Fave Anime from Pre-Moe Era

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Maybe it's just me, but I think we've entered a period where everything in animé is all kawaii 'n' junk. Everybody looks super-duper-cutesy. I just want some variety in terms of aesthetic. My sources tell me that moé in the modern sense began with Cardcaptor Sakura, but maybe it's really because of imitators banking on a trend or many consumers reacting positively to the style. So yeah, discuss or list your favorite Japanese cartoons made after Astro Boy but before Cardcaptor Sakura.

i'm not crazy about anything with a chibi/big-eyed look--they tend to be accompanied by lots of gosh/gee whiz breathless enthusiasm, and the writing tends to talk down to the reader, as though we are all pre-pubescent children, and not very intelligent ones at that. I prefer more grown-up stories (but not explicit)--why I usually gravitate toward Studio Ghibli. I'm not adverse to manga/anime for girls and women--I like Ah! My Goddess a lot, which has complex plotting and absolutely sumptuous art. The manga version is vastly superior to the anime though-- the high-pitched voices on the anime Ah! My Goddess just make me wince. An awful lot of the comics written for boys and men tends to be heavy on the hardware--too much mecha and shouting, too little story.

I too demand more aesthetic diversity.
However, there's still interesting things out there. Masaaki yuasa. Evenvhis cute stuff, like kaiba, is weird.

Regarding the time period OP asked for: AKIRA.

i will always like Blood+, RahXephon and Elfen Lied

Conan / Case Closed

While the characters are drawn in the BESM mode, the stories feature murder mysteries with just a few attempts at kawaii.

I don't know about specific start and end dates, but I know what you mean about the moe animes. I avoid most animes with bug-eyed little sisters/classmates. I really liked Kurau Phantom Memory and Kino no Tabi for being a little different. Oh, and of course, the anime my avatar depicts: Shinsekai yori.

I think there are more non moe anime than moe anime. Maybe you mean fanservice. Look at Gintama, One Piece, Fairy Tail, and many others.

Pre-Moe? Hmmmm uuummm... Probably anything Gundam...Or Monster...Yeah, Monster, the story and art was fantastic!

My current favorite anime is One Punch Man and that is far from Moe >_>;

I think you are kind of limiting yourself if you are sticking to a frame of mind that everything now is moe, and that everything moe is pointless kawaii pandering. There are plenty of shows that don't fit the idea of "moe", more shows are made than ever, and you might find some shows that know how to use that appearance of moe as a weapon.

First, I want to ask who is familiar with Puella Magi Madoka Magica? If you want to go to something like Cardcaptor Sakura as some origins of moe, then Madoka comes in to tell you that the assumption you had that a show with cutesy character designs cannot be smart, deep, and your expectations of innocence you could expect from its opening is a lie. Get to the third episode and say that you can think it is too sweet.

Or School Live, which has a sweet appearance but a careful eye will see that something is not right, the moe look is used as a weapon. That the direction and writing in the scene can be very surprising.

Want something that gets away from modern designs, then you have Osomatsu-san, an anime keeping character design similar to its 1966 and 1988 prequels.

You can have a rotoscope anime like Flowers of Evil.

A full CG anime like Knights of Sidonia where character designs really are not moe at all.

The somewhat retro styled Kill la Kill, that has so much symbolism that it will hurt.

The high intensity and grim Attack on Titan that has a really cinematic design.

Watamote with its deliberately un-moe main character, and in my opinion great representation of living with Aspergers Syndrome.

Saying that you are so great because you hate the way anime is now is not making you oh so smart and great sense of taste, there is so much on offer with the way anime is now, that you are just being closed minded and ignorant to new things, that there are new great ways to have underlying messages too, and that a cute design does not mean it is mindless. Do you know what else is great? Having anime where characters move and have varied designs, where a background can be a beautiful painting and have moving people, with great varied music tracks, and fantastic voice work. Not something where only a mouth might move, scenes might just be a few static images, and characters can be a bit flat compared to newer ones. It really annoys me when people try to say the stuff now is bad because it is oh so moe, and you have outsiders who thinks it is bad because they can only think of it in terms of old bad examples.

Uh there is modern anime that isn't moe. You seem to greatly limit the list by basically saying you can't go past 1999.
Well other than I'd say Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, Hunter X Hunter, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Fist of The North Star, Saint Seiya, and Ninja Scroll.

Do movies count? If so, my favorite one would probably be Yotoden.

In regards to anime from the time frame you seem to be looking for, I genuinely enjoy Case Closed/Detective Conan, One Piece and Ranma 1/2. But not every anime you see today is moe as you seem to think. Pretty sure most of what airs on the modern Toonami block, for example, is definitely not moe. And even the ones that look it can be pretty dark sometimes. Puella Magi is a good example as someone here has already said. So is some of the stuff done by PEACH PIT, as some people here may already know if they've watched and/or read Rozen Maiden. Even Cardcaptor Sakura and the universe it's in is fairly dark at times, most notably in related series XXXholic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles.

You're just limiting yourself by not really looking for good modern anime. Try watching Blue Exorcist if you want some aesthetic differences in a modern anime. Even the girls have variances in appearance.