@LurkyMcLurkerson:disqus Legal streams have been booming in the past couple years. 80% of everything airing in Japan since 2010 or so plus a solid 30-50% of older licensed shows can be found legally on Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Youtube, and/or FUNimation.com.

In Bebop and Trigun's case, I think it's not so much a statement about the medium and more a statement about the cultural influences, in that Bebop and Trigun are both more "American" in their cultural backdrops as opposed to more "Japanese" stuff which is equally brilliant but less accessible (though if you want…

I'd remove Wings of Honneamise from the must list. Beautiful and historically significant, but that attempted rape in the middle of the movie where the victim APOLOGIZES FOR DEFENDING HERSELF and then the scene is NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN… That's the sort of crap that gives anime a bad name. It's telling that the movie's…

Weirdest thing I've seen I picked up in a grabbag: Gregory Horror Show.

What about 52-episode series from Adult Swim? FMA and GITS seem to be easy to recommend.

Some varied recommendations by type:

Bebop's significantly better than "okay."

And there were the occasional good specials sporadically over the next several years, like Behind the Laughter and the movie.

I got into Simpsons as a kid just around the time the DVD sets were first being released, so I watched them as the DVDs came out as well as the episodes that were on TV. Season 1's flaws weren't as distracting to a 9-year-old who didn't watch a lot of TV, and my love for the show kept growing as I plowed through the…

Also, North by Northwest is a really fun Grant/Hitchcock collaboration.

I read it for free… from the library! Those still exist, remember?

My older Whovian friend recommended that if you want to watch the classic series, start with the last of the Second Doctor serials (which introduces the Time Lords) and then go in order from there until you feel it's started to suck (he's not a fan of the Fifth Doctor, who has his fans, but nobody seems to be a fan of…

Not only were the monsters entertaining, the pro-science message was awesome.

I can't really tell how you mean that, but OK then.

Wall-E's great sci-fi comedy (and depending on your definitions, its vision of the future could count as horror).

Madoka Magica's opening animation changes slightly over its 12 episodes to reflect the darker tone it takes on.

Yeah. I after Alice in Wonderland completely sucked, I decided I'd give Burton a "three strikes, you're out" policy and while he got awfully close, Frankenweenie was able to save my respect for him.

It's won six critics' awards, nominated for a lot more, and has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't think you have to worry.

Big Fish is good.

It's a special, not a new show.