...I-I'm kind of doing some "research" for an article I've been drafting up.
I've noticed that /a/ tends to recommend anime that wouldn't appeal to people watching anime for the first time or even things that are too "extreme" (Berserk, Lain, etc.) or too "Japanese" (pretty much any slice of life and/or reference anime, like Lucky Star). People are somewhat keen on basing people off on some key genres, but some of these choices come off as rather scary for someone who may be teetering on not liking it at all. A lot of people see anime/manga (or just Japanese culture in general) as strange, foreign, wacky, scary (take your pick) and watching something like say... [i]Evangelion[/i] as your first anime may reinforce this negative point of view. I'm not even talking about the last two episodes (Gainax fuckery is largely loved by the west [url="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-03-24/toonami-to-co-produce-2-new-flcl-seasons/.100222"]if FLCL is anything to go by[/url]), something as early as Shinji accidentally cupping Rei's boob may be downright [i]offensive[/i] to someone who isn't expecting that kind of thing from this sort of media. It's somewhat difficult for some people to accept that something that is animated that isn't comedic satire like the Simpsons or South Park can be "adult", you feel? It's best to take baby steps, as not to traumatize them too much ^__^;; I guess this is changing though, because a lot of the newer and more popular mainstream anime like Attack on Titan and Tokyo Ghoul are just so inherently violent, but there's still no sexual content-- so we're not 100% out of the woods here.

Okay, but what's the point of saying at that? Well... I want to take a consensus! What anime do you think is best for first time anime watchers? You're free to go against the rules I put up for myself, for the sake of debate. I'd love it if people tried to give one anime for some of the more "core" genres (Comedy, Romance,  [s]All anime is fair game except DBZ literally everyone ever has seen it its become so over-saturated its become just another Saturday morning cartoon[/s]