> 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.

Have you seen the last several Eva episodes? Super Deformed doesn't even BEGIN to describe it...

>
> 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

Let me clarify what FP is saying: the old cartoon series released in the U.S. as Robotech consists of three unrelated (though they shared some creators and similar themes/styles) series. One of these was a series called Macross, and this makes up the first 34 or so episodes of the Robotech series (these are also thought of as the "good" episodes, the rest IMO suck). If you remember Robotech, chances are you remember the first third, with Rick Hunter and Minmei and the SDF and stuff.

The guy who was responsible for bring Macross to the U.S. is named Carl Macek, and he originally wanted to just port Macross over straight but didn't have enough episodes to do it (it's common in Japan for a series to last little more than a regular season [~24 episodes], but U.S. syndication requires quite a bit more). So he added some new plots to tie them all together (the second two are changed way more than Macross) and called the result Robotech. IMO there is some stuff in Robotech that's not present in Macross (the Robotech Masters) that adds quite a bit of depth. It's a shame the second two thirds sucked so much.

There's also a second series of Robotech (Sentinels) as well as a hard to find movie, if I remember right. I believe there is also a new Robotech series in the works.

Anyway, Macross is a bit more varied than that. In Japan, the original Macross series was hugely popular. So popular that it spawned two movies. The first is a retelling of the series though some details are changed around for the movie. The second one (Macross: Do You Remember Love?) is HORRIBLE and should be avoided (both are available in the U.S.). Neither of these are considered part of official continuity.

Beyond that, there are a couple of OVA (Original Video Animation) Macross series, such as Macross Seven (unseen by me) and the very cool Macross Plus. If you're into mech style anime, Macross Plus is probably a pretty good place to get started as it won't require that you track down an entire series the way you would with Gundam or something (Macross Plus is relatively free from continuity ties with the other Macross series).

Not only that, but I really prefer the Macross style mecha and animation to that of Gundam... :)

Stephen