King of Braves GaoGaiGar
On a winter night, a mysterious mechanical lion came flying in front of a married couple, carrying a mysterious baby with it. As they took the baby in, the lion left them in confusion. About 7 years later, the space shuttle Spirits, in which high school astronaut Guy Shishioh is a passenger, collides with an unknown object bound to Earth. Despite being mortally wounded, he is rescued by the same mysterious lion and returns to Earth. In his hand, he holds a mysterious green jewel as Leo Shishioh uses it to revive Gai into a cyborg.

Two years later in 2005, the mysterious baby under the care of the Amami couple, now named Mamoru, is living his life normally. This until the mysterious group known as Zonders begin their invasion of Earth. As a response, the Earth Defense Brigade Gutsy Geoid Guard, or GGG, was organized to fight against the Zonders. In an attack by the Zonders, the mysterious boy encountered Guy, who is now a member of GGG. Equipped with the green jewel, known as G-Stone, he becomes the pilot of the lion robot that saved him. Named Galeon, he fuses with it alongside 3 assist vehicles created by GGG to become the giant robot GaoGaiGar. After the battle against one of the Zonders, GGG discovered that Mamoru can purify people who became Zonders and wondered about his origins and how it was linked to the appearance of the Zonders.

--A STRONG contender for my favorite anime period, Gaogaigar is the final entry of what's known as the Brave Saga, a collection of series aired between 1990 and 1998 based on toys made by Takara, who also made Transformers. Each series is unconnected except that each one is about Brave Heroes (and sentient giant robots. Lions are often featured in some way also.) Sharing a universe with Betterman, (which is another show I'd forgotten about, see below), Gaogaigar has proven to be much more popular than the others, with a sequel OAV series (GaoGaiGar FINAL, which also had a TV re-edit Grand Glorious Gathering) and a manga light novel and sequel King of Kings: Gaogaigar vs Betterman, along with being a perennial favorite in Super Robot Wars ever since @lpha 2. If you like hot blooded yelling, the power of COURAGE, and the letter G Gaogaigar is the way to go. And Discotek is bringing the entire series to America (finally) in winter 2023! In the meantime, a long, long out of print dub exists of the first 25 episodes, with the rest of the series subbed, by Media Blasters, apparently. If you can acquire copies before then though, please give it a watch! Then buy the blurays, because it's worth it.

Betterman
The year is 2006, a series of seemingly random terrorist attacks rock the globe. Dubbed "Algernon", normal people suffer psychotic breaks and begin murdering everyone around them - often in profoundly disturbing fashion. In the wake of traditional law enforcement's failure to turn up any link between these incidents, a private contractor known as Akamatsu Industries is brought in to explore if Algernon is a disease, an unknown terrorist group, or even more exotic possibilities.

Meanwhile, a mysterious mass fatal accident occurred while preparing for the opening ceremony at the geofront type underground amusement park "Bottom the World". Asami Toko of the Algernon research institute "Modi Warp" who visited the investigation with the authorities, concluding that the accident was caused by Algernon. Around the same time, high school student Keita Aono accidentally stumbles inside the prototype Neuronoid Kakuseijin 01 in which is piloted by a girl named Hinoki Sai, his childhood friend he hasn't seen in years, and on board the cockpit as a rare "Dual Kind" head diver. In their exploration in the "Bottom the World" in hopes for them to escape, they both find out the mystery behind the Algernon phenomenon and the mysteries surrounding the mysterious man named Lamia who is classified as a "Betterman".

--This one is much closer to horror, or perhaps psychological thriller-horror, than anything else. It's been a long time since I watched it, and I wasn't super into it at the time, but not because of quality issues, it just wasn't super my bag back when I watched it...probably around the early 2000s. Apparently this was the first anime aired in widescreen (Though letterboxed).

Record of Lodoss War
Record of Lodoss War recounts the adventures of a youth by the name of Parn, the son of a dishonored knight. Part of his motivation for adventuring is to find out what happened to his father, and to restore his family's honor. Despite his inexperience, Parn is considered the leader, who is accompanied by his childhood best friend Etoh, his friend and sometimes advisor Slayn (and later by Slayn's lover Leylia), and his newfound mentor Ghim. They are accompanied by Parn's romantic interest, the high elf Deedlit, who comes from the Forest of No Return seeking an answer to her people's isolationism and an end to what she sees as a slow march to extinction; and a thief named Woodchuck. Throughout the series, Parn comes into contact with friends and foes alike. His allies include King Kashue, King Fahn, Shiris, and Orson; his enemies include Emperor Beld, Ashram, and the evil necromancer Wagnard.

--A classic, there's not a lot I can say about it, as it's been...25 years or so since I've seen it, and I don't remember if I saw all of it even then.

Bubblegum Crisis(This is the closest it has to an 'opening theme'.)
The series begins in late 2032, seven years after the Second Great Kanto earthquake has split Tokyo geographically and culturally in two and it also forced the United States of America to annexed Japan in the legitimate name of keeping the peace and from it descending into anarchy . During the first episode, disparities in wealth are shown to be more pronounced than in previous periods in post-war Japan. The main adversary is Genom, a megacorporation with immense power and global influence. Its main product are boomers—artificial cybernetic life forms that are usually in the form of humans, with most of their bodies being machine; also known as "cyberoids". While Boomers are intended to serve mankind, they become deadly instruments in the hands of ruthless individuals. The AD Police (Advanced Police) are tasked to deal with Boomer-related crimes.

--I shouldn't need to say much about this one here, but still, here it is. The ORIGINAL one, not BGC 2040, which I feel is a bad knockoff at best and completely nonsensical at worst. I will include Bubblegum Crash, however, which I actually did enjoy. For those who don't know, this is an 8 episode OAV series (11 when you include the 3 episode 'Bubblegum Crash' sequel)

Iria: Zeiram: The Animation
The story begins with Iria as an apprentice to her older brother, Gren, a veteran bounty hunter, and his partner Bob, who work for Ghomvak Security along with a somewhat loutish hunter named Fujikuro. During a rescue mission to a hijacked spaceship called the Karma, they discover that the hijacker is actually a seemingly indestructible alien called Zeiram that broke out of the cargo hold during transit and began to massacre the crew. Bob is critically wounded by Zeiram while evacuating the survivors, and Gren is lost while attempting to kill Zeiram by destroying the Karma. Returning to Myce, Iria finds herself targeted by assassins working for Tedan Tippedai, the corporation that owned the Karma, and discovers a covered-up plot to control Zeiram in order to use it as a weapon. Iria escapes with the help of Fujikuro and reunites with Bob, who never recovered from his injuries but had his mind downloaded into a computer program. Together they continue to investigate rumours that Zeiram has appeared on Myce, and try to find out what happened to Gren, who also seems to have survived the Karma's destruction....

--A prequel anime to the live action Tokusatsu Zeiram movies, I love this show for it's unique stylings and the strange organic mushroomy-feudal-japany technology.

Excel Saga
Believing the World to be corrupt, the secret organization Across plans to conquer the world. The first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. Across consists of the leader of the organization, Il Palazzo, and his young adult officers: the enthusiastic and energetically devoted Excel and the soft-spoken Hyatt, who is prone to fainting and losing lots of blood at a time. Excel and Hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dog Menchi, who they have deemed their emergency food supply. Excel and Hyatt are later joined by a snobbish but equally clueless rival officer of Across named Elgala.

--Ah, Excel Saga. Chaos. The anime takes a slightly different turn from the manga, in that it's the anime staff forcing the original author to approve different genre shifts or gimmicks every episode.

Hinamatsuri
Yoshifumi Nitta, a mid-level Yakuza of the Ashikawa-gumi, finds his normal life thrown into chaos when a girl from the future literally drops on his head without warning. Knowing nothing more than her name, Hina, and the fact that she has incredible psychokinetic powers, Yoshifumi reluctantly becomes her de facto father. However, Hina's arrival sets off a chain reaction of events that affects everyone in the city, especially after more girls from the future arrive to bring her back or terminate her.

--Hinamatsuri is more chaos. It's really hard to describe these comedic shows, but I really do find the ones I'm recommending funny.

That's all I can think of for now. If I can think of more, or I get reminded of them, I'll either edit this main post or reply with another batch. (EDIT to replace an incorrect video)

--This show is extremely bawdy and highkey horny, though it's mostly two of the girls who are the horny ones, having essentially no filter. Partly I assume, from being an all girls school until recently and not seeing any difference between talking about these...personal topics...with guys as girls. And now they have an actual boy to ask questions of, joke around with, and generally sexually harass, While Tsuda would generally rather they please have some decorum.

Top wo Neare! Gunbuster
In the future, a race of insectoid aliens, known as the Uchuu Kaijuu or Space Monsters , seem dedicated to the eradication of humans as the latter takes its first steps away from the Solar System, and they are getting closer and closer to Earth. Humanity has responded by developing space-going battleships and giant fighting robots. These complex robots—RX-7 Machine Weapons—are actually an advanced type of fighting suit, piloted by a single occupant. As advanced as they are, however, they are being used as trainers for a new weapon, the Gunbuster. Pilot candidates are selected from the best and brightest youth on Earth and the Lunar colony. These are trained at schools around the world.

In the year 2023, six years after the first battles with the aliens (the actual battle started in the year 2015 however due to time dilation, two years went by on Earth by the end of the battle), and centers on young Noriko Takaya. Although Noriko's father was a famous admiral in the space fleet who went missing following one of the first battles of the war, her own talents as a pilot are questionable—especially when compared to the other students. Nonetheless, she has entered a training school on Okinawa, where she is largely influenced by her instructor, Kōichirō Ōta ("Coach Ōta"), who was one of Admiral Takaya's crew. He has faith that she will overcome her early clumsiness, while other students are critical of her inability, referring to Noriko as the "daughter of defeat".

--Seriously how did I forget friggin Gunbuster

Diebuster/Gunbuster 2
op o Nerae 2! Diebuster follows the story of Nono, a country girl who dreams of becoming a space pilot (or, to be more precise, "like Nonoriri", the meaning of which is revealed as the series progresses) who, due to a chance encounter with an actual space pilot, finds herself becoming part of the elite Fraternity. Made up of teenage pilots called Topless, and armed with quasi-humanoid weapons called Buster Machines, the Fraternity's mission is to protect the people of the Solar System from attack by swarms of space monsters.

The series revolves around Nono's quest to become like Nonoriri, her relationship with Lal'C Mellk Mal, the first Topless she meets whom she immediately idolizes (to the point of calling her onee-sama, or big sister), and the hard work she believes she has to do to be "worthy" of Lal'C's attention. It also explores her interactions with the rest of the Idols, her efforts to fit in and, ultimately, the truth to her forgotten past.

--And what kind of monster would I be to suggest Gunbuster but not it's sequel, Diebuster?

Project A-Ko (as an OAV series there is no real opening for Project A-Ko)
An alien space craft crashes into Graviton City, wiping out the entire population and leaving a massive crater where the city is rebuilt. Students A-ko Magami, a perky, fun-loving red-haired, sailor-suited teenage girl, and her best friend C-ko Kotobuki, a bubbly, carefree optimist, enter a new year of school as transfer students at the all-girls Graviton High School. Although A-ko possesses superhuman speed and strength, she considers herself an average teenager. She mostly worries about getting to school on time, due to her habit of chronically oversleeping her alarm clock each morning. The pair catch the unwanted attention of B-ko Daitokuji, a rich, snobbish, spoiled, and brilliant fellow student.

--This was the first anime that I ever watched that I was fully aware was anime. I'd seen other stuff previously - Astroboy, Robotech, Kimba the White Lion, Voltron, but they were simply different-looking cartoons to me until this series. Much like Gunbuster, most of everyone here is already at least somewhat aware of this show, but I'm still going to come out and suggest you all watch it, if you can. I won't link it here, but I found the whole first OAV just on Youtube. I suspect that may be the only place to watch it at this time, unless you can find it elsewhere, like Archive.org.

It's been a while, but I think the running gag with Hyatt isn't just that she tends to faint, it's that she dies a lot (and then inexplicably comes back to life).

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Later, Mitsuki realizes she cannot wait any longer to fulfill her dream, so she runs away from home and the shinigami to try to audition for a singing competition. She moves Takuto to agree to a compromise: if Mitsuki promises to go quietly when her year is done, he would help her become a singer, so she could leave the world with no regrets. Takuto gives her the ability to transform into a 16-year-old, so that she could meet the age requirements of the audition and sing without hindrance. Mitsuki wins over the judges with her excellent voice and her enthusiasm for singing, sealing a contract with Seed Records. To conceal her true identity, she chooses the stage name "Full Moon".

--That whole writeup happens in the first two or three out of fifty episodes, so I felt okay copying the whole bit from Wikipedia. This one should have been under either Fantasy or Romance. While there's a Magical Girl aspect, it's only in the transformation of growing several years. This show is...shockingly dramatic and I personally like it a *lot*. The trials and tribulations of being a singer are great, especially when you need to sneak out from under the nose of your angry extremely traditional and somewhat Grinch-like grandmother to do so.

Mitsuboshi Colors
Set in Ueno, the series follows three elementary school girls named Yui, Sat-chan and Kotoha, who form an organization known as "The Colors". Together, they perform various deeds and errands to protect the peace in their town.

--Should have been under Miscellaneous, Healing, or Comedy, Colors is a slice of life show about a trio of little girls mostly just playing around, harassing the local police officer, and being steered towards harmless hijinks by various local adults. This show gave me that odd sense of nostalgia for things I never experienced myself, if you understand the feeling I'm talking about.

Land of the Lustrous
Land of the Lustrous is set in the far future, in a land inhabited by an immortal life form called the Lustrous, who are the embodiment of gemstones. The twenty-eight Lustrous are led by their teacher, Kongo, and fight to defend themselves against the Lunarians, who appear every few days, seeking to harvest the Lustrous' bodies for decorations. Phosphophyllite, nicknamed Phos, currently 300 years old, is the youngest of the Lustrous, and because of their brittleness is unable to fight. They feel useless, but are given the task to assemble a natural history by Kongo.

--This one...probably should have been in Miscellaneous, as it doesn't really fit cleanly into any of the others. You may have heard this one, if you heard of it at all, compared against Steven Universe, but really the only comparison is that they're gemstones and other precious minerals. The CGI of the Lustrous gives a decidedly....uncanny vibe, but I suspect that was the entire point of doing them that way, as Kongo, who is *not* a Lustrous, is traditionally animated.

Kiddy Grade
Kiddy Grade takes place in a future where the human race has expanded and inhabits a multitude of planets in the universe with fantastic technology. Unsurprisingly, crime has grown alongside technology, and thus the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs (GOTT, German for "God") is formed as a sort of universal police force. Within this organization, there is a special (and secret) branch known as the ES Force (ES standing for "Encounter of Shadow-work"), consisting of twelve physically young people who possess amazing superpowers. Each ES member operates with another as a team, and the series' focus is a team of two low-level members, Éclair and Lumière. As the series progresses, they start to see the darker side of GOTT and its secrets.

--It's been a long time since I've watched this, and mostly what I remember about it is it's ending, which I won't be talking about. I DO remember enjoying it a fair bit, however, which is why it's here. No, I don't know why it's called that, and no, it's not indicative of the content.

Crest(And Banner) of the Stars
When Jinto was a young boy, his world is invaded by the Abh empire. His father who was then president of the Hyde Star System, surrendered the system and earned for himself and his family a nobility within Abh society. Young Jinto is sent off to school in planet Delktou to learn the ways of Abh nobility and the story of Crest of the Stars picks up as he meets the young Abh princess, Lafiel who as a pilot trainee has been assigned to escort him to the patrol ship Gothlauth, a.k.a. Gosroth). Soon, they find themselves unready participants in the incident that would ignite the war between the Abh Empire and the Four Nations Alliance of Humankind — an anti-Abh alliance of the democratic nations of the United Mankind, the Federation of Hania, the Republic of Greater Alcont, and the People's Sovereign Union of Planets.

--This is one of the harder sci-fi entries in these lists, and it's not all that hard, all things considered. I honestly remember very little about it except that it had some interesting politics and space combat. As I recall it, essentially, the Abh (Who are space elves) believe that space is precious and nobody (except them, because they don't actually have a planet - they live out in space) should be out in it unless absolutely necessary. You can do whatever you want on planet, but you can't just go willy nilly into space, bringing your conflicts and hatreds into the void with you. This rankles humanity quite a bit because you can't colonize and expand without going out into space. I may be way off base with these recollections. It's been like, fifteen years.

Starship Operators
Starship Operators is about the 73rd class of the Defense University of the Planet Kibi. As they are returning home after the maiden voyage of the Amaterasu, they find that their home planet, Kibi, has been taken over by one of the Henrietta region's super powers, Henrietta Alliance of Planetary Nations.

The original command crew all abandon ship, as per the conquerors' demands. Left alone on the ship, the cadets decide to keep their command and fight on. To this end, they have decided to ask Galaxy Network to fund the operation of Amaterasu as a fleeing self-governed nation in exchange for letting them broadcast the ship's adventures live - as a reality TV program.

--This one is even harder science fiction, to the consternation of the reality TV producers. Again, not many memories of this one, been nearly fifteen years since I've seen it, but I remember enjoying it.

Classroom Crisis
Set in a future where interplanetary space travel has become possible, a space aeronautics mega-corporation named Kirishina Corp. has opened an academy on Mars, and a specialized class in that academy, named A-TEC (Advanced Technological Development Department, Educational Development Class) contains especially talented students, spending part of their time in class, and the other part of their time working to develop rocket engines.

The story follows the members of the A-TEC class, and their progress on developing a new engine, called the X-2, while dealing with issues related to both being in high school, and being company employees engineering rockets. The issues they will face include those stemmed from adolescence and those brought onto them from higher management.

--This one's for the engineers, to a degree. I really quite enjoyed it, though some of the character dynamics weren't for me, as I recall.