Kaori Yuki's work for Angel Sanctuary was amazing and a lot of the old Gundam shows (UC timeline) are a sight to behold. The latter is from the golden age of anime, nice dark inked lines and stuff. I came upon one of the newer Gundam Series ...Seed I believe and I was apalled at how ugly it was. It was like the show had a clean filter. A lot of new anime looks this way because as technology developed so were ways to cut corners, save time etc. Some more recent shows that look great despite being new that come to mind are Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan and what little I've seen of Gundam Unicorn.
Also here is some key advice to you, if you are going to draw anime, I am no artist but please follow it and save yourself some pain: a lot of deviantart artists make the huge mistake of using tv show animation as their basis for design and stuff. Do not do this unless you plan on going into animation. Base all your drawings off either concept sketches or stills from manga that were actually drawn. Why is this? All tv shows, even the most beautiful movies and OVAs, take subtle short cuts and things you normally would not do for an actual drawing.
So use manga, concept art..but don't just pull out a scene from your favorite episode of Evangelion, pause it and start drawing. No no no.
Also I confess, as a child I was very guilty of this and suffered for it later on with my art. I speak from limited experience.
Along with Kaori Yuki (if you want to do a more feminine, heavily detailed look) search out Kentaro Miura Berserk. It is a EXCELLENT manga and has some gorgeous art, especially if you are into the whole grim dark thing. Its less like anime and more like an American comic...if you ignore the protagonists cute fairy sidekick and the young female witch who befriends him later on. If you want gruesome, detailed, awesome scenes or stills for characters go search out Berserk.
Rurouni Kenshin is a great manga too and very well drawn..but again, when learning to draw..take my advice here: AVOID BASING YOUR DRAWINGS OFF THE TV SHOWS. Your drawings won't look as good and you will pick up bad habits along the way.
Someone on another forum put in words much better than me and used a very good example, I'm trying to find it. I'm sorry if I've confused a ton of people.
Here are some great examples of how beautiful and diverse the "anime" style can be. Random pics plucked from the best, in my opinion.
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