Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai (up to ep11) is another GAINAX show which transports a boy + girl (just friends 
) to alternate realities making parodies of just about anything (SF, Jurassic Park, Film Noir, Romance Games / High School Anime, Kung-Fu Films, …). After #6, I was quite sick of it, but just then they story returned to its core and dealt w/ the construction of the “Magical Shopping District”, which was an excellent move. I hope it manages to continue like that…
Mahoromatic (up to ep3, but 2nd half of ep1 was broken 
) OTOH I really, really like. GAINAX style, cute maid, some nice action / humor, tons of fan-service (nudity)… I just checked, Pioneer will start releasing that in January 2003, and knowing Pioneer it’ll most likely be on 4 discs.
Now and Then, Here and There (up to ep2) is done by Akitaroh Daichi, and heally, really hard to watch (because it’s so mean / brutal to basically nice people). Basically, boy transported into different world / universe / dimension and dropped inbetween two faction at war. Thinking hard about the box-set (which is $70).
RahXephon (up to ep13) still doesn’t grab me and seems even more Evangelion-like than it did after episode 3, i.e. Mecha controlled by boy who doesn’t / didn’t want to fight, female supervisor, odd / nearly emotionless comrade, … it’s all there.
Witch Hunter Robin (up to ep5) has a really nice, semi-Victorian darkish, angular style, very nice character design. Organisation (STN-J) hunting out so called witches with magical powers. Little humor, no fan-service (which is fine ), lots of ambience and interesting CG-backgrounds. Don’t know whether it’ll be interesting in the long run, but so far it’s been good.
Current (from this list, except #1 ) favourites:
- Seishu Heiki Kanojo (Saikano).
- Mahoromatic.
- Now and Then, Here and There.
- Witch Hunter Robin.
OMG you are a savior! I’ve been looking for the name of that anime “Now and Then, Here and There” and all I could remember was the first part of the storyline for like 8 years ago! and i loved what I saw! but anyways I was having the hardest time figuring it out! OMG OMG OMG i’ve been searching for IDK how long! Now I can finally go buy it! THANKS SOO MUCH and thank you too SEARCH ENGINE GOOGLE!!