By adult I mean over 18-20 years of age and with adult appearances. Nothing against anime with younger characters, but interested in finding some with older characters.
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Series
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Black Lagoon
- Odd Taxi
- Moriarty the Patriot
- Cells at Work: Code Black
- Cowboy Bebop
- Trigun (1998)
- Psycho Pass
- Aggretsuko
- Panty & Stocking
- One Punch Man
Movies
- Patlabor
- Patlabor 2
- Ghost in the Shell (1995)
- Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
- Redline
- Porco Rosso
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Paprika
- Dead Leaves
+1 for Black Lagoon, W anime pick.
Also for Ghost in the Shell, PatLabor, and Redline.
I will also add on:
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Jin-Roh/Jin-Rou (not the Korean live action from 2019), but it does briefly show a child on screen as a supporting character, and I dont remember if Kei was over 18-20 or not
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AD Police Files, and its related series Parasite Dolls (unfortunately, the other related series Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crash are disqualified because Nene Romanov is 18 and Priss is 19, both under 20)
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Space Dandy (maybe, that anime had like a billion characters and I dont remember if all of them were adults or not, but its not exactly a kid oriented anime)
Black Lagoon is one of the most underrated shows. People who have seen it usually love it, but not enough people have seen it.
I need to watch Jin-Roh sometime.
Yeah, Black Lagoon is lots of fun. I was so sad that it ended.
Jin-Roh slaps, just make sure you’re prepared for it. It’s a pretty heavy, typical Japanese war film, I don’t want to spoil anything so I will just leave it at that. Soundtrack is god-tier though.
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Patlabor 2 is one of my all-time favorites, but it’s not very well-known. In a way it feels too mature and slow to be a wide hit, I guess.
86
The main cast would have grown into adults later on, and based how what’s released of the anime so far, I wouldn’t count it as “mostly” adults.
You’re right, I misremembered how old the characters were. I removed it from my post. I must have thought that because it dealt with a lot of mature themes and war kind of forces kids to grow up fast.
Mushishi. Very serious, well-told stories told in single episodes. Occasionally a younger character will come along, but it’s mostly adults, and the cast outside of the MC rotates episode to episode.
I’ve completed quite a few:
- Violet Evergarden
- Vinland Saga
- Odd Taxi
- Cherry Magic!
- One Punch Man
- Saga of Tanya the Evil
- Delicious in Dungeon
Honorable mentions - depends on how strictly you’d define “mostly”:
Honorable mentions - unique circumstances:
- Cells at Work! - Your typical red blood cell lives for about 120 days :( The cells that look like adults do behave like adults though
- PLUTO - Robots’ mental age can be different from their physical appearances
The only one I’d take issue with here is Spy X Family. I think it’s more of an “all ages” show that focuses heavily on Anya and her classmates antics. All the rest make sense!
Oh yeah, her classmates. They are so unmemorable that I forgot about them😅
Moving it down to honorable mention
Saga of Tanya the Evil
Uhh, the main character is technically a child, even though they >!have the mind and soul of a middle-aged man!<. I’m not sure I’d include this, but the other characters still work.
The rest of the cast appear to be adults though.
One child among numerous adults satisfy the definition of “mostly adult cast of characters” that OP asked for IMO.
Not when the main character is the loli. If you believe Saga of Tanya the Evil meets the standard set by the question you don’t understand the question.
In no particular order these come to mind. Most of these are outside what I typically watch, but I did enjoy them.
Monster (Crime Drama) https://anilist.co/anime/19/Monster/
Mushishi (Psychological Slice of Life) https://anilist.co/anime/457/Mushishi/
One Punch Man (Comedy Action) https://anilist.co/anime/21087/One-Punch-Man/
TRIGUN (Action Adventure) https://anilist.co/anime/6/TRIGUN/
Hellsing (Vampire Action) https://anilist.co/anime/270/HELLSING/
Overlord (Evil Fantasy) https://anilist.co/anime/20832/Overlord/
I think a lot of the other answers here are being too generous with your rules and not giving you characters that both look older and are older.
Overlord has Mare and Aura though? Who, ignoring numerical age, have the appearance of a person under 20.
And Victim is a literal fetus, though Victim is only in the show for about 3 frames.
I do believe the criteria was “mostly adult cast” so out of 12ish characters having two not look like adults still fits the criteria. And Victim can probably be ruled out since you’re right, basically 3 frames
Ghost in the shell stand alone complex (and 2nd gig) was my first and still favourite anime.
My favorites have been :
- Bang Brave Bang Bravern - Big dumb gay robots
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam - Big dumb straight robots
- Redline - Just some fun racing action. Some of the best animation I’ve ever seen.
- Wotakoi - Love story between nerdy office workers
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes - The best space opera
- One Punch Man - depressed superhero
Redline is unironically one of my favorite movies. It’s just so silly, and I love it. “We’re losing the race, what do we do!?” “What if we pressed the pedal down…harder” And then they go faster.
Redline proved to me that you don’t necessarily need a good story to have an excellent movie. You just need a story that isn’t bad, and then if you make everything cool as hell it’ll work out.
Welcome to NHK, really walks you through the life of a university dropout failed adult.
I loved Wotakoi. The 4 main characters are 26-28 and employed. It’s in the especially rare category of adult romcoms. It’s a shame the anime never got a second season, but the manga is finished so if you give it a watch and want to find out what happened after, give it a read!
Wotakoi is basically my default answer to when people ask about adult romcom series. Great suggestion.
Big O
Ninja Scroll
Read or Die
Samurai Champloo
Berserk (OG)
Blue Gender
Frieren - Beyond journeys end
A real fresh take on fantasy stories imo with a lot of themes I always wanted to be explored in the genre. In my last pen & paper group i played an elvish alchemist specializing in seemingly useless utility potion effects. And when i created the character i had a hard discussion with my dm on how elves actually pervice the world and other races, with them reaching ages of thousands of years and whatnot. And frieren adresses that perfectly. Also that soundtrack is just the best. I have yet to listen to “One last adventure” and not get at leas queazy, if not tearing up a bit.
Were currently watching it a second time, just a week after finishing first time. We’ve never done that with any series.
Highly recommended
Fern and Stark are technically in the 18-20 age range though. And fairly teenage-y. But I agree it does explore a lot of more “mature” themes.
New:
- Delicious in Dungeon
- Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
- Odd Taxi
- Psycho-Pass
Old:
- Cowboy Bebop
- Black Lagoon
- Hellsing
- Vampire Hunter D
- Ghost in the Shell
Other:
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure - characters look way more adult than they are
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure - characters look way more adult than they are
One of my favorite moments was in part 5 when
JJBA Part 5
a character asks Giornio if he has a driver’s license and he goes, “Nope! I’m 15!”
Seriously dragon maid? That show is very divisive for its depiction of characters, lol. (e g. Kanna)
Why not? It’s still mostly adult.
You’ve nailed some good ones here. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but I believe Speed Grapher also fits the bill.
Odd Taxi (crime drama)
Psychopass (crime drama)
Cells at Work: Code Black (… Medical drama?)
Death Parade (Death game-ish)
Devilman Crybaby (main character is a high schooler, but it’s irrelevant imo. I didn’t remember until I looked it up again. This is a grim series )
Inuyashiki (Action. Old man is a complete Chad)
Panty & Stocking (Comedy)
Jellyfish Princess (Drama)
Saga of Tanya the Terrible (it’s not really a kid, action)
Saint Young Men (Comedy)
Samurai Champloo (Action)
Shiki (Horror/Drama)
Monster (Mystery)
Rose of Versailles (Very old, but romance/drama)
Almost all of Satoshi Kon’s work (including Paranoia Agent)
Ruroni Kenshin (Shounen)
Yurii on Ice (Romance/drama)
This was harder to answer than I thought, pushing up to 20 eliminates a lot of contenders I think. I would say maybe Vinland Saga? The main character starts as a child, but it also covers a large time span so he hits twenty partway through the second season. Major recurring characters are almost all adults throughout. Its a semi-historical anime set mostly in England and Denmark during a war between the two. It’s a show that deals heavily with violence and trauma, has some very complex characters, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough
This was harder to answer than I thought, pushing up to 20 eliminates a lot of contenders I think.
Maybe so, though that’s why I tried to relax it with 18 and older as well as mostly vs only adults. If there’s some younger characters I don’t mind, but I thought I’d ask about anime with a primary cast of older characters for a little change of pace.
Appreciate the suggestion!
I can’t second this one enough. Vinland Saga was absolutely fantastic. Although, the first season might be a technical disqualification because of how much time it spends on the MC’s youth. I personally think it fits the theme though.
how much time it spends on the MC’s youth
The rest of the cast are adults though, which fits the “mostly adult cast” requirement IMO
A few off the top of my head: Shirobako. Space Dandy. Samurai Champloo. Ghost in the Shell: SAC.
Eureka Seven
if you want a fantasy story with emotionally intelligent characters, well-crafted themes and messages, great animation and music
this is a gift for you
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