More 'serious good fun' robot/SF anime..
Gasaraki - it's a 'pay attention' series..
Raxhephon - I think of it as 'Evangelion Lite' - weird lookin' bad guys too.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - I'm halfway thru this series at the moment and I really like how they took the concepts from the movies, stripped away all the navel gazing and made it more of a cop/detective series.
OK, it's not 'serious' but I loved Full Metal Panic which I just saw.
Radd: I'm with you - Hated Noir, loved Crest of the Stars.