One of the things that got me going to a particular local, non-chain video store was the fine selection of anime (the other thing being that it was a local, non-chain video store). That being said, it's been a few years since I've watched any anime -- it all goes in cycles, and I've been in the videogame cycle for a while now. So, recently, I decided to dip my toe back in.

Unfortunately, either my tastes have changed, or the market has. The two things I've rented recently -- whose names I will spare you -- put Evangelion to shame for pointless emo navel-gazing and soulful singing on the background music. Don't even get me started on the literally two minutes spent with one character looking at another, and the camera just panning left-to-right from one guy's eyes to the other. OK WE GET IT*.

* that you're cheap and you want to just draw one cel and pan over it for two minutes, not to mention creatively bankrupt.

On top of this, local video store appears to have sussed out that most of their audience is really there for the tentacle porn, and it shows in their current choices of what anime gets placed "face out." I'm going out on a limb, and figuring most of those DVDs aren't about young, idealistic medical students.

So... yeah. Chris recommended Bleach, and other folks have recommended Full Metal Alchemist but... they're not really what I'm looking for either. To be honest, I think I hit the high point years ago with one of the first things I rented, Duel. Short, cheesy, had giant robots and goofy comedy -- win/win. Surely there's more of that out there?

Update: How did I forget Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? Oh yeah -- because it may as well be in a different genre, it kicks so much ass.