Yeah, I had time to get familiar with the different kinds of anime and manga while I was living in Japan. As my suggested titles were split almost exactly 50/50 between original anime and adaptations from manga, I didn't see what pattern you were going for.
your points about One Piece are way off the mark... What you are really talking about is long form anime... Now, let's look at your list: There's a pretty clear trend in the titles you suggested.
My advice would be looking at what the anime is based on before you start watching and read reviews and check its target audience. I'll be dealing with this more in next week's topic.
No harm, no foul, Malthus. The part I had to think about was your last comment, which I'm sure you didn't mean to be negative, but kind of read to me like if I watched something and didn't like it, then that was my fault for not knowing what it is or researching better. To me that just kind of contradicted the entire point of this forum. Even though I lived in Japan and have talked with lots of people and read up on lots of anime, I still find it difficult to get trustworthy recommendations. That was why I initially suggested starting this forum for people like Addiesin who are perhaps more particular about which anime resonate with them and would like recommendations beyond what is often found on anime forums. Those are often written by more hardcore fans who might not notice or care about the same issues a more casual fan would.
I probably made a mistake in yucking somebody's yum. Like with some TV shows like LOST, or other massively popular, long-running anime series (like Ranma 1/2, Dragonball, Fruits Basket, Revolutionary Girl Utena, or Naruto) I had friends that kept insisting it would "get better" and to not think I knew what it was going to be like just from a few episodes. I'd watch an episode in season 3, season 5, or episode 200, and...yeah, it was the same for me. I realize what I'm looking for is not the same as everyone else though, and I should've focused more on the positive things I love about the series I recommended.
So let me focus on the positive by saying why a series really rises above others in the genre for me. I'll pick Evangelion, because it seems to me that it's gotten very fashionable to bash it nowadays, given that it had such a strong reputation for so many years. It might be my favorite series of all time, but it did take me a few episodes to really get into it. At first, it seemed much like Voltron for example, another in the series of "teen boy gets huge powerful robot to fight a new monster each episode" anime. But I soon realized that Evangelion was playing with the tropes of the genre as much as it was living by them.
Rivalries and love triangles and big showdowns sometimes have the gratifying payoff the audience expects... and sometimes the conventions get totally subverted and the show digs much deeper. Within 15 episodes, the series is delving deep into characters' psyches, as well as developing a multi-layered narrative thread that references religion, philosophy, psychology, as well as paying homage to previous anime series. By episode 26, the characters are not only asking what it is to be loved, but are exploring the meaning of life itself. The audience is not walked through this with hand held, but asked to question the honestly of characters' answers, and to dig deeper. It redefines what an anime series can be, and what it can do... and all this from an apparent Shounen Mecha anime setup. This is one that transcends the genre.