As another person posted, I think your friends might be overselling. Most anime is utter dross, and sometimes very weird / weirdly sexualised (eg. clearly underage characters who the fanbases pretend are 1000 years old).

The most well-known are typically the (very few) ones worth watching, eg. Attack on Titan, Death Note.

If you've sort of heard of the name or seen references to it, it's likely to be one of the more popular ones and is maybe worth a look. Besides those, it's fighting through weeds to find anything that's really any good.