Requesting sci-fi stuff that leans toward the silly and ostentatious, while also being dramatic and poignant.
Examples:
>Star Trek: The Original Series
>SDF Macross (that escape arc is still one of my favorite storylines in anything sci-fi)
>Patlabor (Makes for a neat thematic precursor and tonal counterweight to Ghost in the Shell, even if the connection isn’t as direct or straightforward as some of the US DVD covers insinuate)
>Martian Successor Nadesico (for a parody it honestly explores the impact of culture just as well as Macross, maybe even better)
>Space Battleship Yamato (set against the backdrop of a big space war but still has an adventurous vibe, fairly playful in terms of scenarios and setpieces)
>Roujin Z (screw it, just a fun story about a high-tech hospital bed gone wild)
Right now I’ve been watching through the orignal Captain Harlock anime.
It's got the same kind of themes and knack for adventure as Yamato but from a rather different tack, with the earth falling to crap long before the alien invaders show up and its fate resting in the hands of an outlaw.
Harlock and co. being the only alert people of their time came off as a tinge hamfisted at first, though it checks out pretty well in context. The secondary cast consisting of goofy potato-shaped comedic relief characters also helps even it out.

The rest of Leiji Matsumoto's stuff seems like a good source for this kind of thing, though he's hardly the only one to have pulled it off.