I am twisting anime to mean anime and manga, since I very, very rarely watch anime. Also, my tastes are rather conventional, since I don't actually read all that much manga either. *is ashamed* Anyway, the following are in no particular order.
1.Angel Sanctuary, because it is pretty and fucked up and I love the characters to distraction and I want desperately to make sense of the plot holes and I think underneath all that it says interesting things about the nature of love and obsession and gender roles.
2.Fruits Basket, for similar reasons except for the plot holes. I really wish I could figure out how it manages to break my heart and uplift me in the exact same moment, and also how such a crack premise can be made to seem so plausible and compelling.
3.Code Geass, because it's like they took almost every crazy genre element, character type, and plot device I love, threw it all in a blender, and turned it up to eleven. It is made of crack, and yet somehow it works. Plus it's an alternate history, and I am a sucker for alternate histories.
4.Fullmetal Alchemist, because I love the world-building, and the bleak realism of the military stuff melded with the 'magic' of alchemy and homunculi, and the characters and their desperate quests, and... you know, I think there is a running theme of obsession going on here. I love characters who have something they want, and who work to get it.
5.Saiyuki, for, once again, the obsessive characters I love, the mad quest, the fascinating world-building I want to fill in the details of, and the pretty, pretty art. And there are ideas. There is a palpable point-of-view behind the story; it's not done just for the sake of entertainment, though it is crazy entertaining.
So apparently the story elements that really do it for me are ideas behind the entertainment, and characters who have goals and are by god going to achieve them, no matter what obstacles stand in their way. Huh. I had never put that in words before, but that's useful to know about myself. (Also I have a thing for power fantasies -- you will note there are elements of that trope in most of these stories as well -- but I knew that already.)
Top 5 favorite manga and/or anime series (plus some thoughts on story tropes)
1. Angel Sanctuary, because it is pretty and fucked up and I love the characters to distraction and I want desperately to make sense of the plot holes and I think underneath all that it says interesting things about the nature of love and obsession and gender roles.
2. Fruits Basket, for similar reasons except for the plot holes. I really wish I could figure out how it manages to break my heart and uplift me in the exact same moment, and also how such a crack premise can be made to seem so plausible and compelling.
3. Code Geass, because it's like they took almost every crazy genre element, character type, and plot device I love, threw it all in a blender, and turned it up to eleven. It is made of crack, and yet somehow it works. Plus it's an alternate history, and I am a sucker for alternate histories.
4. Fullmetal Alchemist, because I love the world-building, and the bleak realism of the military stuff melded with the 'magic' of alchemy and homunculi, and the characters and their desperate quests, and... you know, I think there is a running theme of obsession going on here. I love characters who have something they want, and who work to get it.
5. Saiyuki, for, once again, the obsessive characters I love, the mad quest, the fascinating world-building I want to fill in the details of, and the pretty, pretty art. And there are ideas. There is a palpable point-of-view behind the story; it's not done just for the sake of entertainment, though it is crazy entertaining.
So apparently the story elements that really do it for me are ideas behind the entertainment, and characters who have goals and are by god going to achieve them, no matter what obstacles stand in their way. Huh. I had never put that in words before, but that's useful to know about myself. (Also I have a thing for power fantasies -- you will note there are elements of that trope in most of these stories as well -- but I knew that already.)