Samurai Champloo was good.
There were games? 0.o


;-)

EDIT: So far so good. I will definately check some of these out (especially Black Lagoon). Keep them coming.

You don't mind some comedy thrown in then? That opens things up a bit more. New suggestion: Coyote Ragtime Show

I completely forgot to recommend Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star). I have the opening theme Ai wo Torimodose single cd thing. I absolutely had to have it, it's great, and the series is the most manly thing that has ever happened (as far as I know).

I thought Vampire Hunter D was good until I read a description of the book. Holy shit, talk about twisted.

+1 for Gungrave, only one I can remember that fits the bill (although it's probably less action-y than you'd like).

Also, try an anime recommendation site. I recommend anime-planet.com. As a test, the first four recs for Cowboy Bebop are Trigun, Samurai Champloo, Outlaw Star and Black Lagoon.

Try these:

Akira
Vampire Hunter D
Ninja Scroll
Perfect Blue

NINJA EDIT:

And how could I forget: Wicked City *BOM SHA BOOM*

Seconding "The Professional: Golgo 13". It's rather old, with some of the first computer animations in anime. The direction still holds up and is quite inovative. One of my favorite action movies from the 80's, not just in animation.

Ninja Scroll is very action heavy as well.

Ive never really been a fan, But I did enjoy the Fist of the north star game and as a result bought myself the boxset.

All the clips ive seen on youtube seem to match what you are looking for

Ranma 1/2

It's done by Rumiko Takahashi, who also did Inu Yasha. It's comical, has some great fight scenes, and the concept itself is interesting. It's also one of the classics that any anime fan my age grew up with.

EDIT: Also, Azumanga Daioh is a hilarious anime but it has absolutely no action, since it revolves around a group of young girls as they go through high school.

I don't know about much of the anime others have suggested. The only new animes I watch are Ghost in the Shell since I'm a huge Masamune Shirow fan and Hellsing. I watched Trigun and found it terrible.

As mentioned by others, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo were both great. Barring that... Well, you killed FLCL with that right there...

Let's try SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN
Interesting show, you'll not find your three gripes within.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain

+1 for akira
I used to watch a lot, but from a more mature standpoint,
akira is one of the view still worth watching.

Haven't seen that many animes, but the one that I did like was Death Note. Pretty interesting concept developed really well up to episode 16 or so. If you want your animes to contain interesting moral choices, a battle of wits and and a story that requires constant attention, Death Note is your pick.

Synopsis: a smart college boy finds a notebook with which he can kill people if he writes their name into it after having seen their face. After a clever detective recognizes a curious pattern in recent sudden deaths, he tries to track down the killer (the boy) while trying to stay anonymous.

I highly recommend these shows:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
Gundam SEED
All of the Slayers series
Robotech and/or Macross
Macross Frontier
Death Note
Martian Successor Nadesico
Berserk
Escaflowne
Battle Athletes
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
The entire Space Battleship Yamato show series

For movies:

Project A-Ko
Ghost in the Shell
Akira
Just about anything from Hayao Miyazaki, but especially Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky and Nausica Valley of the Wind
All of the Space Battleship Yamato movies

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a good deconstruction of the magic girl genre. I liked it a lot.

BTW, don't be fooled by the cutesy art style :)

I f&cking LOVED madoka. If you watch it, get the bluray version, because the studio redrew almost all the scenes.

If you like Madoka, you'll probably like mahou shoujo lyrical nanoha.