The official MUST HAVE Anime list

[SIZIK]

Elfen Lied is pretty good, if you can handle it.

[gamemasterAS]

You can't live without Trigun.

[dman762000]

for a must have list several have been mentioned in here but

Akira
fruits basket
chobits
princess monoke
grey: digital death
any ghost in the shell
battle atheletes is really cool
flcl
fullmetal alchemist
all the inuyasha
cowboy bebop
wolf's rain
if you get any lain get all of them becaust there is a complete story there
eureka 7
robotech
rurouni kenshin
vampire hunter d
thats all I can think of right now that is till I get home and look at my vhs library
I will have to add that Kite is an awsome movie and should be watched and also get Armitage the third (Armitage III, thats not the third in a series that is what she is ) It has an allstar voice cast in english and really awsome story and animation

[Triton]

i tried to watch lain when it was on tech tvs anime thing, it gave me headaches >.> also if you get naruto GET THE SUBBED VERSION! the english dub is pure crap

[Jongamer]

For the best of the best, I reccomend Princess Mononoke and Cyborg 009.
Edit:Oh yeah!I almost forgot Mobile Suit Gundam.

Oh yeah, But I like the Japanese Naruto, English one has been Kiddied up way to much and the Voice acting in the Jap one is allot better.

And Princess Mononoke, one of the BEST all time Anime Movie I had ever seen, Dragon Ball Z Is awsome but a Little overrated, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are the Best of the Series IMO, Dragon Ball GT sucked Donkey balls because I could never understand what was going on.

Big O, meh I havnt seen many Episodes and was on to late for it to get my full focus so I need to see it sometime

[gannon]

Here's my list, with the marked ones being the ones I'd recommend the most.
Anime
Movies
Akira
Ghost in the shell
Kite
Metropolis
Ninja Scroll
Princess Mononoke
Vampire Hunter D

Series
3x3 Eyes
Amazing Nurse Nanako
Battle Angel (Gunm)
Battle Programmer
*Black Lagoon
Bleach
Chobits
Comic Party
Dokuro-chan
Eureka seveN
Fullmetal Alchemist
Hack Sign
*Haibane Renmei
Hellsing
Hellsing Ultimate
*Lain
Noir
*Outlaw Star
Scrapped Princess
Shaman King
Tenjou Tenge
*The Twelve Kingdoms

Comics
*3x3 Eyes
*Agharta
Akira
All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku
*Battle Angel (Gunm)
Battle Royale
Bleach
Chobits
FLCL
Ghost in the Shell
Great Teacher Onizuka
Hellsing
Hellsing The Dawn
Naruto
One Piece
Pita Ten
Rurouni Kenshin
Suikoden III
Tenchi Muyo
Tende Freeze
*Trigun
*Trigun Maximum
Vandread
*Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
X-Day

[nitro2k01]

Amazing, seems like nobody has said Neon Genesis Evangelion yet. I'm honestly pretty new to anime, and per recommendation this was the first one I picked up. I think it's pretty good, anyone agree?
I'll also pick up a few episodes of Naruto, to see what the fail-fuzz is about. Probably it's right, but I still wanna know what it is.

[Life of Brian]

I finally got around to getting a copy of Spirited Away, and to be honest I was pretty dissapointed after hearing critics' reviews and it being recommended to me so often. Made me sad because I really enjoyed Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. Oh well...

I didn't notice - did anyone mention Berserk yet? Holy cow that's some powerful stuff... Not for kids though...

[usbcd36]

I'd recommend The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu), but you said anime to BUY, so…

[Mageslayer]

ZOMG D00D GET DRAGONBALLZ!!!!1ONE! (I actually pressed my F1 key in there too, although by accident....) No but seriously, I'm not so much a watcher of any TV anymore, but when I did watch anime it was these:

Trigun
Inuyasha
Ruroni Kenshin (the movie rocked, the series is decent.)
Yes, I did watch DBZ. Honestly Toonami was where most of my anime watching came from. Or at least where I'd heard about most of the anime I watched. An old friend was a collector of anime. But he watched Sailor Moon and Hentai....

Some other ones I've heard are good but was never interested in myself:
Bleach
Sorcerer Hunters
Lupin the Third (or something)
Cowboy Bebop

[SNESguy]

The only one I've bought is Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I also just recently watched Martian Successor Nadesico, and have had it in my sights for my next anime purchase. This show seems to be less popular, but it's one of my favorite anime comedies.

[Rototiller]

Okay, crazy people left my head.

I would have to say either pokemon or maybe even gundam wing.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X are a great series altho quite long (95 episodes just for the tv series)

Trigun
Outlaw Star
Evangelion
Cowboy Bebop
Astroboy (either the 60's or 80's version havent seen the new one)
Dragon Ball (a lot better than DBZ It has a plot and great animation that still looks good after all these years)
Speed Racer
Gigantor (Well worth watching)
Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato

Anything by Hayao Miyazaki or under the Studio Ghibli label

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Castle in the Sky
Grave of the Fireflies
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
Only Yesterday
Porco Rosso
Ocean Waves
Pom Poko
Whisper of the Heart
Princess Mononoke
My Neighbors the Yamadas
Spirited Away
The Cat Returns
Howl's Moving Castle
Tales from Earthsea
The Castle of Cagliostro
Lupin III

I must asl say if you like the nice animes then try Mindori Days (has a few nude scenes) great series

[legoboy]

Cowboy Bebep

[Triton]

i pretty much agree with nin, any studio ghibli film is guarenteed to be good. not exactly an anime per se but the daft punk movie interstella 5555 is animated by toei and supervised by leiji matsumoto, of Space Battleship Yamato, captian harlock and galaxy express 999 fame. plus its daft punk music (the whole discovery album) which is awesome