is rather generic and anime.

[Parsely]

Golden Time is romance. Characters are pretty well-developed, and the actual development is unique as far as I recall. Probably wouldn't recommend it but if you like romance you should give it a go.

I love romance. *rimshot*

But seriously I can get behind most love stories as long as they're not horribly cliched but since most are it usually takes lots of encouragement to get me to try them. 5 Centimeters Per Second for example, I put off for years, and it turned out to be extremely compelling. As for more conventional films, I'm also a big fan of Moulin Rouge, Les Mis, and The Remains of the Day.

I don't think I'd generally recommend any of the others I recognize, but it depends on what you're after.

I like watching things that other people like, because part of why I like films is because I enjoy making connections with people, but yes I am known to enjoy grunt stories (for me that means: stories where the main character is not talented or special, for example Jin Roh).

[Reelya]

Well a quick rundown of a few on the list:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- Nana: it's about a group of young adults, punk bands, and dysfunctional relationships. Goes from hilarious to heart-breaking. Paradise Kiss was by the same author.

- Nodame Cantabile is a romcom about classical musicians at university. An uptight clean-freak guy, and a scatterbrain slob-girl (and I mean "knee deep in moldy plates" type slobby).

- Ristarante Paradiso is very artistic, set in Italy. All about food and romance (and not really a traditional romance either).

- Kuragehime - it's about a share house full of insane otaku women (each with a different hobby). It's about romance ... i guess, but it's screwed up due to almost everyone involved having social anxiety phobias.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu - is about the decline of a traditional style of Japanese theater after WWII. Any romance here is of the "doomed romance" variety.

- Barakamon - (no romo) it's about an artist who had a breakdown and is forced to move to the country. It's a fish-out-of-water story about an uptight artsy urbanite dealing with crazy laid-back country folk.

- Bartender - is about a bartender and the life problems of a different customer each week, which parallel the story behind different drinks. It teaches you how to make the cocktails as well.

- Death Parade - is about another bar, but in purgatory, and you have to play games to decide your destination. Death Billiards is the 1 episode prequel, so watch that then decide if you want to see a whole show about it.

Welcome to the NHK - is about a hikkimori who is going insane due to lack of human contact. Not popular with Japanese otaku because it cut too close to home.

Kurozuka - is about a love story which spans millennia. It's kinda disturbing and confusing, and all sorts of gory. Basically, think a guy falls in love with some sort of devil-woman who decides to keep him around even after he's dead. And this goes on for longer than human civilization still exists).

Kemonozume - is a very gory "love" story between a female Kemonozume (people who transform into ugly flesh-eating mutants with huge slasher mouths) and a hunter from a clan dedicated to uncovering Kemonozume. Has a non-traditional art style

Spice and Wolf and Maoyuu Maou Yuusha are both by the same director, both stories are slice of life fantasy / romance, are more dialogue than action, and deal with medieval economics. Both have nice artwork and soundtracks.

Shirobako - is the anime about making anime. The entire first episode is basically a troll episode / meta-gag (the anime they start in is also the genre of the anime they're making).

BTW #1 recommendation would probably be Baccano if you haven't seen that. It's set in America, so the dub is good too.

A few on the list are notable for being various levels of batshit crazy comedies: Hen Zemi, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Paranoia Agent, Tatami Galaxy, Detroit Metal City, Kuuchuu Buranko, Excel Saga, Cuticle Tantei Inaba, Yondemasu yo Azazel-san. All these shows are insane, but they're all very different from each other, too. They're mostly short, so I'd recommend giving all of them a look.

[Culise]

Warning on Nana: the author got really sick a few years back and the manga ended up going on hiatus at the worst possible moment.  It's one of the big reasons I never actually tried to watch the anime in spite of how much I loved it; I couldn't get into a situation where I hit that cliffhanger again.  Also, it's technically shoujo like ParaKiss, albeit a very mature shoujo that mostly qualifies as such due to being published in a shoujo manga (hence, probably, the use of "josei-type" instead of just "josei"). 

Planetes is one I would unstintingly recommend to anyone who liked their sci-fi relatively hard.  "Garbagemen in space," it's about a corporate debris recovery team that lives and works in space in a circumstance where the Earth-Moon system is being settled and exploited.  Various background events also crop up here and there, including the lunar moon base installations, the idea of a Jovian expedition to explore and prepare the groundwork for an eventual long-term settlement, and "have versus have-not" politics, as well as those recourses to those without the ability to reach space, given a serious and rather mature look, giving the world a certain verisimilitude. 

Honey and Clover is another recommendation from me.  Slice-of-life comedy with love triangles and drama, it's about the students of an art college. 

Skip Beat is a ridiculously popular shoujo, and it's one that I enjoy quite a bit.  That said, it is technically high-school age drama even though high-school life does not really apply to most of the action - most of the protagonists are 16+.  Basically, the main character goes to Tokyo to be with her childhood sweetheart who works as a music star, at which point he more or less dumps her.  Rather than moping, she decides to get revenge by one-upping him in show business.  Hilarity ensues, especially since being dumped by a cheating egotistical arse of a boyfriend has left her a bit...cynical on the idea of love. 

Baccano is...decent.  I'll admit that it was not entirely to my taste, but even then, it was still good enough for me to watch all the way through once.  For people who love that action, it's probably ideal. 

Otherwise, I'll second Reelya's comments on Nana, Nodame Cantabile, Kuragehime/Princess Jellyfish, Spice and Wolf, and thank everyone for adding quite a bit more to my queue. ^_^

[Reelya]

*Actually, Nana ran in Cookie, which is a Josei magazine. The rest of the story is Viz Media, the North American label who are partly owned by Shueisha. They published Shonen Jump in English, then created Shojo Beat to bring Shojo manga over. Cookie also happens to be owned by Shueisha, so Nana got brought over to the USA and was serialized in Shojo Beat. Thus it was only "shoujo" because there's no such thing as a Josei magazine in English.

The "josei-type" qualifier I put was referring to a few other series in the list which weren't technically josei, but are basically aimed at the exact same audience. Check this out for example:

50% of "weekly shonen jump" readers surveyed are female

The Nikkei Shimbun recently took a look at Japanese women that read Jump. The results were what fans might usually expect. As you can see, female readers love series like Haikyuu!!, Gintama, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Kuroko no Basket, One Piece, and BLEACH. The boys loved titles like Nisekoi, Kochikame, Medaka Box, Toriko, Beelzebub, and Naruto.

So that can explain why some things appear in magazines which don't seem to fit the "demographic" system. They put a mix of genres in each magazine to try and maximize sales. They don't really care who is actually buying it.

[Flying Dice]

Akatsuki no Yona is what happens when you dump a shoujo heroine into a seinen world, if you want a one-liner. Paranoia Agent is a classic, lots of fun mindfuckery, policework, and a little spot of ultraviolence. Spice and Wolf does a bait and switch: you expect cringe and fanservice, you get lessons on medieval economics. Steins;Gate is... fuck, hard to describe is what it is. Go watch it. Log Horizon is, as OW put it, "stuck in an MMO except not shit". Deals more with politics, planning, &c. than the usual tripe of the genre. Claymore is prime seinen violence. Like Berserk except not quite as good. Lots of incredibly gory combat, underlying conspiracy, characters bonding despite themselves.

Sekirei and Rail Wars are completely skippable fanservice vehicles.

[Reelya]

Yeah, I just included them so I could say I had 100

Also Divergence Eve, one hell of a strange series. On the surface it looks like it should be an ecchi harem comedy, but there are basically no comedy moments at all, and no "ecchi happenings", it has a complex sci-fi horror mystery plot that's serious all the time, yet someone somewhere decided to infuse it with giant boobs and fanservice which is 100% irrelevant to anything that's actually happening on the screen. I'll let this reviewer sum it up:

The thing that continues to confound me about Divergence Eve is how this happened. The simplest explanation would be that someone wrote a serious science fiction horror, then someone else came along and drew breasts on it. Quite often, a series tries to be two things at once, and fails at both; Divergence Eve doesn't TRY to be two things, it just seems to be two incompatible things haphazardly glued together - and succeeds at both, to an extent. Yes, where series that try hard to meld two elements fail, Divergence Eve succeeds by not making any effort to integrate them at all. Or rather, it succeeds at each one separately, but fails at both together.

You see, if you want to watch impossibly proportioned anime girls bouncing around in impractical faux-military uniforms, getting out of showers and training in their underwear - Divergence Eve will meet your needs. If, on the other hand, you want to watch the aforementioned gritty and engrossing science fiction horror, complete with intrigue, mystery and suspense - Divergence Eve will meet your needs too. But in each case, you need to do your best to overlook the other element. If you want bouncing chests and so on, you may find the involved plot makes you think when you probably don't really want to, and distracts you from the eye candy. And if you want the plot - or get dragged into it against your will - the constant bouncing, jiggling and unprovoked bouts of nudity will grate. If you're willing to concentrate, you can take Divergence Eve on either of its component parts, but not both together.

On the other end of the spectrum is Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls. The art here was pretty amazing. Visually it's one of my favorite shows. Unfortunately the story is very, very bad, and basically spends all it's time on "pantsu and boob-grab" level harem antics. It looks amazing when there's a fight, but that doesn't happen very often. So yeah, if they could have used that artstyle on a different show it could have been amazing.

[Parsely]

Shirobako - is the anime about making anime. The entire first episode is basically a troll episode / meta-gag (the anime they start in is also the genre of the anime they're making).

I've seen Shirobako and I mostly loved it ("don don donuts let's go nuts!"). Watching Aoi do her job and cope with her responsibilities was my favorite part of the show. Anyone who has ever had a real job or taken drawing art seriously can probably relate to many parts of it just as strongly as I did. I enjoyed the characters' real moments of celebration but disliked the personifications of Aoi's imagination and the characters from the anime they were making, which I felt ZERO connection to, unlike the actual human characters who were far more interesting.

Planetes is one I would unstintingly recommend to anyone who liked their sci-fi relatively hard.  "Garbagemen in space," it's about a corporate debris recovery team that lives and works in space in a circumstance where the Earth-Moon system is being settled and exploited.  Various background events also crop up here and there, including the lunar moon base installations, the idea of a Jovian expedition to explore and prepare the groundwork for an eventual long-term settlement, and "have versus have-not" politics, as well as those recourses to those without the ability to reach space, given a serious and rather mature look, giving the world a certain verisimilitude. 

Planetes didn't have enough space garbageman procedural goodness. The second arc where Hachimaki was preparing to go on the Jovian expedition was mostly frustrating, but it was a good kind of frustration, because in the end-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-they finally fucking got together and all of the build up to that moment made the payoff even better.

Also the bit where they tied Yuri's arc to the intro sequence was actually surprising, and broke my fucking heart as well.

Great. Now I feel like rewatching Planetes.

[Reelya]

BTW Sore ga Seiyuu! was one like Shirobako, but about voice actresses. One thing is odd: the MC has a talking plushie that gives exposition. This would seem to be a rip-off from Shirobako, except for the fact that the source material for this was published years before Shirobako. Sore ga Seiyuu! was a cute show, but was more cheaply made and didn't delve into the business side of things as much as Shirobako.

[Twinwolf]

So I watched the first episode of Haifuri after hearing it's basically Girls und Panzer but instead is Girls und Battleships.

...I did not see that coming.

[Furtuka]

Oh yeah I forgot to say it here earlier. It's been announced that Gundam Thunderbolt will be getting a Director's Cut blu-ray that merges all the eisodes together into a movie with extra footage.

[Cruxador]

I feel like people cry fanservice too readily here. That's a general statement, not directly at divergence eve, but looking it up (I haven't watched it) having big tits is not even close to the first complaint I'd levy against its art style. So, if the story lacks "ecchi happenings" maybe it's just an ugly show in general. I definitely wouldn't put hyakka ryouran samurai girls as the other end of a scale there. I think the intent of the art design is pretty similar, it's the proficiency that differs.

[Madmachine]

Log Horizon

Log Horizon

This summarizes my experience with Log Horizon pretty well (Gomen for memeshit):

Yeah, if anyone here has not yet seen Log Horizon, go watch it right away. It's really great.

Even if you don't like MMOs (I don't), you need to see it. It take the "trapped in an MMO" premise and asks, "Okay, so how would this actually effect the players? What sort of social structures would develop? How would MMO mechanics and rules translate into real life? And above all, how would people connect with one another in this new environment?" It really makes me wish there were an MMO I didn't hate.