Mentally stimulating anime (Whiny, demanding anime request! :D)?

[Inkwolf]

I'm looking for an anime that engages my brain!

Maybe something that has a mystery that keeps you guessing.
Maybe something that makes you re-examine social and moral absolutes.
Maybe something with an incredible battle of wits.
Maybe something that examines human nature.
Maybe something that calls reality as we know it into question.
Or maybe just something so weird it's mind-bending.

Some things I've seen like this would be:
Spiral
Death Note
Eden of the East
Fantastic Children
Paranoia Agent
Kino's Journey
Noein
Princess Tutu
xxxHolic
Revolutionary Girl Utena

In short, something that puts questions into your head.


DO NOT WANT: Gore-fest, angst-fest, excessive nudity or non-stop-action. I don't mind a bit of blood, fighting or drama when called for, but I'm totally not into shocker violence or constant misery and most fighting action scenes put me to sleep. Uber-ecchi is also a bore. I'm not a teen boy, no interest at all in staring at cartoon hooters.

Please do not mention Code Geass, Elfen Lied, Higurashi, or any mass-market mainstream stuff with half a jillion episodes.

Already thinking of watching Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, feel free to add your opinion if you've seen it.

[Noah]

An anime that totally fits into your category (and I love that category), would be:
Steins;Gate
http://myanimelist.net/anime/9253/Steins;Gate

Summary:
Steins;Gate is set in the summer of 2010, approximately one year after the events that took place in Chaos;Head, in Akihabara.

Steins;Gate is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN, who has been doing their own research on time travel, tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them.

Something that totally focusses on exploring human nature, and I'm SURE you'll love this is:

Welcome to the N.H.K!
http://myanimelist.net/anime/1210/Welcome_to_the_NHK!

Summary:
Satou Tatsuhiro, 22 years old, thinks that everything that happens around him is a conspiracy. He even figured out who is behind it all: The NHK, an evil secret company.

"When you think anime, you think otaku. When you think otaku, you think people that dislike other people. Those people become hikikomori (people who shut themselves in)". So Satou manages to uncover the plot of The NHK (stands for Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai), after three years of shutting himself in (and rapidly approaching the fourth).

In reality, he is nothing more than a NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training), desperately in need of a cure from that "disease". He wants to break out from the curse, but going out and getting a job is frightening enough for him. That is until he gets selected for a "project"; it is a plan to help hikikomori like him in facing the reality of this world.

You can check the "Recommended" tab for both of them for more anime like them.

I wouldn't be too scared to check out Code Geass though, it's "battle of wits" comes close to Death Note, and it's debatable who is more intelligent: Lelouch or Light (and it doesn't have that much more episodes than death note)

I'm sure you'll love Steins;Gate, it fits your categories PERFECTLY, I swear it on my otaku soul!

[✖ tani ✖]

I would recommend you to try these:

• Le Portrait de Petit Cossette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Portrait...t_Cossette
• Hell Girl: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Girl
• Rozen Maiden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rozen_Maiden
• Saya's Song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saya_no_Uta (not an anime, but a visual novel; still, it's really intriguing and moral-questioning)

Hope that was helpful! ♥

[Kristofferson]

Have you seen Durarara?

In Tokyo's downtown district of Ikebukuro, amidst many strange rumors and warnings of anonymous gangs and dangerous occupants, one urban legend stands out above the rest – the existence of a headless “Black Rider” who is said to be seen driving a jet-black motorcycle through the city streets.

Ryuugamine Mikado has always longed for the excitement of the city life, and an invitation from a childhood friend convinces him to move to Tokyo. Witnessing the Black Rider on his first day in the city, his wishes already seem to have been granted. But as supernatural events begin to occur, ordinary citizens like himself, along with Ikebukuro's most colorful inhabitants, are mixed up in the commotion breaking out in their city.

[Amazingmoon789]

An anime with supernatural and sci-fi genre has the motivation of how to keep in the anime's plot that simulates the genre's characteristics that show the design of the anime, which is very simulative.


Baccano! - It has a bit of blood, but in the sense dealing with the motive of alchemy which plays a big role of simulative characteristics to simulate a great plot, and at first it's really stale-violent and it may get boring, but later on the plot is amazing, it's very simulative.
And there's a lot of mystery in it that adds to the simulative bar, which is mixed with the sci-fi/alchemy concept of the anime.
http://animenewsnetwork.com/back/0-9/enc...0/formc/6/



D. Greyman - This anime is amazing and it deals with the action motivation of simulation which is the most comprehensive concept of the anime, and it deals with plot about exorcists, that in the sense of seeing ghosts which is the battling of great strategy in the anime due to the comprehensive-compressed concept of the anime's plot. The anime itself is very simulative, and it has a good self-plot, that the characters in the plot are going for the same goal, whether if they are prime antagonists or protagonists or not, the characters are on the samw which makes a great compressing plot and genric-concept.
http://animenewsnetwork.com/for/u/m/6-0/...edia/back/


Guilty Crown - This anime maybe sad, though it had a great concept and comprehensive-compressed arc over plot giving it the mind-bending simulative concept with the highlight on all motivating all genric-characteristics that give a great scripted storyline and plot, where the story is set up by a great characterized plot, the main reason of the plot's motivation is because it had a great scripture compressing the many genres it has to a comprehensive cursive plot, like the storyline's scripture is giving so many details to the plot itself.
http://animenewsnetwork.com/for/Guilty/c...ck/visual/


Mirria Nikki Future Diary - A horror anime and a bit of violence, though the plot has a great play on the characters and their role in the story, which gives the story a tri-structure, which means that is a great plot over the own arc, and it follows it greatly on the plot reasoning.
http://animenewsnetwork.com/for/anime/en...ikki/back/
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[Haruka]

Monster
http://myanimelist.net/anime/19/Monster