Anime
TV Series

Be careful what you wish for! Keiichi was granted one wish by a Norse goddess, Belldandy, but called her "bluff" by wishing for a girlfriend exactly like her. The wish was granted, of course, but with some humorous and dramatic side effects.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains brief nudity in one episode

Girls' school comedy with quite a twist. Runs the gamut from ultra-cute to poignant to freakishly strange, but always hilarious.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains material appropriate for all ages

Young Momiji was born to save the world from demons, but can only her death by sacrifice stop the demons from ruling the Earth? What really happened to her twin sister?
Rated 12+ -- contains violence, lingerie humor

A series of disappearances and grisly murders took place five years ago, and those acts, and the mysterious sudden halting of them, still affect people in the present. Each episode tells the story from a different character's point of view (much like Rashomon).
Rated 15+ -- contains graphic violence

The "Knight Sabers", a group of vigilante women in robotic armour, fight to save Tokyo from a horde of rogue robots in both classic OVA series (and a sequel OVA series, "Bubblegum Crash") and a new TV rendition.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence, language, brief nudity

A ten year old girl finds a dusty old book in her father's basement and winds up releasing a horde of spirits based on elemental tarot-like cards. Now it's her job to collect them all again in this sugary-cute entry of the magical-girl genre.
Rated 7+ -- contains violence

Trying to get into college, a young man stumbles upon a computer lying in a trash heap; but this computer is an extremely cute female android, walking around without an operating system. . .  or is she?
Rated 15+ -- contains lingerie, language

Ryu Saeba, a man for hire that will do any job for a pretty woman, regardless of how much trouble this earns from his female partner and her 10-ton mallet. Together thay are the legendary City Hunter.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence, brief nudity

Two bounty hunters, Spike and Jet, travel the planets in search of bounties, rewards, and clues to their own dark pasts. A few episodes went straight to video due to Japanese TV standards disallowing them.
Not Rated -- contains violence, language, brief nudity, brief drug use

A classic but unfinished TV series gets a recent remake and completion from the original creator's son -- a young man named Joe wakes up to find his body augmented into a cyborg, with the previous cyborgs running a revolution for freedom against the military that created them.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence, available in 7+ and Uncut/Unrated versions

Kei and Yuri, two scantily-clad secret agents, work on nabbing various criminals; but they usually leave a lot of destruction behind them. The original "babes with big bazookas" (and I do mean bazookas).
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence, brief nudity

An online RPG becomes all too real to its participants when players become comatose and a rare few reawaken to attempt to find out what's happening. A TV version is released separately from the PlayStation2 games and OVAs (packaged together).
ESRB Rated T (13+) -- contains violence

Counting all incarnations (DB, DBZ, and DBGT), a 400+ episode slugfest of superheroes and supervillains battling it out for galactic supremacy.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

Gainax twists the robot anime yet again. This time, a young boy finds strange things like robots and cat ears growing out of his head after being hit with an alien's electric bass, causing a spacial distortion where his brain used to be. Music by the Pillows.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence, sexual innuendo

A rogue military group works to defend a young high-school girl from kidnappers; governments are collecting people with special powers, called 'Whispered', but for what purpose?
Rated 12+ -- contains wartime violence, lingerie

Two friends reading a book find themselves linked to the ancient world described inside, and on opposite sides of a continental battle. Strong Neverending Story motif, without the flying muppets.
Rated 16+ -- contains violence, brief nudity

Young Tetsuro finds adventure and mystery aboard the intergalactic train 999 with the help of a beatiful companion, Maetel, that looks suspiciously like his mother.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

Two youths, Yushiro and Miharu, find themselves tangled in a web of military experiments and an encroaching horror from their pasts.
Rated 12+ -- contains wartime violence, language

The Hellsing Organization, a group of vampire hunters, kept secret since the founder's own dealings against the undead, use the help of an original vampire to clear the streets of the night crawlers.
Rated 16+ -- contains graphic violence

A high-school boy summons an ancient Go master from his grandfather's board and rises in rank and skill in the school club tournaments.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains material appropriate for all ages

Most military officers believe skill, military discipline, and strength are needed to win a war; they haven't met Captain Tylor.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains wartime violence

A mid-30s businessman is recruited to help save the galaxy in an interstellar battle; like a satire of Macross using heavy metal music, only his "groove" can power the ultimate weapon and save us all. Fair animation (digital) but better as the story progresses.
Rated 13+ -- contains wartime violence, brief nudity

Yukino and Arima share something special in high school; neither lives as they've worked so hard to appear: Yukino the perfect student with perfect vision who pulls all-night study sessions with glasses, and Arima the perfect student with a troubled family and past. A romance with that Gainax twist.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains (unknown)

The ultimate romantic love triangle; two beatiful girls in love (one blatanly, one secretly) with one boy who can't decide which girl he loves, even with his latent psychic powers.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains brief nudity

Keitaro made a promise years ago to attend Tokyo U with a young girl shortly before she moved away; now he's failing the entrance exams, his grandmother's hot springs apartment building that he now manages has turned into an all-girl's dorm, and one of the girls made a certain promise to a boy years ago.
Rated 13+ -- contains violence, bathing humor

Lupin III, a master thief (with a James Bond style) spans a long series of videos, movies, and TV appearances (again, just like Bond); based on French novels, trademark problems surrounding the name may make them listed as "Rupin" or simply "The Wolf".
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

Three girls who promised to never split up approach high school graduation and the ultimate test of that childhood promise, involving nature spirits that fuse with them to become giant robots defending (or against, depending on the version) an alternate universe.
Rated 12+ -- contains brief nudity, graphic violence

Reaching the final year of her "lifespan", a battle android is given the chance to follow her dream, as retiring from battle would extend her time. What better job after retiring than as a live-in maid for her former commander's teenaged son? But how can she deal with the enemy who isn't aware of her retired status?
Rated 15+ -- contains wartime violence, brief nudity

Yusaku can't seem to pass those college entrance exams, and is ready to pack it up and leave Tokyo; that is until he meets his new apartment manager and falls in love immediately. Unfortunately for them both, the rest of the apartment tennants love to make their lives hell.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains romantic hijinks

A sci-fi drama, a romatic comedy, a spoof of anime fandom, and a giant-robot show, all in one.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains wartime violence

Anime's answer to Indiana Jones; an archeaology professor with a wide-ranging past takes on investigations for Lloyds of London policy holders.
Rated 12+ -- contains violence

The giant-robots-in-battle series that never ends; 1979-2003 and counting.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains wartime violence, brief nudity

Based on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a French inventor helps a young circus performer in a quest to find the secrets of her past and her unusual pendant.
Rated 12+ -- contains violence

Shinji Ikari is called by his estranged father to pilot a huge robot against invading aliens; but what are his real reasons for piloting it?
Not Rated -- contains wartime violence, brief nudity

Two female assassins team up to find the secrets of their pasts; heavy similaries to a mix between Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita and Leon, the Professional.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

A young teenager finds himself in another world trying to rescue . . . nearly everyone. Easily the darkest of the AIC/Pioneer "high-school teen in an alternate world" series, and offers quite a few twists. Originally on satellite/cable TV rather than broadcast TV.
Rated 16+ -- contains graphic violence

Noah Izumi and her police cohorts save Tokyo from giant rogue robots with a set of their own giant robots in a realistic cops-and-robots series.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains mild violence

In a future where Tokyo is the only remaining city after an alien attack, a young boy finds a robot that he can somehow pilot and finds himself outside Tokyo -- in a world that runs under a different timescale and has secured Tokyo as the enemy.
Rated 12+ -- contains wartime violence

In the Anything Goes martial arts school, one needs to be ready for literally anything. But when Ranma and his father trek off to China in search of the ultimate training ground, without the benefit of knowing how to read Chinese, they fall into magical springs. Meet Ranma, who turns into a girl when splashed with cold water, and his father, who turns into a giant panda. Hot water reverses the spell, but not for long. . . .
Rated 13+ -- contains mild violence, nudity

In this school, rival clubs and gangs duke it out for funding the old fashioned way; they beat each other up. Enter a young girl obsessed with samurai movies and practicing kendo, a magical pendant that transports the wearer into another dimension, and a monster-of-the-week. Still, it's all in good fun, or is it?
Rated 13+ -- contains violence, lingerie

After meeting a price in her childhood, Utena had vowed to become a prince herself, to save damsels in distress, etc. Now in high school, she's found herself in the midst of a group trying to control a "Rose Bride", her friend.
Rated 13+ -- contains mild violence

A wandering ex-assassin, Kenshin Himura, vows never to kill again, but others just won't let the past fade so easily. TV is rated 13+; OVAs and Movie earn 17+ ratings by showing the assassin years.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains (TV) violence, (OVA/Movie) graphic violence

An oversleeping, overeating, crybaby junior-high student finds herself as a chosen warrior to fight against various monsters-of-the-week with the help of a few other girls (Sailors Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc.). One of the notorious "edited" shows for US TV; stick with the original Japanese unedited version.
Rated 15+ -- contains violence, sexual innuendo (in later series)

A shy man, Sakon, and his ventriloquist's doll, Ukon, work together to solve crimes in this animated thriller. Import-only currently.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

A shy girl gets an email from a deceased friend and finds herself drawn into the "wired" online world in a chase for sanity and reality.
Rated 16+ -- contains violence, suicides in early episodes

Shamans connect this world to the next; only a few can see the spirit world. Rivals battle it out to become Shaman King.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

The space-readied body of the famous WWII battleship and her young crew are Earth's last hope for survival; enemies become allies, and vice versa, in adventures across the universe.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains wartime violence

Exuding "style" and "coolness" in a pirate cape, sailing the "Sea of Stars" under his own flag, Harlock and his ship, the Arcadia, fight against oppression of all sorts.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains wartime violence

The people of Earth fight against an invading alien race with the aid of technology from an alien fortress, Macross, that crashed on Earth years ago.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains wartime violence, brief nudity

Poor guy, Tenchi has six alien girls move in with him to help save the galaxy--at least when they're not fighting each other over his affection.
Not Rated -- contains violence, brief nudity

Vash "The Stampede" has been credited with the destruction of many towns, but when a pair of insurance investigators follow him, the various bounty hunters fit his description more than he does.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

Classic episodic comedy series about an unlucky womanizing high-schooler, his human girlfriend, his bikini-clad alien fiancé, and much jealousy and hijinks.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains mild violence, brief nudity

Miyu, a mysterious young vampire, her silent partner, and a human exorcist battle the forces of the demon world.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains violence

High-school athlete Hitomi is transported to another world where robots and dragons fight against power-mad foes; but how will she get back home, and does she really want to?
Rated 13+ -- contains violence

Two childhood friends find themselves on opposite sides of fate in an apocalpytic fight for survival; the survival or destruction of themselves, of Tokyo, and perhaps of the Earth itself.
Rated 15+ -- contains graphic violence

Two young traffic officers deal with lawbreakers and office tension in this action (but nearly non-violent) series of cute girls, bumbling men, and the vehicles they all can't do without.
Unknown/multiple rating(s) -- contains mild violence