Also, you'll find that there are several different styles and genres in animé as well as several commonly-used practises. There's a style of characterization that's termed SD or Super Deformation, where a character will show an extreme emotion (such as crying or anger), and for a few moments the character will become a big-headed, small-bodied, 'toon. I hate that.

The titles I mentioned (Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Record of Lodoss War, Serial Experiments Lain, Princess Mononoke) either don't feature SD or it is minimally intrusive.

There's also the giant mecha genre, with such series as the Gundam series (check out http://www.gundam.com/ ), of which the much-talked about Gundam Wing (or Gundam W) is considered a side story/alternate universe. Also heard of in North America are the Macross series (which is actually three unrelated series that were squished together in the English-language release -- this should be available in Summer 2001) and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

-Faux "and there's even more than that!" Pas