I'm on an 80s OVA kick right now. To me the heyday of the OVA era is getting increasingly overlooked by anime distribution companies (even in Japan) and that's a shame. Many are like experimental B-movies that are worth restoring or at least see some sort of re-release on DVD. Unfortunately, a lot of the anime studios for some of the lesser known OVAs are defunct. I wish there were companies like Vinegar Syndrome and Synapse Films out in Japan who are dedicated to tracking down old OVA film negatives or at least some sort of transferrable masters (dupes or otherwise) to re-release some lesser known forgotten gems.
So anyway:
Leda: The Fantastic Adventures of Yohko (1985) - Rightstuf released this at the tail end of the VHS era (my copy says 1997) and when American anime companies were starting to release TV series, so this kind of slipped through the cracks. It certainly never came into my radar until several years later--I think I was too invested in shows like Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop at the time. Which is a shame, as it's visually quite impressive, and certainly a nice lightweight time waster. I suppose for late 90 anime fans who were starting to demand anime releases with more depth, Leda came off kind of old-fashioned, something that would have made a bigger impact had someone released it in 1994 instead. But now with the benefit of retrospect, it's one of those OVAs that has the feel of a lazy summer daydream. Perfect for a slow afternoon or rainy day.
California Crisis Gun Salvo (1986) - Considering that Studio Unicorn is dead and the rights to this OVA is up in the air, this is one of those sad cases where it may never see a re-release again. I'd first heard about this a few years ago from a few of the more snarky anime fans online who love to crap on the OVA era. Somehow this OVA came to represent, for a while at least, how the OVA era was full of poorly written stories with no depth. Justin Sevakis featured this in one of his ANN columns but he sort of snarked on it too, although he did at least compliment it in a backhanded sort of way as well, mostly focusing his praise on the visual stylings. Of course, its reputation has slowly risen as it started showing up in downloading sites and youtube as some fans saw something special in it. Having finally watched it, I think it deserves to be considered a classic of sorts from the OVA era. Yes, the story is thin, has details that go nowhere, and ends abruptly, but then again it's a 44 minute OVA, not Tolstoy, nor should it try to. And its visual style, exhuberance, and attitude more than makes up for the weaknesses in its story, which isn't even that bad actually--I've read a lot of short stories with similar plots and endings. It's essentially a pop-art road movie, a tour of 80s American culture through the lens of anime. And while it doesn't all make sense, it's never boring. It's a one of a kind OVA.
Tobira wo Akete (1986) - Not to be confused with a later 1995 anime of the same title (which seemingly has no relation to this one), this 80 minute OVA is, like Leda, one of those 'young girl gets sucked into a strange fantasy world' stories which practically is its own genre in anime. There are a few things that stand out here, though. The first is that the girl is in college/university instead of high school/junior high, and the second is that before she is even sucked into another world, she is established as being some kind of mutant with telekinesis power (or as the Japanese like to say, ESPERs). Oh, and she smokes, but isn't quite a "bad" girl either. So right from the get go, she's not really your typical anime heroine. Anyway, she gets sucked into a medieval type fantasy world where she is supposed to be the reincarnation of a legendary queen who has to lead a band of rebels to take down an evil ruler...a fairly typical story. The production values are rather average for an OVA, but has some appealing 80s style character designs by Setsuko Shibuichi. I'm a bit puzzled as to why it's not more well known by old-school western anime fans. It's got a lot going for it for western audiences: all the female characters in this anime are strong and independent, it has a likeable cast, it's got appealing character designs, and the story--while not original at all--is paced and told well enough. Really surprised nobody here ever picked it up in the 90s. It was apparently animated by 2 studios: Magic Bass and Magic Bus...although given the similarities of the two names I'd almost suspect that they are actually the same studio with one being an offshoot of the other created specifically for a "special" project. Magic Bass only has two credits under its belt according to ANN: this and Magic User's Club. Magic Bus is still active today and has a long list of supporting animation credits under its belt.
Here is some info on it:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=2281.
I suspect it's license-able, although it may no longer be good business sense to take a flier on a relatively obscure 'old' anime like this with no past tradition or marketable connection to anything more popular out there. The full movie is on Youtube, though, so if you have 80 minutes to waste, check it out. You might be pleasantly surprised.
I have to admit that my anime collection is pretty heavy on both, so obviously I've instinctively followed that philosophy long before I knew it was a philosophy. And while I don't always need the girl to have a bikini, it sure helps! 
