Oh, mercy's sakes anime music is wonderful.
Listening to a good soundtrack from a great anime is an easy way to remember the emotions stirred up when watching the show. Plus it's often in another language so you won't get bothered by lame love song lyrics!
I've seen a lot of anime but my top 5 is similar to a lot of people's:
1.
Cowboy Bebop (TV and the Movie). Yoko Kanno already proved herself awesome with Macross Plus... with the addition of her and The Seatbelts,
Cowboy Bebop went from an excellent anime to a masterpiece.
2.
Noir - Like CB I think this anime was majorly helped by the music. Hearing Yuki Kajiura in concert at the last AX was so unbelieveably cool, too.
3.
My Neighbor Totoro - You're not a real anime fan unless you can sing the opening and closing songs, plus hum all of the BGM. "
Arukou! Arukou... Watashi wa, genki! ..."
4.
Kodomo no Omocha - Oh this anime rocked, and the music kicked ass! Even Sana's improvised raps were mighty good!
5.
Ranma 1/2 - For sheer numbers of songs, this anime had enough good ones to make it into the top 5. "Ranma to Akane no Barado" (OVA version) still gives me goose bumps after listening to it for almost a decade.
O'course there's plenty more anime's that deserve a mention:
Jungle wa Itsumo always gets me out of my chair and dancing like a maniac,
Tenchi Muyo (original) Pioneer did a phenomenal job on this anime,
Mahou Tsukai Tai OVAs,
Porco Rosso,
The Ping Pong Club,
Macross, Macross Plus, Macross 7,
Akira,
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku,
Ah! Megami Sama!,
Di Gi Charat,
Sakura Wars,
Shamanic Princess,
St. Luminous Mission High School,
Laputa,
Yawara,
Sailor Moon,
Piano,
Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar, and
Chibi Maruko. That last one has a remarkably creative soundtrack for such a mild anime.
-k