Oh, new anime thread... cool.
Elfen Lied was not great imo. Not meaning to shit on people's favorite show, but I really don't see the appeal. It started off really crazy and awesome but honestly, in a big picture sense, that show was a mess. I felt like I was being trolled.
See some good stuff in here. Can't tell you how happy it makes me to see Kara no Kyoukai getting some love. Those movies are gorgeously animated.
Shout out's to GITS and all of that 90's-early-2000's cyberpunk stuff. What a great era that was. We also had stuff like Texnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Jin-Roh.
My favorites are Sotoshi Kon works. Perfect Blue is my favorite movie ever. That, or maybe Paprika. I'm generally into that mindfucky stuff... ...stuff like Cat Soup, Mind Game, Tekkonkinkreet, bits of the Monogatari franchise, The Tatami Galaxy, Kyousougiga, etc..
Then there's stuff like Sword of the Stranger and Ruroni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.
One thing I really need more of in my life is stuff like Mushishi and Kino's Journey. I've also been looking all over the place for something with the world building depth and plot layering of Shin Sekai Yori.
I could probably list hundreds of favorites, but I'll spare you guys that...
I think the last show I finished was Space Dandy, which is awesome if you know your anime. It's packed with references. But even if you don't get them, it's still an awesome show. You can tell they put a lot of love and care into it.
Also, not to go into the dubbed vs subbed debate... ...I think it's all preference, but personally I find that I like the nuance in the delivery of the Japanese voice acting and have been watching subs for so long that I don't even notice that I'm reading anything. It feels normal to me. That's why I like subs.