OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Leda: The Fantastic Adventure Of Yohko

Possibly being the first isekai OVA ever made, Leda came out in 1985. It features character designs by Mutsomi Inomata who eventually did the same for the Birth, so you will notice an abundance of shifting models as far as how the cast appears. Kunihiko Yuyama directed this anime just after his work on Minky Mono, so he was a good enough authority on the magical girl genre. However, this time the magical girl goes from Earth to an enchanted world instead of the other way around. This was an original idea as it wasn't based on any existing material, even though the novelization of the anime was written by Hideyuki Kikuchi who also created Vampire Hunter D, and you will notice some familiar designs from each title in the final layout of the OVA. It's rumored that Leda was based on the Valis video game series starring similar character. The dub for this was made in England featuring most of the same actors from the cast of Macross: Do You Remember Love movie, and it was the first original dub released in America by Right Stuf International.

Yoko (as she is called in the dub) is a lovestruck teenager who composes a song for the boy she's hot over, but she can't summon up enough courage to play for demo tape she made for him. Yoko listens to her song on her tape player which somehow opens a portal to the other world of Ashanti. She runs across a talking dog called Ringamu and a young girl named Yoki when she is eaten by a giant plant which transforms her into a sword-wielding warrior princess in a metal bikini. Yoko is given the power of that world's former heroine Leda which involves fighting skills and access to a giant robot. Ashanti's evil wizard warlord Zell knows that Yoko's song is the key to opening the portal to Earth which he plans to take over, even though he is probably overwhelmingly outmatched with just the Japanese military. Yoko battles Zell and his forces, afterwards she makes her way back home with newfound courage to confess her love.

Kaname Productions cut their teeth on Leda just as the OVA market got started with the success of Dallos from the year prior, even though Kaname closed their doors in 1988. The anime has only been released in America on dubbed and subtitled VHS back in the 90s, so it hasn't gotten much traction since then, despite the fact that the OVA was recently given a 4K re-release in Japan which became a bestseller at the height of this new era of isekai. The animation is above expectations for its time, and substantial detail is displayed for what is revealed to be another fantasy world. The creatures and mecha designs are matched to those of early Ghibli productions even though more emphasis is given to the emerging video games that were currently on the rise. Leda is more than just an excuse to have a cute anime girl in a Frazetta outfit going all Red Sonja on a high fantasy realm. There is serious depth to the mark it made on 80s otaku culture, in spite of this, Leda is a remarkable feat of animation that set the standard for several role-playing games.