General Discussion

@rukka

How about Spice and Wolf? I have the first season on DVD. It's a story about a traveling merchant and a wolf deity of harvest traveling the world towards north to the deity's birthplace. The story explores both economic and romantic themes while staying light-hearted enough, but I wouldn't call this anime fast-paced. It has lots of dialogue but at least I didn't feel like it was forced, on the contrary I really enjoyed the interaction between characters.

Well-written female leads are hard to come by but I can always recommend Sailor Moon, both the original anime and the Sailor Moon Crystal remake. I think they released a remastered DVD box of the original anime a couple years back? It's a story about middle school girls who transform into "sailor soldiers" to fight the evil. While it's a cliched world saving story it also explores the different backgrounds and personalities of the main characters and celebrates their friendship. The original anime is longer and has more of the weekly monsters while Crystal is more story focused and follows more strictly the plot of the original manga.

Can't recommend any good anime, but if you haven't already seen it, check out gravity falls! its a bit childish (as are most cartoons) but the characters are great, and its an overall amazing show.

@rukka [b]Yona of the dawn[/b] sounds like something you might like :) Its got a female lead and though while she starts so annoying (>.>) due to being a spoiled child, it actually highlights how much character growth she gets since you seen just how drastic she changes due to spoiler spoiler spoiler xD (so its like watching her grow from the ground up) The show has a more "Here is the plot and thus the reason why we are doing these things" with it feeling like background thing (after drastic spoiler spoiler spoiler happens in episode 1. Seriously, I swear it gets better) to me with it focusing a lot more on character development and interactions. I'm pretty sure its not a historical show but its ancient setting (times of rulers and so on) makes it feel like it is historical feel? Is that something? xD http://49.media.tumblr.com/bef175fc5ff0ae98e967af5f99c88a49/tumblr_ntn6ahKljj1ucukuwo8_250.gif No mechs guaranteed :3 For the most part its real-world (with only.... 4 people having slightly magical powers that are I guess more normal scale of [i]slight[/i] advantages and not "I am so OP lets see who can destroy a town first, Mwhahahah" powers) action adventure thats...... [i]technically[/i] a harem? And I say 'technically' because while there is a large male to 1 main girl ratio, its not 100% revolving around romance like you genetically expect. The only romance you see is one that [spoiler]breaks into a million itty bitty pieces[/spoiler], one thats most times isnt noticeable and [spoiler]hidden under I will protect you and you will survive motto most of the time[/spoiler]. I mean its their but for the most part (other then a few times) its not even noticeable or is even joked about/rare serious moments of [spoiler]said reallllllly bad heart break because you know the one you loved killed someone really big deal.[/spoiler] Atmosphere for the most part is comedy related (or just light) generally when their isnt any serious fighting that needs to happen or character development scenes. Haku is my favorite characters just because I end up laughing at his antics most of the time xD [img]http://data.whicdn.com/images/219873596/original.gif[/img] [img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d3/eb/10/d3eb10649ef6b5c12301cd193d89b9fe.jpg[/img] [center][s]Yes, I blab a lot and also the silly squirrel to your far right is also from yona of the dawn xD *note, look down*[/s][/center]

@rukka
Ghost in the Shell (basically all kinds but ARISE and that live action american movie. Keep in mind that they're all in different universes. While there are robots they are almost all tanks/helicopters/your opinion on how far an android can go before they aren't a robot, there is all of one actual mech that appears and it's a much more realistic power suit. Also, the music for Stand Alone Complex is mostly done by Yoko Kanno.)
Outlaw Star (Similar world to Cowboy Bebop.)
Trigun (You'll enjoy the characters.)

@FafnirKnight The only other thing for well-written female characters I can think of is Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, but that depends on how you think of them (probably not for OP, the power suits may make one think Mecha).

@rukka Noragami is great :D I reccomend it. And if you like cool characters, she's not the main protaganist, but Bishamon is pretty awesome later on in it!

This may be because I recently watched it again but Madoka Magica yo.

Its a magical girl anime, so strong female lead. The character development is pretty good for a series of twelve episodes.

And its a series that will just rip your heart out and stomp on it.

(this is copied & pasted from another thread with minor edits) I just finished [b]Mob Psycho 100[/b] and i loved it to DEATH. I am incredibly picky with my animes (i cant stand fanservice, romantic subplots, or far-fetched powers (which is why i generally dont like superhero stuff either)) but,,, it was so good. SO GOOD. it's a bit of everything: funny, painful... the main character is very relatable and there are some good messages in it too. the animation is incredible too. at first it doesnt seem like much: [img]https://d2o0lqd7mznn7n.cloudfront.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/MOB-PSYCHO-100-BLOG.jpg[/img] but when the fights get goin... o man.. [i]oh boy[/i]. [img]http://i.imgbox.com/LyLgetfU.gif[/img][img]https://66.media.tumblr.com/dcf52b6184c049a38af8c84b5d59d30c/tumblr_o2nln4ksxl1se015qo1_500.gif[/img] it is by the same guy who wrote [b]one punch man[/b] (which i recommend if you havent seen that yet)! the premise is very different... with only 12 episodes, there is a surprising amount of character development!! the whole show is centered around self-improvement & what makes someone ""special"" or ""popular."" it's a bit difficult to explain tbh i dont believe the dvd is out yet, but last time i checked it is available to pre-order on amazon! EDIT: I second [b]Madoka Magica[/b]! I enjoyed it a lot when I watched it, but it has fallen a bit out of favor for me. But that was also after cosplaying one of the characters for three years... so many memes & puns yelled at me (not mean, just... guys pls ive heard "dont lose your head" a million times STOP) [b] Soul Eater[/b] is good, but has a solid amount of fanservice. mainly of just certain characters. the animation is nice, with a great cast of characters that develop immensely. Quite a few strong female characters in it (leads too)!