It puts you in a trance and then abandons you. Two episodes, 1991, and every frame of that ancient-Japan fantasy is painted with the kind of soft, hand-inked warmth people still call Ghibli-like, because there's no better shorthand for the way the landscapes breathe. The score is the real hook, the thing fans bring up first and last, doing the emotional heavy lifting the runtime never had room for. And that runtime is the wound: Tsuzuki Kazuhiko's manga gets compressed into something that sprints when it should linger, characters you actually want to follow flashing past. Then it ends on a cliffhanger and nobody ever came back to finish it. You'll finish these two episodes, sit there in the quiet, and go looking for a sequel that has not existed for over thirty years.

Set in a mythical version of third century Japan, this two-episode fantasy adventure OVA centers on Izumo, a young prince of Nakatsukuni. He cares little for his studies or for old customs and longs to see more of the world. Then Sanae, a mysterious girl, turns up hidden aboard an airship. The warrior Takeru abducts her, and Izumo must wield his homeland's sacred sword to get her back. First, though, he has to face Yamata-no-Orochi, the legendary eight-headed serpent. The story is adapted from a manga by Tsuzuki Kazuhiko.