10 anime filled with ideas and philosophy

 Many of us love watching anime. Why? There are different reasons for each of us. Some watch it to kill time, some to relax with a beer, but there are also those who see anime not just as cartoons, but as a real work of art with unique ideas, concepts, and philosophies.

10) Vinland Saga

Introduced to viewers in 2019, Vinland managed to collect a huge amount of positive feedback from critics and viewers. Viewers loved the story of the wanderings of a young Viking obsessed with revenge for his father and his journey to accept his fate.

Makoto Yukimura didn't just describe the story of a Viking in his work but showed the path a person must take to get rid of regrets and the burden of the past. The anime is based on the idea of a cycle of violence and revenge that brings only pain and suffering to those around you and yourself.

This anime is worth its time, if only because of the high quality of the animation and the excellent presentation that does not make you bored.

9) Legend of Galactic Heroes

Have you ever wanted to see the world of Star Wars if G.R.R. Martin had written it? If so, I have good news for you, because it exists.

This anime is based on Yoshiki Tanaka's 1982-1987 series of novels. The main characters are Reinhard von Lohengram and Yang Wen-li. Both are talented and promising admirals, but with different motives and views on life and character, they achieve their goals in completely different ways, and fate throws them into completely amazing events.

In this anime, the viewer is struck by the number of thoughts and ideas of the author. From the criticism of different forms of government to the analogies with the great generals of the past, whose fate is repeated by some of the main characters.

8) Paprika

I think this is one of those anime that after watching it you wonder, What the hell was that?

Paprika is an anime about psychology and detective investigations, with psychology taking up most of the plot.

The anime is about a female psychiatrist who researches dreams and works with a team of scientists to create a device that allows you to go into a controlled sleep, but due to the inattention of the scientists the device is stolen, leading to a series of events that threaten the residents of an entire city.

The main idea of "Paprika" is the visualization of dreams and the experiences that are reflected in them, and the madness and chaos of what is happening on the screen unwittingly plunges the viewer into a kind of delirium.

7) Gurren Lagann

 I think after the aforementioned anime you might be wondering."What is Gurren Lagann doing here?! This is a selection of serious anime, not children's cartoons!" Maybe not, but if you've watched it at least once, you'll realize that behind the vivid imagery and action is a gripping plot and characters you can't help but love, and most importantly, it has the right idea .

The story is about two main characters, Simon and Kamina, who live in dirty underground and narrow tunnels and dream of something more than just living all their lives under the dark vaults of the caves, and one day their wish comes true.

Gurren Laggan mostly teaches willpower, self-improvement and personal development, which the author was able to demonstrate flawlessly through the example of the main character, Simon.

6) Devilman: Crybaby

Brutality. Despair. Tears.

 These are the three words that came to my mind after watching Devilman. This anime is unprincipled in what it shows. It will make you feel with the characters their pain, fear and despair that comes over you like an avalanche throughout the film.

I won't tell you the plot, but I will tell you one thing. You will be amazed, and you should applaud the way it manages to show the darkest corners of human nature and expose the human masks behind which the real monsters are hiding.

5) Agent Paranoia

Agent Paranoia may not be the most famous anime, especially in the psychological thriller genre, but that doesn't make it any less remarkable.

The plot of the anime revolves around a very strange and somewhat mystical crime. One night a young girl is attacked by a boy wearing gold roller skates and holding a gold curved bat. The police do not believe that some schoolboy could commit such an attack, but soon new victims emerge, and the police have to take up this strange investigation.

Watching the anime, you may wonder what is true and what is fiction. It's not really a detective anime, but an anime about people and how they live their lives and deal with their problems, both physical and psychological, which are really not that bad if you get hit in the face with a metal baseball bat

4) Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Can a wolf become a man?

An alternate post-war Japan. Instability and chaos reign in the country. Terrorist organizations are appearing, ready to challenge the government, but to counter this threat the government creates special armored units of special forces "Cerberus", ready to unconditionally follow orders and destroy anyone who gets in their way. The protagonist Kazuki Fuse is one of these special forces. He is presented as a cold, lonely and unemotional man who obeys orders without question until one incident occurs. This event turns Fuse's life upside down, and he wonders. "Why am I doing this?"

In this anime you can trace an analogy to the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, only in this story the main character is a wolf. A wolf who wants to become human.

3) Monster

This is the case when the monster from fairy tales turns out to be more charismatic than the knight in shining armor.

Tenma, a young and talented Japanese doctor, works in a private clinic in Düsseldorf. He has a promising future--a beautiful fiancée whose son-in-law is the director of the clinic, a talent that allows him to be the best neurosurgeon in his clinic. A happy and cloudless future awaits him, but one day a boy is brought to the clinic with a bullet in his head. Dr. Tenma is going to operate, but the director demands that he operate on the local mayor instead of the boy. The hero goes against this decision and still does the boy's surgery, but the mayor dies. After that, the life of the protagonist goes downhill, but thanks to the mysterious death of the director he manages not only to return, but also to become the director of the clinic himself. However, Tenma soon learns the terrible truth about the boy he saved. He saved not an ordinary boy, but a monster.

This story reveals many ideas throughout the series, but its main idea is a rethinking of the Hippocratic Oath. If human lives are priceless, is it possible to save the one who takes them?

2) Ergo Proxy.

A post-apocalyptic future. People are forced to live under protective domes because the environment is polluted and people cannot survive in it without protective equipment. The city of Romdo is home to humans and AutoReivs, androids created to serve humans, but things in this little world are not going as well as we would like. The autoroids are afflicted with the Cogito virus, which causes them to go insane and commit a series of murders. Inspector Re-L Meyer sets out to investigate these incidents, and as she investigates, she realizes that the government is hiding a terrible secret.

While watching, it is hard not to notice the gigantic number of references, coded phrases and words, allusions and parallels. As an example, the government in "Romdo" is an example of the ideal state described by Plato, and one episode of the anime directly refers to John Everett Millais' painting "Ophelia"

1) Berserk

Berserk is one of the most famous and iconic anime of our time. Its contribution to world culture cannot be overlooked, and many famous authors have taken inspiration from it.

The plot of "Berserk" is the story of two different people who, by the will of fate, meet each other. One of them is Griffith - the leader of a mercenary squad, a talented man in every way, who has all the necessary qualities to realize his ambitions. The other is Guts, someone who was born against fate from a dead woman, someone who has been fighting fate itself all his life for his life. Being people with very different destinies, they become friends, which makes them walk the difficult path from simple soldiers of fortune to heroes of the kingdom. However, it is not the man himself who decides his destiny, for he is not even in control of his will.

The search for self and the journey from slave to leader is the most obvious of the many themes raised in Berserk. For example, Griffith's image echoes in many ways the image of the superhuman created by Friedrich Nietzsche, and the confrontation between man and destiny is what has at all times inspired many people to do great things. That's why Berserk fans love Guts so much.