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Anime, like everything else, is bound by (my amended version of) Sturgeon's Law: at least 95% of everything is shit.

Maybe I feel obliged to answer the fundamental question: why does one watch anime? It boils down to two things.
1) Variance. The lower production costs, shorter seasons and general lack of sequels cause a lower risk environment where experimentation can occur. As a result, occasionally an anime will deviate from pandering to demographic groups and do something interesting for a change.
2) Expected value. Shorter seasons mean a show ends before it turns truly awful.

A few genres that I avoid:

* "Intellectual Battles"
Akin to solving a puzzle and then watching a video of some blowhard slowly monologuing every detail of the solution to you. I don't watch things or read things for puzzles.

* Shounen
It shouldn't need saying, but I'll say it anyway.

* Pseudo-academia
The first priority of anime is to tell a story, not to convey an economic theory (see: [C]) or philosophical school of thought (see: Ergo Proxy). Strength in the latter cannot ever make up for deficiencies in the former. In particular, I believe that books are still the best medium for such things, with their time-flexibility.

* Pseudophilosophical nonsense
See: All dialogue in Kara no Kyoukai.

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An explanation of what my ratings mean:
10: One of my favorites; any flaws they may have are either irrelevant to me or overwhelmingly eclipsed by some aspect that was extremely well-done
9: One of my favorites, but some minor issues prevent it from being a 10.
8: A very good work, certainly worth watching, but may not do much to break from the pack.
7: A good work. Also worth watching, but there is a nontrivial portion of it that is mediocre.
6: Mostly mediocre, but stands out in one aspect.
5: Mediocrity, and likely not worth your time.
< 4: Garbage.