Favorite Anime Show/movie

[DarthVolod]

Torillian said:

DarthVolod said:

I tend to go for stuff that is more philosophical and cerebral in nature. Unfortunately, it seems most anime (at least what I have seen having viewed about 30+ series now) steers away from this in favor of high school romance, comedy, generic action, and countless portrayals of women as objects of lust and perversion (not that I am saying romance/comedy/action/sex are innately bad it is just that they are always handled so poorly as to drag down otherwise interesting shows). 

I don't know if that helps to narrow things down at all. Obviously, sci-fi and anything cyberpunk are a huge plus for me. I am not familiar with any animes that have attempted it, but I also like horror. Also, unhappy endings/sad stories or at least ones with ambiguous endings tend to be my favorites in other mediums.

Sad stories, that's my favorite as well.  Most animes let things get atleast a bit happy/hopeful at the end but if you'd like some anime with some real heart breaking moments Clannad (whole thing, have to watch the "after story"), Angel Beats, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Grave of the Fireflies, and Steins Gate.  If you can deal with some seemingly stereotypical Magical girl anime that turns real dark and sad real quick there's Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica.  

Stuff that wasn't as sad but was thoughtful and interesting would be Natsume Yuujinchou, Toradora, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, and a goofy little short series called There She Is!!

 

note: weird fonts are from me "c/p"ing from myanimelist.net and being lazy.

Thanks for the response! I am not familiar with most of the series you mentioned so I will give them a try. I know I saw Clannad was on Netflix so I can check that one out right away. Grave of Fireflies sounds like something I would like too (based on wiki); I usually like war stories.