Thought I would make a thread for this here.  I've been big into anime since around 2000 or something.  I pretty much transitioned into it from regular comic books during the VHS era.

Genre wise I usually just like stuff with strong female main characters.  Although, I do like Gundam, Captain Harlock, Lupin III, and a few others that are mainly about guys.  I tend to like olschool scifi, fantasy, magical girl, yuri/yaoi romance/subtext type shows, and some fanservice shows (and that's like the old Go Nagai style fanserivce).  Genres I'm not big on are moe, slice of life, and harem.  I may like a few shows that fall into thes classifications but the genre tropes can get very agrivating.  O__O

My Top 5 List:

1.  Battle Athlets Victory (This is a really well made show about female sports in a futuristic setting.  It has great character development, great music, and great art, and is pretty heart warming.  It also has some pretty cute yuri content.)
2.  Revolutionary Girl Utena  (I did my Feminism term paper on this one and got an A.  Probably one of the most thematically complex series ever made.  Tons of symoblism, plus just overall great story and art.)
3.  Dirty Pair  (Just an extremely fun show about two sexy badass women as "trouble consutlants" in a futuristic setting in which they cause more trouble than they solve.  I'd put Yuri and Kei right up there on my cartoon heart throbs list with Betty and Veronica.)
4.  Slayers (Great comedy fantasy show with great characters and fun comic book like storylines.  Lina Inverse I think is one of the most fun main characters in anything honeslty).
5.  Gundam (And only the ones made by Tomino.  I just love the interwoven character and polictical storyarcs.  The combat between mobile suits is also very enthralling when done well.  My faves are Mobile Suit Gundam 79' and Gundam Zeta)

Other random favorites not already mentioned:  Agent Aika,  Kaleido Star, Project A-ko, Cyberteam in Akihabara, Android Kikaider, Nurse Witch Komugi, Galaxy Exrpess 999, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Petite Princess Yucie, and a bunch more.

Harlock
Yamato
Emeraldis
Galaxy Express

Nuff said.

Probably my favorite is "Noir". Awesome, elegant series about a pair of female assassins for hire while they seek to unlock secrets from their past.

Yeah, I forgot to mention Noir.  Certainly one of my favorites.  I really like Chloe, the assassin.  Soemtime ago I found a site with a ton of Chloe/Kirika fan comcis ( of the g-rated variety) that take place at the Manor.  I need to find that again.  O__O

I also love "Bubblegum Crisis" as well as the TV series remake (Tokyo 2040) and, yes, even Crash! and "Parasite Dolls".

I also really like Bubblegum Crisis.  I think the original more than Tokyo 2040.  I mean that one is pretty good.  Great animation and especially great music.  Main sticking point was the ridiculous inconsistencies in Sylia'a sexual orientation really made me mad. XD  It was a complete bait and switch.

I do want to see other "tough girl" anime, such as Dirty Pair and Slayers. I love "Project A-ko" as well.

You should love Dirty Pair I think.  It's the quintessential 80's scifi tough girl anime.  Really ground breaking I think.  In fact, the remastered version of the entire franchise just got licensed for release in the US.  So it's a good time to get into it.  The awesome DVDs for the TV series are already out.

The first two "Megazone 23" OAVs are very good (I like to pretend the third never happened), and it introduced me to Kumi Miyasato.

I also liked these.  I think since you liked Megazone, you should check out Gall Force.  It has some similar themes except the cast is completely female.  You should also like Iczer One I think.  It's definitley in the that same 80's scifi OVA genre.

"Robot Carnival", which I'd also taped).

They really need to re-release this one on DVD/Blu-ray already.

Harlock
Yamato
Emeraldis
Galaxy Express

Nuff said.

I like Leiji Matsumot's stuff as well.  Probably my favorite of the really prolific magaka. He's certainly the king of space opera.  I'd also put Captain Harlock as my favorite male anime character.  Galaxy Express 999 and Galaxy Express 999 Adieu were actually released on DVD recently.  They sold out really quickly though, because my pre-order at Rightstuf still hasn't shipped.  Really shows what the know-it-alls a Viz Video that sat on the license all those years knew.  lol

Most of my favorite animes are those of the retro-comedy kind. Those are...
Hakushon Daimaou (Dubbed by Saban as "Bob in the Bottle") (1969-70)
Tensai Bakabon ("Genius Bakabon") (1971-72)
Dokonjo Gaeru ("The Gutsy Frog") (1972-74)
Dame Oyaji ("Stupid Dad") (1974)
and such...   

Wow, these are some really obscure titles.  O__O  Where did you watch these?

Quote from: Ghidra on July 05, 2011, 03:14:57 PM

Wow, these are some really obscure titles.  O__O  Where did you watch these?

I watched most of these on Youtube in one form or another.
Hakushon Daimaou- I've seen episodes from both the original Japanese and Italian dubbing ("Mago Pancione").
Tensai Bakabon- From the portion of episodes I've seen, it's a very good anime (from one of my favorite manga cartoonists, Fujio Akatsuka  ). Not sure if it's available anymore...
Dokonjo Gaeru- The Spanish dub, and even then I can still enjoy it.
Dame Oyaji - Only lasted 26 episodes. Every episode, except for the first and last episode, can be seen on Youtube. 

Were they all subtitled in English, because if not, you sure know a lot of languages.  lol

One of the first Anime tv shows I ever got into was Big O. I lost interest for a few years until Witch Hunter Robin came on the air around the time I was working on a research paper about animation techniques, and about a year later I found and loved Princess Tutu. I've grown to love Sgt. Frog and the Ouran High School Host club. Long before I ever watched any of these though, I watched and fell in love with Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro (with the original dubbing,) and before THAT I read almost all of Ranma 1/2 and through that got into Takahashi's other fantastic books.

I want to get into "Simoun":

opening theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDi8K7ypac8

trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZJkOLYI8rA&feature=related

Lesbian mecha pilots? That's, like, twice the awesome!

I mentioned Kimagure Orange Road a while back here as an anime Archie fans would probably like.  It's the love triangle, except Archie has physic powers (and Veronica is an enigmatic badass, as opposed to spoiled).  The whole series is up on Youtube.  Very funny and romantic.

Others: Ranma 1/2, DNA^2, Cowboy Bebop, Martian Successor Nadesico (probably the best sci-fi/giant robot show I've seen), Starblazers (I just saw the live-action Yamato movie, in a word, disappointing).

Special mentions to Evangelion, which I actually bought twice (VHS, DVD).  Let me tell you, watching the movie with a large audience, who hasn't seen it before, is truly a unique experience.  (Read: frightening.  The scenes where there is a camera shot panning across a live theater audience produced absolutely chilling silence, along with the ending musical number.)  And my favorite: Robotech.  I don't care if the original Japanese versions are better, they're not Robotech.  The Shadow Chronicles movie was awesome.  I went "Squeeee!" like a little girl riding a pony all the way through it.

I saw the Utena movie with that same audience.  None of us had had any exposure to the title before.  At one point someone stood up and yelled, "I don't even understand enough of this to make fun of it!" 

"Complete surrealism" would be an understatement.  I was borderline traumatized.  It was a group of college students, but it was the anime club.  They did take the stuff shown seriously, but only up to a point.  Actually I remember that my first experience with Kimagure Orange Road was watching the movie (Summer's Beginning? I think).  It was very hard to get anything out of without watching some of the series first.

Ah, Dario Argento.  Someday, I still hope to find a full version of "Phenomena."

Try Nadesicso again.  It works on three levels.  One, a straight up sci-fi/giant robot story.  Two, an homage/parody of scifi/giant robot anime.  Three, a commentary on/tribute to the fans who watch giant robot anime (especially the ending).  I've been told that one should avoid the sequel movie.