What is an anime staple? Ha, well, it's one of those anime that is a must. That shapes the way one ends up watching anime growing up... or not, but they are normally shows everyone should watch. They would be in the "anime starter pack" if you were trying to ease someone into their new life. I'd consider them to be important, they're often pretty big hits, and have more than 12 episodes. Oh, and sometimes get reboots, sometimes.
Some anime that I would consider to be staple anime would be Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, Cardcaptor Sakura, Inuyasha, Trigun, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dragon Ball/DBZ, Pokemon (but not really, and I'll explain why later), Ghost in the Shell, Ruroni Kenshin, Berserk, Hunter x Hunter, and Mobile Suit Gundam. There are even some more recent anime I'd consider staples, like One Piece even though it came out in 1999, Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and even Wolf's Rain.
In regards to Pokemon being a staple and yet, at the same time, not a staple, well, the thing is with this anime in particular, its target audience is young children and prior fans that have basically grown up. Even then the anime itself is really for the older fans. And I'd say they care more about the games than they do the show. So for someone who hasn't watched anime before, the last thing you'd recommend them would be
Pokemon, but because it had and still has such a large fan base with young children and prior fans because it was and still is such a big hit, it makes it staple, to some degree.
Pokemon, but because it had and still has such a large fan base with young children and prior fans because it was and still is such a big hit, it makes it staple, to some degree.
I personally believe that a staple anime takes a while to become one for some years and that's why newer anime, regardless of whether they fit all the previous criteria I mentioned earlier I wouldn't classify them as a staple. Think of it as the criteria a place has to fit before becoming a national landmark. If you've never watched any of the anime mentioned above, don't worry that doesn't make you any less of a true anime fan. No one is gonna gate keep you. 
They're just highly recommended anime, the originators of the tropes. They've paved the way for other anime, and besides they're all phenomenal in terms of animation for their time, character development, and plots/concepts. Take Sailor Moon for example, I'm pretty sure it was one of the first, if not the first magical girl anime and now that genre is pretty huge. The clothes transformation sequence can be been in other magical girl anime and not even just that. Mobile Suit Gundam gave other anime like Neon Genesis and Gurren Laggan the opportunity to explore the mech genre as well.
Staple anime just have a way of always being relevant. Remember though all of this is just opinion based, and my ideas of what makes a staple anime could be very different from what yours or someone else's are. The staple anime I mentioned earlier are also subjective, if you have any anime you think should be considered a staple for the "anime starter pack" feel free to disagree in the comments below.
I'm going to go watch anime now.
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