It’s a super depressing movie. It definitely has funny, uplifting moments to underscore the hopeless dramatic irony, but they’re not anime-ish funny moments. Like most Ghibli, despite being “anime” it doesn’t rely on most of the TV-produced mainstream anime shortcuts.
Fullmetal Alchemist is one of those I wouldn’t recommend for the OP. It’s amazing, it’s serious, but when it has funny moments it’s anime as all hell.
As I recall (it’s been a while), both Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Ghost Hound (same studio, wildly different themes) are very light on anime-ness, and are pretty introspective. Maybe a little too proud of their own overestimated sense of cleverness at times, but good. Though I’m not sure how much you’ll enjoy Ghost Hound if you don’t have at least a little background on post-Aum Japanese New Religions. I didn’t dig it much until I learned about them and after that I found it fascinating.
I get the sense that what the OP is requesting is really anime that doesn’t use a lot of anime character expression tropes. Sweat drops, mouths hanging open, throbbing forehead veins, exaggeratedly falling over. Sort of the antithesis of your Azumanga Daioh and Shounen Jump fare, irrespective of its actual “humor content” (though these tropes are by far most noticeable in humor). Both Black Butler and Bleach are really, really heavily “anime” in that way.
Cowboy Bebop is, of course, usually the poster child billed as “anime for people who don’t like anime.”
Sword Art Online has it’s “funny” moments (I guess), but on the whole it’s more action packed and has a pseudo love story in it, which is always interesting.
The third season (the gun stuff) gets pretty heavy at some points
I need to get back to that; We watched a bunch of it for a while on Netflix and then it magically disappeared and we kinda forgot about it… it seemed really good and smart.
My Japanese level isn’t great, as several friends are keen to point out, and I certainly miss a lot of linguistic subtleties, but I think the things lost in translation are typically more along the lines of politeness and social hierarchy distinctions, naming conventions, and social customs. The jokes really are for the most part very direct and in your face.
My criticism isn’t limited to anime, though. Japanese TV and film also tend to be dominated by rather extreme, highly standardized acting without much in the way of subtlety. I mean, I’m not exaggerating too much when I say about half of primetime TV is dominated by panel shows that are about watching minor celebrities reacting excessively to videos about food and travel. And the live action acting is so direct that even a community theater director would say to turn it down a notch. If there’s a layer of subtlety running though most of it it’s escaped me.
Hmmm… and NetFlix doesn’t even have it on DVD. I will have to look around for it.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so you could be right on that. What I saw most recently were the three standalone movies. Maybe they follow a similar pattern to the Bubblegum Crisis and the AD Police spinoffs.
I liked Trigun, but I don’t know if a series with a main character named “Vash the Stampede” can fit the OP’s criteria. I remember it being pretty heavy on the comedy side.
It’s kinda a trojan horse. It starts out more lighthearted and comedic, but pretty much exactly halfway through it becomes rather dark (to the point that I wouldn’t recommend it to teens unless their parents think they can handle it) And yet it feels 100% natural for it to do so.
The wacky comedy only exists to cover up the more weighty subject matter. And even early on it’s just used punctuate rather than the meat of the show.
It’s an anime that I want everyone to watch, but the problem is that the reason why is such a complete spoiler. Heck, even mentioning the tone shift is kinda spoilery, in my opinion, since it catches you so off guard.
It still bums me out that JesuOtaku wound up quitting before finishing her series on it.
My understanding isn’t perfect either, but my impression is that in addition to politeness/social stuff, there’s a lot of punning going on in many anime that’s hard to impossible to translate. Wordplay using two words that sound similar being replaced/confused/double entendre-d for one another as can be done in English but is really hard to translate, and similar wordplay for two words that are written with very similar kanji… which has no equivalent in English at all.
Oh, and there’s a fair bit of pop culture references/parodies as humor, though in this case the pop culture being referred to is often other anime. Sometimes this is blatant enough for foreign audiences to see, but it can be more subtle as well.
I occasionally discuss things like this here at the SDMB. I concur wholeheartedly with some of the fantastic recommendations in this thread. You can’t go wrong with Attack on Titan or Cowboy Bebop. The Big O is another great series.
dracoi’s suggestion of Bubblegum Crisis is another all-time great on my list; the original OVA series ran for eight episodes before coming to an abrupt halt. You get your answers in the follow-up series Bubblegum Crash, which isn’t nearly as good. Do your best to see them in their original form with Kinuko Oomori’s rockin’ vocals. Watching the watered-down stuff available from iTunes is like grooving to William Shatner’s version of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” without ever realizing that the Beatles sang it first.
One of Studio Gainax’s other great classics (What?!? You mean besides Evangelion?!?) is Gunbuster: Aim For The Top. By the time the OVA series reached its sixth and final episode, Gainax was out of time and money to animate and color everything, but it still stands as one of the best out there. Make sure you stick around after the first episode, as the somewhat light-hearted beginning does not really prepare you for the gravity of the remaining episodes.
Some of the older Mobile Suit Gundam stuff may be to your liking as well. I am particularly partial to Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. This is a short four-episode OVA series combines awesome classic Gundam action with a very interesting love story.
There are a few other recent series that might meet the OP criteria, but I’m not sure if you would consider them “good”:[ul][]BTOOOM! - Like The Hunger Games or Battle Royale, imagine waking up on a jungle island with a rack of unusual grenades strapped to your body. How did I get here? Is this some kind of sick game? Must I kill the other participants? Will they try to kill me? I just want to go home![]Terra Formars - Scientists sent roaches and algae to Mars in an terraforming attempt. When the first humans arrive centuries later to examine the results, they are met by legions of 8-foot-tall roach people who hate us as much as we hate roaches![]Arpeggio of Blue Steel - A mysterious armada of self-aware naval vessels, “The Fleet of Fog”, destroys the world’s navies and blockades all the oceans. When a Fog submarine defects and entrusts herself to Humanity under the command of an unconventional young cadet from Japan’s National Marine Academy, we may have an opportunity to defeat the Fog once and for all.[]Legends of the Dark King - If you’re familiar with Fist of the North Star, you’ll understand the background to this short series and recognize some of the characters. It takes place at the same time, telling the story of Kenshiro’s older brother Raoh and his rise to power.[/ul]
If you’re willing to consider books, I’m currently reading the first volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha. It has many of the usual artistic tropes, but it’s subject matter is far from humorous.