Anime
I don't claim to be the biggest anime fan, but I've seen my
share and I'm a member of
DAG.
Here are some of my favorite titles:
Legend of Galactic Heroes
Probably the most intelligent anime I've seen, it's very conversational and
long (110 eps). The animation is a bit outdated now so the frequent space
fleet battles don't look as good as it should be. I wish somebody would
reanimate the whole series with current CG technology.
Berserk
The anime series was great, the mangas are even better. It's a fantasy story filled with violence on the surface, but the more you watch/read, the more you appreciate the amazing character development. When you go even further, you realize there are interesting and thought provoking questions being posed about human nature. The manga series is by far, the best I've read.
Crest/Banner of the Stars
Based on a series of novels, it offers depth and character development
not found in most manga based animes (similar to LoGH, but the story focuses
on a smaller scale). Five out of the six novels have
been made into anime. The sixth novel isn't as entertaining as the
others, the author might have just ran out of ideas.
Rurouni Kenshin
The
link is actually to a Japanese site. This series is well-known anyway,
just do a google search. The English official site is probably calling
it Samurai X, which is stupid and should be banned.
GunBuster
An
anime which started out as a parody of
giant-robots-with-girls-in-skimpy-outfits animes, actually ended up as
one of the better serious science fictions I've seen. A large part of
the plot is driven by abusing relativistic effects caused by near-light
speed travels and black holes, but at least it's not Star
Trek.
Initial
D
This is one of those pointless animes that I found entertaining but
don't know why. I'm not a car fan what so ever, but the combination of
cheesy CGs and cheesy dance music grew on me.