If you want some recommendations, I'd start by saying stay very, very far away from 99.9% of English dub versions of anything (you may have seen my recent journal entry about how Neil Gaiman's script for Princess Mononoke makes it one of the only English dubs I can tolerate).

I did. Fortunately, I try to avoid dubbed anything, anime or not—and so I'm pleased to report to you that Princess Tutu is subtitled.

(Urusai Yatsura, and early Ranma 1/2)

I've read some of both of those in their manga incarnation; I've never seen the anime. Are there great differences between the two?

If you're able to utilise those, I'd recommend it since an anime habit can get very expensive, very fast.

Fortunately, I have a householdful of friends who own serious amounts of anime. My current plans are to sponge off them for everything I can watch.

Thanks for the recommendations!