Funny you should mention elfen lied, that's on my stack of things to watch.
Something fun that i don't think was mentioned was cromartie high school, pretty funny short episode anime, we picked up the dvds over xmas and had good fun with them. It's a school drama with only one female character which is someone's mom, very different to most of the school stuff i recommend and should appeal to you guys more sicne alot of you aren't into the same anime as me really.
To aru Kagaku no Railgun was something i started watching recently, a spin off from to aru majutsu no index. Pretty standard fair of yuri and magical girls but it's got a lovely vibe to it and some pretty cool action moments. Futuristic, magic, school and comedy.
We also got the dvds of Ouran High School Host Club, absolutely fantastic anime about a host club of guys for upperclass girls at a posh school. It ends with the main girl being mistaken for a boy and becoming a host with lots of fun that cross dressing and gender mistakes can bring
. It's kinda hard to not view it initally as something that would not appeal to male fans but it's actually a very clever anime and has a pretty mature backbone amidst the hilarity.Mushi-shi is known amongst some as the sleepy anime because at anime all nighters it truly has put some people to sleep, very slow pace to alot of it and has a wide selection of the colour green... but yeah i quite enjoyed some of the episodes, some of them though i found pretty trying.
Kino no Tabi (kino's journey) was something else we got on dvd, this has got to be one of the best anime ever made. It revolves around a traveller, kino, who basically lives to see the world. With the motorrad (motorcycle) Hermes, Kino visits all sorts of weird places with interesting stories or customs. It's fully titled kino no tabi - the beautiful world, and it basically centres upon how ugly the world is and in it's own words, that lends it a certain beauty. This is pretty different from my standard recommendations of school girls and moe and should appeal to more of you guys i would think.
Code Geass i started watching and enjoyed the early stuff i saw, just not managed to sit down to watch the full length yet, same with wlecome to the nhk. Gotta see spice and wolf's second season as the first was awesome, i can't recommend that enough, a really cleverly written anime. Looksl ike fretnix enjoys a bit more of the stuff i do since he put out Maria+Holic, enjoyed what i saw of that too.
rest is better !