Yes, yes, yes, the studio Ghibli films! My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away are the most easily available in English; I would recommend all of them, but especially the latter two. "Mononoke" is a dark, bloody, environmentalist story of the war between forest spirits and industrializing humans, in an ancient Japan. That might be too violent--it has a shot of a guy getting his arm shot off with an arrow. "Spirited Away," which recently won an oscar for best animated film, is the story of a young girl who is spirited away to a mysterious land with her parents, who are turned into pigs. It has the same sort of environmentalist message, but it's a bit sweeter and more lighthearted, and at the same totally weird, almost like a Japanese version of "Alice in Wonderland." The ending is just beautiful. And there's a white dragon who is, like, totally hot! The art is amazing, and not too conventionally anime-ish.
"Utterly Weird"--
I love "Revolutionary Girl Utena," which may be the only postmodern symbolic feminist anime. Or at least the only one that does it with so much style. Orphan girl Utena is inspired to become a prince, and comes to a school that's controlled by a secretive, exclusive duelling society. The society duels for control of a submissive young girl, and Utena is determined to save her...but she may not want to be saved. Lots of stuff about sexuality, identity, being true to oneself. Moved me to tears when I wanted to be a prince myself. The sexuality stops being subtle or tasteful after about the first 14 episodes, to be completely honest--I can't recall any full frontal nudity, but there's heavily implied incest.
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" is, er, not as Christian as it might sound from the title, though it's all about using Christian symbology in really odd ways. In the future, Earth is under attack from mysterious "Angels." Only an angsty boy piloting a giant robot can save the world. So it starts off just like any other giant robot show...until suddenly it turns psychotic. In a good way. Or not. It's a love-it-or-hate-it thing.
In terms of the more conventional, "Vision of Escaflowne" is a beautifully done fantasy story with giant robots. A girl is transported to a magical land, where she meets various cute guys, and finds out that the world is in danger...but it manages not to be a cliche. It's all about fate, and love, and what it means to be in control of your own destiny. And the music. The music is shiveringly good.
And "Cowboy Bebop." Of course. You've got a varied cast of bounty hunters on a spaceship--including a hacker girl named Radical Edward and a Welsh Corgi. They never quite succeed at what they're doing, so they end up eating "beef and vegetables, without the beef," but they pull it off in such a charming way. There's a lot of lighthearted action here, but also deep melancholy and nostalgia towards the past; the mixing of western and science fiction genres perhaps indicates that the characters are stuck in the past, longing for a better future, but they can't live in the present. The jazzy score adds even more to the fun.
Oh, Matsumoto! My tastes are a little girly, but when I think of things that would appeal to a 55-year-old guy, Leiji Matsumoto's works come up. Probably "Arcadia of my Youth" is the most wonderful example of his work, but "Galaxy Express 999" is excellent, and "Queen Emeraldas" is fun. It's very classic, nostalgic, heroic, manly--it's space opera with a big heart. These are stories that are very self-consciously archetypal: Orphan Boy Makes Good. He always draws the same young orphan boys, the same glassy-beautiful women, the same heroic, battle-weary, eyepatched heroes, but it works.
That's all I can think of at the moment. I've been behind on my anime watching since I became a poor college student--these are all a bit old.
