I recently discovered and subsequently marathoned Robotics;Notes... I haven't the foggiest idea what drove me to buy it but I'm glad I did. The two main protagonists have an annoyance causing level that is non-zero, but I feel that is more than compensated by the supporting characters.
Also the fact that the Blu-rays over here in Zone B land can currently be had for quite cheap and MangleUK MangaUK didn't screw up on this one... Actually I'm not surprised, seeing that they used Funimation's masters. I've long since decided that if I know before hand if a title has had Madman's hands on it, then I won't touch it. You can usually tell if Manga used someone else for their master rather than Madman, by the presence of a half decent song/signs subtitle track.
Oh,
Cowboy Beebop is indeed an excellent show, but of its contemporaries of the time I prefer Outlaw Star (recently got a Blu-Ray release that is awesome) and The Big O (I feel that Bandai's original DVD release is the superior version)