Favorite "dark" or "mature" Japanese dramas/films

"Alice in Borderland" on Netflix US.  One of the best dramas out there, period.

Brilliant from beginning to end. Make sure you watch Todome no Parallel after this!

One of the best BL's out there. Complicated and fiery love is simply the best.

This is sweet romantic goodness with Suzuki Jin breaking your heart at every turn.

Layered and intricate and intense, all wrapped up with some phenomenal acting.

"Million Yen Women" on Netflix US. I had no expectations going into this, and I was completely blown away by the acting (especially from the ML) and the writing.

This isn't dark at all, in fact the whole drama is bursting with color. But it takes a mature audience to grasp the profound lessons this drama wants to teach.

Their chemistry was fire, from beginning to end.

I loved it, full stop.

More people should watch this! Tightly-paced, and interesting, and Yoshizawa Ryo shines like a well-polished diamond.

Kaneko Daichi has a film and a drama on this list for good reason.

This drama had multiple things going for it: 1) Yokohama Ryusei showing off how ridiculously talented he is; he's not only a great actor,  he's apparently also a gymnast and parkour expert as well. 2) Funny costumes and action on the slippery slope towards slapstick, but with a serious undertone that keeps you glued to the screen.  And 3) "Panda!"

This is surprisingly sweet and emotional. Really interesting stories.

Excellent character development and great acting. I didn't love all of the characters' choices, though, however it felt more 'real' than other dramas.

You have to watch the whole way through to figure out what's going on, and for me the ending made it worth the wait.

It was weird, and dark....and weird. And I liked it way more than I thought I would.  I was confused for a while in the middle, but the final episode pulled it all together.  The drama highlights the concept of fragmented selves and the ways the mind will do whatever is necessary to make meaning out of seemingly meaningless and disparate things. Ikeda Elaiza is an absolute revelation here, and Yoshizawa Ryo is great, as usual.

This should be shown in sex ed classes.

This is a polarizing drama - you either love or passionately hate it. I happen to love it...mostly, that is. Yes, there are a few scenes that made me angry, but honestly it's closer to the overly-hormonalized adolescent angst that many of us experienced - much more so than the all of the too-syrupy-sweet, too-pure-for-words high school dramas out there. However, in no way would I ever recommend making a few of the choices they made (in fact at least one of them was outright illegal), but there is something to be said for finding comfort in the arms of a friend, even if the reasons why are iffy.

Revenge hurts everyone, but is often interesting to watch.

I certainly didn't agree with all of the characters' choices here, but the drama was really well done.

It's total trash, but quite enjoyable.