No one has mentioned Moyashimon yet, the anime about a guy who can see microbes without magnification and goes to an agricultural college to study microbiology. It's pretty funny, and some of the microbes are adorable.
Bartender is the story of a small bar that contains a man with the ability to make the perfect cocktail. The show is mainly a series of episodic stories where people come to this man with their problems and he helps pick them up by being a good listener and serving them cocktails and explaining how the symbolism of the alcohol pertains to their problems.
Spice and Wolf is about two things. Firstly, it's a love story between a traveling merchant and a pagan wolf goddess who assumes human form to travel with him. Secondly, it's about the merchant's trading travels and the economic policies that arise as part of the plot.
Princess Tutu is a story about fairy tales and the role that an author takes in the development of a story he tells. It's told primarily from the perspective of an author watching a tragic romance unfold from an "exterior meta-verse" and the duck he turns into a girl in order to force the narrative to progress.
Akagi, my favorite among the anime I'm listing, is the story of a guy who is so good at Mahjong, he becomes a legendary figure among the Yakuza that control large parts of Japan. He is so uncompromising in his values that he tears down the personalities of the rich gangsters he plays against, who have built their entire lives around facades of Power and invincibility.
