Flamezdudes said:
...Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lucky Star and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya...
While those are all good, they aren't what I'd typically recommend to someone who is just getting into anime. NGE is incredibly polarizing, Haruhi herself can be offputting, and Lucky Star is... well... it makes a whole lot more sense if you've watched a bunch of other anime. For example...
This scene is way funnier if you know who the character on the banner is, and the context of the series she's from (for the record, she's an 'option' from a harem anime called Shuffle!, and this scene was funny, at least for me, because Konata's reaction is nothing like the male lead's reaction).
As for my recommendations, here are a few that I didn't see mentioned in my cursory glance over the topic (also, trying not to give away too much about them...):
- Full Metal Panic!: not to be confused with Fullmetal Alchemist (they absolutely have nothing to do with each other), I'd say this is a better gateway show than Code Geass, based on the simple fact that Code Geass can get really, really annoying and convoluted at times. Same genre as Code Geass, but not so caught up in itself.
- Crest/Banner of the Stars: a bit older, but great nonetheless. It's a space opera that frames the intensely personal relationship of two young people with the galaxy-spanning conflict between empires (and no, it doesn't pull out the tired Romeo and Juliet gambit, thank god). For my money, this should be the standard for any show trying to do something similar.
- RahXephon: if you liked Evangelion, try this one out. Some people call it "Evangelion Light", some people call it "Evangelion Done Right." It has a lot of similarities, but it is its own distinct show, and a very good one at that. While it has less giant robot action, it has more stable characters, and an ending that actually makes some semblance of sense.
- Black Lagoon: if you like blockbuster action movies, watch this, because it's better than 95% of them. Even if you don't like action movies, remember, a show that features a boat ramping off the wreckage of another boat to shoot down a helicopter with a torpedo simply
cannot be criticized.
