The following animes are what i believe to be, masterpieces.
They're not simply entertaining, they crawl deep into your mind and intoxicate you with pure awesomeness.
1. My all time favorite is 'Hajime no Ippo'.
This anime just absolutely changed me. It gives you that weird motivation to take your life in your own hands and convinces you that anything can be achieved as long as you have the will to go for it. It has a great story, with action, emotion, epicness and a lot of great humorous scenes.
The story is about Makunouchi Ippo who has never had the time to make friends because he's always been helping his mother run their fishing charter business. On top of that, a group of bullies got into the habid of picking on him. One day during one of the beatings Ippo has been getting, a middle-weight professional boxer, Takamura Mamoru, decides to help Ippo out. This is where Ippo's talent for boxing gets recognized andwhat will get him to the absolute top of the boxing world.
I really recommend this even if the first episode might not seem that epic, believe me the further you get the greater the fights and the story become.
The anime consists of 2 series, Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit and Hajime no Ippo: New challenger, and 2 OVA movies.
2. Second on my list is the adult psychological thriller 'Monster'.
I haven't finished this anime to be honest. I've got 2 more episodes to go.
But that just shows how much i love this anime. It was my first time seeing such a realistic and psychological piece of art. I usually don't go for detective stories but this one was recommended by my doctor, yes you heard it, my doctor recommended this anime. Not the best thing a doctor should do, as the extended time in front of my pc screen is not good for my health.
Anyway, I'll just give you this synopsys as I'm to lazy to come up with it myself:
The brilliant and successful neurosurgeon Dr. Tenma one day comes across a child and saves his life not knowing that this would be his worst sin. Unaware of his mistake, Dr. Tenma is about to be dragged into the most horrible set of serial murder cases to have ever been staged in Europe. The child whos life Tenma saved actually turned out to be a young psychopath/sociopath.
Since Dr. Tenma resurrected this 'monster', he sets off on a long and difficult journey to set his error straight. The story rapidly progresses through a number of locations: it starts in Düsseldorf, Germany, passes through Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Wiesbaden, cities in the Czech Republic such as Prague, and other cities and villages.
I don't really know what's left to say, except, see it.
3. Third Anime I'd like to spread the word about is Mushishi.
Apparantly I really like animes that seem like a piece of art to me.
I love everything about this show. The music is mesmerizing, the animation is wonderfull and the stories are mystical.
As I said above, the anime doesn't really have one big plot. Each episode has a different story or adventure revolving around the main character, Ginko.
Ginko is a "Mushi-shi" who travels around to investigate and find out more about the "Mushi". In the process, he also lends a helping hand to people who face problems with supernatural occurances which may be related to the "Mushi". They are neither plants nor animals. They differ from other forms of life such as the micro-organisms and the fungi. Instead they resemble the primeval body of life and are generally known as "Mushi". Their existence and appearance are unknown to many and only a limited number of humans are aware of them.
Your really have to watch this anime if you're a fan of superstitional/fantasy stories. The mushi's, characters and stories are really unique.
Well there are more great animes out there that I can't think of or sadly don't know about, and those are just series we're talking about. Let me know if you've heard of any that resemble the three that i've talked about.
Also, I think these Animes are worth mentioning here as well:
Mononoke: It's not Studio Ghibli's Mononoke-hime but the anime mononoke about a medicine doctor drawn in traditional japanese style.
Ayakashi - Samurai Horror Tales: The series is made up of three stories; "Yotsuya Ghost Story", "Goddess of the Dark Tower" and "Bake Neko". Each story is based on a classic Japanese play/story and made into an anime.
OK! That's it, I'm going to stop here, else I'll be up all night. This is my first post, I hope it's any good.