Anime

"Spice and Wolf". It's a great story with adult characters. MC is like 26 years old and the themes in this show are also for mature audience. There is a series from 2008 but they also made a remake that is currently airing. As a fan of original series I'm enjoying it very much.

What you want is "seinen" anime, which is intended for an older audience. Most anime is "shonen", which is intended for kids. (Not that there's anything wrong with an adult enjoying shonen.) There are more genres and specifications, but I am not that into anime.

Dragonball is shonen. Cowboy Bebop is seinen. There are loads of great seinen shows out there.

Genshiken Bartender Spice and Wolf The Fable Dungeon Meshi Goblin Slayer Saihate no Paladin Shirobako Psycho Pass Wotakoi Zom100 Golden Kamuy My Home Hero Kyokou Suiri Vinland Saga - He's like 16 in the first half but grows up by the 2nd half. Isekai Ojisan Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Blue Period Megalo Box Samurai Champloo BNA Aria Ishuzoku Reviewers NHK no Youkoso Drifters Trigun Osomatsu-san

A lot of people already mentioned the ones I know of and mostly I only know of older shows that were geared to an older audience :/

Outlaw Star? Anything made by Satoshi Kon texhnolyze Megalo Box Baccano? Legend of The Galactic Heroes

Golden Kamuy comes to mind.

Shirobako

A Sign of Affection

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Odd Taxi (crime drama)

Psychopass (crime drama)

Cells at Work: Code Black (... Medical drama?)

Death Parade (Death game-ish)

Devilman Crybaby (main character is a high schooler, but it's irrelevant imo. I didn't remember until I looked it up again. This is a grim series )

Inuyashiki (Action. Old man is a complete Chad)

Panty & Stocking (Comedy)

Jellyfish Princess (Drama)

Saga of Tanya the Terrible (it's not really a kid, action)

Saint Young Men (Comedy)

Samurai Champloo (Action)

Shiki (Horror/Drama)

Monster (Mystery)

Rose of Versailles (Very old, but romance/drama)

Almost all of Satoshi Kon's work (including Paranoia Agent)

Ruroni Kenshin (Shounen)

Yurii on Ice (Romance/drama)

Ghost in the shell stand alone complex (and 2nd gig) was my first and still favourite anime.

A few older series I haven't seen listed yet:

• Ergo Proxy
• Heat Guy J
• Pumpkin Scissors (note: has Unfinished Manga Syndrome, so the story stops without reaching a proper climax. Still fun.)
• Saiyuki (one of the four leads does look like a teen, so skip this one if that bothers you.)

Frieren - Beyond journeys end

A real fresh take on fantasy stories imo with a lot of themes I always wanted to be explored in the genre. In my last pen & paper group i played an elvish alchemist specializing in seemingly useless utility potion effects. And when i created the character i had a hard discussion with my dm on how elves actually pervice the world and other races, with them reaching ages of thousands of years and whatnot. And frieren adresses that perfectly. Also that soundtrack is just the best. I have yet to listen to "One last adventure" and not get at leas queazy, if not tearing up a bit.

Were currently watching it a second time, just a week after finishing first time. We've never done that with any series.

Highly recommended

My favorites have been :

• Bang Brave Bang Bravern - Big dumb gay robots
• Mobile Fighter G Gundam - Big dumb straight robots
• Redline - Just some fun racing action. Some of the best animation I've ever seen.
• Wotakoi - Love story between nerdy office workers
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes - The best space opera
• One Punch Man - depressed superhero

(trying not to duplicate other mentions)

Current:

• Ramen Akaneko - is a current show with working (adult) cats and a human running a ramen restaurant.
• The Fable - is a current show that I classify as Yakuza noir, about a uh... idiot savant assassin? I love Yoko.
• Kengan Ashura - Extremely violent bizarre macho underground fighters.

Recent:

• Paripi Koumei/Ya Boy Kongming - An absolutely fantastic blast about making it in the music industry. All of the music is sooooo good! All major protagonists work in a bar.
• Akiba Maid Sensou/Akiba Maid War - A parody of maid cafes operated like Yakuza gangs.
• Brave Bang Bravern - was a pretty good farce of 90s super robot shows with all adult military guys as protagonists.
• Glass Of God - was about godlike knowledge of bartending, so obviously no kids or teens there.

The Great Passage and Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. The latter of which might start with them as kids but I feel like most of the show was with them being older.

Vinland saga

Loving all of the Odd Taxi mentions.

• Planetes (sofa king good)
• Hellsing
• Area 88
• Genshiken (adults but college setting)
• Read or Die
• Gundam 08th MS Team
• Excel Saga (the main cast are all adults, but it's a comedy and just about everyone is an idiot, so they won't necessarily act like adults)
• Gintama (main character is an adult, his sidekicks are not, but the majority of the cast is adult. Again, comedy, so maybe not "adult" enough lol)
• Cowboy Bebop
• Way of the Househusband
• Gundam Thunderbolt

From my spouse:

• Servant x Service

Not sure if it's considered true anime, but Castlevania on Netflix was excellent.

New:

• Delicious in Dungeon
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
• Odd Taxi
• Psycho-Pass

Old:

• Cowboy Bebop
• Black Lagoon
• Hellsing
• Vampire Hunter D
• Ghost in the Shell

Other:

• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure - characters look way more adult than they are

Wotakoi, Black Lagoon, Baccano (I think?), 91 Days, Akudama Drive, Golden Kamuy, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, ID: Invaded, Dragon Maid, Spice and Wolf, Wave Listen To Me! to name a couple

Dungeon meshi is a recent one that comes to mind

Black Lagoon

Trigun

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid was pretty cozy, and features primarily adult characters.

"The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent" was pretty good. I agree with lots of the others people already listed, but this one makes her age a relevant plot issue which basically sets the tone. It's a romance anime with light combat and a good amount of world building. 2 seasons.