Most physiologically or psychologically immersive anime?

Warmmedown

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Maybe an anime that made you feel like you were in the scene.

For me it was the racing scenes in Initial D First Stage and Second Stage. Got a substantial portion of the rush you'd actually get being in a speeding car.


PS why is someone outside shouting cheerio cheerio cheerio cheeeeriiiio, like a football fan
 

ahill1

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Eh I think One Piece due to its adventurous vibe. Granted I was a 15 years old teen when I first watched it, but the adventure tune like the Skypiea arc with their ship traveling to the sky seemed pretty immersive.

As for something psychological, I think it'd be manga as I haven't seen that many psychological animes. Oh actually there is one, perfect blue... That one seemed great and pretty psychologically immersive. I knew the Black Swan movie was inspired in the anime and watched it, and found the anime even better. I think DB would definitely enter in immersive stuff as well but more because I was young. HxH too, but being young played more of a factor with those, Perfect Blue was something I've watched past year. Though HxH, the Chimera Ants arc for instance, would be highly psychological immersive even as of now.

Manga tho, I think Chi no Wadachi... Not that I've lived anything similar, but I could feel the scene by scene tension, grief and such... Aku no Hana as well, a lot actually, I think even more so than Chi no Wadachi. Vagabond was pretty immersive as well, even more so towards the farming arc... The development the protagonist went through and all the emotional impact made that pretty realistic. Berserk, as well, but I think being young played a factor. Not that I imagined myself in those situations, but things like feeling the weight of each scene. Lone Wolf as well, mainly towards the last arc. I've liked most arcs, but once the story connected as a whole it was very psychologically immersive, so much so I've read the ending many times, since the protagonist's speech hit really hard. It was epic, sad and very well built. Another scene as well, though I won't mention due to spoiler. Holyland as well, in a way. The protagonist dilemma felt very well built up and relatable. Kingdom too... Not from a relatable perspective or something that touches in the sense of a problem you can feel with yourself, but I think the epicness of some battles, some grievances of the old era of powerful clashing with the new era and the struggle of acceptance of a new generation taking over being hard to grasp... And now interesting some characters can be that draw you to see the clash between each line of thinking, strategies and attitudes which all makes it very immersive... Though yeah, not so much from a psychological standpoint.

Oh, and Solanin from a physiological perspective as well, ofc. The struggle of early adulthood life and the struggle between dreams and societal expectations, the expectations you have from others... It's very real and can hit hard.
 

Warmmedown

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Chi no Wadachi...like 40 chaps of that was highly biographical for me lol, like someone grew up with me, but watered it down/made it less harsh. Pretty cool, but kept making me be like "holy fuck" and putting my phone down for a sec a few times per chapter, just cuz it was so cool how relatable it was...definitely helped me process some things, seeing it in the third person. Somewhat validating that I considered it slice of life and other people considered it psychological horror (but also initially I found it slightly weird to read discussions about it. A little like people discussing it online were appropriating normal lives for horror entertainment, rather than acknowledging it as SoL). I suppose many stories are slice of life for some people though...war manga are slice of life for some WW2 soldiers, Initial D is slice of life for 90s street racers. And yeh it was immersive...I definitely felt some pages, like Oshimi does a great job of making the reader feel the gaze and pressure coming from the mother. And how mindfucking and reality-warping (as in she bends his perception of the world, because her behaviour is so ridiculous) it is for the MC. One I remember was when he's meeting the girl (who looks like the Aku no Hana girl...the mother looks like Mari from his other manga) and she's on the hill
39117ff9-1bd6-4662-a104-898f1c66ba2c.png

this is a good one I just saw on google too chinowadachi10.jpg

There are loads of good ones where you can see her face too.


Yeh Chimera Ant actually is one for me too. There's the part where an ant feels the King's aura where I could almost feel the horror they felt.

Actually, I am a Hero is pretty immersive too - like not in any visceral way, but I did feel like a fly on the wall while they're travelling around, trying to avoid zombies and get to the next place.

Solanin...I didn't think much of what I read. I might try the same author's Dededede manga.

Perfect Blue I never finished. Is it pretty fucked up? It's Satoshi Kon? I was thinking of watching Paprika too.
 

ahill1

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Yeah Perfect Blue is worth finishing. Dunno if fucked up... It depends how you'll digest that. I'd say it is in a way.

And yeah, the images from Chi no Wadachi with the glazes are intense. Some glazes I feel the most though is when the face appears somewhat normal but the eyes are distinctively changed, like they are popped out but the rest of the face is normal. Like, in a scene of the mother of the protagonist's cousin, Sei's cousin (damn I suck with names), when he hears the confession while in the car and makes a face with her eyes like that of a person about to snap, but they don't appear like angry eyes, more like, that eye in which she isn't even in control of herself... Damn, that was scarier than any angry face, or a face blurred with darkness traces imo. Junji Ito is also good with expressions like this when I read Uzumaki, though I didn't like the story that much... It is pretty good for reflection and has many symbolisms, but I prefer when it stays more grounded rather than going too much for surrealism like Uzumaki, though I've liked a lot of symbolic surrealistic stories too, it's just that some are so much surrealistic that it ends up breaking immersion for me.

Damn, there's one from Oshimi that I recommend, may not be so highly talked of, but it was also very immersive to me, is Drifting Net Cafe. It appeals more to a surrealistic scenario, but I found it very immersive and it's also scary in a way when you see how characters are changed in the sudden change of circumstances they are forced into... There are characters that are tough to read. Like, you don't know if they are an ally and want good things for all the people or if the more they appear like this, like the good man, the more fucked up they are... This gray area was pretty immersive and kinda scary at the same time.
 

Yoshi

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I thought that Vagabond had a lot of depth even for a Battle Seinen, so that.
 
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