OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Capricorn

Johji Manabe has been active in the manga industry since the 1980's, but only a fraction of them have been given an anime adaptation. His space opera Outlanders got its own OVA one-shot, and Ginga Sengoku Gunyuden Rai was the basis for the Thunder Jet TV series. A good portion of his manga titles over the last few years has been regulated to adult material, but his earlier works such as Drakuun and Caravan Kidd were sci-fi comedies with a large helping of fan service. His limited series Capricorn from the late 80's was one of these more cheesecake fantasy titles that managed to get its own OVA special in 1991, even though it tried to fit in about 5 volumes worth of plot into a production that was less than an hour long. The manga itself never got an American printing, but the anime was distributed in English through ADV Films even though it was only on subtitled VHS. Seeing as this was one of the first isekai anime that U.S. otaku got a taste of you would think it might have gained a little more notice later down the line.

Taku is a generic high schooler who keeps getting knocked over by the female punks on campus. One day, an image appears of another planet which sweeps him up in it and he winds up on the alien world of Slaffleaze which is populated by anthropomorphic animals. This planet of furries is under the thumb of the corrupt leader Zolba who has utilized the power of a device called the Infinity Anchor which bridges their world with ours and is plotting in invasion of Earth with his airship navy and an army of dragon clones that were made from the remains of an extinct race known as the Yappi. The last of their kind is a dragon girl named Mona who appears mostly human aside from the wings, horns, tail, and her fire breath. She and Taku finally meet along with some other local animal people and plan a revolt against Zolba. It helps that Taku has now digivolved into a full-size dragon to prevent the invasion. They free the Yappi clones from Zolba's control and destroy the Infinty Anchor, only for Taku to decide to return to Earth even though he's still in his dragon form.

Capricorn could almost be seen as a prototype to Escaflowne which has very similar themes like anthropomorphics, dragons, and another world hidden away from the Earth, even an interspecies relationship between a human and a dragon person. The concept of isekai didn't really gain any attention in America until full-length series like El-Hazard or Magic Knight Rayearth found their bearings amoung English-speaking otaku. The OVA itself has the raw and bizarre look to an early 90's anime with much of it appearing to come right out of a Nintendo game. It's not the best representation of Johji Manabe's works outside of manga, but it does make for a great late night screening with old school fans.