Slightly off topic, any recommendations on that area? I've never checked out any anime besides children shows and would like to see something good, preferably mature and recent, to see if I'm missing out on something cool.
Unfortunately there aren't a lot of mature anime which are recent, because the trends in anime seem to be skewing towards isekai that caters to otaku and shonen.
An older anime I liked is Zipang.
A modern Japanese navy ship transported back in time to World War 2. They have to decide if they’re going to help their modern day allies, USA, or help defend imperial Japan.
Kuuchuu Buranko - Anime that goes into mental health and how to better yourself.
I'm also a fan of psychological anime and:
Kaiba - Spot on Animation.
Welcome to the NHK - Explores the Hikkimori phenomena first hand.
Mononoke - Beautiful Done Japanese tales, psychological.
Higurashi no naku korno ni / Umineko no naku koro ni - long winded series, in the style of Agatha Christie murder mystery, to go into more would only ruin the fun. :D
Ping Pong the animation is a fantastic, series about.. leadership, I guess?
It's short enough that you can watch it in an afternoon as an extremely long movie if you'd like (assuming you skip most of the intro and outro/credit sequences, which add a few minutes to each episode).
A recent, fairly famous anime movie that I would recommend is Kimi No Nawa/Your Name. Very emotional, and just a great movie all around. I would also recommend any Studio Ghibli movie, particularly Spirited Away. If you want to watch some great artistic style anime series, watch any of Shinichiro Watanabe's shows, or if you're into psychological stories, watch Death Note.
There really is something for everyone if you look hard enough. There is a reason anime is so popular.
Disappointed but not surprised to see nobody mentioned "A Silent Voice."
Most of the others here are movies I love too, but I think A Silent Voice is a separate category. Many of the others are fantasy, this is a high school drama about a bullied deaf girl and relationships between people. When I heard that, I first thought it didn't really sound like something that would interest me, but it is just an amazing story.
"Erased" (Japanese title: "The Town Where Only I Am Missing") is my favorite recent series. I believe it's available on Hulu. It deals with some very dark themes around child abuse and murder. It's twelve episodes and each one packs a punch, there's no filler in it.
This reminds me of the (live-action) show Tiger & Dragon[0] is pretty great, although I watched it a decade ago and can't fully say whether it still lives up to my expectations.
Slightly off topic, any recommendations on that area? I've never checked out any anime besides children shows and would like to see something good, preferably mature and recent, to see if I'm missing out on something cool.