This one moves like a nightmare you can't quite remember when you wake up. A single OVA from 1998 that builds an entire mythic underworld of cosmic horror, Ogres as ancient parasites, Guardians as the last line, humans caught in the middle of a war they don't even know is happening. The scope is insane for something that short, and the creature design has weight to it, the kind of visceral grotesque that sticks because it doesn't explain itself. Expects you to sit with dread instead of comfort. You either surrender to the weirdness or you bounce off it immediately, there's no middle ground with something this compressed and confident about what it wants you to feel.

In the Neo-Shinjuku of 2089, humans rule the Earth and remember almost nothing of the creatures that once held it. Since the dawn of time, monstrous Ogres enslaved the world, and only the noble Guardians stood against them. Ages later, very few of either remain. Yet in the hidden underworld beneath the city, the supreme Ogre still lives and is plotting to subjugate humanity once more. A single Guardian is left to oppose it, with the fate of the human race hanging on the outcome. This one-episode horror OVA adapts a graphic novel by Saki Okuse.