favorite anime are BECK: MONGOLIAN CHOP SQUAD, Samurai Champloo, Full Metal Alchemist and anything by Hayao Miyazaki (dudes a genius)
You've got some good taste.
Beck's one of the better manga I've read, but I got to the end of what's out so far and I've temporarily stopped following it. (For anybody who doesn't know, it's a realistic and extremely well done manga/anime about a Japanese rock band.)
Samurai Champloo is fun, if you're just looking for action. But if you expect any kind of continous plot or character development, it's not the show you want. The characters are two dimensional, and the plot is almost completely episodic.
Full Metal Alchemist is popular enough that it doesn't really need commenting in, but I think the manga is often overlooked by Western anime fans. It's really just as good, and it's still going on in Japan.
EDIT: After watching the DVDs of the second half of the FMA anime, I take it back. The manga is significantly better than the anime.
And Miyzaki is just an anime
god.