Ninja Scrolls…for the imense amount of gore and action scenes…and nudity
Ghost in the Shell…only complaint…was that it wasn’t long enough
Akira…classic story…nothing else like it
Lodoss Wars, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scrolls, and just because it makes me laugh myself silly, all the Lupin movies.
The best anime of all times has to be Neon Genesis Evangelion, but Rurouni Kenshin, Ranma½ are great too.
I’m surprised no one brought up Gundam Wing, this is one hell of a good anime. Visions of Escaflowne is great, El-Hazard:The Magnificent World is excellent, well, there are a lot of high quality anime out there that I haven’t named… (we really can’t say the same thing for american cartoons)
I watch a lot of anime with my daughter. I think my current favorite would be Trigun (the one with Vasch (sp?) the Stampede).
She has Escaflowne, fushigi yugi, Slayers, and many more whose names I can’t remember. She gets them from friends she met on the Internet in dubbed versions, and then buys them as soon as they are released here in the US.
I saw the first episode of Trigun, it was really funny. Is the rest as good?
I also love Marmalade Boy.
Fushigi Yuugi is good, minus the “Miaka/Tamahome I love you! But I can’t!” ::run away:: GET OVER IT!! 
Anyone care to share a link to an anime page they’ve made?
I forgot to post about the anime I watch when I’m feeling extrememly fuking depressed. Lain. Excellent. Makes fuk all sense. But great artwork.
Rurouni Kenshin
NG Evangelion
Akira
Battle Angel Alita
Gunsmith cats (except for that shitty dubbing grrrr…)
Hands down, Ranma ½ has got to be my favorite animé. My sister got me into it, and I’ve thus become a Rumiko Takahashi fan by association. Takahashi’s other works are very good, too, like Maison Aikoku, but Ranma ½ is my favorite.
I’d have to say that Takahashi’s animé and manga touch on literature. I’m a big comics/cartoon fan, but I’m reluctant to make such a statement about most cartoons or comics. Takahashi is definitely an exception. She knows more about character development and plots than most people, whether their words have pictures with them or not.
try watching it again. it might make more sense. I had to go to a UGA website for it to really make sense for me, but now I get it.
to go back to the OP, incidentally Lain is one of my favorites, as is Nazca, done by the same people. My all time favorite is Evangelion.
For shoujo, Utena is the best, especially the Nanami episodes. Kare Kano is pretty good, specifically when it focuses on Tsubasa. Escaflowne kicks ass; haven’t seen the dubbed version yet.
Okay, this has been bugging me for a while. Who was the person who did Blackjack? I remember he did something else that was his more famous work, but I forget who the person in question is. Thanks guys (and gals).
Osamu Tezuka did the manga version of Blackjack, I think…maybe he’s who you were thinking of. He’s also known for the Jungle Emperor (Kimba The White Lion in the US) anime, which Disney ripped off to create The Lion King.
As for my favorites, I have to go with El Hazard: The Magnificent World (one of the best dubs ever, IMO), Slayers, the Tenchi Muyo OAVs, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. A somewhat guilty pleasure of mine is Dragonball Z, which has been getting REALLY good lately on Cartoon Network.
Armageddon, you hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t remember it because, hey, look at Kimba and look at Blackjack and they sure as heck don’t seem like they would’ve been done by the same guy. Do you know if Ashtar’s Blackjack is based off the manga, or is it something completely different?
But Sailor Moon’s got the boom anime babes!
(That make me think the wrong thing.)
POKEMON AND SAILOR MOON… ROFLMAO 
ok now that my boys are out of the room, I like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Project Ako, and one that was called Beutiful Dreamer I think. I saw it on the SciFi channel during Anime week.
Beautiful Dreamer… I believe that was a Urusei Yatsura movie (the show flying alien girl in the leopard bikini ). However take that with a grain of salt, I’m a freelance moron concerning anime.
I should really read what I post before I submit it. (I should also get a good night’s sleep before posting too.
[sub]sigh[/sub]
Viz is (Or was) translating the Blackjack manga in NA. Doesn’t seem to be mentioned on their site, though… 
There’s NO denying that it’s Tezuka, even if his name weren’t on the cover.
The Blackjack anime that was released about the same time that Viz started translating the manga is a recent OAV based on it.
I THINK there was an earlier anime based on it, which used an art style closer to Tezukas (As the Jungle Emperor Leo and Tetsuwan Atom anime were. (The latter is Astroboy to people on this side of the Pacific.))
Beautiful Dreamer was the second Urusei Yatsura movie (which, like the first Urusei Yatsura movie, was directed by none other than Oshii Mamoru, of Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell fame). It’s an incredible movie, especially in how it explores the darker implications of living in a seemingly happy-go-lucky “sit-com” world. I heartily recommend it to anyone… especially those who liked Dark City (you don’t have to have watched the rest of the series to get what’s going on, though it will be funnier/creepier, and it will make a bit more sense, if you know who the characters are).
As for my favorite anime… well, I like a lot of them for a lot of different reasons, but right off the top of my head, I’d say it’s Hayao “Princess Mononoke” Miyazaki’s Castle of Cagliostro (the first Lupin movie). Though it lacks a lot of the things people typically associate with anime (graphic violence, nudity, sex, etc.–not that I mind those things, of course), it has great, incredibly likeable characters and a terrific story. And believe it or not, but the original English dub (from the old Orion release, not the new DVD) is actually really good–just as good as the Japanese version, IMO. The restored DVD version is absolutely beautiful to look at–it looks like it was made last year, rather than in 1978–but the new dub sucks. 
One last interesting fact: Steven Spielburg has said that CoC was one of his main inspirations for making Raiders of the Lost Ark. Watching it, you can see how: a likeable rogue hero (Lupin’s a professional thief) goes off on an adventure to a foreign land, meets a girl from his past who gives him the key to unlocking an ancient treasure, engages in a battle of wits with the villain in a race for the treasure… sound familiar?
My favorite is Project A-ko. The part in which A-ko runs up the ship using the missiles falling to Earth as stepping stones has to be seen to be believed. And I read a lot of comic books/manga and watched animation/anime.
I’m not sure about my favorite anime, but my favorite character is Ryo-Ohki from Tenchi. I even named my new kitty Ryo-Ohki.