anime for the anime n00b?

Absolutely nothing to do for the next 3 weeks, so I've decided for the first time ever to delve into the world of anime.
What's really popular out there?
What are your favorites?
How would I go about watching these animes?
P.S. erotic content is fine (appreciated =D) but only as long as it doesnt take precedence over the plot, so dont give me hentai please.

I don't care if its licensed in the usa. I live in europe and I can download whatever I want legally as long as its for personal use.
I love swedish law :)

My advice is....

Azumanga Daioh <<-- slapstick in middle school
Serial Experiments Lain <<-- mindfucker
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien <<-- Drama (made me (guy) cry, THAT good)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya <<-- just good/mindfucker
Rozen Maiden <<-- made me wake up out of my bedroom and actually started going back to school.
Rozen Maiden Traumend <<-- 2e serie of above
Elfen Lied <<-- Serious Action
Haibane Renmei <<-- created by Yoshitoshi ABe (says enough IMO)
Hellsing <<-- Vampiric drama
Kanon <<-- romantic drama
My Hime <<-- Drama, with fantasy and a tip of romance
Princess Mononoke <<-- Adventure drama


Well, there are more but I can't be arsed to copy/paste them :)
ow and look in this site for more information about the anime
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php

>>41
Hellsing = Vampiric DRAMA and Elfen Lied is ACTION? Hellsing had many dramatic elements, but it was more action oriented and often those dramatic elements were used to enchange action. Elfen Lied on the otherhand is kind of like drama, harem and action(although not so much). I would describe bizarre mix as harem series for gore lovers and I liked it.

>>42
Seconded. I was just to lazy to post it.

>>41 Rozen Maiden <<-- made me wake up out of my bedroom and actually started going back to school.

I lolled so hard.

does anyone use www.animedvice.com ?

Watch Urotsuki Doji, it's the best OVA made in the 80s.

>>46
Not really, but it's certainly one of best if not the best hentai movie ever.

>>47
In fact, it is the hardest hentai movie known to man. What would happen if it collided with End of Evangelion at 400 mph?

Why not go to the AniDB site - you can list animes that users have rated the highest quite easily, and sort by genre etc.  Being a n00b or not doesn't make much difference after you've watched a couple of shows

>>49
Of course, the point of that other site seems to be "find anime liked by people who also liked x".

Trigun is a pretty good one.

Trigun is mainstream trash

>>47,48
I WATCHED IT FOR THE SUPERIOR ACTION (NOT THE KIND OF ACTION YOU SICK FUCKS WILL THINK OF FIRST) SEQUENCES YOU SONS OF BITCHES OH AND ALSO THE NUKES LOOKED BETTER THAN IN AKIRA THERE I SAID IT

ALSO IT IS CALLED EROANIME NOT HENTAI YOU BAKA

>>53
yet another idiot using japanese in the middle of a english sentence to sound cool, and it IS called hentai, so YOU'RE the idiot asshole

>>54
No, you.  Our Japanese overlords laugh at us when we call eroanime hentai.

>>54

Baka.... hentai....... eroanime.... whatever, yu0 assinine Otaku. go back to tokyo on the bum train and sleep out with Shinjuku bums

How about some pointers for a fansub noob?   I see all those torrents on dead frog and have never heard of any of the shows so don't know where to start. 

>>22

Thanks for this.  Can any others suggest some?

>>57
Hokuto no Ken, just recently finished!

There's a massive 28GB torrent on boxtorrents, and probably something else somewhere else.