I'm trying to improve my listening by listening to anime without subtitles. The one anime I've been making my way through lately is 名探偵コナン。 It's a great high-intermediate anime - not overly complex, but challenging in parts, and filled with more or less non-stop speaking.

To help me iron out a few parts I miss during viewing, I've been pairing watching each episode with reading the episode synopses posted on Conan.aga-search.com. You can read one here:

http://conan.aga-search.com/501-2-2-56conantv.html

I'm not sure if they're all this thorough, but the ones I've seen are really good. I watch an episode, read the synopsis, then go back and re watch the parts I feel like I missed to see if I can understand them more clearly.

I'm having fun using this technique and feel like I'm learning a lot, so I figured I'd post it for those other learners who want to take off the training wheels of japanese subtitles.

I did the the same thing (almost) with that same anime for a few episodes. I think as far as anime goes it doesn't get much easier to understand - but anyone with less than high intermediate level isn't going to understand anime very much anyway.

I might try doing what you're doing with the summaries. I was just rewatching it to check myself. I love that anime. I just discovered it when it came to Crunchyroll a few months ago and I'm on episode 130ish now.

I eventually stopped doing this because I just couldn't stand not watching and missing parts of the plot. The bane of all people trying to make the leap from subs to no subs I suppose. It was aggravating in that i wasn't even watching the show either just listening. I only have hard subbed versions. I'd definitely give it a go without subs if I could turn them off.

I also do something similar to this but with dramas due to the fact that the plot is easier to follow than anime imo. Also because they're short so the quantity of drama "consumed" is greater than anime series. The only thing I don't do is rewatch the episodes where there were "holes" in my understanding. I probably should do that just to gauge my progress. So far, I just use the episode summaries to gauge whether or not I have a decent understanding.

I'm not saying I wouldn't ever do this method with anime, I don't feel I am ready to let go of the subs for overall story comprehension. Anime, to me, seems more focused and detailed and I don't want to be left wondering and missing out on the entire point of the series so I understand how kraemder feels.

Also, I never watched a Japanese drama with any form of subs before so I guess I can't miss anything I've never had? lol xD

I'm at the point with the series now where I rarely feel fully lost. (I guess my listening isn't as bad as I think, lol.) but I definitely understand the frustration in not being able to follow even basic plot. There are still shows and anime that are a struggle to follow without subs.

The only episodes of コナン that throw me tend to be the ones with lots of unfamiliar core terms and concepts, like episode 16, 骨董品コレクター殺人事件. I had never even heard of 居合 before, and there were a number of other words that were hard to understand. Once I read the synopsis, however, the general plot fell into place for me. (And the scene where the collector's wife tries to bribe Mouri is just hilarious.)

Actually, the OTHER episodes that throw me are the ones with 服部平次。 I've heard from some of my teachers that the 関西弁 used in anime tends to be a bastardized form of the dialect. This seems to be the case with 服部平次; according to some, he was told to make his speech 全国的に分かりやすいように。 Maybe that's why it always hurts my ears...

Anime certainly differ quite a bit in how easy they are for me to follow.
If you're trying to watch with no subtitles at all, ones I've found easier are,
Kotoura-san -- A girl who has been ostracized all her life for her ESP makes some friends and has some crazy adventures. The dialogue is mostly common daily language despite the supernatural backdrop.
Kobato - A girl from the spirit realm has a chance to live a life on earth if she can prove herself by healing broken hearts. Again, despite the supernatural backdrop, almost all the dialogue is common daily language. Her companion Ioryogi speaks like a thug though and can be a little hard to understand if you're not used to that.
Tari-tari - Some high school girls form a musical ensemble. Completely slice of life with everyday dialogue.

Non-non Biyori and Locodol are also slice of life, but for various reasons a little more difficult to follow; still much easier than most anime.
Erin is set in a fantasy world based on a novel, so despite being somewhat of youth-oriented NHK anime, the plot is actually quite rich. The challenge is picking out the made-up words specific to the fictional world and identifying what they mean, otherwise the language is pretty straightforward. Using the OP's suggestion of reading summaries should help with this (especially if you read the summaries in Japanese.)

All of them are available on crunchyroll and for all of them at least at the high resolutions available to premium subscribers you can turn the subtitles off. The ability to turn subtitles off being a major reason I use crunchyroll so much.

(Sorry I'm not going to check if subtitles can be turned off at the free resolution... however I do know that many but not all anime have hard English subs at the free resolution. You could activate a soft-sub in another language to obscure them but that's a little awkward.)

Yes, I second Tari Tari for unassisted listening. Thereare also Japanese subs available if you get stuck. I'd also recommend a shorter work, 言の葉の庭、for those looking for straightforward, slice of life dialog. (Again, Japanese subs are also available.) It's both easy to follow and very endearing.

I really like that Crunchyroll allows disabling of subtitles. FWIW, Netflix now also supports Japanese language/no subs for the bulk of its anime collection.

I've been enjoying reading the manga in Japanese, and plan to start watching the show soon. You may already know this, but there is also a short audio drama for the series, which is funny and pretty easy to understand for the most part. It's available on youtube:

There was also a radio show with the producer and voice actors, but it is really casual and way harder to follow.