25 Best Seinen Anime To Watch When You Are Bored

Best Seinen Anime To Watch When You Are Bored

What is Seinen anime?

“Seinen” is used to describe a male demographic between the ages of 18 to 40. Anime targeted towards the seinen crowd can include a number of other genres. The stories can be morally grey, romances are more pragmatic, action is more graphic, and the humor is more adult.

The general way to spot a seinen series is to look for an older lead, a realistic art style, and a more serious story.

1. Mushishi




2. Monster

Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a renowned young brain surgeon of Japanese descent working in Europe. Highly lauded by his peers as one of the great young minds that will revolutionize the field, he is blessed with a beautiful fiancé and is on the cusp of a high promotion in the hospital he works at. However, all of that is about to change with one critical decision that Dr. Tenma faces one night—whether to save the life of a young child or that of the town’s mayor. Despite being pressured by his superiors to perform surgery on the mayor, his morals force him to perform the surgery on the young child, saving his life and forfeiting the mayor’s. All of a sudden, Dr. Tenma’s world is turned upside down by his decision leading to the loss of everything he previously had.


3. Ping Pong The Animation

Makoto Tsukimoto (nicknamed Smile) is a quiet high-schooler who’s been friends with the loud and energetic Yutaka Hoshino (nicknamed Peco) since childhood. They’re both in the local table tennis club and both have a natural talent for it, although Smile’s personality always prevents him from winning against Peco. The club teacher, however, notices Smile’s talent and tries to make him gain some sportive tenacity.


4. Hellsing Ultimate



5. Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin



6. Space Brothers



7. Baccano!



8. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex



9. Mononoke

In feudal Japan, evil spirits known as mononoke plague both households and the countryside, leaving a trail of fear in their wake. One mysterious person has the power to slay the mononoke where they stand; he is known only as the Medicine Seller, and he vanquishes the spirits using the power of his Exorcism Sword. However, in order to draw his sword he must first understand the Form, Truth and Reason of the mononoke. Armed with a sharp wit and keen intellect, the Medicine Seller wanders from place to place, striking down the evil spirits in his wake.


10. One Outs


The story begins when Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the fictional Lycaons in Japan’s Pacific League, heads to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meets Toua Tokuchi, a 134-kmph (83 miles per hour) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called “One Out.” At Kojima’s urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons under an unusual contract: he gets 5,000,000 yen (about US$46,000) for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen (US$460,000) for every run he gives up.


11. Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

Kaiji Itou is a drifting deadbeat who releases his frustration with life through vandalism. One day he learns that by unthinkingly co-signing on a former workmate’s shady loan he has made himself liable for a crippling amount of compound interest.

The debt collectors offer Kaiji a deal: rather than slaving to pay off the loan for decades, he can take part in a special competition and clear it all in one night. This is his entry into a series of fiendish underground gambles.


12. Black Lagoon


Okajima Rokuro is a Japanese businessman in a town full of Japanese businessmen. His normal day consists of social drinking with clients and being kicked around by his bosses. He finally gets a break though, as he’s sent by his company to the tropical seas of Eastern China to deliver a disc. But his boat gets hijacked by a band of mercenaries hired to retrieve the disc. Rock (as he is newly dubbed by his captors) catches the interest of the only female merc Revy as she thinks he’s worth a ransom, taking him hostage. However, the disc that was stolen has a terrible secret that’s unknown to Rock, which causes massive confusion and chaos for both him and his kidnappers.


13. Berserk: The Golden Age Arc



14. ef: A Tale of Memories



15. Tatami Galaxy

When a college dropout stops for a late night bite at a mysterious ramen stand, he crosses paths with a self-proclaimed deity of matrimony. This bizarre meeting sends the young man hurtling through a horrifying flashback to his not-so-glorious college days when the influence of a cruel new friend turned him from a hopeless romantic into a mischievous “black cupid.”


16. Planetes



17. Ergo Proxy

After the explosion of the methane hydrate layer, the remaining members of mankind are forced to live in isolated domed cities scattered across the arid and inhospitable planet. They live in a controlled society and are assisted in daily life by autonomous robots called AutoReivs. In one of these cities, Romdo, Inspector Re-l Mayer, granddaughter of the regent, leads an investigation concerning AutoReivs that have gone mad after being infected by the Cogito virus. In the process, she comes in contact with a monster called Proxy.


18. Mardock Scramble

Rune Balot is a down-and-out teen prostitute in Mardock City. One day, she’s picked up by an ambitious casino manager named Shell who gives her everything she could want. Renewed by a false innocence, a false past, and now the false life Shell has given her, Balot feels grateful. However, she can’t help but be curious about why he’s done so much for her, so she does some research about his past on a computer. This turns out to be a mistake which will change her life greatly. When Shell finds out what she’s done, he attempts to burn her to death by blowing up her car.


19. Texhnolyze



20. Serial Experiments Lain



21. Knights of Sidonia

It’s been a thousand years since the Gauna, a strange alien race with no known method of communication, destroyed the solar system. A portion of humanity managed to escape using enormous “seed ships” like the Sidonia, which have allowed them to maintain the population while drifting through space. Nagate Tanikaze is a young man who has been raised deep in the bowels of the ship. When he goes into training to pilot the huge robotic weapons known as Gardes, Nagate is entrusted with piloting the legendary unit known as Tsugumori. Nagate and his fellow pilots put their lives on the line against the Gauna, in the ultimate battle for the survival of humanity!


22. Psycho-Pass




23. Chobits

In the future, personal computers have developed into “Persocoms,” mobile computers that look like human beings. Hideki Motosuwa, a prep school student, desperately wants to buy a Persocom but cannot afford to. One day, he finds a Persocom that has been thrown away and decides to keep it. When he turns on the Persocom, all she can say is “Chii” so he decides to name her that. After a while, it starts to become apparent that Chii is more than an average Persocom. Having much better performance, it seems that Chii might be a “Chobit,” a type of advanced Persocom rumored to have independent thought.


24. Darker than Black



25. Jormungand


What are some other Seinen anime you’ve watched? Share your recommendations in the comments!

Add Comment