Depth

[Galant]

Some anime are silly, some are romantic to a fault. Others are violent and still others plain weird. What I'd like to know is what do you think are the deepest anime - anime that make you think, anime that, perhaps, have made a difference. Anime that mean something.

???

[Knives]

Hmmn, thats kind of hard to say. I thought that Trigun had some depth towards the later episodes. From what I have seen of Cowboy Bebop, it seems pretty 'deep'.

[Alice]

Area 88 was a deeply moving and meaningful to me.

At the time it dealt with stuff that was terribly important to me. Spiritually, and just in life. Not sure if I'd still feel the same way if I saw it now.

Of course, the ending completely ruined it. >.< (NOT the real ending from the manga, either.)

The ending DVD of that was one of the things that helped put me off anime.... >.<

But to me, the first two DVDs were deeply moving and personal. About... not giving up. And not wanting to become evil. I don't even know how to express the depth of everything those first two DVDs meant to me.

[Rev. Doc]

When I think of depth I think of shows with an emotional challenge. A few I would recommend right off hand would be:

Someday's Deamers
Voices Of A Distant Star
Millennium Actress
Grave Of The Fireflies
Piano
Haibane-Renmei
The Place Promised In Our Early Days
Last Exile
Figure 17

[Joshua Christopher]

Voices of A Distant Star, the only well done romance ever.

Giant Robo, because of the characters, and them all being very deep and 3D.

And of course, Fist of the North Star.

[avidrkfan]

Samurai X Trust and Betrayal, because even though it was extremely violent, the central theme was that you can't do the wrong thing (killing people who stand in the way of justice and a better society) for the 'right' reasons without paying a hideous price for it. Every action has a consequence, and sometimes other people that you care about end up paying too.

Plus it's got a love story in it, and I'm always a sucker for a tragic love story - 'Voices of a Distant Star' is a perfect example of that.

[Ichigo_89]

Gundam 0080 (seriously, it's a great story)
Voices of a Distant Star
Rurouni Kenshin
Samurai X
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun

[eva-boy7985]

Concerning anime that's made the greatest personal difference to me, I'd have to say that one would be RahXephon. Emotionally, I have not cried ever this much in a show. There were parts where I was emotional that maybe not the general anime viewer would be because they had personal meaning to me. The way in which love's transcendant and overcoming power is displayed and conveyed in the various events and characters was done in such a way that it affected me as I have never been before in any kind of anime/film. In deeply connected with the "roots" of myself in some way, and very few things have ever done that, save the Bible itself, the Lord of the Rings (books and films), and small handful of other things. Very powerful, very moving, and very deep; I was very personally blessed by this show :-)

[Godly Paladin]

Some anime have important philosophies in them, but are cloaked in absolute insanity. (Trigun and Rouroni Kenshin, for example.)

Apart from those, there are shows like Jin-Roh that would be good examples of 'deep' anime. Not that the philosophies and worldviews of those animes are Christian in any sense, but they are 'deep' in their own way.

[LondonCalling]

Hellsing, NGE, Spiral to add.

[Joshua Christopher]

Ah yes, I'll throw in Spiral.

[kazekami]

I'd say:

Beyond the Clouds
Madlax
haibane Renmei
Escaflowne
Mellinium Actress
Air

Thats all I can think of at the moment. But theres quite a few.

[Lady Arianrod]

I agree with many of these choices, especially Cowboy Bebop, Haibane Renmei, and Grave of the Fireflies. I also recommend Escaflowne if you like detailed plots and characters.

And, though I haven't seen Voices of a Distant Star, it looks great.