1) Favorite anime when young
The Mysterious Cities of Gold. (Taiyou no Ko Esteban)
The story is different in japan and french (and maybe USA?), but it's a French project in collab with Japanese animation studio so the french story is what's intended.
A mix of historical and sci-fi.
(season 3 is now brodcasted, but I never watched the new seasons, design and dub is so different than the first one I feel too nostalgic to like it)
It's still a good anime as of today's standards, and it was intelligent and "to be continued" on each episode, not like the anime our kids are watching right now (dino truck and all these standalone crappy CGI episodes without stories)
2) Favorite anime this past few years
Maybe One Piece, as it's still airing.
I like the Natsume series too.
I loved Usagi drop.
There are too many different genre I watched to make a list of each, so Usagi drop will be the one I vote for.