How do you understand complex anime?

[ZStarXLightZ]

A notepad and calculator should do it.

[Wolfishly Sheepish]

char fashionable

Wolfishly Sheepish

The Big O is definitely a lot of fun, I agree. :'>

You have excellent taste :3

[I Am Unbanned]

example pls

[gracosaurus]

While patience is a good step one for understanding any show that you may consider 'complex', I actually think it's more about keeping an open mind as you watch it. Watch and accept things in stride, listen/read very closely, and let them sit in your mind for a little bit before going to the next episode. Or, do what I did with Evangelion, and marathon the entire thing then spend a good hour or two reading the show's Wikipedia until you decide that you have a clear understanding of it all.

Hope that helped!

[Yoshpet]

If the show is popular enough to have a wiki I usually refer to those to get a better grasp of what's going on. They often state, in plain terms, the nature of events or characters that can otherwise be confusing. Beware of un-labeled fan theories that occasionally sneak their way into articles, though.

[Indigo Kitsune]

Unawarebrah

Mugetsu Ookamiza

you pay attention to it, and if it involves stuff you're not familiar with and you don't mind reading check out some related topics. for example (just to pull something off the very top of my head since I'm sick today), reading up on philosophy a bit while watching Ergo Proxy or stuff about the monomyth and other mythic archetypes found around the world while watching Wolf's Rain.

What is a good entertaining "Complex" anime?

Would you say Darker than Black is considered one?

No, I would say that Darker then Black was a very disappointing anime, but there are people who would disagree with me on that. Hum I think that Detective Conan and most psychological and mystery based anime can how ever be very complex.
With shows like that you need to take your time and some times re-watch them or read about episodes to remind yourself of what happened.