Getting bored. In need of a great show.
 

I'm currently looking for some masterpiece that I have not watched that completely draws me in. The most recent series that completely drawed me in was Twelve Kingdoms (watched 39 episodes. Haven't finished yet because of what I've heard about an incomplete ending.)

My list: http://myanimelist.net/animelist/Rawgers

Specific requirements:
1) No ecchi and shounen-ai shows
2) Story needs to be at least mediocre. No complete trainwrecks or excessive amounts of plot twists.
3) Main character- absolutely not a weak, shy, angsty, annoying lead please unless she/he changes pretty quickly (when I say quickly, I mean in less than 10 episodes.)
4) I prefer female leads, but male leads are fine
5) Less than 51 episodes (I can make exceptions if the series is brilliant)
6) Animation quality must not deteriorate after a couple of episodes. And too much CG is a complete turn off.
7) No harems/reverse harems
8) Traps are fine, but do not tell me if there is a trap in the series unless it is completely obvious. I like surprises =)
9) Like mentioned above, I like surprises. (example, School Days, Higurashi, Lovely Complex)
10) Movies are fine
11) I do not mind shows from 90's or 80's as long as the animation is watchable and the shows have subs available.
12) Mangas are fine. VN are not (Need to finish all the VN's I have atm)
13) Loved "Mushishi" "Kino no Tabi" and "Natsume Yuujinchou" type of series. Enjoyed the part that it does not revolve around the main character but more about the problems of different people.

Please recommend one or two shows and convince me the shows are worth watching (try not to spoil anything). Do not give me a huge list containing 4+ shows. Lists do not tell me anything.
P.S.: If there is a show that I dropped/put on hold that is worth watching, convince me.

Thanks for any input~

I'd cut straight to Noein and Ghost Hound, as I see neither on your list. Noein is an incredibly inventive and daring series - bother in terms of plot and animation. Female lead, no harem nonsense, lots of surprises. Ghost Hound is just a brilliant overall show - it does have quite a few plot twists and a male lead, but a really well-developed and intricate storyline that keeps you guessing till the end.

I just finished watching three episodes of Noein. Overall, it seems like an interesting series, except I am having a problem with Yuu. He is annoying me greatly at the moment. Is he going to become "less annoying" in some time (or not be part of the main story)?

I'll try Ghost Hound later.

There's no possible way to answer that question without massively spoiling you. All I can say is to stick with it, in my view it's absolutely worth it.

ghost hound is good yes :)
and so is ghost hunt

similar names but totally different

I don't think it'd be spoiling it all, tbh.

Geez.. most of my suggestions you have already watched.

Cross Game, FMA, FMP, ect

I was going to suggest maybe Chrono Crusade, but you have that on hold.

On your mean to watch list you have Read Or Die (OVA) aka R.O.D. OVA.

That's a decent anime.

You said you wanted masterpieces though. And for that my suggestions are:

Maison Ikkoku (although it doesn't match all of your criteria - it is a masterpiece of romantic comedy. Almost all current romance anime hearken back to it, but Maison Ikkoku still does it better).

Starblazers Old work from the 70's. Definitely a masterpiece of the space opera.

Fair enough, I'll attempt to bare with it.

I'll try soon.

I've been meaning to try R.O.D, the OVA is only 3 episodes so I'll see how good it is.

For Maison Ikkoku, the series does not seem like something I'll marathon through (96 episodes :X). Probably more something that I will casually watch along with Touch.

Starblazers, I'm not sure about the series. The oldest series I have seen was probably Heidi, and the animation for that was not the greatest (as expected for something so old). So, how good/bad is the animation for Starblazers

Thanks everyone.

Well...

How about this: Yuu's angst is central to the plot of the series - he's that way for a reason that's very important to the plot. It all comes together, trust me. As to whether he becomes less "annoying" that's far too subjective to try and answer. For me, Yuu was a sympathetic character in that I could always understand why he was as troubled as he was. Does he change over the course of the series? In more ways than you could possibly imagine.

Very well said, that's why I left it to you ;). I'm the king of spoiling things unintentionally through excitement :<.

The Starblazers opening. The clarity is hurt a lot, since it's probably ripped from a 20 year old homemade tape of the American broadcast back in 1980, but you can still get an idea of the animation style.

Oh... also, on the sub vs dub debate. I've seen some of both, and the plot is kept pretty well intact by both, but the dub has the effect of localizing a lot of Japanese cultural issue. The dub also eliminated anything resembling ecchi (after all it was broadcast with Saturday morning cartoons).

Edit: I found a subbed version with much better video quality, but embedding is disabled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDLifAZiRrg