A couple of days ago I stumbled into a former co-worker who's a big manga/anime fan.
He knows I used to watch lots of old school anime when I was younger but seemed amused when I told him about my experiences with newer anime shows.
I had him laughing out loud when I told him the first newer anime I watched was Highschool of the Dead (he knows I like horror/scifi).
My liking of Freezing came to no surprise to him as well.
I told him how I had recently finished watching Mnemosyne (which I thought was so-so except for the beginning and end) and FMP? Fomuffo (which was "lighter viewing" and had some fun episodes like the Bunta-kun ones and the deadly virus one)...but that these were not really the type of anime series I was looking for.
He told me I needed more naughtiness!
So I asked him which ones were good as I was basically blind buying.
He told me to come over to his place and there (to my amazement) we watched the first episode of all these series:
Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? aka Is This a Zombie?
Girls und Panzer (I asked him specifically to watch this one as it intrigued me)
Rosario + Vampire
High School DxD
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls
To Love Ru
Kanokon
I really enjoyed watching the first episode of all of them (Kanokon was maybe a bit too much though!
) and was able to get a feel of these series now.
For instance High School DxD reminded me in certain aspects of Freezing.
He told me to come over again soon and we would watch some more first episodes (Kampfer is already planned).
My favourites from the bunch would probably be these but they're all enjoyable imho.