I thought I would revive this topic with an update.
Has anyone ever heard of Masaaki Yuasa? I doubt if you have--he's a pretty obscure director. But I would definitely recommend his stuff. He's a wizard with style, and it's hard to classify his stuff as only anime--it's just good animation in general.
As far as I know, there's three big projects notable enough that you should check out. The first is a movie from 2003, called
Mind Game. Animated by Studio 4°C, the animation is off the chains. The story itself is wild and silly, but it's his first job as a director. If anything, you should enjoy it.
The second big project is a series called
Kemonozume. Basically, it tells the story of a man falling in love with a woman. Except she's the descendant of humans cursed by the Gods to sustain themselves only on human flesh. I just started watching this, so I'm not sure how it will turn out. But the first episode was enjoyable.
The third is a new series that debuted this year, called
Kaiba. The designs are reminiscent of Osamu Tesuka's work, but it's a more adult series than it looks. Basically, in this world, people have their memories stored as data inside a chip. Even if the body dies, its memories live on and can be transferred to another body. Bad memories can be erased, and good ones downloaded. Typically, this is something only the rich can do, with the poorer ones resorting to selling themselves just to keep on living. The protagonist, Kaiba, travels through the world with no memories of his own. While trying to find them, he acts as an observer onto the lives of others in this world, discovering how melancholy and horrifying it truly is.
Here's the opening, if you're intrigued:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l5dJpSs_Wmk
Edit: ALSO! Alice--Nana is AWESOME.