Ok I have just watched Baccano and all I can say is. Go watch it now. If you have watched it could you please give me a recommendation of other anime that are similar?
Also who else has watched N.H.K?
and Fooly cooly? I heard that its a batshit crazy anime

 

Err... You are quite picky, aren't you?

How about "I dream of Mimi"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LNEymcFHvw

It's light hearted humour.

(oh, and nsfw btw.)

 

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Great show, kinda repetitive, and I think you've seen it)
Cyborg 009 (If you don't mind the dated character designs)
Serial Experiments Lain (until the club scene that is)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (100+ episode, but riveting from start to finish; think Issac Asimov's Foundation series but in anime form)
Irresponsible Captain Tylor (hands down one of the funniest anime ever produced, with one of the greatest leads ever conceived)

 

Flcl is amazing, definitely recommend it. It's also batshit crazy and a little surreal at times but as long as you're not looking for serious action, or serious anything for that matter, it's great.

Similar to Baccano, aside from the obvious Cowboy Bebop, I'd actually go with Michiko to Hachin just for the way the story unfolds. I've seen it described as Thelma and Louise meets City of God meets anime. It's also got great music which is unsurprising with shinichiro watanabe involved.

It's been years since I watched NHK but I remember being surprised by how much I loved it. If you're looking for something similar I'd recommend Genshiken which is much more light hearted but still pretty awesome.

 

Great Teacher Onizuka, if you haven't seen it. It borders on fluff for the most part, although anything with Steven Jay Blum in it is automatically awesome.

 

I know it's already been mentioned somewhere in this thread , but I'd say watch Black Lagoon. No mecha, no fluff, won't make you want to hang yourself, lots of action, and thoroughly enjoyable.

 

Durarararara.... was done by the same guy/studio/etc, if I remember right. Didn't watch it yet but heard a lot of praises for it.

Also, out of thumbs, but Sin Saori's right. Black Lagoon is an awesome action anime, if you haven't watched it you should do it immediately.

 

Darker Than Black, first season better than the second.
Ergo Proxy - weird as shit but enjoyable.
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - I know you said no mecha but still...
If you haven't seen it yet I recommend Sword of the Stranger.

 

So I watched Planetes, and now I'm curious if there are other anime that have a semi-realistic look at sci-fi stuff. (Rather than giant mecha and warp drive.)

 

Dennou Coil is close to that, so is Space Brothers. There's another one, but I can't remember its title at all right now. I'll also plug LOGH again, because sweeping space opera doesn't get enough love as a genre.

 

I had Legend of the Galactic Heroes before my hard drive died. Only got a few episodes in, but it looked promising. I should reacquire that.

 

I saw up to episode 40 of Galactic Heroes before putting it on hold (will finish it though).

It feels quite a bit dated. The animation is obvious, but also the method of story telling. Given what it is (a space opera heavily focused on characters), the characterisation, politics and sociology are a bit simplified. They're still more complex than your average anime, obviously, but given the style of anime this was going for it's a bit dull at times.

I do second recommendations on Black Lagoon (and OVAs), Durarara, Sword of a Stranger (movie) and GTO.

If you liked the GTO anime do give the manga a read from where the anime ended - there's a lot of epic plot-driven arcs set after the end of the anime.

Welcome to the NHK starts pretty interesting, then just gets silly and over the top.

If you're patient, Monster is great. Think a slow paced thriller/mystery that is very...unlike most anime. It's not that kind of thing you can smash down in one go, but it is very good.

 

LOGH is the epitome of the Fred Patten ideal of animated science fiction. My comparison of it to Issac Asimov's Foundation series was not because they are similar, but because they are the exact same, with the media by which they are told being the only difference. LOGH isn't the slick and shiny scifi that everyone's used to. It's older than old school; it looks down its nose at Star Trek because real science fiction is only told in books and short stories.

 

Haven't seen Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series so can't comment on that.

But I'm not really talking about it being slick and shiny. More about the fact that it just seems like it was attempting to be some hardcore character driven, political space opera (which often seems to be what people talk up about it), but ended up being too simplified in those areas to pull it off.

I should probably finish it before I criticise it too much though.

 

Evangelion 3.0: You can (not) redo is a most definite recommendation.

What's that? It's not available in your area yet? :awesome

 

I'm suddenly very glad that I haven't bothered with the reboot yet; you people that care must be in such pain right now.

 

Ha. Haha.

 

It is a book series...