I remember our local Blockbuster* had an anime section (which was, I thought, fairly unusual for one out in the “sticks”). It is where I came across many of the titles the OP mentions. My roommate had heard that “Akira was pretty good”, but this was largely our only exposure to anime up to this point. Shortly thereafter we had burned through that entire section (and the Internet began to mature and it turned out that it was a pretty big deal). Good times.
I will check some of those titles out. I would add to the list of recommendations Ninja Scroll.
*For the uninitiated, Blockbuster was a chain of brick-and-mortar businesses that would rent VHS tapes (and shortly before its demise, DVDs). I still, in fact, have Spirited Away on VHS with a working player.
