Akitsu Masanosuke is a shy, self-conscious and slightly cowardly man with a goal of becoming a great samurai. However, when he is dismissed from his job after two days he must live the life of a ronin until he can return to service. So when a man named Yaichi approaches him offering food and a job as his bodyguard, it all seems too good to be true - that is, until Akitsu learns that this confident stranger is in fact a gangster of the Five Leaves who specializes in kidnapping and lives in the city’s red-light district. While the ronin’s sense of justice makes him think twice about accepting the offer, Akitsu’s grumbling stomach, his growing familiarity with the rest of the Five Leaves, and Yaichi’s determination to recruit the budding samurai, may well have other plans...
It isn't unusual for a person to feel that the world around them is strange and has unexpected secrets lying just beyond their sight. However, for most people this is just an occasional sensation that greets them upon awakening or chases them into sleep. For the mushi researcher Ginko, it isn't a feeling at all; it is a knowledge which guides his travels and motivates his life. Found in the cracks between what is conceivable and what is not, are the varied life forms collectively known as mushi. They surround us and affect us, but their intensely different nature makes them unrecognizable to most. Ginko brings these life forms into perspective for the lives of those most affected and most in need of an explanation.
House of Five Leaves and Mushishi are slow-paced, mature, and insightful series that never feel heavy-handed. They share similar settings and color palettes, and have a subtley mysterious atmosphere. They would certainly appeal to the same audience.
Echoing AirCommodore's recommendation and comments on style ; both Mushi-shi and Sarai-ya Go-yo have a similar feel as far as color, pace, characterization, and sound. While Mushi-shi is about para-natural organisms and how they interact with humans, Sarai-ya Go-yo is more of an Edo-period underworld drama. If you like the atmosphere of one, you'll probably find the other quite enjoyable even though their topic-genres are totally different.
These two anime bare pretty much no resemblance to each-other as far as their story or characters, but they share a similar feel, atmosphere, and pacing. Both are slower paced and unique stories with interesting, well-developed characters. They're also both set in fairly similar time periods.
When watching Sarai-ya Goyou, there is a strong sense of it borrowing from Mushishi in tone and pacing and style. I am convinced Mushishi puts this to use much better than Sarai-ya Goyou, it being episodic and more focused on overarching environmental themes instead of individual human characters. To put it in English, watch Mushishi next if you want more of the deliberate, contemplative, eerie style done better.
Located on a small street near the center of Rome, the Casetta dell'orso is a small yet popular restaurant staffed by a group of older, bespectacled gentlemen. Nicoletta is a twenty-one-year-old woman who has just arrived in Rome to meet with her estranged mother's husband, who owns the restaurant. She intends to inform him that not only was his wife married once before, but also that she is her daughter - a secret her mother desperately wants kept. When she arrives at the restaurant Nicoletta becomes enamoured with Claudio, one of the waiters, and begins to spend more time there. Despite the age gap, Nicoletta finds her feelings towards Claudio growing; and after making a promise to keep her mother's secret, Nicoletta begins working at the restaurant as an apprentice chef. Now she is trying her hardest to become a good cook, but can Nicoletta overcome the difference in age and win the quiet Claudio's heart?
Ristorante Paradiso and Sarai-ya Goyou are slow moving character dramas about adults. They're also based off of manga by the same mangaka- Natsume Ono. This means they have very similar art styles, and, most importantly, a very similar style of characterization. It's subtle but very powerful. Nobody will outright proclaim how they are, but every thing they do or say, reagrdless of how seemingly insignificant, add up to a cast of fully fleshed-out characters, free from the cliches that usually plague anime.
Both anime have a delightful adult feel to them while exploring the characters within the show. Both have a very similar art style to them and make you feel happy just to watch even though neither show is light-hearted. Check out one if you liked the other.
Oboro, a naive, love-struck girl, is pledged to Gennosuke, an idealist. Both are successors to opposing ninja clans with a long history of hatred kept barely in check by a covenant of peace. Just as the two vow to reconcile the clans with their marriage, the shogun orders the feud to resume in order to resolve an internal struggle that threatens to tear the Tokugawa shogunate apart. Even worse, Oboro and Gennosuke themselves are forced to lead their clans in battle. Can the star-crossed lovers resist the brutal circumstances and remain true to their love as the death toll rises?
While house of Five Leaves is much more serious and slower paced, these are both excellent entries in the samurai genre.
Have you ever felt like the world would be a better place if certain people weren’t around? Such grim daydreams might occur when watching the dismal daily news, but on one fateful day, Yagami Light finds that these daydreams can become reality. By pure happenstance, he comes across a black notebook entitled "Death Note", whose text within states that whoever's name is written on its pages will die. With the aid of the death god Ryuk, Light takes it upon himself to rid the world of its corruption, ushering in a new era of purity one death at a time. But as Ryuk foretells, Light's actions will not go unchallenged...
This is already seeming like it'll be one of my favorite shortter animes. The character scheme is ingenious, simple yet also plain and imbuing each character with special traits of their own. Story developement is slow paced, but for this anime it works perfectly. Action of the mind, you will find yourself utterly enticed trying to figure out the aim as well as motives of characters, as each is not without a story of their own. I you enjoy an anime which stimulates the mind in a realistic manner, with a melancholic air abput it, watch this. Keep in mind, I am making these remarks after only four episodes which take the time to set up the character map and take the viewer into the world of the story. Magnificent work
In the wake of a rebellion that shook Japan twenty years prior, Togame Hida, general director and strategist for the army, seeks to obtain the 12 "deviant blades" created by master swordsmith Shikizaki Kiki to help add stability and security to the Bakufu government. To aid in this endeavor, she looks to enlist the help of Yasuri Mutsune, head of the Kyotou-ryu school and hero of the rebellion. But when she arrives on the island where he lives in exile, she finds him dead, succeeded by his skilled yet slightly daft son Shichika. Undeterred, the two set off from the island in search of the swords armed only with Togami's sharp strategic mind and Shichika's powerful, swordless Kyotou-ryu.
These are two of the more serious samurai shows with good animation and serious dialogue in common.