[noodle]

Gurren Lagann is a poor mans Getter. Just skip it and watch/read the many installments of Getter Robo.

Also seek out:

Texhnolyze: cyberpunk show that isn't grimdark, it's somewhere in the lightless valleys on the other side of grimdark.

Dennou Coil: slice-of-life cyberpunk involving kids. It's awesome.

Eve no Jikan: show about robots and human-robot interactions. I dare say it would make Asimov himself proud.

Black Lagoon: un-ironic homage to 80's action films. Frankly it's better than most of those films.

FLAG: real-robot show set in fictitious war-torn country. Basically it's all about UN peacekeeping operations.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: massive earthquake hits Tokyo (no, really? I know, you're shocked), brother and sister struggle to survive. Focuses more on the mundane issues of survival that such a situation would lead to than action movie nonsense.

Seirei no Moribito: vastly superior adaption of what was already a pretty damn good book. For my money one of the most refreshingly original entries in the fantasy genre of the last, oh, 15 years at least.

Dai Mahou Touge: dark parody of the magical girl genre. Short and sweet, some hilarious stuff in here.

Galaxy Express 999: only seek it out if you're willing to be in for the long-haul. 100+ episodes, 3 movies, plus a couple manga. I think it's Leiji Matsumoto's greatest creation (and that really is saying a lot). Calling it an explosion of pure creativity would be a massive understatement. Any description would probably sound retarded, but trust me, it's amazing.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: already been mentioned, but it should be mentioned again. The finest space opera ever made. Period. 110 episode OVA adaption of a series of books by Yoshiki Tanaka, plus 3 movies, plus 52 episodes of simply prequel material. There's a manga too, but good luck finding any translations of it. The actual technological aspects of it aren't that great, I'll admit. Frankly you could pretty easily strip out all the space parts of it, make the ships surface based and set the whole story on a water heavy planet and it would still be more or less the same. But the author was someone who grasped that the most important parts of a story are plot and characters, and chose to focus on them rather than drowning everything in hyper-detailed fancy space tech. Both factions get amble coverage, both have large, likable casts (and a few assholes), and both have valid points. Neither side is the good guy, nor the villain. They're just people. All the characters are great, but the Alliances Yang Wen-li rises above all the rest for most fans, myself included. When you see it, you'll understand why.

Oh, it also has the greatest soundtrack of anything ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upS-pi-sOAQ

Seikai no Senki/Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars/Battleflag of the Stars (lolnames): often thought of as a lesser sibling to LoGH, in many ways I think it's the complete equal of that franchise, and in some ways (especially the battles) it's actually superior. Grand space opera, but with a primary focus on the two fairly minor characters and their relationship. Extremely good character development. Outside of the two mains you have a fairly large recurring cast featuring several truly unique characters, including one woman who can only be described as an internet troll in an admirals body. The battles are pure sex and it's basically the last anime (that I know of anyway) where big battles were entirely hand-animated, so no terrible CGI in this franchise. Well, not quite...three full 'seasons' were made (Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, Banner of the Stars II) covering the first 3 books (oh, right, it's also based on a series of novels, this time by Hiroyuki Morioka), then they made a 2 part OVA that was far too compressed and featured horrible CGI. Worth seeing I guess, it has some nice bits. Book series is continuing on, but no further animated adaptions in sight. Some fans are slowly translating the books though.

There are many more things I could list, but I don't want to make too large a post. I can provide download links for any of the above shows if anyone is interested.

[General Battuta]

anime is cartoons

[NGTM-1R]

Noodle isn't doing FLAG justice. It's rather heavy stuff through, both technically, emotionally, and possibly morally depending on how you view the driving plot as a statement of human nature or total propgandizing.

I'm going to catch hell for this but I far prefer the 2003 version of Area 88.

LGH is good, sure, if you can sit through it all. But bear in mind the series was nicknamed Boring Germans In Space for a reason.

[Rodo]

I was thinking FMP would be right up his alley too.

It's a good one, I can still remember the tone of the opening in the second raid

[spyderrock48]

ok, well now ive been handed a list of like 50 shows , im trying as hard as i can to avoid a story where plot is basically , somehow random ass teenagers end up with super advanced technology and are the only ones that can use it, coincidentally ( aka, gundam, and every anime that has tried to be like gundam, which is ) . i have seen Big-0 , and i have seen appleseed ( good movie ). ive watched all of gurren lagann. and about the LoGH being anime for grownups, im only 17

[SpardaSon21]

Appleseed: Ex Machina?  Less giant robot, more GitS though, although they got John Woo for the fight scenes.  Of course, at the end of Ex Machina there's this giant rip-off of the Sentinel Swarm scene from The Matrix Revolutions.

[Flaser]

anime is cartoons

Very true.

However unlike western cartoons most of it is aimed at teenagers rather than kids, so I find anime more entertaining. Then you have titles aimed at adults (ie. Monster, Serial Experiments Lain) and some in between (the recent Durarara would be a good example).

The later two are rarer, but do exist.

Meanwhile, the USA keeps genius like Gendy Tartakovsky locked in their animation ghetto.

[noodle]

Noodle isn't doing FLAG justice. It's rather heavy stuff through, both technically, emotionally, and possibly morally depending on how you view the driving plot as a statement of human nature or total propgandizing.

I'm going to catch hell for this but I far prefer the 2003 version of Area 88.

LGH is good, sure, if you can sit through it all. But bear in mind the series was nicknamed Boring Germans In Space for a reason.

I've never heard it called that. And it isn't boring, at all. 110 episodes is nothing, when it's all over you'll be wishing there was a lot more.

And yes, you're right, the 2003 version of Area 88 is better than the original 80's OVA. The OVA has better animation, but the series has a much better and more fleshed out story.

Can't believe I forgot about Monster. It's amazing, and Durarara!! (and Baccano!) are pure genius.

EDIT: Why are people recommending the Appleseed movies? They're terrible. A complete insult to the manga original. Nice music though, especially the first Appleseed movie.

[Flaser]

I'll have to disagree about Area 88.

The OVA made in '88 is a lot better than the TV series. My main gripe with the later is that it's way too politically correct, you have the bumbling but good hearted "ethnic minority" kid, the "woman" of the team and so on...

...and while there are some fun battles the main theme of Area 88 is what suffers: man loosing their principles and turning into death dealing and death seeking beasts by war. In the TV series you don't have character like the Vietnamise Nguyen who shoots down ejected enemy pilots for sport (...and getting his "just" reward later) and even Saki Vashtal is lot more toned down, in the original he was a ruthless leader who sent his men to death without betting an eyelash and his saving grace was the fact that he was just as ruthless to himself and his family. It's also never revealed why Mickey Simon joined the mercenaries (...or why he's "sticking" to Shin that much).

[Scotty]

Why are people recommending the Appleseed movies? They're terrible. A complete insult to the manga original. Nice music though, especially the first Appleseed movie.

It's like Starship Troopers.

The movies are fun to watch.  The manga is very good.  You can watch/read both.

[noodle]

anime is cartoons

Thank you for that insightful comment.

Incidentally, you like Battletech do you? Then you need to watch Macross. Unseen designs ring a bell?

[SpardaSon21]

Why are people recommending the Appleseed movies? They're terrible. A complete insult to the manga original. Nice music though, especially the first Appleseed movie.

It's like Starship Troopers the first Starship Troopers movie.

The movies are fun to watch.  The manga is very good.  You can watch/read both.

Fixed.

I will agree that the SST movies are complete insults to the original, however if you look past that the first one is very entertaining.  The other two are complete disgraces that direct-to-DVD movies are ashamed of being in the same category with.  Yeah, they're that bad.

anime is cartoons

Thank you for that insightful comment.

Incidentally, you like Battletech do you? Then you need to watch Macross. Unseen designs ring a bell?

Curse you Harmony Gold!  I was so looking forwards to MechWarrior 5, but nooooooo, you just had to file a C&D.

[noodle]

Curse you Harmony Gold!  I was so looking forwards to MechWarrior 5, but nooooooo, you just had to file a C&D.

Biggest trolls in the industry those guys. Oh well, at least they haven't stopped the fansubbers from putting out Macross (not they could even if they tried). Got the whole franchise on my harddrive, including the glorious remasters of DYRL and Plus.

[NGTM-1R]

I've never heard it called that. And it isn't boring, at all. 110 episodes is nothing, when it's all over you'll be wishing there was a lot more.

It's glacial. This isn't a 110 episode show because of filler, which is cool in its own way, but they needed 110 episodes to play out their plot because of the pacing. That carries its own risks.

[Flaser]

I've never heard it called that. And it isn't boring, at all. 110 episodes is nothing, when it's all over you'll be wishing there was a lot more.

It's glacial. This isn't a 110 episode show because of filler, which is cool in its own way, but they needed 110 episodes to play out their plot because of the pacing. That carries its own risks.

Quite. Warning! Side effects may include a sudden interest in classical music, finding all things German cool and a tendency to discuss political theory with your friends.

[spyderrock48]

well i would like to state that A) i love classical , especially while gaming. B) i literally, love all things german, i am 100% german in heritage, and find german weaponry and vehicles superior to most. c) i do that anyways cause me and my friends are all quite politically enlightened, and our views go across the  whole spectrum,  and active. sounds like i would love this show.

[redsniper]

If you liked Gurren Lagann and you like sci-fi and mechs in general, then I highly recommend you check out Gunbuster. It's got kind of the same high-stakes, epic space war feel of Gurren Lagann, but in a more serious package. Also has a somewhat realistic treatment of relativity and space travel and one of the most manly-tears-inducing endings of all time.

[Sushi]

You could try Full Metal Panic, it's quite militaristic (not the fomoffu one!)

Fumo Fumo Fumo Fumo Fumo, Fumo!
Fumo Fumo Fumo Fumo Fumo, Fumo!
Fumo, Fumo!
Fumo, Fumo!

[FUBAR-BDHR]

What about Eureka 7?

[General Battuta]

anime is cartoons

Thank you for that insightful comment.

Incidentally, you like Battletech do you? Then you need to watch Macross. Unseen designs ring a bell?

only good anime is pokemans