You've got some good suggestions already. Here are a couple that I think are good for somebody that is fairly new to the deep rabbit hole of anime tropes/conventions:

• Mushishi - My personal favorite anime of all time. Very contemplative and melancholy. Don't binge this, just watch an episode before bed or something like that, and let it sit in your brain.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - This just recently finished airing its first season and was excellent in every respect. Classic high fantasy story (think Lord of the Rings) which follows the near-immortal elf Frieren in her travels. Very approachable for previously non-anime watchers.
• Cowboy Bebop - An all-time classic space western following some bounty hunters.
• One Punch Man - A humorous take on the superhero genre. If you are looking for something more comedy oriented, this is a decent starting point.

• Full metal alchemist
• Steins;Gate
• Violet Evergarden
• Legends of the galactic heros
• Initial D
• Dragon Ball
• Code Geass
• Death Note
• Planetes
• Dororo
• Cowboy Bebop
• Black Lagoon
• Vinland Saga

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

It's an anime that I recommend to people who already dislike anime, and it's a great starting point

Do you like fantasy? Check out Frieren: Beyond Journey's End; it's what recently got me to watch anime. It tells a great story with compelling characters, has some awesome action scenes, and keeps all of the things I hate about anime (excessive melodrama and fanservice) to a minimum.

It's just a great show, and not merely a great anime.

My all time favourite anime is Steins;Gate. It's a really cool take on a time travel story and it's an emotional rollercoaster. I just finished rewatching it recently and it has some cringy scenes but I still love it :D

It really depends on what genres of other media you're into. If you like super hero stuff then My Hero Academia might be a good choice. It's set in a world where most people have super powers, so it's kind of an interesting take on that whole thing. It's still being made, but there's enough to keep you busy for a while.

My jumping off point for anime was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It's an action anime with solid characters and a good plot, and there's not really any filler. It's about 80 episodes and is a complete story. Definitely worth checking out even if it's not your first.

Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, Fullmetal Alchemist and everything by Studio Ghibli I can NOT recommend because after seeing them, all other anime looks like childish crap by comparison. They've ruined me, don't let the same fate befall you!

Best to start is series that are finished with one season (24 max). My recommendations

• Charlotte
• Odd Taxi
• Gurren Lagann
• A Place Further than the Universe
• Cyberpunk Edgerunners
• Ping pong the Animation
• Lycoris Recoil
• Tatami Galaxy

Your Name

Wolf Children

Hard to give advice with no context. What do you like in other mediums? Anime is broad.

Even your fav Ghibli movies would help. I'd have different recommendations for some whose fav was Princess Kaguya as apposed to Pom Poko or Nausicaa

I’m going to go old-school here:

Magic Knight Rayearth - admittedly the manga was better since the anime had to do filler episodes, but the idea of a good story with no good guys or bad guys, and subtly riffing on RPG tropes, was an interesting watch. The OAV is a different take but also good (object censored nudity notwithstanding) and has a tighter storyline.

The Slayers - one of the anime that I first watched, so it holds a special place in my heart. Megumi does an amazing job as Lina.

Kimagure Orange Road - one of the earlier popular anime in the ‘love triangle’ genre, with the fun add-on that the main character secretly has esper powers. The characters are pretty well-rounded too.

Gundam Wing - yes, yes, but jokes aside it isone of the anime that made Mobile Suit shows popular outside of Japan; if you want to try out the Mobile Suit genre then it’s not a bad one to start with. Plus the Gundam designs are pretty cool, especially the Endless Waltz versions.

…And one more modern one: Spy x Family. It’s cute, dramatic, and the kid actually acts like a kid and not a mini-adult.

I believe the best starter animes must meet some criteria:

• not too long (seeing something having hundreds of episodes is a huge hurdle)
• self-contained (no spin-offs of other franchises that you need to know)
• completed (no "if you want to know how it ends you have to read the source material or hope for a second season")
• no need to know cultural references (what the fuck is a shikigami?!)
• universal themes (love, hate, friendship, hardship, etc.. Stuff that applies to everyone)
• characters should be likable (no one keeps watching if they dislike the characters)
• interesting from the start (no "uh, it gets great from the 5th episode, just keep at it")
• interesting throughout (show shouldn't fizzle out or run out of steam)
• normal visuals (yes, shows with unique art styles can feel fresh for someone with more than 1000 shows under their belt, but for a new watcher better keep it normal)
• not mundane but not too far "out there" (just the right amount of fantastical)
• no off putting material (gore, over-the-top violence, etc.)
• it should end on a positive note (I wouldn't have touched another anime ever again if Grave of the Fireflies were my first one)

With all those criteria listed, I believe the best show that ticks all the checkmarks is Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.

FCLC, Cowboy Bebop, Sword Art Online, and Frieren would be good ones to start with.

FCLC: modern setting with absurdist and Sci fi

Cowboy Bebop: future setting, Sci fi meets western

Sword Art Online: modern characters in a fantasy setting, fantasy with a tinge of Sci fi

Frieren: fantasy setting, plays with tropes of the genre so maybe leave this one until you've watched a couple of more traditional fantasy set series. Hard not to recommend it to everyone though.

Attack on Titan is great if you don't mind the occasional bit of brutal, horrific violence.

Check out the Mother's Basement youtube channel for some good seasonal recommendations. He also covers trashy anime in seperate videos from his ones-to-watch or best-of videos, if you wanted to avoid (or deliberately delve into) that.

I loved "The Disastrous Life of Saiki K", fell down the never-ending "One Piece" rabbit-hole and also really like "Spy X Family"

I really liked "Dorohedoro" and "Flip Flappers". For a more surreal anime movie I think "Paprika" could be a starting point, I don't remember much knowledge about Japanese culture or other anime being needed to enjoy it.

What kind of interests do you have? Genres, settings, etc. Is there anything you don't have interest in? There are a lot of anime out there, and it would be better to suggest anime kknowing your interests rather than suggesting you something you may not be interested in.

Evangelion. Your brain will thank you for it!

I have this rule: The quality of an anime is inverse of the number of episodes it has.

Of course it is not always true but It is a good rule of thumb. Without knowing what you like, read some sinopses of the classics and see if any sparkle your interest.

You are already in a good track with movies, you can watch Akira or the first Ghost in the Shell for some good action sci-fi.

I personally didn't watch yet, so is not quite a recommendation but any Satoshi Kon movie is always very well received, like Perfect Blue.

There is some anthology movies, each with 3-4 short stories, that seems to be quite Good. I watched and liked alot Memories, and heard about Neo Tokio and Robot Carnival. All of them have one section done by Katsuhiro Ótimo, the author of Akira.

You can look up some OVA that are 1 to 6 EPS long like Read or Die, Bastard (the original one) and Blood: The last Vampire (the original one)

Some TV series that are 13 to 26 episodes long I really liked is Samurai Champloo. I also like the Netflix's Castlevania (the first one) and I cannot vouch for it because I didn't finish yet but Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was pretty good.

The next two are quite controversial but I think quite good are Kite and Mezzo Forte, both are 1 or 2 ep OVA. They are controversial because they are a mix of action anime and some hardcore hentai, but there are some cuts without the sex stuff (that is also completely unnecessary if I remember correctly). The action scenes are really good.

Golden Boy, hands down.

If you liked the studio ghibli ones, try Wolf's Rain. It's a cool story. The creator then took his ideas that he didn't get to play with (subterfuge and deeply flawed characters) and created Darker than Black, a really awesome take on regular people getting superpowers.

I can't tell you where to start, but I can tell you where not to start.

Death Note is utter garbage. Anyone recommending it hasn't watched it in ten years, and is forgetting how contrived it is.

For example:

• The main characters play tennis while trying to win a mental game of rock, paper, scissors.

• They turn a scene about looking inconspicuous into one of those over-edited Indian soap operas (I'll take a chip... AND EAT IT!).

• Misa is annoying as hell.

The target audience for it are teenage boys who listen to Jordan Peterson, can't talk to girls and dream about beating their Dad psychologically.

It's a mental masturbatory power fantasy.