What is it: Teenage delinquent genius dives into the darkness of the mahjong world, fighting masters of the game in intense battles of wits.
My experience with it: Powerran the whole series in a week. This is unheard of for me. Top rating.
Why watch it: For the mental thrills as Akagi satisfies your inner Just As Planned fan with his intricate traps and strategies. Also to learn mahjong.

What is it: Bare-bones, basic harem visual novel. One guy, his sister, his rich fiance, and a bunch of other irrelevant girls. Comedy … and … uh, romance … ensue.
My experience with it: Mystery Anime Theater’d about 5 episodes before not being able to bear it anymore.
Why watch it: You hate yourself, you’re a bigger harem whore than I am, or you like siscon (maybe, even Stripey rejected this).

What is it: Super relaxing anime about everything and nothing, by a bunch of gondoliers in Futuristic Venice.
My experience with it: Watched about 4 episodes, didn’t feel a drive to continue, but still vow to someday.
Why watch it: It makes the world wonderful, so I’ve heard. And it is quite relaxing.

What is it: Something shoujo, with a nice setup, from what I remember.
My experience with it: Watched one episode, really wanted to watch more, didn’t.
Why watch it: I’ll tell you when I get back to this – but I -will- get back to this.

What is it: Visual novel, psychological-esque. Should have been Higurashi but is really more action-based with a touch of mindscrew.
My experience with it: Watched 8 episodes and struggling to care enough to watch the rest.
Why watch it: You like cute girls, and you like not understanding things. Then you decide to watch Higurashi instead of this. I guess, if you want to be messed with, but not in a serious way. It’s decent.

What is it: Key. That’s all you really need to know. Moe moe sad girls in stuff. Lots of tears and whatnot.
My experience with it: Watched first season, halfway through second and continuing strong.
Why watch it: After Story (after sucky arcs) goes into territory very few romance anime do. Can play a mean slice-of-life anime as well as the standard romance / crying genres. Lots of adorable girls, plus Kyou, who I suppose is hot.

What is it: That one show everyone except me watched and cried ‘trainwreck’ at.
My experience with it: Friend sat me down in front of a computer and made me watch 2 episodes. I’m neutral.
Why watch it: So the internet won’t kill you. I don’t know. I haven’t experienced enough of it.

What is it: Sequel to a harem visual novel, FIFTY YEARS IN THE FUTURE, with new, lamer girls derived from the original cast. The loli is still teh same age, though.
My experience with it: Watched about 3 episodes, got headache, fell asleep, never went back.
Why watch it: To get to the second alphabet-soup-titled season (D.C.I.I SS), because you like siscon (Does this apply? It’s Da Capo, after all). The first one (and even D.C.S.S.) is superior, in any case.

What is it: Pretentious artsy visual-novel-type story, featuring many parallel stories of troubled people falling in love. Angst, love, tears, blood, has it all.
My experience with it: Hung on its every word for 24 blissful episodes. A+++ would rewatch again, probably will soon.
Why watch it: Some of the best ‘going insane’ scenes around, absolutely emotionally wrecking moments, a unique feel. It’s like Nike. Just do it.

What is it: Some horribly typical visual-novel type anime where some implausibly cute girl crashes into a guy’s home with the excuse that ’she has to marry him’.
My experience with it: Watched one episode to kill time. Still felt like a waste.
Why watch it: You’re a REALLY big harem whore. Well, at least it’s only half-length, so you might not hurt yourself as bad as Akasaka.

What is it: Beautiful Makoto Shinkai movie, featuring three stories (in chronological order) of romance, as a youth, as a teenager, and as an adult.
My experience with it: Watched it once, was enraptured. Watched it twice, was enraptured. Wrote confusing posts.
Why watch it: It’s downright sexy, and downright brilliant in terms of inspiring emotion. A must-see if you’ve ever been in love. A good story, with a good message. It’s not cliche, either.

What is it: Manly manliness filled with manly. Manly sniper guy manly snipes people and makes manly love to many women (who are not manly)
My experience with it: Watched one episode, laughed at abridged version of said episode, played old 1999 arcade game.
Why watch it: It’s fluff, but not stupid fluff. It’s manly fluff, for when you need a quick kick in the pants.

See Code Geass, except I’ve only seen one episode.

What is it: Dramatic visual novel conversion that starts of fanservicey and ends up mindscrewy. Some romance, some drama, some tears, and one LSD-induced episode in the middle.
My experience with it: Watched it, praised it, wrote about it again in the 12 Days.
Why watch it: You want something different than the standard harem or crying visual novel anime, but you also want something familiar. You’re willing to accept a little pain in return for a lot of entertainment.

See Gurren Lagann, except I watched all of it, was asleep during half of it, and understand quite little other than I really don’t hate it, and it’s probably good.

What is it: The cutest shonen romance fluff out there. About an rich otaku girl and an ordinary guy who fall in love and do cute romantic things.
My experience with it: Watched all of it, loved the first half, hated the second half.
Why watch it: You want something simplistic that can still melt your heart (then you watch the first half), i.e. F***ING HAND HOLDING

What is it: Groundhog Day with cute girls that kill each other every 4 episodes … uh … intense psychological anime slash murder mystery with side of moe.
My experience with it: Watched both seasons nonstop for a month. Loved it.
Why watch it: It’s practically one of a kind, it kind of actually makes sense at the end, it’s thrilling and never lets go of you, it’s familiar with moe, yet unfamiliar with the mindscrewing. Also nii~pah! nano desu.

What is it: One of them Miyazaki films, a little bit of a fantasy and a little bit of romance.
My experience with it: Watched it once. Didn’t get it.
Why watch it: Not really sure, honestly I didn’t like this one as much as some of his other works.

What is it: Sparkly shoujo stuff. Lowly girl falls in love with the school’s top guy; coincidences put the two under the same roof. Love and learning ensue.
My experience with it: Watched halfway fervently. Kind of stopped. Slowly working way through rest of show.
Why watch it: They freaking get married halfway through. How cool is that? (sorry, spoilers) Also, quite empowering and occasionally amusing. Shipper central for side characters.

It’s yaoi. I tried.

I hope there are better examples of yaoi out there. Or just maybe, I’m not the target audience, duh.

What is it: Down-on-his-luck delinquent gets roped into series of increasingly implausible and increasingly awesome gambles. Manly mindgames and manly tears ensue.
My experience with it: Watched all of it, twice.
Why watch it: See Akagi, except with a little more humanness and tears. Also, really cool gambles that I want to play someday (but not Brave Men Road).

bloody hell this list is too long, go ask Baka-Raptor or Jason Miao, I only watched one episode of this generic manly + fanservice thing

What is it: That one show with the dancing OP and that F***ING SLUT THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN IMPLIED TO NOT BE VIRGIN, HOW DARE THAT WHORE THINK ABOUT HAVING SEX IN THE 1000 YEARS OF HER LIFE
My experience with it: Watched 4 episodes, didn’t hate it but preferred Toradora.
Why watch it: For amusing fandom meltdowns. Also it’s a fairly solid slice-of-life, with good animation and characters.

What is it: Way old-school shoujo anime about two ‘perfect’ facades of people, discovering their true selves (also a bunch of side characters).
My experience with it: Read lots of the manga, watched 1 episode of the anime.
Why watch it: The manga is quite intriguing and features a wide and varied cast of developed characters. The anime is by Gainax (hey remember, they did Eva)

Furry porn about shota Mamiko Noto getting raped, as far as I understand.

What is it: Super-dramatic anime about the irreversible passage of time and what it does to people who get hit by cars, and their significant other, and their friends who have feelings for their significant other.
My experience with it: Watched all of it, felt sort of a dull thud at the end.
Why watch it: Ayu and Mayu theater is cool, fairly unique in being very dramatic, but not to a trainwreck fashion.

What is it: Vanilla romance anime about two guys and four girls, falling in love. No gimmicks, no magical AIDS, just romance.
My experience with it: “YUUMI FIGHTO” GOES IN ALL FIELDS
Why watch it: It’s beautiful in its plainness, final pairings are relatively unpredictable, nearly every girl is likable, inspires you to crazy shipper ranting

What is it: Not pedophilia. I’m serious.
My experience with it: Read a lot of the manga, watched one episode of the anime.
Why watch it: Read the manga. It’s an one-of-a-kind story about a child growing up that doesn’t try to hide the darker truths of life (although it doesn’t hide her panties either most of the time). Every character has a story.

What is it: Slice-of-life about a high-class little girl that fled from her old, constrained lifestyle, and how she learns about the real world around her.
My experience with it: Watched it. Liked it.
Why watch it: It’s above-average slice-of-life, that’s funny, touching, and included action. Very solid all round, plus a musical episode and a slightly surprising ending.

What is it: The relaxing feel of an Aria, and the sweetness of a Haruka Nogizaka romance, meet a visual novel story.
My experience with it: Marathoned it on a long train ride.
Why watch it: It’s very soothing, yet not sleep-inducing. A nice relaxing story about two people drifting together, as well as a bunch of other people they help.

It’s like Akagi, but less awesome, because there’s no cool gambles or dramatic mindgames. As far as I know.

MASSUGU GO!

Pretty cool slice-of-life with an awesome OP, but otherwise I don’t remember much, other than “they’re not lolis, seriously”. I would watch more of it than the one episode I did, but I never made time.

What is it: That other shoujo anime/manga about two people who suddenly begin living under the same roof and become attracted to each other. It’s way retro also.
My experience with it: Read all of the manga, watched first 3 discs of anime.
Why watch it: It’s retro; circa-1994 anime is awesome on a 54″ TV. Not a bad story, and as always with shoujo, a good-sized cast. Decent.

There’s a post here.

yeah I’m lazy, and this post is unprofessional

What is it: Slice-of-life about three sisters and the people they know from school. Cross-dressing, bear-throwing, fish-fondling antics ensue.
My experience with it: Watched first-season and about half of second. Plan to pick up third season.
Why watch it: It’s fairly amusing, and fun to watch. I miss “SENSEI!” and “NINOMIYA-KUN!” It feels above average, in terms of comedy, even if the second season is a bit of a letdown.

What is it: That one show I keep screaming “WATCH IT BECAUSE NOBODY DOES”; sequel to Code-E, with more action, slick instrumentals, and cute yet strong girls.
My experience with it: Watched about half of it; need to watch more. Made abortive attempt at fansubbing it.
Why watch it: It’s a bit fluffy, but it’s a good mix of fluff; some romance, some slice-of-life, some action. Should appeal to guys and girls. Chinami is ultra mega moe.

What is it: Miyazaki crack, i.e. slice-of-life with CATBUS~
My experience with it: Watched at 2 AM with friends after watching Five Centimeters Per Second. Shouted CATBUS~ a lot.
Why watch it: CATBUS~ It’s a good watch if you need to pick an anime movie, although not much is etched into my mind from it.

What is it: High-quality slice-of-life slash romance about a bunch of music students at university, and their dreams and lives.
My experience with it: Watched first season and loved it, didn’t quite touch Pari-hen.
Why watch it: Chiaki is awesome, Nodame is awesome, supporting cast is awesome. Everyone is funny yet well-developed. Excellent show.

It’s Akagi-esque mindgame madness, but with BASEBALL. And it makes baseball entertaining. It’s really good.

You’re kidding me I’m only in the P’s and the post is this long? Oh well.

Some fanservice-esque fluff that aired on Nico.

What is it: Half-length romance-of-life about a voice actress, her press agent (I think?), and their lives together. Or something.
My experience with it: Watched half of this half show. Made a good workout video.
Why watch it: It’s really only 4 episodes long, when you add it up, so it won’t hurt. Otherwise I’m pretty much entirely neutral on this.

What is it: British black humor on crack.
My experience with it: Watched all of first season, about 75% of Zoku. Saving the rest for a day where I need to go crazy.
Why watch it: It’s off the wall, ADHD crazy, with more references than you know what to do with. Can make a 25 minute episode last 40. Brilliant and unique.

OK, so I kind of still like SRZ, but I still want to say it, despite only reading about the last 30 chapters (plus the 8 books out in the States) …

What the hell kind of ending was that?!

Otherwise, rom-com anime that’s funny and a good watch to pass the time. Seen about 10 episodes.

What is it: Green-haired girl derails show full of action and magical fighting.
My experience with it: Watched it. Did not watch first season.
Why watch it: It does get good (although I did talk to people who liked Konoe as well). It’s a simple watch, and fun especially if you can stand Rie Kugimiya tsunderes. The songs are nice and the action is strong.

What is it: Magical girl anime about a girl struggling to find her true self (as well as all the relevant people in the story around her). It’s romantic, it’s funny, and it has beamspam.
My experience with it: Watched to about episode 43, stopped, got to about episode 50 in one day, became Kairi and Nagehiko fanboy.
Why watch it: Channels the spirit of Cardcaptor Sakura at times, even if there is a lot of filler. A shipper’s heaven. Lots of likable characters.

Number two to ItaKiss *rimshot* (watched about 15 episodes)

What is it: A very well-animated movie about a girl who recieves the power to leap backwards in time, and how she uses it to influence her everyday life.
My experience with it: Was screened in my dorm lounge one night, and then the file corrupted at about the 50 minute mark. So I’m half done with a movie. ;_;
Why watch it: It’s a story of growing up and maturity, all in the chronological frame of a few days (or weeks). It’s touching and enveloping, but has a funny side.

Yes, this is a manga, but I don’t care! It’s a manga with a topic I haven’t seen before and Keima is the strangest – yet coolest – type of Intelligently GAR Character I’ve seen in a long time.

“The Quality of a Little Sister BMW”, for crying out loud. The rant titles are exceptional.

It’s a manga about visual novels. It’s brilliantly meta, yet still touches a lot of those same buttons.

Index is quite cute, and I still say moreso than Kannagi.

But even though the OP is sexy in HD, I only watched about 3 episodes of this before putting it too down in favor of Toradora.

Everyone says this is either 1) a poor Shana or 2) tl;dr hell anyway, although I should like it for the second part if my posts are any indicator

More fanservice stuff, except less fanservice. Well, still a lot. But it gets absolutely crushed by Kanokon, fanservice-wise.

It was useful for that Fanservice Fight post at least; I want another season full of horrible anime so I can do that again.

Toradora post is this way orz this post is too long and I didn’t do a “serious” recap for the last 4 series now.

What is it: Shonen meets shoujo. “Library War”, a girl fights (literally) to protect the books she cares about.
My experience with it: Watched half way, pronounced it better than ItaKiss and Special A, then forgot about it. Should watch more.
Why watch it: Romance meets action in a great fusion. It’s enjoyable in both ways, and has a few moments of unpredictably (nothing like getting asked out at the end of a firefight)

What is it: Romance story with beautiful animation. A guy, his sister who’s not really his sister, and a crazy chicken girl (oh and Ai or whoever), in a performance that far outdoes this synopsis.
My experience with it: Been there, watched it, wrote the post.
Why watch it: It’s the best show I remember nearly nothing about. It’s a visual novel anime, except more compact, more realistic, and perhaps more intruiging than the norm.

What is it: Anime that attacks your horrible hikikomori ways with dark humor.
My experience with it: Watched it – DUBBED! *gasp*
Why watch it: It attacks your horrible hikikomori ways, Yamazaki is fairly amusing and can even be badass in his otaku-tude, everyone is screwed up but learns from it.