When it comes to anime and manga, I'm like Ledo from "Gargantia: On the Verdurous Planet," an outsider. I know very little of the categories and genre's involved, and I never knew where to start. It turned out though, that I already started my experience with anime, and I'm really looking for where I go next. As a kid, I was exposed to Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Digimon on tv. With my parent's Playstation and NES, I had access to Final Fantasy 1, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy Tactics, Saga Frontier, Saga Frontier II, The Granstream Saga, Beyond the Beyond, Ogrebattle, and Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (I will admit that a few of those aren't strictly considered anime, but they all had at least some elements present in anime). Most of the games I mentioned are games I didn't even start playing until quite recently. I've also watched shows like Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
Interestingly enough, I never encountered some of the more popular or more widely viewed anime series. To this day I've never watched Naruto, Dragonball Z, Bleach, Sailor Moon, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Attack on Titan. With all this in mind, I've decided to expose myself to more of this popular culture. This mostly came about because of my brother, who loves anime like The Seven Deadly Sins, Fairy Tail, and Sword Art Online (SAO). He exposed me to a few of those Anime, and apart from SAO, I haven't finished watching those three. He also exposed me to shows like Wakfu (which I can't classify with certainty). I've also started my own search by filling my Final Fantasy collection and using Netflix.
Currently, SAO is among my favorite anime, I've watched the newer Voltron show on Netflix, I found Gargantia, and I started watching Wakfu, Fairy Tail, and The Seven Deadly Sins. Multiple friends of mine recommended Cowboy Bebop and other Anime. As far as manga goes, I've mostly read manga that have adapted stories I love, such as Maximum Ride, Cirque Du Freak, and The Legend of Zelda series. I have a grasp on the reading style of manga already. But there are still so many things I'm trying to adapt to like the different categories. I can't even list the Japanese named genres (although I heard one's for kids, one's for teen girls, one's for teen boys, and one's for adults... shows you how much I know...).
So to finish this up, I would like to see what your recommendations would be to continue my experience in anime. I know that a few anime like Black Butler and many that I've listed above are growing in popularity (I can just go look at Hot Topic to know that). And I have a Netflix account, which is perhaps my best means for watching Anime right now. I usually prefer English dubs, but English subs are fine as well. And when it comes to genres, I'm leaning towards shows like SAO and Voltron. I like large Mechas, sci-fi, and fantasy. I'm a gamer, which really appealed to me with SAO. Please make thoughtful feedback.