Anime Recommendation?

[darko]

I've never really been a big anime guy but I've watched a few (Death Note, Blood, Ghost in the Shell, Monster, and Last Exile). Death Note is probably my favorite. I recently started watching Claymore which I find quite enjoyable but there's only one season. Does anyone have any recommendations that would be similar to one of these?

[scott]

I watch a lot of anime. I've not seen Death Note or Blood yet. Ghost in the Shell is one of my top favorites, If you haven't make sure to watch the Stand Alone Complex series. Cowboy Bebop is also one of my all time favorites, I highly recommend it. You should also check out Outlaw Star, Fullmetal Alchemist (original series or Brotherhood), Samuari Champloo is also good samurai action, as is Gantz for over the top sci-fi gore. Also make sure to watch Akira.

[madmax]

Elfen lied. only has 1 season but its amazing!

[desocietas]

Fullmetal Alchemist (original series or Brotherhood)

One of my favorites.  Trying to watch Brotherhood as I know the ending is supposed to be more accurate, but it's hard to watch the beginning as some of my favorite scenes have been changed even though it's virtually the same.  Somehow, I prefer the animation/look of the original while Brotherhood looks a little simplified.  Maybe Brotherhood matches the visuals of the manga? (I haven't gotten far enough in the manga to know.)

[scott]

Oh ya, Elfen Lied is amazing. The 1st 10 minutes is the most brutal I've seen ever.

[scott]

One of my favorites.  Trying to watch Brotherhood as I know the ending is supposed to be more accurate, but it's hard to watch the beginning as some of my favorite scenes have been changed even though it's virtually the same.  Somehow, I prefer the animation/look of the original while Brotherhood looks a little simplified.  Maybe Brotherhood matches the visuals of the manga? (I haven't gotten far enough in the manga to know.)

I love Brotherhood, it seems to have more badassness to it than the original series. It follows the manga, much, much closer too (and has more Barry the Chopper!)

[climhazard]

Pretty much everything @scott mentioned I would recomend. Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell are some of my all time favorites. Hellsing is quite good, the Ultimate OVAs are better and stick more to the manga's story than the original TV series but they are both good. Almost anything by Gainax is pretty good. Neon Genesis Evangelion is really good if you can manage to deal with the mind screw plot. As are FLCL, Gurren Lagann and Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water. There are a few more I could recommend but that should give you a pretty good start.

[scott]

Oh ya I forgot to mention Neon Genesis Evangelion, on of my favs  but you totally need to pay attention to what is going on. Neo Ranga is pretty good too.

[desocietas]

If you want to go the darker route, there's always "Lain" and the Twin Peaks-ish "Paranoia Agent" by Satoshi Kon (both are short series).

[jobocan]

I haven't watched a whole lot of recent anime(currently only watching Kaiji season 2), but here's a few of my favorites (I'll just ignore the whole "that would be similar to one of these" part ) :

Great Teacher Onizuka
Akagi
Kaiji (it's really slow at points but it's really good)
Detroit Metal City (it's super short but damn funny)
Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai (Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi)
FLCL
Baccano!
Cowboy Bebop
Excel Saga
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Welcome to the NHK!

I've seen over 300 anime series (yeah, I used to have no life) so I might be missing a few, but those are probably my favorites (ignoring One Piece since that would be way too damn long to watch all of it from the beginning).

[darko]

Wow. Looks like I have plenty to check out! I've actually seen quite a bit of Cowboy Bebop and Full Metal Alchemist. I like both but I like the darker stuff better (not that Last Exile is dark).

I've seen the Stand Alone Complex series too (guess I should have specified). I was sick for a week a few years ago and just sat around and watched all of the Ghost in the Shell series. It was really awesome. That's actually what got me into Blood and Last Exile since they were all on Netflix at the time.

I actually forgot to mention that I've watched Wolf's Rain (I think that's what it's called). I enjoyed it but it's been a long time since I saw it.

@scott Death Note is really, really awesome. You should check it out for sure.

[climhazard]

If you like darker stuff I might also recommend Speed Grapher. I've only seen the first few episodes but what I watched of it was pretty dark but good.

[scott]

@darko, ha ya I've been meaning to check out Death Note for a while now. I just watched both seasons of Girls Bravo, really, really funny stuff. If not a bit over-the-top with "fan service". Still really funny and horrible humor, like Shuffle!. After that I started re-watching Samurai Champloo again. 1 thing I love about netflix recently is the ability to check out anime without dropping a ton of cash, only to find out it's not your cup of tea.

[pceslayer]

Series or movies?
Sword of the stranger
Basilisk
Spriggan

[madmax]

Oh ya, Elfen Lied is amazing. The 1st 10 minutes is the most brutal I've seen ever.

yeah. I first started watching it and was like "wtf am I watching?" but the story builds up really quickly. I liked the depth they gave the main characters, lots of story behind them. Even through the gore and brutallity, there's a good story.