Your consensus re: anime/manga

What is your general consensus on anime and manga? I especially want to hear from you urbane and impeccably cultured bastards.

As of last year, I have become more interested in anime, and more open to the convoluted plot lines, ridiculous costumes and brazen violations of the laws of gravity, physics and human anatomy. I haven't quit being creeped out by the fixation some artists seem to have with young girls though. What does it for me is the stunning visual sense, the attention to detail, the richness of texture and color, and occasionally a compelling plot and a hand full engaging and sympathetic characters. I've run across a few bad anime and manga of course. I whole-heartedly discourage anyone from reading reading BoBoBo Bo-Bo Bo-BoBo. The person who sold it to me described it as "a mind-rape." It is bizarre, but in a mind-numbingly inane way. Likewise, do not, under any circumstances, watch Excel Saga without first smoking copious amounts of pot.