OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Mask Of Zeguy

Mask Of Zeguy might seem like a premise merges Fushigi Yuugi and Fate/Stay Night where two schoolgirls get sent to a parallel world that is inhabited by famous historical figures, but this was made in 1993 before either franchise got its own anime. The OVA was only two episodes long which wasn't based on any existing source material. The story is a hodgepodge of ideas and concepts that were poorly thought out and seriously hard to follow. Its mixing of time travel and parallel worlds only make it more confusing as director/writer Shigenori Kageyama made it out to be which only helps if you're fluent in Japanese history. Since this was before isekai became the instant hit it is nowadays, it is difficult to see what kind of plot they were going for, even with cyborgs and werewolves added to the fold.

Miki is a schoolgirl who has a fight with her friend Sayaka, and they both end up in a magical realm called the Cloud World. This place is a crossroads of several different points in time allowing people to travel from one point to another, but the only way to navigate it was the instincts of a common looking cat. Miki runs across a Shinsengumi samurai and an eccentric scientist who invented an airship with its own self-replicating organic engine whose droppings can be used as defensive mines. Her friend Sayaka has been captured by an evil queen that now possesses the titular Mask of Zeguy which allows its owner to gain access to the portal between both their world and ours. This villainess employs a time displaced Leonardo DaVinci who makes her instruments of destruction while at the same time operating a small puppet doppelganger that he keeps on his shoulder. Miki is recognized by some telepathic locals as being the reincarnation of their prophesied priestess who can use the power of the deity Zeguy to oppose the evil queen. Sayaka is thought to be the priestess and Miki has to rescue her from the queen's clutches. It might seem like they won't be able to conclude the series like several 90s OVAs, but the final battle with werewolves and cyborgs wraps up pretty quickly as the two schoolgirls get sent to their own time after defeating the newly powered queen.

This OVA staggers all over the place with misleading ideas and plot complications that seem to resolve themselves offscreen. There is unforgivable meandering throughout the 2-parter leaving the watcher bewildered as to what the heck is going on and where the resolution is coming from. You can pretty much just leave this one behind and spare the $100 asking price for the Central Park Media DVD.