[@Sol Grim]For my favorite "softer" series, I always go with Rurouni Kenshin. It's got a wonderful story, pretty art, funny characters, all of that jazz. Hell, Kenshin himself was the original inspiration for Joachim, so you're going to see a lot of references and shit to a specific part of that manga's story inside the current arc.

You want hardcore? Oh, you're gonna get hardcore, and you're not going to be ready for it. Berserk, hands down. Fantastic story, horrifying creatures, monsters who look like people and people who look like monsters, epic and satisfying violence. A lot of what I want to do is in the vein of Berserk. Go into it ready, though; the violence and swearing is the most tame part of the series. There's a lot of dark things that happen because, well, people are awful.

Edit: Also, note that I read the manga for these; rather, was recommending from the manga standpoint, though I've watched the anime of both series and am familiar with the flaws in both. The anime for Rurouni Kenshin is okay until up to a certain point, where it diverges from the manga entirely and just goes pure filler. On the other hand, Berserk's anime, is, well... There was the original 90s run which covered the background arc, and it was followed by the Golden Age Arc movies which told the same section, just more updated, more action, while skimming over some unnecessary stuff, and then they went into the 2016 series, where the animation is CGI and not the best, but damn, it's still Berserk so I eat it up. Plus they're improving it for the Bluray release, so yeah.