Look at the Pretty Moving Drawings.
Most of the time, if you say "anime," I would stare at you.
Since I've started to watch a bit of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, I've found two animated shows to be quite impressive.
"Samurai Champloo" and "Paranoia Agent" have some amazing artwork and style to their respective shows. I enjoy the graphical presentation of "Samurai Champloo" very much. Tonight, I believe I caught the first episode of the show. This orphaned lady, a server at a teahouse, runs into a couple of rogues who end up destroying the teahouse. With no reason to stay in the town, she decides to look for the "samurai who smells like sunflowers," and she aids the rogues in their escape from the town and urges them to help her in the search. The story follows the trio over the countryside as they pursue this non-specific target.
The "Paranoia Agent" reminds me of "The Twilight Zone" in some ways. "Paranoia Agent" seems to be an anthology series of different non-recurring folks save for one, a maniacal youth dubbed "Lil' Slugger" for the grotesque murders he is accused of . . . by his dented bat. The last episode of "Paranoia Agent" that I caught featured a neat dissection of an animation team in chaos with a deadline on the near horizon. It went through each of the production members and their specific title and definition of duty, as described by the silly little character of their cartoon. It ended, naturally, in much death and violence.
I'll never go to a comicon or dress up as one of those freakish characters, nor will I ever buy any of the merchandise. However, if I ever get more than enough money, these two shows would be on my list to collect.
http://www.samuraichamploo.com/
http://www.paranoiaagent.com/