Akira- Anime classic- watching this can be the equivelant of a pixie stick- damn tasty and enoyable, but once the sweetness weres off, you want more flavor. Best animation and music in anime- ever. Story can be confusing and you dont really like any of the characters, but if you can get past the flaws, enjoy the show and try your best to wrap your head around the metaphysical stuff later.

Ghost In The Shell 1/2- same as above. Oshii (the director) reallt really really wants to be Otomo. Great stuff, but not for the attention span impared.

Patlabor movies- 1/2/3- Oshii again, but his best work IMHO. Not the mecha fests you might ne expecting, especially parts 2/3- more sci fi detective stories, but with some mechs thrown in. Not for the ADD crowd, but damn good stories here.

Ninja Scroll- Who has not seen this? Ok, you 3 who raised your hands, go to blockbuster ot hollywood video and rent this, now. Ok- back? Next.

Evangelion- Gainax's ego fest and mech mind fuck expiriment. Save yourself some time- go watch the last 2 episodes first- it ok, aside from some minor story spoilers that you really wont understand unless you watch the whole series anyway, if you cant understand or enjoy the last 2, don;t watch the rest. The first parts of the series are awesome,with some great giant bio-mecha fights, but you will get your hopes up for an actual ending that makes sense THAT YOU WILL NOT GET. Unless you are a psych major or have read any one of a dozen eva faqs on the net, you will be dissapointed.

Most Gundam series- Lots of prety mechs, lots of political/social grandstanding that you really dont care about, plot twists that anoy and alienate, and characters you wish would crawl into the barrel of their own hyper-mega launcher to be blasted in to atoms. Aside from that, some great shows here. I love gundam- just not a fan of all the series.

Bets of- IMHO:

Gundam- the original one year war- either the series or the readers digest version movies. Where it all started (unless you count the original sci fi novel seried the anime was based on). Believe it or not, it was seen as being very realistic for its time. Compared to voltron and getter robo, it was the saving private ryan of mecha shows. Aside from a main hero you wish would grow his own pair and/or eat the barrel of his beam rifle, has some great characters- char is one of the best anime villians ever, and has been cloned so many times in later gundam shows its getting to be embarasing.

Gundam 0080 War in the pocket- semi-pretensious parable on the evils of war- live we need to be tild this. Has great animation and some great fights. Worth it just for the mecha, but the sroty is ok too- one of the series I wish they had returned to in order to see where the characters ended up after this story ends.

Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory- Re-hashing and retelling of the one year war w.its own twists, but with 1/3 less anoying charcters. The theme music here srtarted my j-pop collection. Some of the best mecha designs in the gundam universes.

Gundam Z/ZZ- Ok, but both were made strictly to cash in on the gundam cash cow of the 80's. Z has great mecha designs, but the story and characters are anoying as all hell. Only reason to watch it is Char- "hiding" in a secret identity. Right. ZZ sucked, only existed to sell toys and models, most of the mecha designs are attrocious, seems like they souldnt decide between extremely blocky or extremely organic, and the plot read like dbz with bean cannons. My beam gun is bigger than your beam gun, but hah! I had a hidden super armor upgrade that cost $10 billion stuffed in my back pocket! Huzzah!

Chars counter attack- In my opinion, skip z/zz and go straight to this. Feels just like the original series, which it is, but it tried to sum up the whole universal century plot line- it fails, but it tries. Uber-leet mecha though. The Sazabi is my anime-mecha misteress.

G Gundam- Dont bother- sucks.

Gundam wing- G-Gundam +rehashing of one year war +politics that would make henry kissinger cry. Nice mecha, auper annoying characters (exceot for the death scyth guy,they would all be better off actually using that self destruct with them staying inside once and for all). Only reason to watch is for the breif glimpses of the talgeese 1/3, otherwise you can pass on it withouy losing any sleep.

v gundam, gundam x- pretty much like gundam wing, slightly different stories and mecha, each has nice designs, but over all its like deciding between a vanilla chocolate or twist ice crean cone- its all too sweet and bad for you.

08th ms team- pretty good, better than most- on par with 0083, if not better. same anti war sentiment as 0080, but doesnt beat you over the head with it. great designs and memorable mecha. very goos action too. skip the last episode unless you have a soft side, or really like being depresses.

gundam seed/destiny- updated re-hashing of the one year war, w/gundam wing like flavor of the week gundam varieties. Actually, one of the best gundam series- has actual logical story progression and does not rely on oure technobable for most of its sci-fi- some one actually hired a real writer for onse. good job.

Turn A Gundam- what if miazaki and gainax got togetherm had a labotomy, got stoned, and produced a gundam show, but with an american doing most of the mecha designs, the story on prozac, and set in the 1800's. Thats turn a gundam. Enjoyable if you have an open mind, but not for the die hard gundam emcha junkie.

Sorry for the gundam fest, just typing what came to mind.