What is the most complex anime you have ever watched?

As the title says, which animes you have seen were too complex so you had to re-watch or at least questioning a few things of what happend during the series.

I have been re-watching No game No life because it's sort of complex to understand all the decisions they (sona - shiro) made during the different matches even though they were doomed to lose from the very beginning.

so what is the most complex anime you have ever seen? or are you more likely someone who has no difficulties to understand everything exactly on point?

Ooooo~ What an interesting topic. Complex, huh... That is actually a hard one to answer, but if I had to pull anything out right now I'd have to say that one of the more complex series I've watched would have to be Serial Experiments Lain, Ergo Proxy, FLCL (lol)

Ergo Proxy was super deep and complex. I kind of want to rewatch now.

And I won't lie, FLCL was one that maybe shouldn't have been TOO complex, but I had to rewatch it twice, even three times to really understand everything that was going on. It's one of my favorite series to date though.

I agree with Ergo Proxy and FLCL. Serial Experiments Lain seems fairly complex as well, but I've only seen a handful of episodes and then forgot about it.

One I had a lot of trouble with the first time around is Texhnolyze. I've watched it around three or four times now and each time I learn or notice something I had overlooked previously. It's my favourite anime too

I agree with Ergo Proxy and FLCL. Serial Experiments Lain seems fairly complex as well, but I've only seen a handful of episodes and then forgot about it.

 

One I had a lot of trouble with the first time around is Texhnolyze. I've watched it around three or four times now and each time I learn or notice something I had overlooked previously. It's my favourite anime too

I've heard about that one being pretty complex, but I've never personally seen it. So I'm assuming you recommend it then?

I dont watch vary complex anime so I would have to say that death note is pretty complex and vary tripy....

As the title says, which animes you have seen were too complex so you had to re-watch or at least questioning a few things of what happend during the series.

 

I have been re-watching No game No life because it's sort of complex to understand all the decisions they (sona - shiro) made during the different matches even though they were doomed to lose from the very beginning.

 

so what is the most complex anime you have ever seen? or are you more likely someone who has no difficulties to understand everything exactly on point?

Ghost in the Sell was the most complex anime I ever watched. I did not understand it when I watched it the first time, so I had to re-watch it a few times until the film's story-line became clear to me.

Ghost in the Sell was the most complex anime I ever watched. I did not understand it when I watched it the first time, so I had to re-watch it a few times until the film's story-line became clear to me.

I'd have to agree with Ghost being pretty complex as well. I started watching it when I was quite young and I did need to rewatch it again to get all the finer points across. Still a really good series.

I was thinking about this last night and forgot to mention it. It's not a series but another complex animated film I love is Paprika. I own it on dvd and the first time I watched it, I was like "whut is this chaos." After rewatching it again, I grew to appreciate it. Has anyone else seen it??

I'd have to agree with Ghost being pretty complex as well. I started watching it when I was quite young and I did need to rewatch it again to get all the finer points across. Still a really good series.

 

 

I was thinking about this last night and forgot to mention it. It's not a series but another complex animated film I love is Paprika. I own it on dvd and the first time I watched it, I was like "whut is this chaos." After rewatching it again, I grew to appreciate it. Has anyone else seen it??

I never heard of it but it looks like I'll enjoy it so I'll UT it on my plan to watch list!

I never heard of it but it looks like I'll enjoy it so I'll UT it on my plan to watch list!

Just a fair warning. It's really strange! I felt tripped out the first time I watched it cause it was like 2am and I was tired lol. So if you want to follow it well. Be awake lol

Death Parade

This is a good topic.

I would have to say Evangelion for me. When I watched it as a kid I didn't pick up half of what was going on. It took me several times re watching it to pick up on more of it. I remember the same thing with FLCL.

It's hard to decide which is the most complex, because it depends on you define as complex. If you want a complex story driven anime, Full Metal Alchemist, or Neon Genesis or even Attack on Titan come to mind. If we're going for bizarre, Neon Genesis belongs there as well, but then you could also add in so many anime along with that. With all that in mind, I think Ghost in the Shell, from start to finish works fine, and I mean from the first movie, to the most recent one. The first movie is odd and in it's own way complex, but there are a lot of things to take in and lot to be explained without info dumps, meanwhile as the series progressed into the Laughing Man case, it got deep and interesting in a way it hadn't before, and arguably, hasn't since. There's also a decent amount of lore involved in it as well.

I had forgot about Evangelion. Thats a really good one. First time I watched that, I was also quite young. When I re-watched it I realized I missed quite a lot the first time around. Some messed up stuff in there I didn't catch either.

As far as AoT, I would have to say the complexity of that ranges mostly on the mysterious part of it all. They keep a lot of things hidden, and up to the viewer to try and interpret until they make reveals. I do like that there's a lot of parts I don't know and have to guess. Keeps me following it.

I have yet to watch Evangelion, Ergo Proxy, Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze. (I do love me some complex shows. So I will definitely have to get to those) But from the general input of the anime community and what the others above have said - those shows do indeed seem to posses a sense of complexity. In the sense that they do leave the viewer to perceive and interpret things for themselves. In those cases, it does seem like the complexity stems from the fact that it provides the viewer with a lot of material to process while not necessarily providing a definitive answer to those questions. The complexity derives from things that are not said.

Going along with the trend of talking about already mentioned titles, Ghost In The Shell (1995) is definitely complex. Although the movie has a good story-line - it's complexity most certainly derives from the core themes it conveys. The movie comes off as melancholic, often leaving the viewers with shots that are either still, or have very limited movement in them. Outside the action scenes, the movie has a quiet and mellow feel to it which is backed by the subtle yet powerful soundtrack. All of these elements serve to provide the viewer room to contemplate and interpret the world for themselves without the producers having to blatantly shove all of their themes into thier faces - similar to (I presume) the shows that I have mentioned earlier. The themes in Ghost In The Shell are deep and extremely thought-provoking too. Honestly, I can't think of a universally more contemplated theme than "what does it mean to be human"? And in the movie, no answer is provided. Leaving each and every one of us to come up with our own unique perspectives.

FLCL is yet another anime that I find incredibly complex. The series centers around the central idea of adolescence - a theme that appeals to me on a personal level. This is probably what got me thinking for hours on what each aspect of the series symbolized after my first viewing of it. Even as I was watching the series, my brain couldn't help but try and decipher the "inevitable deeper meaning" behind the events that occur or how the scene was portrayed. How the series achieves this is arguably due to its absurdly over the top nature, since ones imagination can only be stretched so far. After a while, I was left with the impression that everything had to be a metaphor. That everything had to make sense in some way... Right? I won't go into detail on the results of my contemplation - but the series did get me thinking. And I think that is enough for it to be considered complex.

Although FLCL could have replaced this show in being the most complex one that I have seen to date, Perfect Blue still comes off on top due to it's masterful (and complex) cinematography.

The movie Perfect Blue is a psychological mystery that was released in 1997. Due to the absence of modern CGI and fancy animation software, the staff and producers of the movie had to push the boundaries of storytelling that involved limited movement for it to really stand out. For this to be achieved, each frame of animation was top-notch and conveyed messages and feelings on their own. In addition to that, the movie possessed a brilliant colour pallet which was perfectly used to convey deeper emotions to the viewer in a subtle yet significant way. All of this in it of itself is great - but not complex. What makes Perfect Blue complex, is how it utilizes the world it has already built through their visual and aural direction to lure the viewer in, and completely encapsulate them and amplify the lingering dread as the show moves along. We are directly inserted into the mind of our protagonist as she starts to question reality. Reality warps right in front of the viewers eyes, as scenes bleed into one another. We start to question reality too. Above all, we start to question the protagonist and the people around her. The biggest payoff of the shows excellent direction during its final climatic moments. As the viewer is not only taken by surprise at the mysterious reveal, but relieved simultaneously since certainty has been provided for once in (arguably) the shows entire narrative. The viewer is relieved to be aware. The viewer is relieved to have some closure on the issue - much like our protagonist is. The best part is, we feel relieved during the scene with the most stakes. A scene in which - by right - we shouldn't be taking a breath in while watching. But still, we are relived because we have control for once.

Even after the eerily ambiguous end to Perfect Blue, there is still a lot to contemplate. You will be left questioning the reliability of the reality you have just experienced. You will want to go back, re-watch, and decipher what you have just experienced to (hopefully) come to a decisive answer. You won't just question what you've saw - you will also question yourself.

Even with all that said, I still haven't touched on the series core themes of identity and desire Watch it and experience it for yourselves! I absolutely recommend it.

So due to the reasons above, Perfect Blue is the most complex anime I have ever watched (up till this date at least).

I don't tend to watch many of the anime that people most frequently give shout-outs to for complexity, to be honest. This isn't because I'm not interested in complex stories - quite the opposite, in fact... instead, it tends to be a more coincidental sort of thing, for example I'm not generally very into cyber-punk stuff, which removes things like Texhnolyze, Ergo Proxy, Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, and things of that sort.

With all that said, I think I would look at anime like Shinsekai Yori or Haibane Renmei as being complex - the narratives themselves might be easy to follow and all that, but the worlds provide a tremendous amount to think and ponder about. Haibane Renmei, for example, managed to provoke more thoughtful conversation between my spouse and I than just about any other anime that we've ever watched together, something that Evangelion completely failed to do.

I have recently finished Durarara and it's quite complex, i'll probably re-watch it someday. I feel kinda young after reading throughout the thread, most likely older animes such as Ghost in the Shell or Ergo Proxy were mentioned, dunno when but i'll have to watch both of them by myself.

Evangelion is certainly on my to-watch list so lucky me, i heard great things of the series.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. A lot of gibberish and political jargon that went over my head.

After that comes The End of Evangelion movie. Lots of abstract symbolism that I couldn't bother with deciphering.

I had to re-watch FLCL, Darker Than Black, and Shinsekai Yori to understand the story completely. It took me a little longer to understand the 3rd season of Darker Than Black.

I don't tend to get confused by stories in anime, and in my experience, a lot of people confuse ambiguity for complexity. A lot of the anime that are commonly thought of as "complex" are actually just layered stories where the writers left out key pieces of information that would be necessary to understand how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. Maybe they share them later, maybe they don't. However, to me, this isn't complexity - it's just a particular type of implicit storytelling.

What @Cy~ sad apply to me as well, I normally don't get confused with the stories but I remember 2 animes that bugged me when I watched them. The first one was the anime movie, Paprika and the second one was Serial Experiments Lain.