Anime that is surprisingly good?

Shamanic Princess.

Thought it would be another typical magical girl anime. Boy was I wrong. For the better ;) :)

Here are my suggestions:

Serial Experiments Lain = This pretty weird anime is really profound when you really focus on it. It may be a bit old, but if you are the type that may want to watch any cerebral or anime that deals with the psyche, this one is a good bet. The opening theme will surprise you.

Ergo Proxy = At first I thought it would be like any typical anime of its genre, but Ergo Proxy delivers more, and with some gothic twists.

Garden of Sinners = This one is for mature viewers for its content (this anime is more of the violent type with a bit of nudity but it is not porn or hentai). Garden of Sinners delivers more than violence, it is one of those pretty deep anime. With beautiful graphics, engaging story line, it is of the investigative type, criminal investigation that is, but all scenes are crafted well, and I was surprised to find out that it was not the usual action type anime.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust = This anime made me go WOW. It is not the usual vampire anime.

Scrapped Princess.

Pacifica Casull has been prophesized to bring the world's End on her 16th birthday.

She was thrown into a cliff. Everyone thought the Scrapped Princess died until 15 years later a new prophecy from the Lord Mauzer tells that the girl still live.

Pacifica now runs for her life as her adopted parents were killed while trying to protect her. Together with her brother Shanon and sister Raquel, Pacifica travels to find out the truth of her birth. But as truth dawns, Pacifica wonders if dying would be the better choice after all.

After you passed episode 4, things get better/ more interesting. It pretty much squashes most anime cliches. You need this in your life, trust me. Genre: adventure.

Skip Beat!

Mogami Kyouko got conned big time by her childhood crush turned popular singer Shou. She plots revenge to defeat him by becoming a more popular idol. Later she finds out that acting is not only a tool for revenge but her life calling. Genre: shoujo, comedy.

Kuroshitsuji aka The Black Butler

In order to escaped being murdered by a religious cult, Ciel Phantomhive entered a deal with a demon. The demon would protect Ciel's life until he find the person behind his family's massacre and destroy him. In return for his help, Ciel must surrender his soul. Sebastian Michealis, the demon then slyly blend into the Phantomhive household by taking the facade of a inhumanly handsome and impossibly skillful..... butler.

Also a nice anime. Episode 1 and 2 are kinda meh but the rest is good. Shonen with gothic overtones. It reminds me of Kaori Yuki's Count Cain. You need this in your life too...if you like darker stuff. Genre: shonen, supernatural, goth, suspense.

Mirage of Blaze

Ougi Takaya is a possesor. His original soul was of that Saburo Hojou Kagetora, a Japanese feudal warlord, heir to Nagao Kagetora aka Kenshin. Too bad he has no memories of his previous life.... amnesia's a b**ch. An older man comes along and tells him he needs to lead the Uesugi Meikai army against the onslaught of vengeful spirits. To make things complicated, this general is obsessed with him. In *that* way. This one has gay undertones buat nothing explicit. I think the OAV fares better tho. Higher budget. Nicer to look at. Genre: Historical, supernatural, shonen-ai

Street Fighter 2 the Animated Movie

Epic battle between Chun-Li and Vega. I forgot the storyline. It's a fighting anime so plot is optional. Great stuff for a fighting anime.

I'm on to mecha genre. I thought Gundam 00 would not exceed the super success of Gundam Seed and GS Destiny altogether. But I was proven wrong. The mechas were way much better and the plot is cool, though I like Seed and Destiny's plot as well. I even wished that there would be a crossover between Kira Yamato and Setsuna F. Seiei.

I would have to say Cross Game. 5th Grader Ko Kitamura has a girlfriend. In his words "the cutest girl in 5th grade." He didn't ask for this girlfriend. In fact he'll insist he doesn't have one. Wakaba Tsukishima however, insists otherwise. Wakaba casually orders Ko around, instructing him to take her to her swimming class on his bike, and giving him a list of what birthday present he is to give her each year for the next ten years. Ko grumbles a bit occasionally, but he doesn't really resist. Wakaba has him wrapped around her little finger, and he is never getting free. They were born on the same day in the same hospital, and everyone agrees they are destined to be together.

Everyone except Aoba Tsukishima that is. One year younger than Wakaba, Aoba adores her older sister, and is quite jealous of Ko, and the attention Wakaba showers on him. She even declares that she hates him. However, the three of them often end up doing things together, since they are so close together in age. Though Aoba sometimes feels like a third wheel. Unlike Ko, who is pretty directionless without Wakaba telling him what to do, Aoba is dedicated to becoming an excellent baseball pitcher.

Then the first episode happens. Fast-forward three years, and we find Ko and the Tsukishima family still dealing with the repercussions. As Ko enters high school he joins the high school baseball team. As he begins to grow up he finds that getting older isn't easy.

More realistic than most sports anime, the baseball games are slow and feel like a real game. While the emotions that the characters deal with are strong, but very real and understandable.

Hellsing

When I watch some second of this anime, I thought I didn't like it because I thought the graphic is bad, but when I watched it seriously, i found it really good and I like Alucard very much.

Elfen Lied

I thought it only had blood and ecchi scene, but I was wrong. The story touched me, it made me sad.

Lucky star lol:) The poster was really retarded and i thought it's gonna be well..lame and girly

But it's so far from that being such a great comedy anime:)

Also Nana which was made by the director of Paradise kiss(which i hated) and i was sure it was going to be a huge failure. It kept me glued to the screen for reasons I can't understand even now. hope it helped, cheers:)

Elfen Lied (I thought it was just some gore fest, but it was more and had a deep plot, made me cry)

Peach Girl (When I first saw this I was like, well, I'm not gonna like this. But I LOVED it!)

InuYasha (This was the second anime I ever watched. I thought it was just gonna be sooo stupid, but it was so cute and sweet!)

Ouran High School Host Club (I never planned on watching this, but one day I got bored and fell in love with it! lol!)

Code Geass, I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did.

Shugo Chara, I hate really girly things and am not a fan of magical girl animes, but this one turned out to be great.

Bloody Kiss.

i thought elfen lied would be some random bloody anime but the plot and such was actually really deep and stuff. also higurashi... the first episode made it look like another basic anime but we all know how that ended up.