I won't bother going over what people above have said, as there are plenty of good suggestions up there. Though I will quickly second Ghost in the Shell: SAC and Azumanga Daioh. Both are fantastic.

For what I have seen:

Since you specifically mention enjoying Star Blazers in the past, then you might check out the other titles by Leiji Matsumoto. Titles like Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Be Forever Yamato, and especially The Galaxy Railways. All great, character-driven, hard sci-fi. And if you like music (in particular electronic), his Interstella 5555 is a neat experiment that is essentially one long music video for Daft Punk's album of the same name.

Speaking of great hard sci-fi, I would also recommend Divergence Eve and (its sequel) Misaki Chronicles, though you might wait on that until your opinion of anime has changed since it has some (completely unnecessary) 'exagerated' female character designs, and the requisite nudity that goes along with it. But, it is some of the best science fiction I have seen, animated or not.

Getting away from sci-fi, I might suggest anything Lupin the 3rd. There are plenty of movies and a TV series to choose from, and you can basically step in anywhere. A bunch of people have mentioned the Miyazaki movies, and his Lupin movie, The Castle of Cagliostro, is probably the best one. Think a mix of James Bond and the Pink Panther, and you are on the right track.

Finally, back to music, if you like rock/alternative/punk/metal type stuff, then I also heartily recommend Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. It's about a band trying to make its way to stardom. It can be a little slow at times, but its a really well done drama set in modern Japan, and it has a fantastic soundtrack. They even redid all of the songs for the English version, though some might tell you the Engrish versions are better.

I can think of plenty more, but you might be getting overwhelmed at the moment, and I am thinking that you probably have a good mix of the "top" titles from the comments so far. Good luck!

This is one of those titles that is high on my list to watch. I'll get to it one of these days...

<p>I did get the DTS disc. It is a shame since I&nbsp;would have liked to have seen the bit with Yoko Kanno. That and I&nbsp;don't have a DTS&nbsp;receiver...</p>

I have the first volume of the manga and love the visuals. The story is pretty interesting too. I'm interested to see how this looks fully animated.