5 Seinen Anime You Should Watch
“Seinen” means “youth” and seinen anime are aimed at young adults and later teenagers. In contrast to “shounen” anime which are aimed at early teenagers, seinen anime focus more on darker themes and have more complex plots compared to the usually simple plotted shounen anime. There are some anime, for example xxxHolic and JoJo that are on the very boundary of both these genres.
Firstly, let me make something clear, I will try to avoid as much well-known anime as possible because Seinen anime are very popular and the genre has a few anime that literally everyone has watched like Tokyo Ghoul or Code Geass. As usual, I will link the MyAnimeList page for the detailed plot summary, and let’s get started with the list:
Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shochinin
Rainbow tells the story of 7 cellmates who struggle to live against the horrible atmosphere of their prison. Above all, some people will be like “they are criminals, they deserve absolute worst treatment” no! The way Sakuragi and his fellow cellmates are treated is something that I would not wish on the worst of the criminals and they did not even commit major crimes further, Sakuragi was framed he did not do a thing. They are abused and beaten by a guard and the doctor literally daily. Both of them are absolute pricks. They even try to increase Sakuragi’s sentence just when he is about to be released by changing his cell and making the cellmates beat him to a pulp every day.
Sakuragi can’t even retaliate because if he did, his sentence would be increased by quite a bit. Watch this anime. It will shake to your core and it is an absolute roller-coaster of a ride. It will really make you question who is the bigger criminal the guard and the doctor or the cellmates. The way the guys take their revenge on the doctor is an absolutely fun watch.
One Outs
I am not quite sure why this anime is a Seinen anime but, I know for a fact this won’t fit in the Shounen genre. I just realized this list so far has been only Madhouse anime but, Madhouse has made some very good anime so I can’t help it. One Outs may look like a sports anime but, do let that preconception and the average art style fool you. One Outs is a psychological anime. The protagonist Tokuchi, does not have some extreme talent as a pitcher.
He can only pitch straight balls that too only at an average speed. What makes him a top-class pitcher is the fact that he can read the batter’s thoughts and changes the spin of his pitches accordingly. Not just the batters, he plays mind games literally with all of the opponents to turn the game in his favor. Tokuchi is a genius. Again, One Outs is a must-watch. I am sure it will just blow your mind away.
Black Lagoon
Continuing with Madhouse anime Black Lagoon is another very good Seinen anime you should watch. It follows a group of mercenaries called well, “Black Lagoon Company” they do bidings for a lot of different clients. The major portion of the anime takes place in Roanapur which is home to a lot of gangster organizations like the Mafia, the Triads, the Yakuza and the list goes on. Even the nuns in the Church of Roanapur are arms dealers.
Roanapur is home to a lot of bad guys. If you want to see full-on gangster action, (which for some reason is rare in the anime industry) this is an anime for you. It has over-the-top gunfight action and an unexpectedly good story to go with it. The character development of Rock, who was once a salaryman who joined Black Lagoon for reasons, is actually good. We see him turning from “obey everything boss tells you” office worker to a full-on badass. Do check this one out you will end up loving it for sure.
Hinamatsuri
Firstly, for this position I had more than a few anime in my mind but, a few of them were “a bit too well known” and a few of them I had mentioned in other articles so I rejected them. I don’t think I have mentioned Hinamatsuri in some other article. This is another anime I am not quite sure why it is Seinen but, it is a Seinen and it is a good one at that so here we are. Think of this anime as an anime version of the super hit Hollywood movie ET.
However, a gangster ends up taking care of an alien girl with superpowers what follows is a comedy anime that very few can rival. The character development is interesting and despite there not being a plot, the anime is extremely entertaining and fun to watch. It is a very good stress reliever if you want one.
3-Gatsu no Lion
Now I know, 3-Gatsu no Lion is a very well-known anime but, only over 270k people have watched it for some reason. If you want a comparison, Vinland Saga which is not nearly as highly rated as this (I don’t mean to say Vinland Saga is bad. I am just comparing stats. I love Vinlang Saga too) has over 700k watchers on MyAnimeList. The high rating that 3-Gatsu no Lion is very well deserved. Especially the 2nd season is amazing. It deals with everything from family troubles to youth problems to bullying in a very realistic fashion. Shaft did a fantastic job in animating this and making scenes that describe the character’s mental state perfectly.
The 1st scene of the very first episode is something I doubt I will ever forget. It is about a high school boy who is also a genius Shogi player. He has a very troubled family life and has decided to live alone. The anime does a very good job of mirroring the mental state of characters with the help of Shogi. However the protagonist is a Shogi player but, the anime only uses Shogi as a tool and does completely revolve around it. Check out 3-Gatsu no Lion right now it is a beautiful anime and it is something you won’t forget for sure.
Wrapping Up
Soooo, this was my list of Top 5 Seinen anime. Keep in mind, these are my picks and I avoided a few anime purposefully as I said earlier. If there are some anime you want to see up on the list please comments down below and also tell me what you think of the list. Who knows, maybe we will end up doing a commenter’s edition of some lists in the future. Well, this is all I have for now do not forget to check out my other articles and the absolutely awesome art we have on our website. With that being said, See Ya!!
