The thing about being someone who didn't get fully into Anime till 2014-2016 is that learning the history of this art-form and the community of people who are fans of it in the West is a difficult and murky journey.
I spent a long time assuming that the only stuff that got legally localized before 2000 were Saturday morning kids shows, the occasional big movie like Akira, GitS and Ghibli films, and then stuff like Eva, Utena and Lain at the very end of the 90s. And the occasional anomaly like Robotech which I first heard of via SFDebris.
It was mainly discovering Bennett The Sage and his Anime Abandon series on YouTube that made me realize how many OVAs, lesser known movies and even some TV Anime did get properly Dubbed onto VHS and then early DVDs in the 90s and even 80s. Lots of what he's covered is stuff I'd likely never watch myself but that I can certainly enjoy watching him mock. But there is other stuff where I can from watching him humorously crap on them tell that I'd probably unironically enjoy it.
One realization that slowly dawned on me as I watched more and more of those was how many trends I thought of as inherently post 2000 Anime trends did have their roots already planted in the 20th Century, they just usually weren't in TV Anime. What I'm referring to is "Moe" related tropes. I've discovered that it might just be possible to label Project A-Ko the first true Otaku Anime. Then came Tenchi Muyo as the proto-type of the Harem genre, and plenty of other interesting forgotten gems.
The one that is most fascinating to me at the moment is Galaxy Fraulein Yuna. This franchise was originally a series of Video Games, but it had two OVA serieses, a 2 episode one and a 3 episode one, totaling 5 episodes.
It's like a Magical Girl show and a Mecha show at the same time, which gives it unique similarities to Nanoha and Symphogear. I'm also comparing it to Prisma Illya manly because the Dub has the same lead Voice Actress. Further backing up the Nanoha connection is that Shinbo directed the second OVA series.
It's aesthetics do feel 90s, yet it's so ahead of it's time for something I know was made in the 90s.
I can't speak to how things may be different in the games, but these OVAs are possibly the first Magical Girl Warrior Anime without a Het Male love interest thrown in. There is a character who kind of plays the Tuxedo Mask role, but that character is a woman.
Yuna is also explicitly gay, she's a pretty kinky Lesbian in fact. It's played as a joke largely which can be problematic. But this isn't a side character who's there just to be that joke, this is the main Hero of this Universe, she has those Magical Girl protagonist qualities I love about Usagi Tsukino and Nanoha and right on down through the PreCures and good post Madoka stuff, making Superman look look like a cynical nihilist in comparison. And she's made unambiguously gay in a way modern Anime hesitates to even with the joke characters.
I watched the first two episode OVA awhile ago, but put off Galaxy Fraulein Yuna Returns because I knew it was gonna go down a somewhat darker path. But now that I've seen it, they are worth it, the emotions hit quite well.
They aren't a hidden masterpiece. But they are a fascinating overlooked relic of Anime's past. And I recommend them to anyone who likes Nanoha or Symphogear or Madoka or Yuki Yuna Is A Hero.
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