So.... Let's Pretend I Know No Anime.... NONE AT ALL....

[CyberIncision]

I have seen quite a bit of anime, but for all intents and purposes, lets pretend I have seen none. (This way, listing my favorites for similar titles would be impossible )

Tell me all your favorites, regardless of what you think I might like. All The ones I should have seen. Tell me the fighting anime, the fan service, The Mecha, the harem, the weird. ALL the ones I should see. What do you like?

Tell me the titles and a brief description if you could.

Also, where to watch/get a hold of them would be helpful.

Thank you

[Washougal_Otaku]

Ranma 1/2 - This is a classic anime, beginning in 1989.  It heavily focuses on martial arts and a Chinese curse that turns some characters into something different, such as a young man who becomes a duck, a young woman who becomes a cat, a man who becomes a panda, and the main character, a young man who becomes a young woman.  There's a lot of comedy, some mildly perverted; the perversion sometimes involves nudity.  Yay: creative, lots of characters.  Nay: sometimes too hokey, the last two episodes of the series.

Blue Seed - A single-season series from the mid-90's.  There's a decent amount of MOST genres of anime in this that it's hard to be displeased by it.  It starts off as being a humans vs. monsters anime, but the reasons are revealed half-way through, around the time that the monsters are down-played.  The two primary points of the series are: "We Japanese need to be more in touch with our Japanese heritage" and "We as humans need to take better care of the Earth."  There is a great deal of comedy, including panty shots and a butt scene (unless you include the bonus animations, then there's another butt).  Yay: lots of Japanese cultural information, one of the best English dub overs ever in my opinion.  Nay: some information is altered for storyline, some questions never answered.

The Slayers: Beginning in the mid-90's, it's full of magic, humor, and European influences.  The world that this story takes place in is similar to a medieval Europe, in which the main character (in the first season) fights their version of Satan, AND WINS!  She has a great deal of incredible adventures during and afterwards that include: singing, faking a wedding, fishing, making men cross-dress, rebuilding a dragon castle, and ball-rolling.  Yay: the main character can eat a lot, incredible animation especially in the latest seasons.  Nay: sometimes the dialogue can be a little long, not enough seasons.

[izamor]

Extremely LONG post. Edited synopsis's and made them all about 1/2 their original sizes.

(# of episodes) Series Title
Genre / Theme
Synopsis.

(Movie) REDLINE
Racing, action (PS: Gurren Lagann meets Speed Racer. Very over-the-top. Completely hand-drawn over 7 years - best animation I've EVER seen.)
The biggest race of the universe, REDLINE takes place every 5 years. This year's host, Roboworld will throw everything they got to make sure the race doesn't happen.

(50) Code Geass / Code Geass R2
Mecha, alternate history, action, psychological, thriller
Japan has been taken over by the Brittanian Empire, and is now Area 11. This is the story of a resistance to take Japan back, but with an incredible plot. Twists nearly every episode, incredibly entertaining to watch. If you don't like deep plot, this isn't for you.

(24) Romeo x Juliet
Romance
An anime take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - of lovers from opposing families. Beautiful animation, likable characters and a charming love story.

(50) Eureka 7
Romance, action, mecha
The grandson of a mechanic and son of the legendary Adroc Thurston, Renton is a 14-year old loser in a small town. He wants to be a reffer (air surfing) someday, but has no way of leaving. One day a girl shows up in a LFO (mecha) and needs some kind of repair work. Renton takes the opportunity to go with this girl and lives in Gekkostate - a group of pro reffers and mercenaries. Heavy on the love themes. (Absolutely adore Dominic x Anemone towards the end of the series.)

(64) Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Action, adventure
A remake of Fullmetal Alchemist, this time following the manga page by page. Two brothers use their skill in alchemy to try and find a way to restore their bodies. An incredible adventure story with an amazing plot. Not the most complex story, but definitely one of the best I've ever seen. The conclusion of the series is hands-down my favorite.

(37) Death Note
Physiological, thriller, mystery
Yagami Light is an ace student who finds the "Death Note": a notebook with the power to kill people in any way he desires. With the Death Note in hand, Light decides to create his perfect world, without crime or criminals. However, when criminals start dropping dead one by one, the authorites send detective L to track down the killer, and a battle of wits, deception and logic ensues... Very plot-heavy, lots of twists. One of the best shows I've seen to date, though after the first half I really lost interest.

(13) Spice and Wolf
Romance
Lawrence is a traveling merchant in Europe during the Middle Ages. He runs into Horo, a pagan wolf deity of the harvest. Horo wishes to travel to her homeland and the two proceed to journey together. A sweet, witty story that's fairly short. One of the more accurate depictions of the Middle Ages I've seen yet, (aside from details like Horo being a wolf-goddess).

(26) Darker Than Black (Not a huge fan of season 2)
Mystery, action, thriller
After the appearance of "Hell's Gate" in Tokyo, people called "contractors" appeared. They lack conscience but posses various supernatural powers. Secret to most of the public, they are hired by governments and syndicates to do their bidding. This follows Hei, the "Black Reaper." One of the most feared, and most mysterious contractors out there.

(27) Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Action, adventure, comedy, mecha
Known for its humor and being so over-the-top, Gurren Laggan follows Simon and friends as they try to fight off the Beastmen on the surface world. Second half of the season would be spoilers, so I'm going to stop here, but it's worth the watch.

(11 + 2 movies) Eden of the East
Thriller, comedy, mystery
A man wakes up nude with nothing but a cell phone in front of the White House. The phone has 100 million yen on it and records 11(?) other people with similar phones. From the get-go this is a hilarious and very interesting series. With 11 episodes my ONLY wish is that it was longer - the humor, plot, EVERYTHING about this series was great - even including the American cop's accent was stereotypicaly spot-on.

(25) Toradora!   
Slice of life, romance
Ryuji is an intimidating student, though gentle at heart. He has a crush on Minori, but meets a small girl with a brutal personality named Taiga. (AKA Palm-Top Tiger.) Taiga agrees to help Ryuji with his love interest as long as he helps with hers. Surprisingly sweet story - have a soft spot for Taiga in this show.

(50) Full Metal Panic! / Fullmetal Panic? Fumoffu / Fullmetal Panic! The Second Raid
Mecha, romance, mystery, comedy, action
Sousuke, a 17-year old military specialist is assigned to protect Kaname. He has never lived in "normal" society and has an extremely hard time trusting people or adjusting. Thought it was a delightful series, and Fumoffu has some of the funniest moments in anime history in my books.

(14) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Comedy, slice of life
On the first day of high school a girl named Haruhi introduces herself as having "no interest in ordinary humans". She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. When Kyon comments about Haruhi's joining every club in school and then quitting he unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club. Thereafter Kyon and several others find themselves literally dragged into the S.O.S. Brigade.

[Su Lu]

Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE is probable my absolute favorite anime. To fully understand a few things you need to have read or watched a few other series by CLAMP, but without doing so you still get most of the plot. It's about a princess from the country of Clow who losses her memories and must travel across space and time looking for her memories, or 'feathers', with her childhood friend, a wizard from Celes country, and a swordsman from Nihon. This series has, if possible, the most complex plot ever. If you often have trouble following complex plot line this series isn't for you.

Kaleido Star is a series that makes you want to run off and accomplice your greatest dream and keeps you watching at the same time. Sora travels to the U.S. to become a part of Kaleido Stage, which is a lot like cirque du soleil. Because her bag gets stolen on her way to the audition she is late and misses her chance. but in a show that night one of the performers is injured and the director tells Sora to take her place and treat the performance as her audition. It's a bit cheesy at times, but it's a wonderful anime and it made me realize what my dreams are.

Soul Eater is a quirky series that it very original. Teams of meisters and weapons (people who can transform into weapons such as guns, swords, ect.) team up and hunt souls that have become kishin eggs. Kishins are demons born from the madness of the souls of people who eat normal souls. Each pair wants to make their weapon into a scythe, or a weapon worthy of being wielded by Lord Death. To do this they must collect 99 kishin eggs and one soul of a witch. The main protagonist, Maka, messes up when her and her partner, Soul, get one of the nine souls of a cat instead of a witches soul and must start over.

[Venusgate]

(25) Toradora!   
Slice of life, romance
Ryuji is an intimidating student, though gentle at heart. He has a crush on Minori, but meets a small girl with a brutal personality named Taiga. (AKA Palm-Top Tiger.) Taiga agrees to help Ryuji with his love interest as long as he helps with hers. Surprisingly sweet story - have a soft spot for Taiga in this show.

I first watched Toradora when the last episode came out, a few years ago - as per my hobbie of picking new anime via intuition. As a guy who grew up on DBZ, thinks Dead Leaves is the best movie, GitS is the best series, and yaoi is a cancer, this show was staggeringly hard to stop watching. After only a few episodes the characters have you wrapped around their finger and by the end of the series ... well, I'll avoid spoilers, but there are very few media that have ever moved me to tears.

[izamor]

And speaking of Toradora, they came out with an OVA episode a few days ago. Haven't seen the show since it came out, but I have the urge to watch it again.