some animes I liked:
Ghost in the Shell (used to be on netflix instant stream)
futuristic sci-fi with human cybernetic augmentations
might be a bit on the slow/talky side of things some of the time
Trigun*
starts out cheesy and a bit pointless, gets a bit more serious and fleshes out the story later
El Cazador de la Bruja (hunter of the witch) (used to be on netflix instant stream)
the music was good, and it has mexican/spanish thrown in , which makes it pretty different
Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood*
The original version does a better job telling a story, though brotherhood probably has the better story. I liked the original more (I didn't read the manga)
Initial D (on netflix instant stream, missing stage 5)
mostly good for the car racing, if you like cars or Aikouka's avatar i think
Gunslinger Girl*
lots of nice action. things change a lot in the second season (it loses the unique/different feel, but has more in the story department)
Wolf's Rain
can't remember much about it, want to watch it again, but netflix doesn't have the whole thing (missing the 1st and last discs)...
Witch Hunter Robin
"good" witches hunting "bad" witches
Canaan (used to be on netflix instant stream)
synesthesia and terrorism and guns and photography/media.
Samurai Champloo* - good sword fighting and story combined
Eden of the East* - a strange game
Chobits* - really silly early, gets less silly later; about human-like computers
Last Exile* - moves really slow the first few episodes, airship/fighter combat
Le Chevalier D'Eon* - sort of ties into history, has nice art style, based in pre-revolutionary france
* = on netflix instant stream
sucks how netflix lost starz