I never bothered watching Beserk because I heard it had a non-existent ending....it would annoy me too much. Of recent anime I have watched Noein (again another excellent anime, visually stunning at times) it had a great ending , everything wrapped up nicely.
I basically yelled at the screen when Hitomi left...such a silly girl...the movie of Escflowne is meant to be incredibly different, with some complete personality changes...Hitomi becomes very emo, Van a mad killer and so on....
Currently watching the Devil May Cry anime...so far it has been fun...also watching another called Kekkaishi, which has been really great so far, kinda typical shounen style anime, but the art is fun, and the lead character is atypical for the style and the gay wolf spirit guide is a joy
I could never finish watching Evangelion...the lead dude just whinged waaaaaaaaaay too much.
Lara Croft is the Count of Monte Cristo anime you refer to Gankutsuou? Where it is set in the future? and the artwork is sort of all a collage in a way? That was an awesome series....the artwork can hurt your eyes initially, tis very disconcerting...reminds me of an animated Klimt painting.
Anyone who says they are kids cartoons annoy the hell out of me. In Japan, animation is seen to be a media form for everyone, hence adult and kid animes. I would never let a kid of mine watch Elfen Lied for instance....it would severely mess with your head....it did to me and I saw it when I was 19.
Of course you have your animes aimed at kids ie Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh (more designed to sell products than anything else really) and it is a shame that these tend to be the ones exported to the West...we miss out on so much.
Grave of the Fireflies is another Studio Ghibli film, that people should check out, but remember to bring a box of tissues and a rope....you may want to end it all at the end of it.
Lastly
http://www.themanime.org/ is a useful place to look up various anime for reviews etc....generally reliable it can help sort the good from the bad...