Been watching Ganketsuo and Darker than Black (the latter slowly because I'm watching it with my sister when I get a chance). Ganketsuo I'm about halfway through. Awesome and striking visual style. I'm trying very hard to separate my knowledge of the book (near my favorite) and the show. I thought the show was utterly fantastic through the first 7 or so episodes but lost a bit since then (I kind of dislike how they're characterizing the count and Villefort). There is some definite improvement (like Euginie's and the elder Morcef's characterization). It's a shame they can barely use such a vibrant character as Nortier de Villefort as its almost impossible to pull off outside of text. All and all very good so far.

Darker than Black has also been excellent so far (about 6 episodes into that). Neat concept and interesting animation. Two strongest points are the music and the main character but all of the subsidiary characters have been pretty well realized so far.

Watched the first episode of Ride Back the other day. Not sure if like.

Darker than Black is pretty sweet through the first season. The mini 4 episode side story is cool too, but then the 2nd season (which continues where the side story left off) was pretty mediocre. Hei is a badass main character though.

My younger sister has told me to avoid the 2nd Season like the plague so I'll probably skip it. I really like Hei.

Finished Ganketsuo. Really strange ending that I don't think I liked very much which is a shame since I liked the episodes leading up to the last 3 quite a bit. The last two episodes in particular had some really disjointed storyteling and edits of images that were really disorienting and created a real chronology question. I think I need to watch the show again to give my full thoughts on it but I'd give it a 7 to 8 out of 10 at the moment. I liked it for sure but there were some really annoying flaws. I may watch it in sub this time as well as the dub got kind of annoying particularly at the end. Still the visual achievement in this is just stunning.

Always go sub brah (with a few exceptions, most notably Cowboy Bebop and Baccano!).

Geneon did a good job with Samurai Champloo. Funimation usually does a good job (Darker than Black is quite good for example and both FMA's are way better than their counterparts). I assumed since Geneon did this it would be of comperable quality. But between them stretching some people out of their comfort zone and using Johnny Young Bosch with too much yelling it got really rough. Speaking of which Bosch is good as Vash but I find he's one of the most one note voice actors out there and can only really hold a role with REALLY good direction. In any case the adapted script was too yelling heavy.

The FMA dub I heard was terrible.... well, the Brotherhood dub I should say. I only got through two episodes of it dubbed before I gave up. The voices for Ed and Mustang in particular just didn't fit and were poorly acted. I still haven't seen Samurai Champloo, but probably will in the near future.

Rewatching Champloo at the moment actually

The only good anime shows that it's acceptable to watch dubbed are: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Berserk.

No Death Note or FMA?

Fuck no on Death Note. I haven't seen FMA so I can't comment, but given the 50 or so dubs I've seen I don't anticipate it bucking the trend.

Definitely no on Death Note. L's voice is so horrible on dubbed. Doesn't fit his personality or appearance at all.

FLCL? Shin Chan? Gurren Lagann? Paranoia Agent?

What was the dub? If its the Funimation dub I think you're kidding yourself. Now I will say the first two episodes are somewhat poorly directed so the actors don't get their head but that isn't a problem in the original series. Watch the original series (which uses the same voice actors) and its fucking pitch perfect. And having watched the sub I like the dub much better. The writing is quite sharp and the acting is great.