The greatest anime EVAH.

[minuialear]

Black Lagoon

Dark but not excessively angsty or existential, like a LOT of anime series tend to get...

...or The Boondocks. If I'm allowed to count that.

 

[Folksoul]

Baccano!

Mix cowboy bebop and FMA and stir in a splash Bugsy Malone and you get the general idea.

crazy awesome 13 episode anime.

 

[ZiggyE]

Welcome to the NHK.

An intelligent, sweet and funny anime that doesn't involve giant robots fighting lazers in space.

Not that I don't enjoy giant robots, but it was nice to have a breath of fresh air and that's what NHK was.

 

[Eijarel]

GITS original ftw <3

 

[Nemu]

NGE or Ranma ½. I'm biased in the case of Ranma, tho. >_O
I've not seen a series then either of those that has engrossed or moved me as much.

 

[AlwaystheUnlucky]

5 centimeters per second. It is the only one that has truly touched my heart, and made me think about my relationships with others.

Honorable Mentions: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Black Lagoon, Tower of Druaga, and Spice and Wolf.

 

[Need MOAR APPLES]

I am gonna go ahead and respond with Lucky Star....I love that fucking anime.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It's simply brilliant. From the detailed cyberpunk universe and all the meaty philosophy that comes with it, to the awesome action and score by Yoko Konno.

Runner up places go to FLCL for being necessary viewing for anyone between the ages of twelve and twenty one, and Elfen Lied for making me cry like a small child.

I agree with GITS the original movie was so compelling with the soundtrack but i would also go with Akira's ending was confusing at first when i was younger but was very visually compelling with the right ammount of action and song.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Evangelion and Death Note are my two personal favorite animes of all time, but I'm leaning more to Evangelion, but I always have a special place for Death Note.

As for movies, End of Evangelion for me.

 

[Ipsen]

Serial Experiments Lain... don't question it... you know it to be true...<.<

This is fact.

EDIT: The new Gundam Unicorn OVA's are turning out to be fuhreeeking amazing. Sucks that they come out once a year, but I havent been this impressed with a gundam series since Wing.

 

[Rigs83]

The Melencholy Of Haruhi Suzamiya is pretty awesome! Ghost in a shell also, but everyone knows of that one...

Ive heard a lot about "Bleach" and been told its great.

You have been told wrong. I tried watching Bleach and suffered three seasons before I saw the last fatally wounded character miraculously healed and realized it's just DragonBall Z with the same theme of bs training episodes that somehow make you super saian.

 

[individual11]

<- That is all.

But not really. Trigun, Shigurui, Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon all warrant honourable mentions.

That said, I'm not really a big fan of Anime in general.

And FLCL was the right type of fucked up weird.

 

[JokerCrowe]

Kodomo no Jikan! Or I mean... I don't watch that... .>
I think I'll check out Cowboy Bebop and Clannad, they seem to come highly reccomended. If you like good clean stupid fun, I think Azumanga Daioh is pretty great. Sakaki is awesome.

 

[heartkys13]

I love how the majority of you guys have some really great taste in anime =D.
but then there are "YOU GUYS" ( and you know who you are) who have posted: bleach, naruto, Dragon ball GT, and high school of the dead, etc.
You folks need to go do something to fix your brains, these are bad anime. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you need to go watch more anime, then you'll know why your wrong.
on topic: most of my favs come from the toonami and early adultswim era on cartoon network: Gundam wing, DBZ, Big O, Outlaw star, Gundam 8th MS team, Trigun, FLCL, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo etc. Hellsing Ultimate and gurren lagann are pretty cool. But I don't think i have a singular favorite. Bebop is tough to beat.

Trigun =D *cough* Anyway...

High School of the Dead can burn in a fire yes...

But, I'd like to address Naruto and Bleach. (GT wasn't terrible... but it was far from good)

Well... mostly Naruto. (Bleach is pretty good... but I only feel like talking about Naruto... and I've only read the manga of Bleach)

I'd like to point out that Naruto is actually a great anime. It has some very interesting characters, great animation, and at times... an amazing story.

I don't think I really need to explain much of the story to anyone... but I WILL if need be. The only major flaw of this anime is... designated protagonist syndrome. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome

I'm pretty much saying... the main cast is boring and annoying. That doesn't make it a bad anime. Especially because it has sooo much "good" characterization to make up for it. Why do you consider it a bad anime? Have you watched a lot of it?

Edit: Oh. The anime also has a lot of BORING filler. Even so, it's still a nifty anime.

I don't agree with it having great animation, the only time I would ever consider it good is when it peaks during a few select fight scenes. the rest of the time it's so generic and boring. The anime doesn't do the art style of either bleach or naruto justice. In my eyes there is no excuse for this, if they aren't going put the effort in then they shouldn't be making it at all. I mean I guess I could some what understand if they were under time constraints, but if that was the case then they should stop making poorly written filler. However people can like what they want to like; I just thing you're wrong.

 

[Sux2bu]

Myself i like the SLIGHTLY realistic kind that are skewed just enough to be interesting so TTGL is a little...suck. So my 2 cents goes to Code Gauss and Ghost in the shell respectively.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Well, it's this thread again. Heh.

Ah well!

#1: Full metal alchemist
#2: Bacanno!
#3: Toss up between Death note and Claymore.

 

[Ima842]

Neon genesis evangelion also Gantz
<spoiler=gantz>don't watch this with your grandma srly dude also the episodes 1 to 22 were awesome, the rest were filler but still good

 

[01011001]

Asking this is like asking for the greatest game ever, most people are just going to reply with 'HURR DURR I LIKE HALO' or 'HERP-A-DERP MODERN WARFARE 2'. Similarly, you'll get a thousand responses to this saying 'DURRHURR BLEACH IS BEST ANIME EVAR!' Encompassed in this question are all the associated problems too. Anime is far too varied and diverse for there to be one answer.

And, while these people are perfectly entitled to their opinions, they are also wrong. Everyone knows (even if they don't realise it) that Darker Than Black is the best Anime ever.

But seriously everyone, stop just reeling off your stock answer and start actually considering your opinion properly. Death Note, as far as I could tell, was about an emo actually crossing the line between sanity and insanity, and wasn't very interesting. Ghost In The Shell lacked direction and didn't really have a story. Bleach is 70% filler and don't get me started on Naruto.

My list of top anime by genre is as follows:
Action: Black Lagoon
Science-fiction: Darker Than Black
Horror: Helsing OVA
Romance/drama: Clannad

Oh Hell yeah! Darker than black is my fave anime of all time!

 

[Udyrfrykte]

"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann", really?

I haven't even heard of it before, but I saw the "last fight" or something posted here earlier in the thread.
A superhuge thing/mech TAKES TWO GALAXIES AND SMASHES THEM TOGETHER AND IT AS A WEAPON?? Reminds me of the Falcon punch anime clip. I don't think i've seen Chuck Norris jokes that were that exaggerated.

Wow.
???