A few of my recommended watches that may or may not be to your liking. Note, I know most of these will have been said by the time I post this, but these are my opinions on them. In no particular order:
- Last Exile: If you haven't seen it, it's a must-watch in my opinion. Great story, great visuals, awesome universe, and to top it all off: the English dub is actually quite good. There is a sequel, though, Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing; however, it doesn't have anywhere near the same feel as the first, nor tone, nor quality. It's okay in its own right, but it doesn't seem like Last Exile at all except for some plot points.
- Eureka Seven: This is usually either a "Love it or Hate it" anime, from my experience. I have seen very few people who actually say that the show is mediocre, but plenty go into either camp of "IT'S SO GOOD" or "IT'S A PILE OF SHIT." I have not seen Astral Ocean yet, though, so I can't tell you about that one. Nevertheless, I found the story and universe to both be equal amounts of awesome, and it may LOOK like a mecha, but the robots actually end up serving a secondary role.
- Ergo Proxy: An outright mindfuck of a show. Not a mindfuck in a psychedelic way, but more in a "wtf is going on?!" kinda way. The show offers very little explanation of its plot, and each episode leaves out any lead-up to its current events (though sometimes they do have a couple flashbacks). It makes you think, and prompts you to watch it more than once to figure out what's going on, all while serving up some really well-done visuals. Also, Pino is a badass.
- Eden of the East: Nice thriller-style show about an amnesiac with a phone with a buttload of cash and a direct link to a mysterious organization that seems to be able to do just about anything asked of them, from murder in extravagant ways to other things that would be a spoiler to say.
- Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl who Leapt Through Space): A halfway decent scifi show about a rogue colony ship and a girl who gets caught up in its mission. I would only recommend watching this one if you have nothing better to watch and/or are bored. It's rather cutesy at times and a couple of the characters irritate me, but I didn't hate the show. Also, Space Ship Sword/Chainsaw Fights, they are a thing in this show.
- Spice and Wolf: I still have to see the other seasons of this show. This one is basically an economic drama, which is an odd and boring title, but still fitting. A trader pretty much teams up with the guardian spirit of his village, who takes the form of a girl sporting a tail and wolf-like ears; shenanigans ensue. I always have trouble explaining this one to people, as the entire show should be really boring; it's about trading and the drama arising from monetary exchanges. Granted, there are plot points here and there where fights that may or may not involve magic and spirits break out. However, it's still really enthralling, the characters are well-written and likeable, and the story is just, well, really good.
- Black Lagoon: A Japanese businessman is on a cruise ship, carrying some documents for his company. Said cruise is then attacked by a pirate crew, and the businessman is captured and held for ransom. However, when the pirates make the demands to his company, they disavow him and leave him for dead. Instead of tossing him overboard, though, he convinces them to let him join their crew. This is a gritty drama about a city-born man becoming a ruthless pirate, and coming to terms with a life and a world that might kill him at any moment. My one gripe with this one is that the original Japanese voicing ends up doing a lot of forced English near the end for some reason, and it's just grating to the ears. But if you can push past that (or watch the English dub), then this is a really good watch.
- Gintama: A hilarious, way-out-there comedy show. It somehow pulls off vast numbers of references to other anime (since it's published by Shonen Jump, they can get away with a lot of stuff, like having Bleach all over the first episode) along with silly humor (most of which is not lost in translation, thankfully) without feeling horrendously forced. It also blends all that comedy with generally awesome action scenes that are surprisingly well-done. I would say, though, that this is not something you just sit down and watch from beginning to end, since it has something like 200 episodes now. Also, a lot of the episodes can stand on their own without needing too much of the backstory.
- Tower of Druaga: Essentially a parody of a lot of older-school RPGs. If anything, just watch the first episode; if that doesn't sell you on the show and have you laughing your ass off, then the show is not for you. Granted, they cool down a bit on the outright cliche-storm and get down to some story in the subsequent episodes, but it's still really funny.
I could keep going, but I have a feeling that this post is going to get TL;DR'd enough as it is, so I'll leave it at this.
Hope this helps.
