[quote=@Mammalia]
Hey, David, what would you suggest as a follow-up to FT? Preferably something with magic/fantasy elements.
[/quote]

Madoka Magica, Lyrcal Nanoha, FMA/FMAB, Rave Master if you want a better version of FT, KLK, Bible Black, (THAT ONE'S A JOKE DON'T EVEN LOOK INTO IT IT WOULD SCAR YOU FOR LIFE) Death Note, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Raildex, NGEva, G Gundam, Code Geass, Bleach's manga, AoT's manga, Cage of Eden's manga, Zoids, Disgaea's got an anime though I don't know the quality, .hack if you want a well-done trapped-in-a-game anime, though Sign isn't all that great (better than SAO unless you just want pretty animation more than any other factors combined) and Liminality you might not be able to follow if you haven't played the first four games (I dunno haven't seen it yet cause I'm still playing them) and I'd avoid the movie since it's CG, even though it's good, but the others would work, or Log Horizon is another good trapped-in-a-game series, Deadman Wonderland but it's really bloody and the anime ends really early on, Digimon Tamers is good but it suffers from animation roughness since it was made on a really short timelimit and there's a scene that has the whole "time is slowed down but someone talks normally so they say like 5 paragraphs in what is supposed to be half a second" thing, if you don't mind lack of magic/fantasy then Lucky Star is good but you'd get the most out of it if you watch Haruhi first, Dog Days seems good but I can't be sure since I haven't seen it yet, another good non fantasy/magic one is K-On, Shaman King is really good but the anime sucks so read the manga if you do, Shakugan no Shana looks amazing but I haven't watched it yet, and of course Gurren Lagann is always a good choice. 
Definitely stay off SAO unless you're hammered, (assuming the only way that would happen is drinking wine to celebrate something and just losing track of how much you've had) you're too much of a literary person to be able to get over it's flaws, though if you watch the abridged (which is fucking amazing) then that might get you to watch the actual series. I'd also say stay off Heaven's Lost Property and you should avoid Motto To Love like the plague, since the former is pervy humor and the latter is pervy humor distilled into it's raw essence in it's purest form, so just in case you come across those somehow.