ANIME RECOMMENDATIONS

Just saw the first two episodes of Fate/zero.

In terms of being good for newbies: I dunno. A lot of the tragedy for me has come from knowing exactly what is going to happen, due to what you're told by the end of Fate/stay night--who wins, who dies, the hidden secrets of the Holy Grail War. Lacking all that context, the first episode is loaded down with exposition and ultimately kind of leaden and pretentious. The next episode is a lot better though, I'll give you that!

Then again, it's probably better than the original anime of Fate/stay night already. The latter was based on the visual novel's first route (which lacked a lot of the insanity/horror/brilliance of the following two) and so was pretty limited by nature. Fate/zero, on the other hand, is a lot more complex: the characters show promise, the anime studio who has taken this on is a lot more reliable than Studio DEEN and thematically the story has a lot of potential. Not sure as it'll be as brilliantly integrated as Fate/stay night's thirty-hour examination of heroism but hey, I trust Urobuchi. So if you're wondering--Fate/zero probably isn't the perfect jumping-on point, but if you can't play the visual novel than it's a hell of a lot better than the anime.

So yeah, basically eplipswitch is right (although if you have a low tolerance for EXPOSITION EXPOSITION EXPOSITION you might have trouble with the first episode) As for favorite master/Servant pairing: Waver/Rider all the way! (Although I feel the most for Kariya, the poor bastard)

Also, another Madoka Magica trailer (slightly less spoilery!) You have no excuse!

I second Speed Grapher and I add GunGrave the Anime Series: it is an emotionally deep story of best friends rising through the eschelons of the mafia. It is so gripping it almost made me wish I was among them.

I couldn't be arsed to read everyone's recommendations to make sure I was the only one, but I strongly recommend Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze. They are awesome, albeit very bizarre and cerebral.

And if you are well and truly baked, watching Afro Samurai is pretty much the dopest thing in the world.

Props to whoever recommended Now and Then, Here and There. Holeeeeee shit tonal dissonance.

Despite: your post was so ace. That Black Lion clip/compilation is totally fucking ridiculous. I have never heard of this anime before, but holy crap.

Other recommendations include spots of the old ultra violence like Gantz and Elfen Lied (both very fascinating in their own way) and if you haven't seen classics like Cowboy Bebop, Berserk, and Akira (the manga is even better) you really really should.

I will check out Stein's Gate (it looks like an anime version of Primer! how bizarre!); I am in the same general position towards anime as the OP.

I have been watching Gun Grave. The first episode was really bad. The second episode was really good, and seemed like a completely different show. WTF. I get that it's a flashback, but still, WTF. If I hadn't been kind of expecting it, I'd never have watched past the first episode, which was just awful.