Mac Arrowny posted...
My favorite "independent" one is probably Hotarubi no Mori e (Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light) - not sure you've done that one on a list. The others I'm into have all been series stuff, like Mardock Scramble or Heaven's Feel or Nanoha or Sengoku Basara or whatever. Oh right, also Garden of Words, which is my favorite or second favorite thing from Makoto Shinkai (Voices of a Distant Star is also fantastic).
All the non-series ones you mentioned were on our first anime list. It's been quite a while since it though.