How about:

The Sea Prince and the Fire Child/Shiriusu no Densetsu - This is a great 1980-81 anime movie retelling the story of Romeo and Juliet, well, not literally Romeo and Juliet but rather the "star-crossed lovers" type of story. The story is reflected perfectly in the english title, a Sea Prince falls in love Fire Child, and of course their parents disapprove of their love. War is called, etc. It is a fairly obvious story, but it is told quite well (a timeless story always helps :)), with a decent American or Japanese dub (I have not seen a subtitled copy) and some great early 80s animation (the water and fire effects in some scenes are particularly nice), and some very nice character designs. I strongly recommend this movie especially considering that this was one of the first true anime movies to find its way to the states.

Sadly enough, this anime is hard to find on Region 1 DVD, somewhat eaiser for VHS, but ultimately eaisest to find on Region 2 DVD.

Geneshaft was really good
Le Portrait de Petit Cossette is also good

This is definitely a great thread for people to widen their horizons, but I'm in DESPAIR that no one would mention Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu.

I can't say for the japanese audience but Baccano!, Hataraki Man and Moyashimon are quite unknown i think among the international anime fans. Not exactly masterpiece or high quality production but great none the less.

Will have to check Bartender out.

One animei don't see taked about much in the English-speaking community is Ojamajo Doremi. It was rather popular in Japan, lasting four seasons, two theatrical movies, and a 13-episode OVA and is still being shown in some Spanish-speaking countries. Unfortunately, it fell into the hands of 4Kids here and...you know what that means. :/

Anyway, the show is about a girl, Doremi, and her friends who discover the identity of a witch and must become witches themselves. Although it is a magical girl series, it differs from others in that most use of the magic is not to combat some sort of evil that threatens them but rather used to solve their everyday problems, but not all the time. It's rather charming, but it may turn off some people who perhaps are looking for something a little more serious. Although there is supposed to me a musical motif, it's rather subtle and unimportant, but it shows inthe soundtrack, which I find to be excellent. It's also one of those rare series that gets better with each season. I've only seen up to the second but was blown away by it's ending, so I'm expcting great things from what's left.

...I should stop trying to promote this show everywhere I go. ^.^;

Touch is an anime that at one point earned the highest ratings an anime has ever gotten in Japan both before and after, but is almost completely unkown in the United States. It's highly recommended as a sincere romance/comedy/drama/baseball series with likable, good characters.

I think people are put off by Touch because of.. err, the age perhaps (i.e. animation style), and maybe the common synopsis. I dont really know if its unknown or not. Still, I'm most definetly going to second this, because, to put it simply, its stellar ratings are there for a reason.

Someone else mentioned Noein a page or so earlier, and I have to agree with that ( if people really dont know about it that is - I had no clue though). That anime made my head spin ( in a good way )

Certainly that would be expected due to age, but it seems to be less known than the other classics, like Maison Ikkoku, as well. Both Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road, contemporaries of Touch, have had English DVD releases while it seems hardly anything Touch-wise is available officially on this side of the world, which irritates/baffles me quite a bit.

even though it was mentioned earlier i'd say Black Heaven is an underrated anime

I replied to this thread a long time ago, but I'll add in Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas--its nothing amazing, but its a fun little story. I enjoyed it quite a bit for what it was. It isn't something normally I can plug--the story is enough off the mainstream there's never a really good time to suggest it to someone--it just too far off the beaten path.

Gargoyle is a good choice. I'd also add Potemayo, Petopeto-san and Oh! Edo Rocket.

hmm, people are suggesting a lot of good ones.
I'll suggest some that were aired recently/currently that I think very few people know on this forum. There are all internet streams.

Fireball - This is a short CG anime by Toei & Disney of Japan.
Genre: Comedy
Summary: In a distant future, Drossel (robot/heroine) and her massive mechanical cyclopian servant Gedächtnis are besiege by humanity which seems to be in some epic war. But the Drossel seems a bit clueless to how serve the situation is and has very random idle conversations with her servant.


Tentai Senshi Sunred
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Basically you have a Japanese Tokusatu super hero named Sunred. His mission is to protect the city of Kanagawa from the evil organisation Florsheim. But in reality, Sunred is just too badass. He is so much more powerful than any monster the organization brings that he stopped wearing his super hero uniform and walks around in his Tee-shirt, shorts, and sandals. He doesn't work at all and bums off his girlfriend, playing panchinko with the allowance she gives him. But for me the kicker is, the evil organization Florsheim while plotting to kill Red and take over the world, is quite nice, has a great reputation in the neighborhood, and the antagonist General Vamp become fairly good friends with Red's GF even giving her advice with general household needs.


イヴの時間 (Time of Eve)
Genre: Sci-Fi
Summary: Humanity has pretty much perfected making androids. Many of these androids are marketed and used as personal assistants for people to use. However, there are many who dislike this integration of technology as the androids look too human. The society's standpoint is this technology should be treated any differently than any other household appliance. The law even demands all androids project a holographic command ring/halo over their heads to differentiated them from "people." The story follows Rikuo whose family owns one droid named "Sammy." While reviewing Sammy's activation log, he comes across a strange command/phrase "Are you enjoying the Time of Eve?" Following GPS record of where Sammy went, Rikuo comes across a cafe named "The Time of Eve." With each visit to this unique cafe, Rikuo begins to question his own understanding of what being "human" is.


Since I saw this mentioned...
Byousoku 5 Centimeter ... If this is not considered well known on this forum then I also recommend She and Her Cat and Voices of a Distant Star. Hell, I'm a sucker for Makoto Shinkai's works, but really are these not that well known?

Let's go with Flanders no Inu (1997). I must say, for something where I know what will happen, it amazed me. The way it was presented, going beyond the novel, was truly fantastic and should be a must-watch for all.

Among currently-airing shows, I'd point to Kemono no Souja Erin. (I only started watching this thanks to a big heads-up from TinyRedLeaf!) Episodes of Erin have quickly attained "must-watch" status both for me and for SeijiSensei no musume. Erin is a great young heroine in a poignant and compelling story from the author of Seirei no Moribito, Uehashi Nakoho. The presentation may seem "juvenile" at times, especially for a show from Production I.G, but it's appropriate to the story and its intended audience. Despite the audience the story is anything but juvenile.

Are Toki o Kakeru Shoujo, Tonari no Totoro, Mimi o Sumaseba, Aria, Hotaru no Haka, Planetes, Mononoke Hime, Kaleido Star, Natsume Yuujinchou, xxxHolic, Tsumiki no Ie already listed or very well known? Kemono no Souja Erin will have same obscurity as most excellent series aimed at a niche with low viewership have. I only picked it up after accidently reading Uehashi Nakoho's name in its synopsis posted on Anidb.

I'll go out on a limb and say Ginban Kaleidoscope. I've seen it mentioned a few times on these boards but overall it doesn't seem to be very widespread sadly.

Toki o Kakeru Shoujo, Aria, Mononoko Hime, Natsume Yuujunchou (perhaps), and xxxholic are pretty well known. Not sure on the popularity of the other Ghibli films (Mononoko Hime and Spirited Away are even popular with people who do not watch a lot of anime)

I'll agree with Touch not being well known. The only reason I began watching it is because of Cross Game

I'm going to say Future Boy Conan is not that popular of a series.

And I would say it has had its share of veiwership at its time and a nice timeslot. Its still at large in countries around the world and has been translated into many languages. For most, I was just going by frequency of an individual recommending those animes on the forum and sometimes number of posts made on the thread.

On the topic of Ghibli, Whisper of the Heart is one of their most satisfying and wonderful films but is far less known compared to their epic stories like Spirited Away. Just try to watch it and not finish with a smile on your face.